Far from being as practical as the Old World, the New World's sea power and financial theories were far from being able to empty the white wolf, and the Yaling Empire, which dominated the Seven Seas, sporadically occupied a number of important islands as nodes in its international trade network, while ensuring trade links between its own ports and the colonies scattered across the Seven Seas, and ensuring that the main shipping routes were unimpeded.

With the thick-skinned ironclad ships becoming the new generation of capital ships of the Luo Zhengdao privateer fleet, there are a lot of wooden sail warships that have been eliminated, although the battleship-level large ships are not suitable for refitting merchant ships, but the internal structure of cruisers and frigates is not much different from ordinary merchant ships, and some guns can be changed into cargo ships to run transportation, and by the way, they can rely on the commercial fleet to train skilled sailors as the reserve of the regular army.

Zola Hegel was not opposed to the development of the tertiary industry, but he was skeptical of the project's profitable prospects. Obviously, there was a great deal of uncertainty in this, and the boatswain turned his head to look at Luo Zhengdao, who was on the rise, and said:

"Your Highness, what do you think we should sell?"

This question really stumped Luo Zhengdao, he touched his chin and pondered for a while, and said:

"Uh, this...... How about starting with wood? ”

"Wood is everywhere, who's going to buy from us?"

After spending a little time organizing his thoughts and figuring out what the profit growth point of timber trafficking was, Luo Zhengdao, who felt that his confidence had increased suddenly, immediately raised his voice and said:

"You idiots, do you only know how to go out and cut people to get money? We have abundant manpower, and the cost of cutting down trees, I don't say you know it. As long as these logs are transported back and dried in the desert where there is no sunlight, the cracked inferior products are eliminated and burned into charcoal, or made into furniture for us to keep, and the uncracked wood is sold to the markets of the metropolis. If you control the cost well, customers will soon find that they hire someone to cut down the tree and wait for it to dry slowly, it is better to buy our wood directly It is cost-effective, understand? ”

Compared with the New World in the Middle Ages, the commodity economy of the Old World in the post-industrial era can be said to be extremely developed, even to the point that anything can be used to buy and sell short. This is not only the case with commodities such as food, crude oil, and ore, but also with carbon emissions indicators and financial bonds, which are the root causes of the financial tsunami and the Great Recession that swept the world. Just the huge profits generated by financial derivatives trading every year on the earth, adding up to buy a number of developed countries is no problem, even if Luo Zhengdao has never eaten pork, he will not have never seen a pig walking, casually throwing out his hands, these subordinates who are used to fishing for deviations are dumbfounded, not that they don't have enough brains, but these methods are unheard of.

"Alright! You're the head, and you're up to the mark. ”

Luo Zhengdao's method seems to make some sense, the pirates have given up the idea of working with him, there is no point in fighting the bull, pirates are a practical business, and no one will get along with money.

In fact, the natural resources of the New World are indeed much richer than those of the Old World, needless to say that the main continent with a forest coverage rate of nearly 50%, among the thousands of islands in the sea of stars, there are an unknown number of uninhabited islands covered with large primeval forests, as long as you send people to cut them down, wood is readily available. However, it would be a mistake to think that the cost of obtaining timber would be low.

It certainly doesn't cost anything to cut wood on a desert island, and it doesn't matter how much you want to cut in an ownerless forest, but hiring loggers, paying for the cost of transportation and transporting timber, as well as the wear and tear of cutting tools, bad weather, and pirate looting, and other risk factors, New World wood is not a bargain to lean over and pick up in your pocket. Especially for those giant logs that have already been matured, whether it is a large number of beams and columns used in the construction of Chinese-style palaces, or the construction of large ships to lay keels, the selection of timber standards are quite strict.

Except for the Second Goblin Empire, which made its fortune too quickly and had a shallow foundation, it had to be used because of its humble simplicity and whatever wood it caught, the other naval powers had a complete supply chain of ship materials that operated independently to ensure that their own navy received good logistics supplies.

For example, the major shipyards of the Yaling Empire will organize people to cut down a batch of high-quality logs every autumn and winter, store them in warehouses and let them dry naturally, and keep them for future construction of warships, which is also an effective strategic resource reserve mechanism.

At the end of the meeting, there was a soft knock on the door, and an attendant came in and reported:

"Your Highness, a three-masted battleship and two brigs have requested to dock in the harbor, and they claim to be smugglers."

Hearing this, Luo Zhengdao got up and announced the adjournment of the meeting, and ordered:

"Allow them to enter the port area and bring the leader to me."

"Yes, Your Highness."

With the popularity of the public carriage service at Wake Reef, the travel time from the port area to the settlement was reduced to less than forty minutes, and soon Luo Zhengdao met this group of visitors, and by looking at their wheat complexion, he knew that the days of these guys eating this bowl of rice at sea would not be short, and the wind and rain would have this kind of sailor's professional complexion.

"You're smugglers?"

With a white cotton bandana like a futon on his head and a goatee on his chin, the smuggler's leader's lean appearance resembled that of the Middle Easterners of the Old World, and he smiled and bowed:

"Hehehehe, yes, His Royal Highness the Regent, what is more popular, let's buy some selling points and make a little money."

Hearing this, Luo Zhengdao laughed and said:

"A small merchant running a business with a sixth-tier battleship? The Xiangjiang Business Group Union doesn't have as much pomp as you, right? ”

"Alas, who said that the sea of stars has been restless in recent years! The goblins and pirate alliances are going crazy, and we small businessmen have to find a way to save ourselves! ”

Hearing this, Luo Zhengdao couldn't help but be a little embarrassed, he touched his nose, if he had fought with the goblins so many times, if he was willing to admit the second in the entire new world, then no one would dare to come out and admit the first. Fortunately, after so many years of training, Luo Zhengdao's face has also been sharpened a lot, and he immediately laughed twice and said:

"Well, stop chattering. Did you come to Wake Reef to buy or sell goods? ”

The leader of the smugglers laughed and replied:

"It's up to you to do business with me."

Hearing this, Luo Zhengdao's expression was surprised. He was stunned for a moment, then showed a playful smile, and asked rhetorically:

"Hahahaha, say it! What do you want to buy? ”

"Demonic cloth, a 24-pounder long-barreled cannon and a 60-pounder short-barreled heavy cannon, and if I can, I hope to buy explosive bombs and new fire oil incendiary bombs equipped with His Highness's fleet."

The current limit of industrial capacity is to produce 28-pound long-barreled cannons and 80-pound short-barreled guns, and artillery with higher technical requirements can be built even if it has to be built, but the cost and quality are difficult to control. The number quoted by the other party is precisely stuck below this standard line, which shows that the other party is prepared. At this time, Luo Zhengdao, who was aroused his vigilance, looked at the smugglers opposite and said:

“…… So what goods are you going to sell? ”

"Twenty-five thousand pounds of fine stone pine powder, forty-two thousand pounds of cast iron, eight thousand five hundred pounds of wrought iron, ten thousand pounds of bronze, seven thousand pounds of brass, and some miscellaneous goods, like beeswax, paint, fuel, and so on."

Hearing this, Luo Zhengdao seemed to have some taste from it, this so-called smuggler, I am afraid that his back. Jing is not simple, it seems that in addition to the Yaling Empire and the Elven Federation, there are some other forces in the New World who are dissatisfied with the Second Goblin Empire. As for whether it was a certain temple or an organization planning and implementation, Luo Zhengdao would not bother to guess, anyway, the result was the same, he only had to consider one thing, whether to accept the other party's "kindness".

After thinking about it carefully, Luo Zhengdao felt that there was no need to give up food due to choking, nodded and said:

"How do you calculate the price?"

"Settle according to the current market price, deduct the actual trade quota between the two sides, and make up the difference with gold coins, is this okay?"

A very fair plan, impeccable in business, Luo Zhengdao had no intention of tracking down who was behind the other party, smiled and waved his hand and said:

"Very good, you can notify the dock to unload the cargo, and I will send someone to inspect the cargo. The price and quantity have been calculated, and the part of the difference is paid with Plantagenet gold coins, is there a problem? ”

Seeing Luo Zhengdao's pretended not to know about the cold treatment, the leader of the smugglers once again bowed and said:

"We want to maintain a long-term relationship with Wake Reef, and we are willing to provide stone pine powder and metal materials in exchange for magic cloth and munitions."

Luo Zhengdao's long-term goal is to build an army, not just a fleet, his demand for strategic materials is very amazing, the other party dares to express long-term cooperation in such a big package, Luo Zhengdao finally couldn't help but say:

"Who's behind you?"

"Hehehehe, I heard you once say that a good merchant wouldn't mind selling a rope to an executioner who was about to hang him, as long as he had enough profit, did he?"

Luo Zhengdao has always had no guilt about plagiarizing the classic sayings of the old world, anyway, these are all summarized based on real life, he doesn't say that sooner or later someone will say, what is there to be ashamed of plagiarizing? When the other party mentioned this, Luo Zhengdao nodded confidently and said:

"That's right, I said that, you're very well-informed!"

The thin middle-aged man smiled brightly and said:

"Intelligence means an opportunity to make money, and we keep an eye out for all kinds of information, don't you say? His Royal Highness the Regent. ”

The arms trade is incredibly lucrative, and if the cost of manufacturing a weapon is converted to a silver coin, then when it is sold, it ends up being sold for a gold coin, and it is called a black merchant on other goods, but it is not at all surprising that it can only be considered normal in the arms trade. An average 24-pound cannon, weighing less than 2,000 pounds after the gun carriage is removed, sells for more than a 5,000-pound metal ingot of the same material. If it were not for the fact that the new world's metal production was very unoptimistic and that it had been in a state of supply shortage for a long time, the price gap between the raw materials of metal, which is a primary product, and the finished weapons, would have widened to an even greater extent.