Chapter 570 Are they pirates?
“Olofi, you can only take seven ships of cargo; the rest must go to London for the trade.”
“Ox, Her Majesty the Queen promised us 30% of the goods from the Great Xia, and we must take twenty ships with us. Are you going to renege on your promise? Or do you think our Prince can't afford it?”
"Twenty ships? Olofi, you're way too old. How many ships are thirty percent of fifty? How can you get such a simple number wrong?"
"Ox, go to the port and count how many ships the Great Xia actually has?"
“…”
"Olofi, you bastard! Those ships are warships. Can't you tell the difference between warships and merchant ships?"
"Ox, you've humiliated me. It seems I should teach you a lesson and show you what it means to respect your elders!"
Isabel and Dracula were both people of status, and they wouldn't personally get involved in trivial matters. So their head stewards argued endlessly about how much of the Great Xia's goods they should contribute and how much they should receive, which almost escalated into a bloody brawl.
Oakes wasn't worried that Prince Dracula would take more goods than he was entitled to without paying; it was simply that while fifty ships of Great Xia goods seemed like a lot, when it came to dividing them up, it was far from enough to satisfy the appetites of the vampire lords.
Leaving aside others, Amanda herself has explicitly requested a quota of Great Xia goods from her family, the Sara family. Although her bloodline has been transformed by Isabel and she is no longer related to the Sasha family she was born into, there are still some emotional ties. Isabel wouldn't stop her from taking this opportunity to take care of her former parents' family.
Oakes also has family and vassals to take care of, and his good buddy Mars also has subordinates to take care of. After everyone has divided the quota, the remaining amount is very limited.
"Gentlemen, I would like to remind you that my lord has agreed to send the goods to London and open trade to all Westerners. Your Queen Isabel has also agreed. So instead of arguing here... how about we go to London and trade at market price?"
Lin Yongqian waited for three days, but seeing that the vampires still showed no sign of setting off, he immediately found Oakes and asked to go to London.
"Respected Director Lin, please don't worry, the price we offer will definitely satisfy you and your prince!" Olofi now knew the enormous power wielded by Lin Yongqian, this slightly chubby "director," and was very polite to him.
“I think you’ve misunderstood, Lord Olofi. We’ve traveled all the way to the Western Continent to find a reliable business partner and ally, not to sneak around as smugglers.”
The vampires are different from the sea creatures. They have lived in the Western Continent for nearly a thousand years and have also infiltrated the Western Continent for nearly a thousand years. With their connections, fifty ships of goods could easily and quietly enter the Western Continent market, but this is not the result Qin Mo wanted.
Qin Mo wanted to openly and honestly show the Temple that the Western Continent was not under the Temple's control, and that Great Xia could find another business partner to ultimately force the Temple to cancel the tariffs on Great Xia goods.
The Temple can impose taxes on Great Xia goods in its own ports, but can you stop the nobles of the entire Western Continent from enjoying Great Xia silk, porcelain, and spices? Where there is demand, there is a market; where there is a market, there are merchants who are not afraid of danger and pursue huge profits. And the vampires are the middlemen who are not afraid of the Temple's threats.
Smuggling may seem secretive, but it only benefits a small number of people and makes it easy for the Temple to catch them red-handed and eliminate them one by one. Smugglers will not help their fellow smugglers when they are down on their luck; they will only kick them when they are down.
However, if everyone could openly buy Great Xia goods in London that would make them rich, then these people would spontaneously gather together and form a powerful force, and the Temple would not be able to ignore the desire of the entire Western Continent's merchants to get rich.
“Alright! We’ll only take fifteen ships’ worth of cargo. Prince Dracula will guarantee your safe arrival in London!” Olofi didn’t want to take his share of the cargo to London. In Windsor Rose’s territory, anything could happen. It wasn’t impossible for that crazy woman to change her mind, swallow the goods, and refuse to refund the money.
"Okay! But we need to get to London as soon as possible! We're really pressed for time."
Seeing that Oakes was about to argue again, Lin Yongqian quickly expressed his opinion. He realized that these old guys who had lived for hundreds of years had no concept of time. If you let them argue, they could argue for ten or eight days. In their long lives, this amount of time is about the same as yawning.
The fleet finally set sail north again, passing through the North Atlantic before turning east and entering the English Channel. At the end of the Channel, heading north, lay the final destination of the voyage—the Port of London.
"The Queen has renovated the Port of London and has notified the powerful dukes and marquesses in the northern West. I believe they will send people over soon. Not many people can resist the temptation of wealth."
"Let's hope so. We've sailed tens of thousands of miles at sea, haven't we? Just to hear the unique voice of wealth."
"Hahaha! There's a saying in the Great Xia Dynasty, 'Traveling thousands of miles just for money,' and it's absolutely true... Huh?... What's going on with those two ships? Why aren't they turning? Where are they going?"
The Da Xia fleet turned northwards through the strait in sequence, but one large frigate and one fast merchant ship did not follow the fleet's turn and continued sailing northeastwards.
"Oh! They're going to visit our prince's old friend!" Lin Yongqian said casually as he looked back.
"Old friends, oh!... They're going to Oslo..."
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