industrial lord

Chapter 563 Talking about Business
The small river in the mountains flows slowly, the breeze blows on the riverside, and colorful butterflies fly.

Two people, one old and one young, held fishing rods, threw the frog-shaped bait onto the water, and then reeled it in rhythmically.

The fish floating on the bottom of the water felt the information brought by the waves, dug its body out from under the dead tree where it was hiding, confirmed that the delicious food was on the water surface, twisted its tail hard, and rushed over.

"Young people don't respect martial ethics!"

Valentine jumped up and down like a child whose toy was taken away, without any of the calmness of a pope.

Frederick saw the fish swimming out and heading for his bait, so he went straight to the scoop net to snatch it.

Frederick smiled and put the fish in the scoop net into Valentine's fish basket and continued to fish.

After Valentine cast his hook again, he said, "When I was still a cardinal, I was going out fishing and saw a monk being lazy, so I asked him to help me carry my things."

"He didn't catch any fish for a long time, so his fish basket is empty. I have a lot of vegetarian fish in my fish basket."

"At that time, I caught a carnivorous fish and thought that if I put it in the fish basket, it would definitely eat the vegetarian fish that had been there before, so I put it in his empty fish basket."

"He thought I was hinting at something, like promoting him to be a bishop or something like that, and he was so happy."

"Young people can't keep their cool. They are so proud of themselves that they spread the news everywhere, and they even offended some people because of it."

"Someone asked me about it later, and I said it was nothing. He was beaten badly in the end."

"After that, I never made any hints again. If I have something to say, I will just say it directly."

Frederick continued, "Because the power in your hands is too great for them. Life or death depends on your will."

Valentine nodded slightly and said, "You are the same. Just a few words can determine the future of countless people."

"I am not optimistic about your development of the South."

Frederick raised his eyebrows and asked, "Religious issue?"

Valentine shook his head and said, "No."

"The swamps along the coast in the south are different from those in the north. I grew up by the coast when I was a child. The soil there is salty and can only grow some wild vegetables as tall as a palm. The old leaves of those wild vegetables can be used directly to stew meat without adding salt."

"The water is not just salty in the sea, the water underground is also salty."

"In the past, our monastery also thought about planting some vegetables on a piece of land near the sea, but it was too troublesome. It took a lot of effort to carry soil and build a dike to prevent the sea from flooding the land during high tide."

He rambled on about how the monastery reclaimed tidal flats when he was young, and concluded that the effort was not worth the effort.

Frederick listened quietly, changed the bait to insects, and caught some small fish that ate insects.

After the Pope finished speaking, Frederick said, "Small-scale reclamation is different from large-scale transformation of swampland. The land enclosed by a square dam with a circumference of 400 meters is 100 times that of a dam with a circumference of 16 meters. The gap between the project investment and the final benefit is huge."

"For me, developing the southern coast of the inland sea poses the least technical problems."

"The technology for transforming swamps is the same in general, and only some details need to be adjusted according to the site."

He is taking advantage of the fact that the Pope is not good at math and does not understand technology, so he tries to fool him as much as possible. It sounds very simple.

Frederick finally said to Valentine: "I am more worried about religious reasons. We just want to make money and don't want to provoke a religious war."

Valentine looked at him deeply and said, "Royas, the Grand Bishop of the Linhai Parish of the Flame Church, wrote me a letter not long ago."

It was not surprising that the two sides had a communication channel, and Frederick waited earnestly for further news.

Unexpectedly, Valentine mentioned something that seemed unrelated: "Many Venetians do business and live in the south of the Inland Sea. After they arrived there, they changed their identities and became locals."

Frederick curled his lips. He had just heard about this recently. They were believers of the Church of Light in the north, and believers of the Church of Fire in the south of the inland sea. They could switch flexibly.

Valentine continued, "You have a saying that 'the economic base determines the superstructure', which I think makes a lot of sense. These people pay taxes on both sides of the Inland Sea, so no one cares about it."

"The South Bank has been in turmoil in the past two years. Conflicts between some priests of the Church of Flame and nobles who support merchants have intensified, and some wars have broken out." "This has affected our business with Venice and Rojas."

Frederick blinked, his mouth twitched, and asked in disbelief: "Your Holiness, you are doing business among pagans?!"

Valentine said seriously: "We are doing business with the Venetians."

Frederick finally understood why the Venetian merchants were able to be so unscrupulous and yet nothing happened, because they had the support of the church behind them.

These white gloves are very useful, and the church will naturally maintain them.

Frederick said frankly: "The conflict between me and the Venetian merchants is irreconcilable. It has not yet erupted, but it is only a matter of time before a conflict breaks out."

Valentine continued fishing without saying a word.

Frederick continued: "The Venetians can only do business in the inland sea. My commercial network now covers from the Kingdom of Kush in the south to the Dark Land in the north, and is growing rapidly."

He is mistaking the concepts here. It is one thing for the goods of the Duchy of Wessen to be sold to these places, but it is another thing for Venetian merchants to do business in various ports.

But Valentine did not know the difference and subconsciously thought that wherever the goods of the Duchy of Wessen were sold, Frederick's merchants would go there. He did not consider that most of them were sold by middlemen.

Frederick also wanted to spread business outlets everywhere like the Venetians, but the Dawn Chamber of Commerce still had a long way to go.

Valentine finally nodded slightly, acknowledging what he said.

Frederick continued to bully the Pope's head, which had been reading scriptures all his life: "Gold placed in a cabinet is actually no different from copper and iron. You can't eat it when you are hungry, you can't drink it when you are thirsty, and you can't use it to keep warm when you are cold."

“Gold must circulate in the market so that it can reflect its value as currency and be exchanged for food, drink and clothing.”

"Supporting me is not contradictory to supporting the Merchant of Venice. Their business is fundamentally different from my business."

"The Merchant of Venice was actually just doing errands to earn some hard-earned money."

"The Duchy of Wessen is making money with wisdom."

“A ton of wood becomes paper, and the price of that paper is much higher than the raw material.”

"Paper and ink are cheap, but printing them into books and paintings becomes more expensive."

“This is the role of wisdom. Wisdom has become a new source of wealth.”

This time Valentine nodded seriously.

They had originally intended to invest in Frederick's industry and had done research on it, but the price difference between raw materials and finished products scared many people.

Frederick said with a considerate attitude: "Of course, business has gains and losses. Many industries are very profitable, but it is hard to say when it comes to a specific factory."

"Nowadays, there is no shortage of screws to sell. Someone once opened a screw factory with full confidence, but his management and technology were not good, the quality was poor and the cost was high, so he went bankrupt two years later."

"There was also a toilet paper factory whose paper was powdery and broke when folded in half. The boss ran away overnight."

"If you agree, I can launch a special bond with a higher yield. You can buy it to get a stable return, and I will bear the risk of investment failure."

Valentine did not answer, and did not say a word until the weather grew hotter at noon and the fish stopped eating. He seemed to be thinking about something.

Frederick only told some real cases, with some losses and some gains, focusing on honesty and making people who are not familiar with the situation afraid to invest on their own.

On the carriage back to the city, Valentine finally asked, "What's the interest rate on the bonds you're selling?"

Frederick was familiar with the commercial loan situation in the Kingdom of Sardinia. The general interest rate was 5% to 15%. When people took advantage of the situation, the interest rate could reach around 30%. At this time, what they were aiming for was the property used as collateral.

He replied: "The specific interest rate will be higher than commercial loans, and this kind of bond can only be purchased by people who are guaranteed by the bishop of the church or above."

(End of this chapter)