Chapter 188 "The Fun Has Begun!"
After a field visit to the North Slope Mine and two consecutive days of negotiations, Roland reached a new trade contract with Hogg and the Crescent Bay caravan.
After Hogg saw the orbital ore transportation system running like flying, his eyeballs almost fell out. He even put forward an application to invest money to build a factory in Border Town, specializing in the construction of mine tracks and supporting equipment, and each will share half of the profits, but was rejected by Roland. Attracting investment is something that can only be done when there are many people. It's people, not money.
After all, Hogg is just a mining businessman. Although he owns several mines and manages an open-pit silver mine for Earl Kerbala in Silver Light City, the only people he can get out are miners. Compared with Crescent Bay who owns an island The strength is much worse. In the end, the contract he signed was to order ten steam engines half a year later, as well as a complete set of mine transportation system (including tracks and mine cars).
The Crescent Bay caravan's tone was much louder, and Jia Moore directly signed a ten-year contract. When the caravan next came, he would bring with him a party of three hundred men, mainly blacksmiths and carpenters. The rewards for these people are paid by Crescent Moon Bay, and Roland only needs to provide accommodation and food. The steam engines they produced in the past ten years were sold to Crescent Bay first. After ten years, they voluntarily decided to keep it. This was negotiated by Roland after repeated negotiations.
There is no doubt that there will be confidantes of the caravan among this group of people. Even after adding this item, the other party will definitely choose as many people as possible to be loyal to Crescent Bay. It is not known whether half of them will decide to stay. But for Roland, skilled workers are always not enough, leaving 10% is to earn. What he worried about was never the technical advantage, but the worry that no one would turn his technology into actual products.
In addition to the steam engine, the second big order came from the transformation of ships.
Together with the three hundred craftsmen, there were also two inland sailboats. The Crescent Moon Bay caravan hoped that Border Town would refit them into steam-powered paddle steamers. It directly surpassed Margaret's steam engine order. In contrast, although the mug has received three orders, the total amount is less than 300 gold dragons. This is even when Roland raised the price ten times that of the convenience store. This made him feel the profit gap between industrial products and civilian products. If mass production cannot be achieved, civilian products should simply meet the needs of small town residents.
To the Prince's surprise, iron breastplates and iron farming tools were left out. Later, during dinner, Margaret answered his doubts, "Although your breastplate is indeed cheaper, the output is too small. If you resell it, after deducting the transportation costs and taxes, each piece may only have a profit of five or six gold dragons." .Also, your armor is forged with a hydraulic forging hammer, right? Or is it a steam engine... Anyway, the price of this kind of armor is very fixed, and the high-quality iron is more expensive than labor. " She paused, "It's even more unnecessary to buy it for your own use. Maritime merchants, whether guards or sailors, rarely wear heavy armor, which will make them sink to the bottom quickly when they fall into the water. Shackles to them, not protection."
"The same is true for agricultural tools. If you can't get a lot of cheap iron, it's not much cheaper if it's cheap. Compared with similar local products, it's hard to form any advantage. Unlike those colorful cups, the price is not fixed at all. The nobleman you like, maybe you can earn several times."
"So that's the case." Roland thought for a while, and found that it was indeed the case... For armor and agricultural tools, which have stable prices, it is difficult to lower the price too much when the cost of materials accounts for the majority. He is cheaper than steam engine forging. Water hammer is more efficient, but unfortunately the price difference is not enough to arouse the interest of big businessmen.
Moreover, the white plate armor and Soraya's anti-stab paint are also part of the first army's outfit change. Before the iron production volume increases, it is impossible to sell in large quantities.
...
The much-anticipated theatrical premiere day is coming soon.
In the afternoon, the townspeople surrounded the central square and this was after Roland demolished the surrounding old buildings and doubled the area of the square.
In order to promote the effect, Roland began to issue announcements to inform the citizens a week in advance, and also specially ordered the Ministry of Agriculture to send people to the outer residential areas of the town to mobilize serfs to watch the drama.
As the lord, Roland obviously has the best viewing position. In the direction facing the performance stage, Carl set up a temporary wooden platform. The wooden platform has three rows and can accommodate about a hundred people. Roland is sitting in the middle of the third floor. On one side of him is the Witch Union, next to him is Anna, on the other side is the merchant group, and the closest is Margaery.
The first and second floors are mostly officials and apprentices of the city hall.
In order to ensure safety, the people around the wooden platform were soldiers of the First Army. While watching the drama, they isolated the prince's location from the civilians.
It was about four o'clock in the afternoon, and the heat of the sun had faded away. Coupled with the occasional cool breeze from Wendy, everyone on the stage enjoyed VIP treatment.
Amid the applause of the crowd, the actors stepped onto the stage one by one.
To be honest, Roland had no idea what the final effect of the premiere would be. After handing over the script to Irene, he never cared about it again. Whether it was recruiting or rehearsing, it was all up to her and Irene. Flynn is busy. Looking back now, how much experience can a newcomer to the theater have who has only appeared on stage once? Moreover, the friends she found were probably all extras who went to the small town because they couldn't get a chance to perform in the Fortress Theater.
In other words, this is a new drama directed, choreographed and executed by a rookie team.
Fortunately, Roland doesn't mind failure. This drama is not for ticket sales, nor is it for publicizing how good the script is. This is an enlightenment of thought remolding, and it was performed more than once. This time I didn't perform well, just improve next time.
"I know why you are so confident in this performance," Margery suddenly exclaimed, "You actually invited Miss May!"
Roland was startled, "Who?"
"May, don't tell me you don't know about this! My God, I saw her performance in the capital before I came here," Margaery smacked her lips, "whether it's the grasp of the character or the emotion She is top-notch in terms of production. "The Prince Seeking Love" has won the tears of countless people, and even Kakin Firth is full of praise for her!"
"Who is Kajin Firth?" Roland flipped through his memory and found that he had no memory of the name at all.
"...Your Highness, are you really from the capital?" Margaret blinked, "I would venture to ask, who is the person you know best in the capital? Except those in the palace."
"Yoko, the 'Magic Hand'," Roland blurted out, and immediately realized that something was wrong.
"Oh," the businesswoman gave him a meaningful look, "the most famous playboy, I heard that just using his hands can make a woman never forget him... I understand."
"Only by hand?" Anna turned her head, "Why?"
"No...it's nothing." Roland raised his forehead and said, "Let's watch the drama seriously." (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to the starting point to vote, your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile users please go to read.)