Chapter 96: Make Money
In mid-March, winter gradually recedes, the snow and ice still cover the mountains, the sea is blue and clear, and the large ships return to the harbor.
This is a remarkable event for the entire North.
If a ship built in half a year can successfully sustain long-distance voyages for several months, then this will be enough to rewrite the history of the entire shipbuilding market.
On the day the ship returned to the port, many onlookers gathered at the dock.
As soon as the merchants who had sailed with the ship got off, their subordinates, partners, and families surrounded them and asked them incessantly about the situation overseas and the voyage.
Ordinary people had only heard that Garamu was a wealthy country, full of wine and olive oil, pearls and corals, and that the royal family and nobles lived a life of extravagance.
When the city residents first heard that these merchants dared to board the ship, they laughed at them for not fearing death, and most merchants believed that the voyage would not be successful.
But when they saw them coming back with their own eyes, everyone was jealous and hated that they had gotten such a good thing first.
A three-month journey, spanning half the continent, was the farthest a traveling merchant could go.
All merchants on the ship purchased overseas goods from King Galamu, and they had to wait until the ship's cargo was unloaded before they could go to the barracks' warehouse to pick up the goods according to their number.
It would take three or four days to unload the entire ship's bottom cargo. During this period, Letilen took the crew to the fortress to report on their work.
Olivia met them and got a more accurate bill from Letilan.
This trip made a lot of money. The porcelain, cloth, and specialties brought from the north sold for a total of 5,000 gold coins.
Several foreign merchants earned several hundred gold coins from the cargo fees, which just offset the port tax at the port of Galamu.
There is also the deposit for two new porcelain orders, a total of one thousand gold coins.
The local merchants who brought goods back on the ship this time also had to pay a port fee of several hundred gold coins.
The total income was more than 6,000 gold coins. According to the plan, Letilen used the money to purchase a lot of southern goods, which he expected to sell for □□,000 gold coins.
Olivia was very confident in the earning power of the ship. If she continued like this, she would only need to make four or five trips a year to be able to support a large army.
No wonder everyone wants to be the overlord of the ocean.
After reporting the details, Letilen carefully explained what happened to Moni Anwadi on Gosney Island.
After hearing this, Olivia said frankly that she also had her eyes on this island.
Letilen said that he had also been to the cookie-shaped Gosney Island. The island was rich in resources and there was no need to farm. The seafood and wild crops on the island were more than enough to eat.
Only in scattered areas on the island does the locals' unique staple food, corn, grow.
Gosini Island is under the control of a fishing tribe called Tartaqi.
The ordinary fishermen of this tribe are very tough and never afraid of wind and waves, but they are still simple in character. However, they do not want any gold coins, but only want butter and cheese from the north in exchange.
The corn and cocoa he brought back were exchanged for these two things.
Corn and cocoa beans seem to be two crops that are not produced on any other island except this one.
It was precisely because they did not want gold coins that Moni, who had nothing but money, was turned away at the beginning.
However, he later changed his strategy and decided to capture the leader first.
Although the islanders don't recognize gold coins, the island owner always knows how to take them.
So he went to the island to find an interpreter and asked the interpreter to take him on a tour around the island.
Moni found out who the tribal leader on the island was and found out his whereabouts. Then he went to visit the leader's home with gold coins.
The leader of this tribe is a black-haired old man with many children at home.
Although he was the owner of the island, he only lived in a larger wooden house.
Small tribes like theirs have always been self-reliant and have grown wildly. Neighboring countries are unwilling to annex their small territory, and it is difficult for them to annex it.
It’s just that occasionally a merchant comes to collect some pearls from them.
Moni presented the gold coins and fine wine he brought with him to the island owner, bought some pearls from him, and stayed in the island owner's house for two days.
During these two days, no one knew what social methods he used, but in short, he became very familiar with the island owner and successfully leased a large piece of hillside land from the island owner.
Letilen said that with the money Moni brought, he leased a total of 60 hectares of hillside land for a period of five years, which occupied one-tenth of the island.
Upon hearing this, Olivia immediately asked Letilen whether Moni had any intention of subletting the land.
This is exactly why Letilen brought up the subject.
Moni rented 60 hectares of land on the island, intending to use it as a vineyard.
However, with such a large territory, how many tenants and guards would be needed? The wine also needed to be shipped to the northern ports, and once there, it needed a fixed sales channel.
Although there is little competitive pressure to popularize wine in the north, this is only limited to cheap wine.
Moni doesn’t want to produce cheap goods, but rather high-quality products that can be found on the tables of the nobility.
There is fierce competition in the northern market for such fine wines, with only a few producing areas standing out.
Tenant farmers, guards, ships, ports, sales channels, stringing these words together, Moni told Letilen the news without hesitation, hoping that he could help.
Letilen sensed an opportunity and naturally agreed to help him solve these problems.
Asking for help from Laidilan also means asking for the Baron's Mansion to intervene.
Therefore, Letilen came to the fortress this time to ask what conditions he should offer to Moni.
Olivia looked thoughtful.
“In that case, let him sublease one-third of the sixty hectares to us, and let Jagbu go there once a year to plan the planting.
In the future, Moni will also give priority to selling the crops produced from his 40 hectares of land to us.
I can provide him with as many planters and guards as he wants.
The plantation crops will also be exempted from shipping fees, port transit taxes, and business taxes in Eindhoven for the next five years."
These requirements and conditions are not excessive.
After hearing this, Letilen agreed and planned to go back immediately. Moni was waiting for a reply.
Olivia told him not to worry.
“The second ship will be able to sail in April, and by then, there will surely be many merchants who want to board it.
I want to hold a banquet in the fortress in advance to solicit investment for the second voyage. Please invite wealthy people from all over the north to attend.
This time, we are raising the threshold, but businesses with local household registration will still receive preferential treatment.
For merchants from other places, the freight fee is calculated according to weight, and each transaction must not be less than 10,000 pounds. For every 10,000 pounds, a freight fee of 60 gold coins will be charged."
Letilen knew that the price for carrying goods to foreign merchants on the merchant ship's first voyage was very cheap.
Only three gold coins are charged for every thousand pounds, and only thirty gold coins are charged for ten thousand pounds.
With prices doubling, the shipping cost per pound of goods increased significantly, and only merchants trading valuable goods could afford it.
Unless, you join Eindhoven’s household registration.
With local household registration, there are preferential policies for shipping fees and port taxes, which can greatly attract businessmen to settle in the city, thereby creating jobs and attracting the working population to come here.
Olivia thought that although such a move would offend several surrounding towns, it was not impossible to offend them.
Anyway, conspiracy incidents can be resolved.
If the other towns want to be less affected, they should cooperate more with her and provide raw materials to Einweiton as a processing site.
After receiving the order, Letilen returned to the office and instructed the clerks in the trading office one by one.
To hold a banquet, the stewards must first write invitations in an official capacity to merchants throughout the North and sheriffs in various places.
After receiving the reply, we determined the number of people attending the banquet and then started to formulate the banquet specifications.
It will take at least a week to get a reply if we start preparing now, and the banquet will be held in early April.
As for Moni, they also sent a clerk to his home to negotiate terms with him in a businesslike manner.
At the same time, Gao Sri knocked on his door.
Gaosili brought some samples of the latest batch of hemp paper, intending to sell it to overseas merchants.
However, in order to sell it as a commodity, the two of them had to first gather a few influential people to hold a small meeting and set a price for the paper.
When Letilan was away, he didn't know about the birth of white linen paper.
He only discovered this when he returned to the fortress's office and saw that the clerks were using a kind of parchment-like paper to calculate accounts.
When pricing paper, you must first calculate the cost clearly. It is appropriate if the cost accounts for only one-third of the selling price.
In Jagbu's hands, one acre of hemp land can produce three hundred pounds of fresh hemp stalks.
These fresh flax stalks, after the impurities are removed, weigh ninety pounds of fiber after drying.
After the retting is done, 30% remains, which is more than 30 pounds.
After beating these materials into pulp and adding auxiliary materials in a unique proportion, forty pounds of dry paper can be produced.
Based on the weight of a single sheet of standard codex size paper, forty pounds of dry paper is approximately two hundred and thirty sheets.
One acre of raw hemp is worth about two silver coins.
Then the cost of each sheet of paper is less than one suri.
Compared to sheepskin, which costs one silver coin and can only be cut into a dozen sheets of paper, the cost is reduced tenfold.
Therefore, if the cost of each sheet of paper was less than one sori, the selling price should be three sori per sheet.
Based on the workshop's current processing volume, it can produce 20,000 sheets of white linen paper every month.
According to the price they agreed on, these 20,000 sheets of paper could be sold for 60,000 suries, or 60 gold coins.
If the production line is expanded, then we have seen it easily exceed 100.
In a year, it can be worth thousands of gold coins.
They wrote down all the summarized data on a document and handed it to the lady's desk.
Olivia counted the price in her mind and finally signed and agreed to the price.
Although she didn't expect to make money with paper, this thing was really useful, easy to make and important.
For the white linen paper project, Olivia gave bonuses to those who participated in the research and development throughout the process.
She was now waiting for Moni's reply.
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