Chapter 723 Business and Progress

The silently running constant temperature magic circle shields the bleak cold wind outside the castle, the decoration on the wall is polished with shields, and the gorgeous classical tapestry depicts symbols related to heroes, monsters and gods, and the precious smoke from the hand of the goblin. The incense quietly exudes a pleasant and elegant fragrance in the copper incense box. The brilliance of the magic spar lamp is sprinkled from the roof and sprinkled into the gold-rimmed teacup. The bright red liquid has a warm layer inside. floating light.

Grey Elf Wenna picked up the teacup in front of her, and gently shook the clear-textured liquid, her light-colored eyes reflecting fine light spots: "Goods from the Typhon Empire? This... is indeed a novelty, specifically what?"

"Textiles, mainly textiles, but also dyes and white crystals," Baldwin said with a smile. "High quality and abundant supply—friends of the Western Plains tribes should like it."

"Not to mention, I do have some interest in textiles," Wenna raised her eyes, "Can I take a look at the samples?"

Bai Dewen stood up with a smile and nodded to the attendant next to him: "Of course, here is - open."

The attendant opened the wooden box containing the samples, and the guests from the Ogure Tribal Nation immediately cast their gazes out of curiosity. Duke Baldwin personally stepped forward, took out a piece of white cloth from the wooden box, and handed it to the Grey Elf. In front of Wen Na: "Ma'am, please take a look."

Wenna reached out to take the fabric, and looked at it with anticipation and curiosity, but within a few seconds her expectant expression became a little stunned and disappointed. After a brief silence, the gray elf clan leader frowned and shook his head. Shaking his head: "My friend, I was still praising the creativity of human craftsmen in the field of art... Now I am a little confused."

As she spoke, she raised her head and looked at Duke Baldwin curiously: "I'll be honest—isn't that far-off Typhon Empire not good at craftsmanship? You should also be able to see that although this fabric is strong, it is still weaving. There is no taste at all in terms of patterns and patterns. An apprentice who has just learned to weave can weave something like this, it..."

"Sixteen silver shield coins." Baldwin said suddenly.

"What?" Wen Na didn't respond for a while.

"Sixteen silver shield coins," Bai Dewen smiled and patted the wooden box next to him, "a total of one hundred and sixty rulers."

Grey Elf Wenna's ears couldn't help shaking: "...Are you kidding me?"

"The last time I reported the price of the alchemy potion to you, you had the same expression and words," Baldwin shook his head and sat back on the high-back chair, his face serious, "This is the real thing. Price - as you can see, these fabrics are really tasteless in weave and pattern because they are machine woven,

With the current machine technology, only such fabrics can be woven, and they really cannot catch the eyes of the upper-class nobles, but in terms of price... it will definitely be very popular among the middle-class citizens and commoners. "

"Machine... It's not the first time I've heard this word," Wen Na's stunned and disappointed expression disappeared, replaced by thinking, "If it's made by a machine, then I can understand its price, But I have a question - even if it is machine made, you are transporting these fabrics from far away Typhon to the western frontier, after such a long journey, are these things still so cheap? In my understanding In China, even if a stone is transported from the east of your country to the west, the toll alone is a huge figure."

"We're building new roads, new transport technologies that can quickly move bulk goods - of course, even so, there are costs to transport, and the margins on these fabrics are very, very thin, but the Franklin family has always been looking for a long-term business partner, Small profits but quick turnover is our code of conduct, you should know that.”

The Duke of Baldwin said frankly, with a sincere and gentle smile on his face.

The grey elf Wenna looked at the smile on Bai Dewen's face, and was silent for two seconds before she said, "You are really sincere when you talk about business... So, you just shipped the cheap fabrics that Typhon sold you to you. West and then sell it to us... This is not the same as the previous alchemy potion."

"The essence of trade is to convert the journey into profit, and transportation also costs money," Bai Dewen nodded, "but no matter what, these fabrics must still be of great value in your hands, after all... Speaking of which, they are still of high quality and fully worthy of the price.”

The gray elf's eyes narrowed slightly, which was her habitual movement when she was thinking.

"Elves love art, and delicacy and taste are elements we value very much." After a few seconds of thinking, she slowly opened her eyes, her pale pupils shimmering, "My friend, there is no doubt about it. —Gold coins are the most tasteful things in the world.”

"It suits your personal style—it suits mine too," Bai Dewen's smile bloomed, "then if all goes well, we will be able to officially start accepting textile orders next spring, and the specific amount will be negotiated, alchemy potion. According to the previously agreed delivery time, it will not be affected by textile orders. As for settlement..."

"Half gold coins, half food and medicinal herbs," Wen Na said proactively, "Our king has agreed to your request, and we know the troubles that An... Cecil's empire is in. As old friends, we are happy to help - The first order of grain will arrive at the border before winter."

"Thank you to the Grey Elf King on my behalf," Baldwin stood up and said sincerely, "We will not forget every help from our friends."

Wen Na got up and returned the salute, then looked at the other boxes: "So, these should be other samples?"

"Yes, let me show you..."

...

The brilliance of the giant sun gradually sank to the west, and the more and more brilliant rays of sunshine began to cover the earth along the clouds. The nameless birds chirped in the background of the clouds and the sky, and hurriedly returned to their nests. Wenna, who had left the castle, lifted up. With his hands, he lifted the hair from his forehead and looked back at the classic and gorgeous castle of the Franklin family.

"It's a lot of business..." The gray elf said softly to himself.

The Honggu people walking beside them couldn't help frowning: "They must earn more."

Wenna shook her head: "Don't focus on how much other people make when doing business. No one comes to do business with you just to lose money."

The gentle human said: "But anyway, the price of those fabrics is still surprising, after a long transportation, their prices are still so low... It's really hard to imagine that the Typhon Empire is putting How cheap are these things when they are exported to Cecil."

"Yeah... It's really hard to imagine..." Wen Na turned around again and glanced at the castle with a history of hundreds of years.

A craftsman was busy on the platform on the side of the castle, installing a strange magic device with no apparent purpose on the platform. The magic device had a metal base and a huge crystal.

What an old castle, it feels almost as old as the land.

But she had a faint feeling that something young was growing in this land.

Commodities from the far east, across the continent... that's a long way to go.

...

Baldwin Franklin stood in front of the window of the parlour, watching the guests of the Ogure Tribal Nation ride on their own carriages and gradually disappear into the corner of the road in the distance, and then withdrew his gaze.

A young man wearing a royal blue coat and a gold brooch on his chest entered the room, stood behind Bai Dewen, and called respectfully, "Father."

"Eleven," Duke Baldwin turned around and gave his eldest son a gentle smile, "you should be able to hear it clearly in the next room—you seem suspicious from your expression."

The young man named Elaven stood up straight, and he was just a grown-up who was accustomed to obeying every word of his father's teachings, but he already had many thoughts and questions of his own: "Yes, father—why do you want to be the first? Confess for a while that those fabrics are from Typhon?"

Baldwin looked at his eldest son quietly: "Why don't you confess?"

"...You taught me that when we can monopolize the source of goods, keeping the supply channel secret is one of the important means to maintain the monopoly and ensure profits. We import textiles from Typhon and sell them to the Ogure Tribal Nation. Reselling, but if we didn't tell, the Ogre Tribe would not know about it, and we could raise the price a bit more - but now that the Grey Elves know where those textiles came from, sooner or later they'll be sure of Typhon as well The approximate price of textiles exported by the empire, cost transparency is the biggest taboo in doing business..."

Bai Dewen waited patiently for the young man to finish speaking, then shook his head: "If you can think of this, it shows that you are really studying what I taught you, but you can only think of this, which shows that what you have learned is just the fur.

"The first point is that what we want to do is a long-term business, and it is a business between countries. This kind of business needs stability, not temporary huge profits. The gray elves are not a closed group. They will know about those textiles one day. Although from a commercial point of view, our behavior of keeping supply channels secret is not deceitful, but if we use this to play too much with the price, then sooner or later we will hurt the feelings of our trading partners, and it will also hurt the future. 's business.

"Second point, even if I disclose the source of goods, we don't have to worry that this business will fall by the wayside, because Cecil is the only channel for maintaining east-west trade in the northern part of the mainland. We are in the wasteland of Gondor to the south, and the wasteland, mountains and In the cold winter, the trade goods of the Typhon Empire have to be transported to the Ogure Tribal Nation, and we can only take our route—unless the grey elves or Eldar find a way to break through the sea blockade and restart the northern route around the continent.

"The third point, and the most important point: Do you think that our emperor, His Majesty, asked me to sell those things to the Ogure Tribal Nation at a price of almost zero profit, really just to sell textiles?"

The young duke's son was at a loss for a moment, and then he showed a thoughtful look.

Burdwin Franklin laughed and shook his head: "What we really want to sell is the railway."

Elaine's eyes widened.

Baldwin looked away from the eldest son and landed on a shelf not far away. On the shelf, there was a gift given to him by Gawain Cecil the Great before he left Saint-Sunil City. .

A model of the first freight magic train.

Delicate, ingenious and vivid, it comes from the "hand" of the chief craftsman of the empire, St. Nicholas Egg.

However, this model is so peculiar that there is no use or "artistic value", so that the gray elf Wenna's attention is all attracted by the flashy magic pendulum, but she does not notice that it really symbolizes Items from the Age of Empires.

But he believed that it would not be long before the kings of the Ogure tribal kingdom would notice it.

"Eleven, maybe I'm too persistent in trying to train you to be like me, and I've ignored your real expertise and interests."

"Father?" The young duke's son was a little surprised, then panicked, "Father, I'm not..."

"Don't be nervous, boy," Baldwin shook his head, "you still make me proud, but now you need to be more diligent in order to keep up with the times His Majesty has created. Magic technology, trains, lewd radio, alchemy... …There are so many new things in the new age that the teachers in the castle and the scholars in the realm don’t understand themselves, let alone teach you.

"The western border is too far from the center of the empire, far from new technologies and knowledge, and far from a true 'civilized society'.

"We can't sit at home and wait for a civilized society to come, we must take the initiative to contact.

"Your Majesty is building more educational facilities in the imperial capital Cecil City and building a new Imperial College. I have ordered 500 bright young people from all over the Western Territory to be selected to study, regardless of their backgrounds, you can go too - as the leader of the school group. People, go south together. The old aristocratic era is over, the Franklin family is no longer the direct ruler of this land, but you still shoulder the responsibility to fight for the benefits of this land and its people.

"I believe that the Snow Duchess of the North is doing the same - we are never behind."

Elaine quietly met the gaze of the Duke of the West, before bowing his head deeply for a long time: "Yes, father."

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