Chapter 80: At Last
Chapter 80: Finally Here
“Young Master Queller, that big lake in front of us should be Lake Wise?”
A slightly boyish young man in the group exclaimed excitedly.
Old Boatsmith Benjamin couldn’t help but let out a laugh, this young apprentice named Vito’s energy was really strong, after a day’s walk, everyone else in the group had a tired face, only he was still looking around the scenery on the road with excitement.
Queller on his horse smiled and responded, “That’s right, haven’t seen such a big lake, right? See that island on the lake? That’s our destination for this trip.”
The center of the lake, ah, is this the place that young master Quiller said that the lord resides in? Benjamin’s heart was slightly agitated.
Benjamin, who was already close to forty years old, was an experienced shipbuilder who had built ships in major shipyards for half his life, and was well known in the shipbuilding industry around Cape Bay, but he was not a person who followed the rules and always liked to figure out how to improve the ships of the moment.
Just three years ago, he wanted to try the kind of boat that does not rely on oars, just rely on the wind to drive the boat, this is not the first thing he proposed, many people in history have built this kind of boat, but because the environment in the corner of the bay did not come in handy, and did not become popular, after decades of building their own oar sailing boat a little tired, Benjamin is very eager to taste the freshness.
But with his financial resources of a craftsman can not afford to build a large ship, he found the shipyard owner to discuss this matter. After all, Benjamin is the old foreman of the factory, the boss said I value your opinion, to be my research and study and then reply to you, and then there is no then.
Benjamin resigned in anger and jumped to several other shipyards in a row, but each owner could not afford to invest a large sum of money to experiment with a type of boat that no one in Horn Bay might buy.
In the meantime, he met a 16-year-old boy named Vito, whose ambition was to “see the other side of the ocean,” so he came to the shipyard to learn shipbuilding skills, dreaming of building a ship that could go deep into the ocean. To make a ship capable of this, it is impossible to row by human power, but only rely on wind power, and Benjamin feels that the young man’s vision coincides with his own goals, so he takes him on as his apprentice.
The master and apprentice continued to bump into each other for a while before their minds faded, and then they came across Quiller Foster all over the world recruiting shipwrights.
Benjamin held the luck of the heart to inquire, Queller that day happened to be in the recruitment site, see came an experienced old shipwright, personally received Benjamin, during the conversation to describe to him in the Fullan Harbor Shipyard to see the two models, Benjamin ruffled his heart jumping, as if to open the second spring of life.
Benjamin did not hesitate to quit his current job, enrolled in the Quiller, and incidentally brought his own little apprentice, the little one had wanted to see the field, know that to go to the Northwest Bay is also ten thousand willing.
Now, at last, they reached their destination.
When they arrived at the entrance to the town, there was already a group of people waiting for them, and when they were still far away from Lakewood, Quiller sent a fast horse to inform Paul.
Quiller jumped off his horse and walked towards the familiar figure, the other party had already extended his right hand.
“It’s been a long time, Quiller.”
“It’s been a long time, Paul.”
The two men’s hands clasped together.
Quiller turned and threw his hand back and said, “You’ve got the Boatsmiths you asked for, thirty this time, but just the first batch, they’ll be sent to you later, as well as any other areas of talent you want.”
Paul gave Quiller a strong pat on the shoulder, “Thanks, my hair is turning gray from waiting.”
Then he greeted the people behind Queller very warmly: “Welcome all of you, I hope you have a pleasant life in my territory.”
He also saw other familiar figures and greeted, “Greetings to all of you from the Leachman Adventure Group.”
The crowd behind Quiller also greeted him. Paul ordered the people Queller brought with him to be properly placed, while Queller and the actual head of the merchant fleet, Supervisor Christopher, were invited to the lord’s mansion to enjoy dinner together, and also sought the company of Earl of Bairdine, Myron Garnard, as well as Chief Steward Ford, Hansel, and other high-ranking members of the Council of State.
The utensils used at the dinner were all porcelain, and they were patterned porcelain, which really shocked Quiller and Christopher.
Supervisor Christopher, in particular, picked up a porcelain bowl and examined it under the light of the candle, while he could not help but utter all kinds of exclamations.
Tapping a knife and fork on the porcelain bowl, a crisp and pleasant sound could be heard, it was really a magical and beautiful creation.
As dinner began, Quiller conveyed to Paul the cooperative intentions of his father, the Marquis de Foster, whose family wanted to acquire exclusive rights to represent porcelain and paper in the South.
“No problem!”
Paul agreed flatly, then added, “But add a term, and when the term is up, the contract can only be renewed if both parties are satisfied.”
He is now single-minded in the north, not to mention the south, which is thousands of miles away, and to be active in the south, he must rely on the Foster family as a big tree, but he cannot rely on it for the rest of his life.
Supervisor Christopher smiled and said, ”Of course, of course, that’s what we all do there. Please rest assured, Lord Gleeman, you will never lose by doing business with the Foster Family’s Chamber of Commerce.”
He made up his mind to get the agency no matter what, and when he left this time, he took a batch of porcelain and a batch of paper back to the south.
At this time the real practicality of the porcelain has begun to mass production, in the acquisition of Bairdine, the strength of the great increase, Lake Town expanded the scale of the porcelain kiln.
At this time the number of workers inside has reached more than 50, able to produce 3000 pieces of ordinary daily-use porcelain, of course, because most of the workers are novices, proficiency is not good, so the quality of the porcelain burned out is uneven.
Now there are two kinds of business of porcelain kiln in the town of lake heart:
One is the firing of the kiln’s own stereotypes of ordinary porcelain, to some daily-use porcelain, for example, a tray priced at 2 silver coins, bowls and plates is 1 silver coin;
Second, the firing of the customer on-demand customized porcelain, which depends on the production difficulty of pricing, high and even up to dozens of silver coins per piece.
Turning a pile of kaolin clay into a pile of shiny silver coins is exciting.
However, the positioning of the consumer group of porcelain is not ordinary civilians, after all, in a lot of ordinary people have not even touched the silver coins, let alone to buy it, mainly oriented to the aristocracy and wealthy merchants.
Because of the two military victories, let Paul began to a little “expansion”, and no longer afraid of the wind. He instructed Ford, who was in charge of commerce, to liberalize the trade restrictions and gradually expand the trade area of Arda to the east and south.
Porcelain and paper are sought-after goods, this time the town of Lakeville has not before the quiet, initially there are some “busy” scene, foreign merchants often come over, with a large number of paper and porcelain to leave.
Paul is considering whether the pontoon bridge should be torn down, ask the architect to design a real stone bridge, now this loose pontoon bridge is too much impact on the traffic, but also too much impact on the image of the town.
Or move some of the people over to the south shore of Lake Wise, build new settlements, and expand Lakewood into a real city.
I believe that day should not be far off.
(End of chapter)