At the beginning of May, Salt, the commercial officer and general manager of the European trading company, arranged many chores for the southern caravan and rushed back to the wooden castle in the valley with a few guards.

"Sir, this is the situation of the Southern Caravan. Taking advantage of the war that has just subsided, the Provence Branch of the Continental Commercial Bank has opened the Southern Cargo Market in the east of Provence. We have rented two large warehouses in Kitzby and Aosta City.

Serves as a cargo gathering and shipping warehouse.”

"Now the European Commercial Bank has full trade privileges in the east of Provence, and with the support of Viscount Bellian, the southern goods trade route from Verno via Aosta to Kitzby and then north to Burgundy is basically under our control

, according to your order, in addition to supplying the northern land, the southern goods of the European Continental Trading Company are also extending to the west. I have contacted several French merchants who have had business dealings in the past. Our southern goods will be transported to the Kingdom of France through their routes.

, but this line is not the best route, so the profit is much thinner.”

"Before returning north to the valley this time, I also received news that the Provence court is negotiating with the Principality of Lombardy. As long as the Principality of Lombardy completely opens the passage from the southern mainland seaport to Verno, those precious southern goods will continue to flow in.

It is transported to our border post through this line controlled by the European Continental Commercial Bank. As long as the southern goods arrive at the border post, the rest of the matter will be much easier to handle."

"But~" Salt hesitated.

"But what? If you have any questions, just tell me." Art stood up from the recliner.

"However, Viscount Balian requested to receive one-tenth of the annual income of the Provence branch of the Continental Trading Company as a bonus. His reasons can also be established. After all, there are many noble lords who need to be dispatched on the long road from Wilno to Kitzby.

, every level requires Viscount Balian to complete it, and one-tenth of the bonus cannot be swallowed by Viscount Balian alone."

Art thought for a moment and realized that being able to open up the southern goods transportation channel in Provence would basically control the supply of goods from the north to the south. Moreover, the key to Art's continental trading house being able to gain a foothold in Provence was the new nobleman of the court, Bellian.

The Viscount is willing to help Art open up and protect this trade route, and for the sake of long-term interests, Art is willing to endure the pain and cut himself off.

"Tell Viscount Bellian that I agree to hand over to him one-tenth of the annual profit of the Provence branch of the Continental Trading Company. If he can obtain more abundant and cheap southern goods from the southern port cities of Lombardy through special channels, our Continental Trading Company will also

They all raised the price to buy it.”

Art can still settle this account, even if calculated based on the current scale of the two caravans and fifty carriages of the European Commercial Bank, if it can really completely control the trade route in eastern Provence, ideally the European Commercial Bank will start from southern Provence every year

During the journey to the north, you can earn a price difference of more than 500,000 pfennigs. And after the southern goods entering Burgundy through Kitzby are sold in the north of the mainland, the trade difference can reach an astonishing 100,000 pfennigs.

Seven hundred thousand pfennigs, this huge business profit is enough for him to maintain about 1,500 legionnaires.

Of course, these are profits under ideal conditions. If the goods collection and transportation lines in the south are blocked or the goods in the north and south are unsalable, then the profits of the European Commercial Bank for one year can barely maintain the current size of Art's army.

Art stood up, walked to Salter, patted him on the shoulder, and said: "Sarter, you are one of the few capable confidants around me who can control the overall situation. Now my layout is getting bigger and bigger, and I need

There is also more and more money. This year, I have barely solved my money crisis due to several unexpected gains. However, we cannot expect such lucky things to happen every time, so I attach great importance to the development of Continental Commercial Bank."

"The Burgundy country is in turmoil, and there may be chaos one day, so I don't plan to expand the Burgundy branch of the Continental Trading Company for the time being. Now that I control the entry throat of southern goods from the East, even if I want the Continental Trading Company to do so in the future

It is also easier to expand in the north. Anyway, as long as the storm stops, the merchants in the north will still have to get supplies from the south from me, and then I will be able to enter the north in a logical way."

Salt nodded, but still had some doubts, "Sir, if it doesn't wind or rain in the North, will we miss the opportunity? This year is the best opportunity to seize the South goods market in the North."

"Sart, you have to dig deep into the nature of commerce. As long as we control the best sources of goods and the most convenient transportation routes, we will always hold the lifeblood of southern goods in our hands. Even merchants in the North can export goods from the east and west.

The line is trying its best to get southern goods, but the price will definitely be more expensive than what we have on this line, and the quantity will definitely not be as sufficient as ours. By then, as long as we are determined to let high-quality and low-price southern goods flow into the North, those merchants will

They won’t reject us.”

"Your Majesty is right, then our main task now is to further expand the sphere of influence of the Continental Commercial Bank in Provence."

"Well, Lawrence has left the northern caravan. I plan to temporarily merge the northern caravan into the southern caravan. In addition, I will ask the civil administration to allocate 200,000 pfennigs to the Continental Commercial Bank. You can use this money to carry out important tasks along the eastern Provence route.

The city fortress buys shops, sets up points for purchasing, storing and transporting goods, and if you have enough money, you can also buy some reliable small caravans to work for the European trading companies."

"Your first task this year is to take advantage of the opportunity of post-war reconstruction to give me a layout in the east of Provence. I want the European trading houses to control the southern goods trade route in the east of Provence."

Salt's eyelids twitched a little. This is what he dreams of, but establishing a commercial dominance in a foreign country is not easy. "Sir, the European Commercial Bank has only established a foothold in Provence. It still wants to control the entire eastern trade~"

"I know what you are worried about. For difficulties in the court of Provence and the lords of various places, you can ask Viscount Balian for help. He has a share of 11% in the Continental Trading Company. He has no reason to refuse the expansion of the Continental Trading Company. If he thinks that money is needed to open a way, you can ask him

I propose that I will not be stingy in these matters. In addition, you must win over the Provence merchants and guilds who have cooperated with the Dean family in the past. I authorize you to use 11% of the shares of the European trading houses to ally with those guild merchants.

They are businessmen and will not fight money."

Salt was reassured, and he was worried that Art would be reluctant to let others share the pie.

"Sir, what about the north?"

"In addition to the trade of goods at the border outposts in the north, for the time being, you only need to transport the southern goods to Lucerne and Besancon on time and in quantity and sell them in batches to various guilds. You are not forced to pocket all the terminal benefits of the southern goods.

middle."

"Terminal benefit?" Salter didn't quite understand the term.

"It's the money those businessmen make from selling southern goods from us and buying them for those who really enjoy the southern goods."

"Oh! This is a new word." Salt looked like he was being taught.

"By the way, I asked you to search for suitable business talents from various places, have you found them?" Art has already arranged for Salt the task of searching for business talents.

"Sir, I definitely take what you told me to heart. From last summer to now, we have successively selected and recruited nine people from various places who are proficient in business. Most of them are businessmen who have gone bankrupt due to war persecution. They are now in Europe.

If they are really good at doing some administrative work in the business, I will ask you to give them a heavy responsibility."

"This time I brought back a down-and-out businessman from Provence. His name is Manide. I met him in a tavern in Aosta."

Art interrupted Salt, "Since you have brought it back to the valley, it means that he can satisfy you. In this way, I will go to the workshop area for inspection in the afternoon, and you will take Manid with me."

"Sir, this is a set of full-body plate armor. Except for the iron embryos, which are purchased from the south by the caravan, the rest of the hammering and forging are all done by the craftsmen of the weapons workshop themselves." In the weapons workshop in the valley workshop area, workers

The workshop manager, the Swabian craftsman Dim, pointed to a set of full-body plate armor on the wooden frame and introduced it to Art.

This set of full-body plate armor includes eight main parts: helmet, gorget, arm guards, gauntlets, two pieces of leg armor, plate armor boots, breastplate and back armor, as well as the cowhide ropes connecting and fixing these parts and the soft leather inner padding.

or linen.

Art walked to the wooden frame and stretched out his hand to touch the breastplate of the plate armor a few times. The traces of heavy hammer forging and hand hammering were still obvious. The surface of the breastplate was also very rough, not as smooth and shiny as expected.

, the thickness of the plate armor also varies. Although the joints of the parts have been trimmed with a file, there are still many burrs and protrusions. It is conceivable that wearing this plate armor will definitely not allow flexible movement.

"How much does this set of plate armor weigh? How many craftsmen and how long does it take? How much money does a set of plate armor cost?" Art asked a series of questions.

This piece of plate armor was not forged by Dim, so he took a slight step forward and motioned to a brown-haired and dark-skinned craftsman with curly eyebrows to come forward and introduce it.

The man was obviously a little nervous. Dim waved his hand twice before he groped forward, "Sir, this set of full-body plate armor weighs fifty-seven pounds. It takes ten skilled craftsmen half a month from embryonic to assembly.

It will take time to complete. As for the money spent, I estimate that it will cost about 900 pfennigs to 1,200 pfennigs. The main reason is that it is not easy to forge the entire steel plate, and we spent a lot of iron blanks to make these pieces.

A more suitable steel plate~”

Art was stunned for a moment and was noncommittal, which made the weapon craftsman brought back from Black Iron Castle very nervous.

Seeing that Art didn't answer for a long time, Dim explained: "Sir, we really don't have rich experience in forging this kind of armor. We are more proficient in half-body plate armor now, but this kind of full-body plate armor is indeed very difficult. We

Steel plate forged by tempering with charcoal"

Art raised his hand to indicate that Dim didn't need to explain too much, "You have done a good job. Although the gap between a piece of plate armor and the plate armor sent by Viscount Balian is not small, at least you have been able to control yourself, which in itself

It is a progress. As for the existing problems, they still need to be improved step by step. I will let the civil administration reward the craftsmen and craftsmen who participated in the production of this set of plate armor."

Only then did the craftsmen smile.

Art repeatedly rubbed the plate armor deck. After a moment of silence, he turned to the commercial officer Salt who accompanied the inspection and asked: "Sart, is it possible for us to recruit plate armor craftsmen from the Principality of Lombardy in the southern continent?"

?”

Salter shook his head repeatedly, "Sir, if you want to buy plate armor, those workshops will definitely serve you like God, but if you want to poach a craftsman who is proficient in armor making, you will have to conquer the entire Principality of Lombardy.

."

Art knew that such craftsmen who could make plate armor were not only treasures in the pockets of lords everywhere, but also the Lombard court regarded them as more valuable than the treasury.

"If we can't hire a craftsman, we'll have to find another way."

"Glorang!" Glorang was the craftsman who stopped Art at the Black Iron Castle.

Groland stood up in response.

"Since we can't invite craftsmen from the Southern Continent, we will learn how to make them ourselves. Prepare yourself and select three craftsmen who you think are the smartest from the weapons workshop to go to the Principality of Lombardy to enter their plate armor workshop to learn how to make armor.

A, I will pay all the required fees. After you complete your studies, you can return to the valley and I will make you a weapon craftsman."

"Sart."

"grown ups?"

"You personally go to Viscount Balian for help. Haven't Provence and Lombardy restored friendly relations? Ask him to help Groland enter the plate armor workshop to learn skills."

"yes!"

"Sir, what about this set of plate armor~"

"After dismantling it, let Gloron take it to the Southern Continent."

"It's my lord."

Art patted the set of plate armor, and then led a group of people to inspect the iron helmets, half-body plate armor, pierced armor and other armors made in the weapons workshop, as well as weapons such as swords, spears, axes, bows and arrows.

There are many weapon craftsmen, and these people have no problem making ordinary weapons and armor.

Art ordered the civil affairs to give priority to the production of the weapons workshop and ensure that the weapon workshop has enough raw materials and equipment as well as charcoal and other consumables.

After coming out of the weapon workshop, Art inspected the brewery and textile workshop. These two were the first to get on track. In addition to producing wine and cloth for self-sale throughout the territory every month, the workshop had begun to provide caravans with

Earn money by selling goods abroad.

The most fortunate thing is that the "straw paper" secretly developed by the textile workshop has basically succeeded. Although the color and smoothness of the paper are not enough, there is no problem with basic writing.

"Tappaper" is a treasure that Art left in his hands. His current strength is not enough to protect this treasure from greedy people, so he issued a silence order to prevent anyone from mentioning it, and then

He once again allocated money to improve the quality of paper

After coming out of the workshop area, Art led a group of people to the newly cultivated land cultivated by war slaves. He personally picked up wheat seeds and sowed the first seeds for the new land. Then he prayed with great piety in front of the large farmland.

Pray to God for a good harvest

After doing this, he set foot on the road back to the wooden castle. Along the way, he also visited several villages in the territory, encouraging the people in the territory to work hard and create a better life~

The rise of the Middle Ages
Chapter completed!