Chapter 82 Fist Industry 1

Chapter 82 The Fist Industry 1
Mr. Bennett Todd, who resided in Port Fullan, was a wealthy man in the prime of his life and the owner of five cargo ships.

Bennett’s grandfather was originally a land-based merchant who had accumulated a fortune through long years of traveling, and in his father’s generation, the family began to set their sights on the sea.

To the disbelief of his relatives, his father used the money left by his grandfather to buy the Todd family’s first paddle schooner and recruited a sufficient number of sailors to begin running a shipping business on the waters of the Northwest Bay.

By the time Bennett took over, the Todd family had five cargo ships.

The existence of pirates has not been too much impact on the business of ship merchants, the annual payment of a protection fee is certainly quite heartbreaking, but since the rise of the great pirate Edward, the pirates know can not be put on the golden eggs of the hen slaughtered the reasoning, only to let the hen to eat fat, in order to get more golden eggs.

Only those hardcore unlucky eggs will be robbed by the pirates.

And this money even if it is not as a protection fee to the pirates, but also as a tax to the hands of the lord.

That’s right, the only loss is the territory by the sea of the lords, on the overall level, the pirates side of the more protection fee, the lord side will have to collect a little less tax, after all, a sheep on the peeling can not be two skins to.

But in this year, the Northwest Bay can be described as a stormy sea.

Commander of the pirates Edward and his main fleet suddenly do not know where to go, the rest of the scattered pirate gangs have lost the constraints, began to disregard the rules of the previous unscrupulous up.

This made the seafarers suffer considerable losses.

Then there were several pirate groups that came ashore to plunder, and a pirate group whose leader was called “Shark” even occupied the port of Fulan and didn’t leave. What is more surprising is that they also ambushed and killed the lord of Alda, the old Count Gleiman.

Local merchants, including Bennett, were extorted a large sum of money by the pirates.

However, the pirates did not live long, the new lord Paul Greiman soon recruited troops to fight back against the pirates, sharks and other gangs of pirates after a few months of scenery was hanged above the square in the port of Furlong.

At first, in Mr. Todd’s eyes, young Greiman Jr. was ambitious, and certainly could be described as over-ambitious.

After recovering the port of Furlan, he called the merchants to brag about the future establishment of an “ocean trading company” and hoped that everyone could participate in it.

In the prospect he depicted, the business of the merchants would no longer be limited to the northwest bay area, but would go farther afield, such as the west coast of the kingdom, such as the southern Cape Bay, or even around the Cape Bay and then eastward.

At the time, everyone thought that the lord was either overwhelmed by the victory over the pirates or that he was just changing his mind and asking for money from them, how long would it take to run over there with a ship from that far away?

However, what had happened to the lord in recent times made Mr. Todd and some of his merchant friends feel that he was not bragging or cajoling at the time.

Instead of forcing everyone to “invest” in a company, as everyone suspected at the time, the young Earl of Graiman had first created a few novelties that were big sellers.

Cheap new paper, fine porcelain, attract landowners have ordered the harvester, are from the young lord’s hand.

Then it did not seem impossible that he would then invent a vessel capable of ocean voyages.

But even so, what was there in the remote northwest that could be used as a commodity to arouse the interest of the people in those affluent areas in the south?
Oh, right! Count Greiman’s own products could be sold, so it was no wonder that he wanted to set up an “ocean trading company”.

This time, the count once again came to Furlan Harbor, summoned the merchants to the government office for a meeting.

Bennett arrived at the government office at the appointed time, the former church had been remodeled and turned into a place for the mayor and other officials to deal with daily affairs.

He entered the former chapel, which had now been converted into a meeting room, with tables and chairs readily available.

Inside there were already quite a few familiar faces sitting there, and it wasn’t just merchants who were present, they greeted Bennett when they saw him.

The lord hadn’t arrived yet, and the crowd murmured about what Lord Earl was up to this time.

“Count Greiman has arrived!”

Hearing the guards standing at the door loudly informing, the crowd immediately quieted down.

Only to see the lord walk in through the side door with Theodore, the mayor of Port Fullan, and Old Peter, the mayor’s advisor.

After the three of them sat down in turn, Count Greiman came up and went straight to the point. “Gentlemen, you have been summoned here this time for no other reason than to discuss a good way to make you rich. “

Make us rich? The merchants at the bottom looked at each other in dismay, don’t the nobles treat them as fat sheep? When they lack money, they slaughter them.

“You guys get rich so I can collect more taxes!” The Earl said as such without any concealment.

I see, it’s to fatten the sheep first, then slaughter them.

But it’s also fine, at least you can have more meat left on your body, many merchants’ minds began to come alive.

The lord continued to speak, ”I’m sure everyone knows that the south is at war. What does war mean? War means getting rich!”

As His Majesty the King’s bannermen, to say such words when his old man was in so much trouble, the crowd spat in their hearts, but they all agreed on the point of getting rich.

“The matter of oceanic trade that I mentioned before, it is still not in a condition to engage in it now, but my shipyard is constructing ships suitable for oceanic voyages, I believe that the results will come out soon, and I still need everyone’s support when that time comes!”

Hearing this, Bennett thought in his heart, “It seems that Earl Gleiman should be prepared.”

If it was really possible to build ships suitable for ocean voyages, the Todd family, who was a ship merchant, could not be left behind no matter what.

Of course, Bennett was not the only one present who had similar thoughts.

He only heard the lord say, “Although the conditions for sea transportation are not available for the time being, we can still transport them overland, even though the road is full of barriers, there is still profit to be made.”

The merchants did not think so in their hearts, what the lord said just now was not something that everyone had not tried before, only that they all lost a lot of money.

Northwest Bay region’s specialties are very few, most of the things produced by other people there are also produced, long-distance transportation over, through the various territorial barriers of the layers of peeling, in order not to lose money, in the destination is not legal too low prices.

And because the price is too high, naturally can not compete with similar products in the local area, and in the end can not be sold or lose money.

So for a long time, the merchants here either play in their own territory self-production and self-sale, or to the Northwest Bay to sell foreign specialties.

The outflow of wealth caused by the trade deficit has become one of the major reasons for the economic decline of the Northwest Bay region, and if it weren’t for the food and some very small amount of specialties holding up, the scenario would really be unimaginable.

“I know what’s on everyone’s mind, so I’ve decided to develop several ‘fist industries’ for our Arda.”

“Fist industries?” A new term popped out of the lord’s mouth, and the merchants pricked up their ears.

“Such as the recent new types of paper, porcelain, and harvesters that we can make and others can’t, or that we make with better quality, in greater quantities, and at a cheaper price.”

It dawned on the merchants that the paper, porcelain, and harvesters that had recently popped up could indeed be considered the specialty of specialties in the Northwest Bay region.

There is only one family in the world, and there is no other, and that family is the Graiman family.

Many people here have already bought paper and porcelain from the Earl’s “factory” and sold them abroad.

Only the harvesters are strictly limited by the Lord’s House, which only allows the agricultural machinery factory to sell directly to the indigenous customers in Arda and Baldin.

But the production of these things is still too small to be called an industry.

Many people’s hearts popped up with an idea that they themselves felt was a bit absurd:
Could ……

Could ……

Count Greiman is to take out the manufacturing technology of these things to share with everyone, so as to expand their production?

(End of chapter)