At the beginning of May, Salt, the merchant officer and the head of the European Merchant House, settled the chores of the southern caravan and hurried back to the valley with a few escorts.

“...... My lord, this is the case with the southern caravans. As soon as the war subsided, the Provence branch of the European Comptoir opened the southern goods store in the east of Provence, and we rented two large warehouses in Kitsby and Aosta City as cargo gathering and operation warehouses. ”

"Now that the European Comptoir has full trading privileges in the east of Provence, and with the support of the Viscount of Berrion, we have basically controlled this southern goods trade route from Vilno via Aosta to Kitsby and then north to Burgundy, according to your orders, the southern goods of the European Merchant House are not only supplying the north, but also extending to the west, I have contacted several French merchants who have had trade with them before, and our southern goods will be transported to the Kingdom of France through their route, but this line is not the best route, So the margins are much thinner. ”

"Before returning north to the valley this time, I also received news that the court of Provence is negotiating with the Duchy of Lombardy, and as soon as the Duchy of Lombardy completely opens the passage from the port of the southern sea to Vilno, those valuable southern goods will be continuously transported to our border posts through this route controlled by the European merchant houses. As long as the southern goods arrive at the border outpost, the rest of the things will be much easier. ”

"But~" Salt hesitated.

"But what? If you have a problem, speak up. Art stood up leaning back on the recliner.

"However, Viscount Berrion asked for one-tenth of the annual income of the Provence branch of the European Merchant-Deutsch as a dividend, and his reason can also stand firm, after all, there are many noble lords who need to pass on the long road from Vilno to Kitsby, and every level needs to be completed by Viscount Berion, and one-tenth of the bonus is not something that Viscount Berrion can swallow alone."

Yate thought for a moment, and was able to open up the southern cargo transportation channel of Provence, which basically controlled the supply of goods from the north and south, and the key link for Yate's continental trading house to gain a firm foothold in Provence was that the Viscount Berrion, as a new noble of the court, was willing to help Yate develop and protect this trade route, and for the sake of long-term interests, Yate was willing to endure the pain of cutting a knife.

"You tell Viscount Berrion that I agree to give him one-tenth of the annual profit of the Provence branch of the Continental Comptoir, and if he can obtain more abundant and cheap southern goods from the southern port cities of Lombardy by special means, we will also increase the price of the Continental Comptoir."

Art can still settle this account, even according to the current size of the two caravans of fifty carriages of the European Comptoir, if it can really fully control the trade route in the east of Provence, ideally, the European Comptoir can earn more than 500,000 pfennigh every year from the south of Provence to the north, and after the southern goods entering Burgundy through Kitsby City are sold in the north of the mainland, this trade difference can reach an astonishing 1.7 million pfennigs. This huge amount of commercial profit was enough for him to maintain about 1,500 legionnaires.

Of course, this is an ideal profit, if it catches up with the blocking of the southern cargo collection and transportation line or the unsalable goods store in the north, then the profits of the European merchant house in a year can barely maintain the current army size of Yate.

Art got up, walked to Salter's side, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "Salter, you are one of the few powerful henchmen around me who can control the overall situation. Nowadays, my layout is getting bigger and bigger, and I need more and more money, and this year I have barely solved my money crisis due to a few unexpected gains, but we can't expect such lucky things to happen every time, so I value the development of European business houses. ”

"Burgundy is turbulent, maybe one day there will be a big chaos, so I don't plan to expand the Burgundy branch of the European Merchant Bank for the time being, now I control the entry throat of the southern goods in the east, even if I want to let the European merchant house expand in the north in the future, it is relatively easy, anyway, as long as the wind and rain stop the merchants in the north still have to get the southern goods from my hands, I can also enter the northern land logically at that time."

Salter nodded, but still had some doubts, "My lord, if it doesn't rain in the Northlands, will we miss the opportunity?" This year is the best opportunity to seize the Northland South Goods Market. ”

"Sarthe, you have to dig deep into the nature of commerce, as long as we control the best quality sources and the most convenient transportation routes, we will always hold the lifeblood of southern goods in our hands. Even the merchants of the Northland can try their best to get the southern goods from the east and west routes, but the price is definitely more expensive than ours, and the quantity will definitely not be more abundant than ours. When the time comes, as long as we are determined to let the high-quality and cheap goods from the south pour into the north, those merchants will not refuse us. ”

"Your Excellency is right, then our main task now is to further expand the sphere of influence of the European Merchant House in Provence."

"Well, Lawrence has left the Northern Caravan, and I intend to merge the Northern Caravan into the Southern Caravan for the time being. In addition, I will ask the civil administration to allocate 200,000 fennigs to the European Comptoirs, and you will use this money to buy shops, set up storage and transportation points for goods in the important cities along the eastern Provence, and if you have enough money, you can also buy some reliable small caravans to work for the Continental Comptoirs. ”

"Your first task this year is to take advantage of the opportunity of post-war reconstruction to lay out the eastern border of Provence, and I will let the European merchant house control the southern goods trade route in the eastern part of Provence."

Salter's eyelids twitched slightly, this was what he dreamed of, but it was not easy to establish a trade supremacy in a foreign country, "My lord, the European Comptoir is only gaining a foothold in Provence at the moment, and it still wants to control the entire eastern trade ~"

"I know what you're worried about. You can ask the Viscount of Berrion for help in the difficulties of the court of Provence and the lords of the various places, he has an eleventh share of the Continental Comptoirs, and he has no reason to refuse the expansion of the Continental Comptoirs, and if he thinks that he needs money to open the way, you can raise it with me, and I will not be stingy in these matters. In addition, the Provençal merchants and guilds who used to cooperate with the Dean family to cooperate with the alliance have you to win them over, and I authorize you to use the share of the European merchant house eleven to ally those guild merchants, they are merchants and will not fight against money. ”

Salter was relieved, and he was also worried that Art would be reluctant to let people share the soup.

"My lord, what about the north?"

"In addition to the trade of goods at the border posts in the north, for the time being, you only need to transport the southern goods to Lucesin and Besançon on time and in bulk and sell them to the local guilds, and do not force all the terminal benefits of the southern goods to be in your pocket."

"Terminal interest?" Salter didn't quite understand the word.

"It's the money that those merchants make from us selling southern goods to those who really enjoy them."

"Oh! It's a new word. Salter looked teachable.

"By the way, have you found the right business talent to look for in various places?" Art had already given Salter the task of recruiting business and trade talents.

"My lord, I must have taken the matter you explained to heart, since last summer to now, we have successively selected and recruited nine people who are proficient in business from all over the world, most of them are businessmen who were persecuted by the war and went bankrupt, and now they are all doing some things as clerks and stewards in the European trading houses, if it is really good, I will ask you to give them important responsibilities."

"This time I will bring back a down-and-out merchant from Provence, his name is Manid, whom I met in a tavern in the city of Aosta, this man ......"

Art interrupted Salter, "Since you've brought them all back to the valley, it means he can satisfy you." So, in the afternoon I'm going to make a tour of the workshop area, and you're going with Manid. ”

............

"My lord, this is this set of full-body plate armor, except for the iron embryo, which was purchased by the caravan from the south, and the rest of the tempering and forging are all done by the craftsmen of the weapon workshop." In the weapons workshop in the Workshop of the Vale, the workshop steward, Swabian Craftsman Diem, pointed to a set of full-body plate armor on a wooden frame to introduce Art.

This set of full-body plate armor consists of eight main parts: helmet, throat guard, arm guard, handguard, two-legged armor, plate boots, cuirass and back armor, as well as soft leather or linen connecting the cowhide rope and inner pad that hold these parts in place.

Art walked to the wooden frame and reached out to touch the breastplate of the plate armor a few times, the traces of heavy hammer forging and hand hammer knocking are still obvious, the breastplate surface is also very rough, not as smooth and shiny as imagined, the thickness of the plate armor is also different, although the parts are connected with a file, but there are still a lot of burrs and protrusions, you can imagine that wearing this plate armor must not be able to move flexibly.

"How much does this plate armor weigh? How many craftsmen do it take, and how long does it take? How much money does a set of plate armor cost? Art threw out a barrage of questions.

This plate armor was not forged by Diem, so he moved half a step and motioned for a craftsman with scorched eyebrows and brown hair and dark skin to step forward and introduce it.

The man was obviously a little nervous, and Dim waved his hand twice before he groped his way forward, "My lord~ This set of full-body plate armor weighs fifty-seven pounds, and it takes about ten skilled craftsmen half a month to complete it from embryo making to assembly, and as for the money spent, I estimate that it will cost about nine hundred pfennig to one thousand two hundred pfennies." The main reason is that the forging of the whole steel plate is not easy, and we spent a lot of iron embryos to make these more suitable steel plates~"

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

Seeing that Art didn't answer for a long time, Dim explained: "My lord, we really don't have rich experience in forging this kind of armor, and the half-body plate armor is more proficient now, but the difficulty of this full-body plate armor is really high, and we use charcoal to quench and forge the steel plate......"

Art raised his hand and motioned to Dim without too much explanation, "You have all done a good job, although the gap between a piece of plate armor and those sent by Viscount Berion is not small, but at least you have been able to control yourself, which is an improvement in itself, as for the existing problems, it needs to be improved step by step." I will ask the civil administration to reward the craftsmen and craftsmen who participated in the production of this plate armor. ”

That's when the craftsmen smiled.

Art rubbed again and again on the deck, and after a moment of silence, he turned his head to the merchant officer Salter who accompanied the tour and asked, "Salter, is it possible for us to recruit platesmiths from the Duchy of Lombard in the Southern Continent?"

Salter shook his head repeatedly, "Your Excellency, if you want to buy plate armor, those workshops will definitely serve you like a god, but if you want to poach a master of armor, unless you can conquer the entire Duchy of Lombardy." ”

Art knew that this kind of craftsman who could make plate armor was not only a treasure in the pockets of the lords everywhere, but even the Lombard court regarded them as more valuable than a vault.

"If you don't invite the craftsman, we can only change the way."

"Glorent!" Glorent was the craftsman who stopped Art at the Black Iron Keep.

Glorent stepped forward.

"Since we can't invite craftsmen from Nanlu, then we will learn by ourselves. Prepare yourself to select three of the most astute craftsmen from the weapons workshop to go to the Duchy of Lombardy to learn armor-making in their plate armor workshop, all at my expense. When you're done, return to the valley, and I'll make you a weaponsmith. ”

"Salter."

"Your Excellency?"

"You personally go to the Viscount of Berrion for help, haven't Provence and Lombardy restored friendly relations, and ask him to help let Glorent go to the plate armor workshop to learn the arts."

"Yes!"

"My lord, that set of plate armor~"

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

"Yes, my lord."

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

Art instructed the civil administration to give priority to the production of weapons workshops, ensuring that weapons workshops had enough raw materials and equipment, as well as consumables such as charcoal.

After leaving the weapons workshop, Art visited the brewery and the weaving workshop, which were the first to get on the right track, and the workshop began to provide the caravan with export goods to earn money every month, in addition to producing wine and cloth for its own sale throughout the territory.

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, but the basic writing is no longer a problem.

The "straw paper" was a treasure that Art had left in his hands, and with his current strength it was not enough to protect it from the eyes of greedy people, so he issued a gag order to prevent anyone from mentioning it, and then he allocated money again to improve the texture of the paper......

After coming out of the workshop area, Art and his group went to the newly cultivated land ploughed by war slaves, personally picked up wheat seeds and planted the first nest of seeds for the new land, and then prayed with great devotion to God for a good harvest in front of the large field of land......

After doing this, he embarked on the road back to Mubao, and visited several territorial villages along the way, encouraging the leaders to work hard and create a better life~