Chapter 322: th Century Sneak Preview Service

Chapter 319 19th Century Sneak Preview Experience Suit

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Schweyer.”

In a small cafe outside the Liverpool Customs House, Arthur took the business card from John Schweyer’s hand and tucked it away in his jacket pocket after a quick scan.

The gentleman sitting across from him was dressed in what looked to be a rather bizarre outfit, with a dark black bandana wrapped around his head, a knee-length indigo facecloth coat on the outermost layer of his body, and further inward a burgundy vest in the size of a large Dumas, followed closely by a honey-colored rubberized chest protector and a white shirt with inner and outer layers, and, most farcically of all, a plain white mask with a perfume bottle attached to it, which he was actually wearing on his face.

It was naturally very difficult not to remember such a unique fellow, and Arthur was not above snickering, “Sir, you must be glad that my precinct is not in Liverpool. If you were to appear on the streets of London in this guise, I would definitely go up and question you a few times.”

Schweizer sniffed and hurriedly took off his hood and mask to reveal his true colors.

It had to be said that even if these adornments were taken out, his appearance was decent enough to be called decent. As far as Arthur’s preliminary estimation was concerned, in terms of hair volume alone, Mr. Schweyer had already defeated ninety-nine percent of his Britannian peers, and even slightly outperformed a youngster like Darwin.

Seeing his fumbling movements, Arthur couldn’t help but joke again as he pointed at the branch in the other man’s hand and asked, “I’m sorry, while I don’t disbelieve your words, are you sure that what you do is really an import/export trade and not a sorcerer of the ancient Druid sect of Britannia?”

Schweizer waved his hand at his words, “Mr. Hastings, don’t misunderstand, I know that this costume is a bit peculiar. But this is all to prevent cholera from attacking people, and this body of mine is all based on magazine recommendations. As for the branch, it’s not just any branch, it’s a branch of the Juniper Berry. The prickly cypress fruit has an aroma similar to pineapple, and doctors say it can help disperse miasma.”

Arthur picked up his teacup and took a sip, “Well …… whether it can dispel miasma or not I’m not sure. But in my hometown, the locals often use it for brewing. Whether it’s used to boil a Shihtao beer or a porter, they always like to have some prickly cypress berries.”

“This ……” Schweyer sniffed at first, then probed, “Are you a Yorker?”

Arthur smiled back, “Sir, you are indeed a wizard. Congratulations, you guessed correctly.”

Seeing that Arthur was so easygoing, Shi Huaiya’s mood relaxed and he smiled back, “I really didn’t expect that you and I are actually from the same country. When I first heard your surname, I thought you were one of the members of the Marquis of Hastings family.”

Arthur just smiled at his words, “You are not the first to think that, and it shouldn’t be the last. But in Britannia, the story of a poor boy who transformed from a penniless man into a famous and great man is not rare, but it is by no means rare either.

Historians, in case you didn’t know, have always been fond of statistics, and similar stories are often found in the newspapers. Half of Birmingham’s £10,000 millionaires started from nothing.

Mr. Arkwright, who invented the water-powered loom, was born into a poor family of hired peasants, and had no formal education; spelling words was a problem for him. At the age of eight, he was early by his parents to four pounds and six shillings price and someone else signed an eight-year apprenticeship contract, to do the barber apprentice.

Yet it was this poor man, not worth five pounds, who leapt to become a landowner of Cognac with carriage servants and a £20,000 estate within ten years of being granted a patent. By the time of his death, this figure had reached half a million pounds, and his annual income was greater than that of most German princes.

The growth of trade and the industrial revolution had created so much wealth and opportunity in Britain. If an Arkwright could pop out of a poor boy, it was nothing to pop out of a superintendent of Scotland Yard.”

Hearing this, Schweizer couldn’t help but say nostalgically, “Yes! This is perhaps the best of times for us poor people. You may not know that I actually started from nothing.

I worked as a weaver in York until I was 23 years old. Own family workshop, made purely by hand. It wasn’t much, but it was a good life with little pressure.

Only later did machines begin to spread, whether it is the output or quality, our manpower can not be compared with the iron lump. Coupled with the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Britain’s trade was normalized. With a steady stream of cheap cotton and hemp, my small workshop is even more unable to fight those big factories.

At that time, I had only two choices, either to continue to stay in York and wait for the workshop to die, or to fight directly, emptied his entire fortune, and then borrowed a sum of money, we also get it a few machines!”

Arthur smiled and asked, “So you ran from York to Liverpool?”

Schweizer nodded, “That’s right. Instead of opening the factory in York, it was better to just locate it in the harbor, which would also save a fortune in shipping costs. I was struggling just to cope with the upfront investment at that time, and it was natural for me to lower the costs in other areas a little bit. But judging by what has happened since then, I made a wise decision.

When I first came to Liverpool, there were only four machines in the factory and less than ten workers. Now there are over fifty machines in the factory, employing hundreds of people, and the Schweizer brand is well known in Liverpool. Not only that, but our products are exported to North America and the West Indies. Mr. Hastings, if you need to make a garment, you can’t go wrong with our fabrics. The quality of our products is not at all inferior to the big factories in London.”

Arthur saw that Shi Huaiya’s businessman’s occupational disease was guilty, and could not help but speak out to remind: “Sir, we can talk about the business afterward. Before that, have you forgotten that you should talk to me about more important things?”

“Oh, sorry, Mr. Hastings, I almost forgot about the business.”

Schwylla first glanced out through the window, then leaned down and lowered her voice.

“These ten years or so in Liverpool have not only made me money, but also opened my eyes. The fact that you can be sent to Liverpool by the cabinet to check smuggling shows that you must know exactly how much money is earned by doing foreign trade.

We textile factory owners work hard all day long, but at the end of the year when we calculate the accounts we find that we are not as profitable as those second-hand traffickers.

So I thought it would be better for me to earn my own money rather than giving it to others. It just so happens that my two sons are getting older, so I can get them into the company to help me out.

So I went headlong into the import/export industry in Liverpool with such confidence. I thought I had the products and the orders, and all I had to do was to rent a few ships and recruit some experienced sailors. But what I never thought was that the water here is deeper than the Irish Sea, and the old companies are playing all the dirty tricks. The original agent for me to export the company heard that I intend to do it alone, the first and a few local shipowners have communicated, do not allow them to release the ship to me. They also blatantly told the sailors: ‘Whoever runs the ship for Shi Huaiya will not want to take orders from our companies in the future.’

For this reason, I can only bite the bullet and spend a lot of money from Bristol to get two boats back with people. They saw that they couldn’t defeat me in this regard, so they moved on to other aspects.

As you know, the recent cholera has caused a great deal of anxiety, and coupled with the quarantine policy, the volume of import and export trade has plummeted, and the prices of all kinds of commodities have risen.

During such a period, whoever’s ship is quarantined for a short period of time will be able to make a big profit. In fact, most of the so-called smuggled goods appearing on the market are not really smuggled goods at all, but are properly unloaded from the ships of various companies.

Some of the ships are being segregated, but as soon as the ships dock they will start unloading. The other part is even better, they are not only loaded and unloaded, but also the vessel isolation period can be shortened to ten days.

But like our company, not only was the forty-day quarantine strictly enforced, but after the forty-day period expired, it was said that our ship passed through several cholera-endemic areas, so it was held for another forty days just to be on the safe side.”

Schweizer said here obviously have been anxious, he red face both hands pressed on the table in front of the rise, even the weird York accent have emerged: “Mr. Hastings, you are York origin, so you should know, we York that place all day long rainy and cloudy, the wind blowing up and the ghosts howling like, so we York people have always been a solitary not too much like to We don’t like to disturb others. If the injustice I have suffered had not reached such a level, I would never have disturbed your tea time.”

Arthur finished listening to Shi Huaiya’s statement and roughly understood what was going on.

Although he already had a guess in his mind, Arthur was still looking forward to Schweikel’s local opinion on the specific issue.

He inquired indubitably, “Does the Port Authority know about this?”

“Port Authority? Whoa! Mr. Hastings, they’re the ones who issued the order for the eighty-day quarantine, so of course they know about it. And even if they don’t, if those black-hearted fellows have one eye that isn’t blind, they can see that my ship has been lying on its side at the wharf for more than two months without moving.”

“What about the City Council?”

“Half of the city council is filled with them, and as you no doubt know, seventy percent of our city council members are in the import/export trade. Of that seventy percent another seventy percent run the Atlantic line. In other words, these people can pass a new bill in Liverpool whenever they want to.”

When Arthur heard this, he suddenly looked solemn: “Mr. Schweyer, I can understand when you say they control the Parliament. But you say they control the Port Authority, is there any evidence for that? To tell you the truth, I just met with the officials of the Port Authority today, and they gave me a pretty good first impression.”

Seeing the expression on Arthur’s face, Schwylla hurriedly fished out a document bag from her accompanying purse and handed it over, “I’m sorry, Mr. Hastings, perhaps I was the one who took things too seriously just now. But the harbor authority detaining my ship for 80 days is something I can’t afford in any case. I’ve put all the relevant explanatory materials here, and I’d like to ask you to take a look at them.”

Arthur took the document bag, and with a slight pinch of two fingers, he dragged out a thin explanatory document from inside.

The material was very concise, and a few words outlined Schwylla’s anxious mood and his indignation at wanting to put the Port Authority to death-the Bank of England’s two hundred pound promissory note.

Arthur pressed that note and spoke, “Are you trying to bribe me, sir?”

“No, I don’t mean that at all.”

Shi Huaiya said in a dignified voice, “Mr. Hastings, I must emphasize to you that there is nothing wrong with my intelligence. Who in their right mind would go and bribe a police officer to his face? Wouldn’t that be like asking him to take you to jail? I just think that pistol elsewhere on your belt looks quite exquisite, I’ll take it for 200 pounds, and if you don’t think it’s enough, I’ll add more, it’s a gun I’m bound to get today.”

Arthur just smiled and raised one eyebrow when he heard that, “What should I say, it’s really worthy of Liverpool, what a port city, the business atmosphere is really strong!”

“That’s for sure.” Shi Huaiya said without blushing, “I also came from York to here for fifteen years before I realized these business secrets. But I think Liverpool still can’t be compared to London, I’ve heard from quite a few of my friends that London generally plays a much more advanced game.”

“Yes, your friends are right.”

Arthur pushed the file bag back in front of Schwylla, “Your company is committed to constantly expanding its influence, so I suggest that you’d better go to the current best-selling fashion and fiction magazine in London, The Cockney, to buy three years’ worth of advertisement columns, and that will definitely help you to achieve your purpose. There are quite a few big names among the readers of Cockney, and if Schweyer & Sons had hung on to the hearts of the big shots, you wouldn’t be in this position today.”

Schweyer didn’t think to understand what was going on at first, but the honest man of York, who had been deeply imbued with a businesslike atmosphere, turned his mind and immediately understood the connection.

With his jittery mood swept away, Shi Huaiya couldn’t help but give Arthur a thumbs up, “Mr. Hastings, you are truly worthy of being from London. Senior! Indeed advanced! So, you agree?”

Arthur said with a blank expression, “Promise? Promise what? Aren’t we talking about the issue of favoritism in the Port Authority now? If you are able to give specific matters related to this, or further implement it to a certain incident or several incidents. Then I feel that the matter should soon come to a conclusion. Incidentally, my audit team will be arriving soon, so may I take the liberty of consulting you as to which issue you think would be the most efficient for them to look into?”

Eating the pill of determination, Schweizer finally stopped hiding anything, he hurriedly told what he had hidden in his heart, “You should be aware of Liverpool’s Old Dock Expansion Program, right? Built in the early 18th century, the old docks could no longer meet the needs of daily transportation, so after the opening of the canal, the Port Authority has expanded four docks along the Mersey over the years. You can check out what’s going on here, and I promise you there will be absolute surprises.”

(End of chapter)