Chapter 497 The Baron of the Sea
Hope is a large ship with a loading capacity of about 400 tons. During this voyage, the cabin was filled with Harland’s specialty brown sugar and white wine. Of course, there were also some soaps and cotton cloths in the cabin. Iron products and medicines were also loaded.
Compared with the kingdoms of Heath and Ryan, the Kingdom of Parame is more friendly to the Kingdom of Grant because of its belief in the goddess of dawn.
On May 3, after a 46-day voyage, the Hope arrived at Hawkins Castle. This time, the total mileage of the voyage has exceeded 5,000 kilometers.
After leaving the Rex Province and entering the second half of the voyage, the voyage mainly relies on sails. The small amount of coal loaded in the cabin can only be used at critical times, and the steam turbine can be turned on for three or four days at most.
After entering the port, the residents of the capital of the Kingdom of Parame warmly welcomed the Harland Kingdom fleet.
Because the Harland Kingdom fleet is willing to spend money every time it stops, they will buy a lot of fruits, vegetables, grains, meat, and even fresh water. At the same time, the Harland Kingdom fleet will also sell some goods that are urgently needed by local residents, and the relationship between the two sides is quite harmonious.
It has been seven years since Richard started operating the Red Moon Plane.
In the past seven years, with the opening of ocean routes, the goods of the Harland Kingdom have entered the market of the Parame Kingdom and won the favor of the Parame people.
The first thing to enter the Parame Kingdom was medicine. In order to open up the market, the Harland Kingdom distributed a small amount of medicine to the Parame people for free, and only sold it to make money after confirming the effect.
Then there are iron products. Even if it is across the ocean and across a 5,000-kilometer coastline, the price of Harland Kingdom iron products is much lower than that of local products. The cost difference of more than ten times directly defeated the local ironmaking industry.
With the continuous entry of Harland Kingdom iron products, iron mines near the capital area have begun to close, and a large number of blacksmith shops have gone bankrupt.
Cotton cloth has less impact on the local market of Parame. Because the Parame Kingdom is a manor economy, most of the noble manors have textile industries, and cotton cloth from the Grant Kingdom can only be sold to urban freemen.
Liquor, brown sugar, and soap are completely new industries. These in-demand commodities are mainly sold to the aristocracy, and the price is more than ten times that of the local market.
A cargo ship with a loading capacity of 300 tons can earn 4,000 gold coins for a trip to the Kingdom of Parame.
Moreover, you can also make money when you return. The Kingdom of Parame has a large number of magic plantations, which are rich in various magic plants. There is also a large copper mine in the south of the Kingdom of Parame, which is rich in copper materials, and occasionally a small amount of mountain copper is sold.
Mountain copper is a natural super-magic metal. The market price of one ton in the Kingdom of Harland is 6,000 gold coins, while the local market price is less than 5,000. You can make a lot of money by transporting one ton back.
Of course, the output of mountain copper is very small. Even the Pereira copper mine does not produce more than ten tons a year. The share that can be sold to the Kingdom of Harland is only about three or four tons.
And the number of ships running the route of the Kingdom of Parame every year is as high as dozens. The good job of transporting mountain copper is basically the task of escorting warships, and it is not the turn of private ship owners at all.
Even if it is impossible to transport mountain copper, buying a batch of copper materials and shipping it back can still make a lot of money.
If the Hope successfully makes a trip to the Kingdom of Parame, it can earn 5,000 gold coins for a round trip.
If it successfully makes three trips a year, it can earn back a ship.
With such a huge profit, it is no wonder that Giggs did not even become an officer and entered the shipping industry.
Giggs sold the goods on the ship wholesale to a Viscount of Parame, and then sailed south to the Port of Bagir with the gold coins.
The Port of Bagir is located in the east of the Pereira Copper Mine Mountain. After the copper ore is mined in Pereira, it will be transported to the Port of Bagir for preliminary smelting and smelting into 30-kilogram copper ingots.
Three hundred kilometers south of the Port of Bagir is the Grand Duchy of Caroline. The southern part of the Grand Duchy of Caroline is a large tropical desert. The temperature in summer can reach 50 or 60 degrees. Only a small number of heat-resistant plants survive. Plants and animals are very rare and basically uninhabited.
The eastern part of the Central Continent of the entire Dawn Plane, from the Kingdom of Harland in the north to the Grand Duchy of Caroline in the south, has five coastal countries: Harland, Grant, Heath, Parame, and Caroline, with a coastline of 6,500 kilometers.
The northern part of the Kingdom of Harland is the northern prairie, and the northern part of the northern prairie also has a boreal forest and a northern ice field. The southern part of the Grand Duchy of Caroline is a tropical desert.
According to the ancient magician Terrence's estimate, the north-south span of the Central Continent is about a little more than 10,000 kilometers. This legendary magician once accomplished a feat, circling the Dawn Planet.
According to the rough map drawn by Terrence, the southern part of the Central Continent is the Boiling Sea. Sailing a thousand kilometers from the southernmost tip of the continent, the temperature of the sea surface will exceed 100 degrees. A large amount of water vapor covers the entire sea surface, and entering it is like being steamed. Crossing the Boiling Sea is an endless ocean, and continuing to sail for more than 10,000 kilometers will reach the Arctic Sea.
After purchasing a batch of copper ingots at the port of Bajir, the Hope began to return.
When heading south, they encountered an attack by fishmen, but the return was relatively smooth. Although they encountered a sixth-level black-headed octopus, Heath, Ziggs and his men defeated the opponent without any danger. Not only did they obtain a sixth-level magic core, but the octopus materials could also be exchanged for a lot of money.
During this voyage, the Hope not only obtained a sixth-level magic core and reserve magic energy, but also earned a profit of 6,500 gold coins. After returning to Xinghui Castle, the insurance company also paid several hundred gold coins for pocket money.
With enough gold coins in hand, Ziggs first issued pensions to the sacrificed and disabled crew members, and then discussed with Heath and decided not to distribute dividends for the time being, and continue to strengthen and modify the magic ship. Especially the super magic alloy plate on the bottom of the ship, this time it must be thicker. In addition, the new weapon invented by the Kingdom of Harland, the depth alchemical bomb, must be installed.
The depth alchemical bomb is a weapon recently developed by the Kingdom of Harland. According to an idea proposed by Richard, the arsenal department spent six years constantly modifying the alchemical bomb. Using a delayed touch fuse, the charge was increased, the super magic metal shell was re-researched, and the depth bomb was successfully manufactured.
In order to use the depth alchemical bomb accurately, the Harland Mage Association also installed a sonar detection device on the magic ship based on the principle of sound wave reflection.
With the sonar detection device and the depth alchemical bomb, the magic ship is enough to solve some of the underwater threats.
The depth alchemical bomb and sonar detection equipment are both new weapons of the Harland Kingdom Navy, and people outside don’t know them at all. Ziggs is a retired senior officer of the navy. He got the news by chance when he met with his old comrades, so he wrote a letter to the naval shipyard to apply for the installation of new weapons on his magic ship.
Under normal circumstances, the military will not approve the sale of new weapons to private individuals, but Richard is pushing for the development of the ocean. Last time, with Richard's support, even the magic crystal cannon was sold to private ship owners. Depth-water alchemical bombs are defensive weapons, but in fact they are not as sensitive as magic crystal cannons.
With the support of the top, Ziggs, Heath and other shareholders signed a confidentiality agreement. Hope has been remodeled again, thickening the super magic alloy plate on the bottom of the ship, and installing sonar detection devices and depth charges.
This modification cost another 6,000 gold coins. Since Ziggs entered the shipping industry, he and Heath have invested more than 30,000 gold coins in Hope, and the second-hand steam cargo ship in their hands has gradually become a real magic ship.
However, compared with the magic ship of the Harland Kingdom Navy, Hope's defense is slightly worse, and its firepower is far from comparable to that of a warship. Small magic warships are equipped with twelve magic crystal cannons, with firepower exceeding two companies of land artillery. The Hope is only equipped with two twelve-pound cannons.
If the Hope fights a naval battle with a regular warship, it will be easily crushed by the warship. However, when encountering a small number of fishmen and deep-sea monsters, the survivability of the Hope has been greatly enhanced, and it can deal with most threats.
After completing the modification, Heath and Ziggs seized the time and sailed to Auxerre Castle again, active on the Parame route.
Time passed in a flash, and it came to June 3290 of the Dawn Calendar in a blink of an eye.
In the next six years, with huge profits, Heath and Ziggs' fleet has grown from small to large, and has expanded to four magic ships and nine steamships. The assets in their hands have already exceeded 300,000 gold coins. The capital power is stronger than that of factory owners such as Odaye and Immorton.
In more than six years, the power of capitalist nobles such as Odaye has expanded a little. Now, there are four merchant barons in the Kingdom of Harland, namely Odaye, Immorton, Rand and Sampson. However, compared with the huge military noble class, their power is still very weak and cannot be put on the stage.
Although Odaye and others were excluded and discriminated by the military nobles, their political status is much stronger than that of sea merchants such as Heath and Ziggs.
With their assets developed to such a scale, Ziggs and Heath certainly want to become hereditary barons.
In a centralized militaristic country like the Kingdom of Harland, when business reaches a certain scale, it must be included in the national system. Only by becoming a hereditary noble can you have legal privileges, not be attacked and discriminated against politically, and allow your descendants to protect your property.
Moreover, in the subconscious of Ziggs and Heath, they also want to make meritorious deeds and be granted a title.
Heath came from the serf class. His living environment since childhood made him envy everything that the nobles had, and he wanted to make meritorious deeds and be granted a title in his mind. Ziggs himself was a baron on the east coast. After being defeated and surrendered, he saved his life, but lost everything. His lifelong goal is to be re-nobled and regain the lost family honor.
After the two discussed, they decided to let Heath prepare for the nobility first.
Heath has served Harland for more than 20 years and accumulated three great merits and six medium merits. The merits he accumulated after retirement were not exchanged for gold coins, potions and other resources.
In the past six years, there has been no fighting in the Kingdom of Harland, and of course there can be no naval battles. Heath and others have no chance to make merit.
Now that he has enough assets in hand, Heath can only set his sights on the north.
In order not to affect the maritime industry, Heath directly borrowed a huge sum of 80,000 gold coins from the Duke Bank, and then borrowed some money from Ziggs. With enough gold coins in hand, Heath recruited some members who were about to retire from the fleet to form a mercenary group and went to the Prilan area to hunt.
Over the years, more than 100,000 mercenaries have poured into Prilan. Now there are 30 hereditary nobles in this area who have been nominate, and the number of undead they have killed has exceeded tens of millions.
Nearly half of the undead who escaped from the seal of the northern ice field were hunted by mercenaries.
Now, scattered undead creatures are very rare near Prilan. If you want to get soul crystals to exchange for merit, you must go deep into the Bolton Forest.
Compared with 20 years ago, the road to hunting undead and becoming a knight has become more difficult.
Of course, all this is not difficult for the wealthy Heath. While organizing a mercenary group to hunt undead, he directly uses gold coins to purchase soul crystals. It took only a few months to successfully become a knight.
After being knighted, Heath did not manage his territory carefully. After all, for him, farming was far less profitable than sailing. He distributed part of the land to the mercenary group that followed him, and then used the cultivated land to recruit some landless freemen, handed the fief to his son for management, and continued to work in the shipping business.
Shortly after Heath was knighted, their fleet began to support Ziggs's knighting.
In May of the 3292nd year of the Dawn Calendar, Ziggs was also successfully knighted.
At this moment, in addition to factory owners and merchants, sea traders in the Kingdom of Harland also stepped onto the stage and were knighted.
The knighting of Heath and Ziggs led a large number of merchants to invest in marine trade. In just eight years, the number of ships registered in the Kingdom of Harland increased fivefold, and there were more than 800 motor sailing ships on the sea.
More than half of the 800 motor sailing ships were officially controlled.
In recent years, the Kingdom of Harland has successively established the South Sea Trading Company, the North Sea Trading Company, and the Royal Shipping Company, which play an important role in the shipping industry and lead the development of marine trade.
Relying on the profits handed over by state-owned shipping companies and the support of national finance, the Kingdom of Harland has built more than 20 warships in the past six years.
In just eight years, the size of the navy has doubled, and now it has 53 magic ships.
Because it is equipped with magic crystal cannons, the magic ships of the Kingdom of Harland are powerful and can fight one against five. Their combat effectiveness on the sea is stronger than that of the Holy Glorious Empire.
The Holy Glorious Empire has only more than 200 magic ships, and it has to take care of the East and West Oceans. Its East Sea Fleet has only more than 80 magic ships. Its combat effectiveness alone cannot be compared with that of the Harland Navy.
However, after the war between the two sides breaks out, it will inevitably be a battle of comprehensive strength of the sea, land and air.
Even if the Navy of the Kingdom of Harland has the upper hand, it may not be able to defeat the enemy's two-legged dragons, lion cavalry, and Pegasus Knights.
Although the Kingdom of Harland also attaches great importance to flying troops, its foundation is shallow after all, and the cultivation of flying monsters is relatively slow. Although it can be rampant in the eastern countries, it has no chance of winning the war with the Holy Glorious Empire. Of course, it is not too difficult for the Kingdom of Harland to deal with the three legions of the Holy Glorious Empire stationed in the eastern part of the continent.