diymy #709 - The ship is coming!
#709 - The ship is coming!
"It's soon, it's really soon. Baroness Catherine's negotiations with several city alliances are coming to an end. Please be patient and wait for the last few days."
To appease this biggest backer and financier in Windmill Land, Armand could only carefully stand up and offer Rufiel a cup of black tea.
Staring at Armand for a long time, until he felt a little flustered, Rufiel sat down while glaring at him, picked up the black tea on the table, and drank it all in one gulp like a Noorn pirate.
"Soon, soon, you always say soon. Do you know that I am using the credit accumulated by 'Yilin(艺林: Yilin, a newspaper name)' with great difficulty to vouch for you?"
"You've read the Truth Daily, and you've personally inspected the sugar workshops. Don't you still believe it?" Armand put away the confidential documents on the table. Official matters are official, and private matters are private. These things can't be shown to Rufiel carelessly.
Rufiel picked up the teapot and poured herself another cup, still drinking it all in one gulp: "If it weren't for Catherine's sake, if it weren't for the benefits to me... Hmph!"
Don't think that Catherine is always frustrated in Thousand River Valley, as if she has no presence.
But among the Eyre people in Windmill Land, especially in several city alliances, Catherine is a very famous figure.
She is the inventor of the stock exchange, and she is also a banker by training, with extremely high professional qualities, which is specifically reflected in her always correct judgment of the imperial financial market.
Although it seems now that this may be because she hired a large number of astrologers to help her calculate, even so, if she went bankrupt and became a consultant, many oligarch families would be willing to pay a lot of money to hire her.
This time, Catherine's financial offensive in Windmill Land is naturally targeted, mainly to help the local Eyre people drive out the Laya people's forces, otherwise, if a knife is not aimed correctly and hits Windmill Land, it would be a joke if the Laya people took advantage.
Fortunately, these Laya commercial nobles and oligarchs are honest enough; Catherine digs pits, and they really jump in.
With the help of the Eyre people in Windmill Land, Catherine has already manipulated the overall public opinion in Windmill Land to shift towards the price of white sugar remaining unchanged.
Previously, 'Yilin(艺林: Yilin, a newspaper name)' itself said that the price of spices would not change. It's the same place, so how come only the price of spices doesn't change while the price of white sugar does? They must have taken money from speculators.
There is also a reason why Rufiel has always been at odds with the oligarchs.
On the one hand, it is to avoid harming the innocent. With 'Yilin(艺林: Yilin, a newspaper name)' and tabloids competing, ordinary citizens feel the water is deep and dare not get involved, but if they are not greedy enough, then don't blame Catherine for being ruthless with her leek knife.
On the other hand, Catherine is preparing to cast a golden statue for her good sister, to establish 'Yilin(艺林: Yilin, a newspaper name)' as the number one newspaper in Windmill Land for future use.
Previously, Rufiel was quite calm, but today, for some reason, she suddenly rushed to the door in a fit of anger.
"What's wrong with you today?" Looking back at the calendar on the wall, Armand tentatively asked, "Is it... that time of the month?"
"Tsk!" Rufiel punched Armand's shoulder like lightning. "Talking about this with a lady? Do you have any manners?"
Covering his shoulder, Armand walked to Rufiel's front: "What's wrong? Maybe if you tell me, I can help you?"
"My 'Yilin(艺林: Yilin, a newspaper name)' may have to suspend publication for a few issues..."
"Why?"
Rufiel's voice squeezed out of her nose bit by bit: "Previously, I listened to your nonsense and always promoted the price reduction of white sugar, so my readers started shorting white sugar.
But those Windmill Land oligarchs and nobles deliberately hoarded it, causing many citizens to suffer serious losses, and they had to sell the borrowed white sugar at a loss, and some even went bankrupt.
Those few oligarch families, especially those lackeys of the Laya royal family, deliberately instigated several citizens who went bankrupt by shorting white sugar to burn down my printing house last night, and then ran to the guards to surrender. Now I'm in a lose-lose situation."
"How do you know they instigated it?" Armand frowned, flipped through a 'Windmill Land Merchant's Essential Handbook' (actually a directory of nobles and oligarchs) from the bookshelf, and picked up a pen.
Rufiel stared at him with unkind eyes: "Because this morning, several of my editors and contributors didn't come.
When I asked, I found out that they had all gone to the newly built 'Mast Newspaper' newspaper office. When I inquired about the owner of that newspaper office, it turned out to be those damned oligarchs who hoarded white sugar.
The two of us can't write Yilin(艺林: Yilin, a newspaper name). Thanks to you, I also have to compensate the shipowners for advertising fees and breach of contract fees."
After being stunned for a moment, Armand pondered for a moment, then handed the 'Windmill Land Merchant's Essential Handbook' and the quill pen to Rufiel: "Circle out who is targeting you, and I will send it to Baroness Catherine."
Looking at Rufiel's blank expression, the young Richelieu bishop showed a smile again: "Don't worry, you are one of us, we won't let you be wronged."
…………
"Is the 'Yilin(艺林: Yilin, a newspaper name)' newspaper office closed?" Van Mier asked his brother Wolfhart.
Wolfhart smiled slyly: "Don't worry, everything is done properly. This morning, she signed a letter of forgiveness at the court and released those arsonists. The 'Yilin(艺林: Yilin, a newspaper name)' newspaper office has been closed for a week and can't be revived."
"Little girl, you still want to fight our Bastian family. We've lived here for nine generations. She's from Nauan River, begging in our Dam City."
Wearing a silk robe patched on the inside, Van Mier happily took a sip of the inferior red wine in the gilded wine pot.
The Bastian family was originally knights on the outskirts of Dam City, but since the Flesh Kingdom's cheap grain entered, their manor quickly went bankrupt.
Van Mier's grandfather was lucky enough to make a fortune by speculating in silk and spices, but Van Mier's father lost everything in the previous gilded flower speculation disaster.
By the time of the Van Mier brothers, although they still had the title of nobility, they had nothing but a few silk clothes, an ancestral house, and a small apothecary shop.
These things would naturally be enough for another family to live a lifetime without worry, but for the Van Mier brothers, the manor had already gone bankrupt, leaving only the title. If even the title was lost, what kind of nobles would they be?
But for the sake of livelihood, Van Mier had to become the black glove of the commercial giants he despised the most, specializing in collecting debts from those noble debtors, and he had saved a lot of money in recent years.
This time, Van Mier decided to go all in and put all his savings into long white sugar.
This was guaranteed to him by the commercial tycoons above, that the price of white sugar would never fall.
Van Mier was extremely confident in this, as these commercial tycoons controlled the supply channels of the sugar workshops. The sugar raw material market had not changed, so there couldn't be so much extra white sugar.
So he couldn't understand the motive of this little girl Rufiel - why promote the increase in white sugar production? What was she thinking?
"Brother, what do we do next?"
"If we get rid of her newspaper, the Stormwind family will give us the futures contract. You take care of the newspaper. As long as there are no mistakes, our Bastian family can get back to the table." Van Mier rubbed his reddened hands.
"Okay." Wolfhart rode away on his small pony. Van Mier continued to wait by the canal dock.
At this time, the dock was surrounded by almost a thousand people, all craning their necks like waiting-for-husband stones, looking towards the end of the canal.
These people were all speculators in this white sugar war, some long and some short.
Van Mier found a flower bed to sit down on, but his eyes never left the water surface.
He had to keep a close eye on it. This was the last day of navigation on the Nauan River. If it didn't come today, it would be too late to transport it during the winter dry season.
This wait lasted from noon to evening. Whenever a ship appeared, the crowd sitting on the ground would swarm up.
After discovering that it was not a sugar transport ship, they would scatter like birds and beasts.
The sun gradually set in the west, and there were fewer and fewer ships on the river, and there were no large ships.
Under the warm winter sun, Van Mier, seeing this scene, hummed a ditty, looking at the increasingly desperate short speculators on the inland river dock, with a smug smile on his face.
He even took out cheese from his arms: "Eating sauerkraut with cheese, the emperor is not as good as me."
The red light of the setting sun shone on the sparkling river surface, reflecting like blood in everyone's pupils.
Most speculators and citizens could no longer stand firm, and some pessimists even began to curse Rufiel as a "sun on the beach(沙滩上的太阳: short-lived)". Even the most optimistic optimist could not see any trace of a smile.
The red sun fell towards the water surface bit by bit, and people's hearts fell bit by bit in the same way.
When the red sun touched the water, the crowd rippled like water waves and began to gradually disperse.
Just as the waiting crowd was about to disperse, the sound of horse hooves rang out, accompanied by a broken shout: "The ship is coming, the sugar transport ship is coming!"
"Nonsense!" Hearing the shout, Van Mier, who was lying down eating cheese, jumped up on the spot, jumped onto the flower bed platform, and shouted in the direction of the sound, "I've been waiting on the canal all day, and I haven't seen a ship come!"
But when he saw who was shouting, he was stunned: "Wolfhart? You're not watching the newspaper office. What are you doing here talking nonsense?"
"I'm not talking nonsense, brother." Wolfhart was so anxious that saliva flowed down when he spoke, "The sugar transport ship came by sea. They didn't come from the Nauan River."
"What?!"
Mounting his small pony, Van Mier and his brother rushed breathlessly from the inland river canal to the seaport dock on the other side.
At this time, the dock was crowded with onlookers like a holiday celebration. They were crying and laughing, and some were even hugging the trees on the street and banging their heads like crazy.
Seeing this scene, Van Mier's heart sank infinitely.
Staggering to the side of the dock, pushing through the crowd, the moment Van Mier saw the sea, he felt as if his throat was tied with an invisible chain, making it impossible for him to breathe.
Eight merchant ships from France were docked at the dock. A quick glance, Van Mier instantly calculated from the draft of the ships that these ships were probably loaded with between 40,000 and 50,000 dan(担: dan, a unit of dry measure) of cargo.
Boxes of silver moonlight-like fine sand and damp sugar cubes were being transported out of the ship's hold, and the dock's tax official's quill pen was running like flying, and his fingers were cramping.
"Silas." Seeing a familiar dock clerk, Van Mier rushed up like he had found a life-saving straw, "Here, how much white sugar is here? Is this white sugar?"
"Are you blind?" The clerk glared at him, "48,000 dan(担: dan, a unit of dry measure) of white sugar are being loaded and unloaded on the ship. Tsk, don't block the way."
Pushing Van Mier aside like a stray dog on the side of the road, the clerk trotted forward, while Van Mier stood there like a statue.
Wolfhart cautiously stepped forward and rubbed Van Mier's shoulder: "Brother..."
As soon as he finished speaking, Van Mier rushed out. He bent over and slipped under the arm of a guard, kneeling in front of a wooden box, shouting madly: "Impossible, impossible, Black Snake Bay doesn't even produce 40,000 dan(担: dan, a unit of dry measure) in a year, impossible!"
Kicking over the wooden box, he used his hands and mouth to pry open the nailed box lid, and then plunged his hands into the sand-like white sugar.
Unfortunately, his hands did not touch the stones he imagined, and in the cold eyes of the guards and other shipowners, he grabbed the white sugar out handful by handful.
However, the entire box of white sugar was all genuine, full-weight white sugar, and its quality was visibly better than the white sugar from the Red Leaf Hill Sugar Workshop.
"Citizen, let me remind you, this box of white sugar is about 10 dan(担: dan, a unit of dry measure) (1120 pounds)." A shipowner with a heavy French accent slowly walked up to him, "You have to pay, um, let me calculate, 150 gold pounds."
Van Mier, who was originally kneeling on the ground, trembled all over. He slowly raised his head, his eyes filled with bloodshot eyes, and his voice trembled with a hint of sobbing: "How much? How much did you say!"
Van Mier suddenly pounced on the shipowner and grabbed his collar: "Why is there only so little, why is there only... um..."
Covering his stomach, the shipowner slowly knelt down, disdainfully wiping his fist with a handkerchief: "Are you possessed by a demon? You're not happy that you're paying less?"
Van Mier couldn't hear the shipowner's words. As a speculator for many years, he instantly calculated that the unit price of this white sugar was about 16 dinars per pound.
16 dinars! 16 dinars! The current unit price of white sugar in Dam City is 30 dinars per pound!
He had previously borrowed 50 dan(担: dan, a unit of dry measure) of futures white sugar, and the buyer sold it for 1400 gold pounds. Today, the buyer only needs to repurchase 746 gold pounds of white sugar to return it to him.
"Cough cough cough cough cough——" Van Mier coughed violently.
His brother quickly stepped forward and supported his brother's arm, but when Van Mier raised his head, the bitterness and shock on his face turned into a smile.
"Brother, you..."
"Hee——" Van Mier clapped his hands, "I'm rich! I'm rich! I made 653 gold pounds, I'm rich, hahaha!"