Prince Carroll and Lady Theodora acknowledged that this plan was fair, but they did not intend to accept it, because the situation in Parnia was very different from that of the Far East, and the railway construction plan that was applicable in the Far East would be "unsuitable" if it was transplanted to Parnia.

Why?

In fact, it is very simple, the resource endowment of the two countries is different, resulting in a huge difference in railway construction costs.

A lot of steel and timber were needed to build the railway. The Far East is rich in mineral resources, except for magic crystals, there is no shortage of others, and it also has two major steel industry bases in Kitland and Icewind Valley, the Kitlanders and Far Eastern Dwarves not only have racial talent in forging, but also have the foresight to introduce magic steam power in the mining and smelting industry, which can process high-precision and high-quality gun barrels and rails, and can be called advanced in the entire Varess world.

After the founding of the Far East, a very important reason why Roland had the confidence to formulate a grand railway construction plan was that the Kitlanders and Far Eastern dwarves were able to provide sufficient steel rails for the railway project. As for timber, more than 60% of the land in the Far East is covered by primeval forests, coniferous forests are especially common in the north, and of course there will be no shortage of pine trees for processing sleepers.

In contrast, although the southern Parnia Peninsula is more affluent, there are few tall trees in the coastal areas, and there are no willing to cut down large trees to process sleepers. The more serious problem is the lack of high-grade, easy-to-mine iron ore on the Parnia Peninsula, the relatively backward metallurgical industry, and the inability to produce qualified and sufficient railroad tracks locally, so the entire peninsula is not well developed by rail, and roads and horse-drawn carriages are still the leading role.

Just a month ago, Parnia imported 2,000 new horse-drawn carriages from the Far East with familiar star tires and spring suspension systems, which were very popular with wealthy local families, and for a time swept the peninsula, and the retail price tripled the import price, and this is still in short supply! Families snapped up the new horse-drawn carriages and praised the Far Easterners for making road trips less of a chore. Through this incident, the Vlads were deeply aware that the young kingdom of Kolas was rising rapidly in a way beyond the world's imagination, and that it had grown by leaps and bounds in industry, agriculture and transportation construction in less than two years after its founding, and that Parnia had been left far behind in many fields, such as the construction of railways.

In the face of the great achievements of the Far Easterners, the lords and their wives of Parnia saw the need to deepen their cooperation with this ally, and Roland's visit provided an opportunity for this.

"The Rowland, Parnia peninsula lacks iron ore and timber, and if we were to undertake the construction of the southern section of the railway, the cost of building the road would be very high." "The price and wage level in Parnia is also higher than that in the Far East, and in terms of the road construction industry, compared with their counterparts in the Far East, the road construction workers in Parnia are at least twice as waged, and there is no employment below this standard, which is also a factor that cannot be ignored to push up the cost of road construction." ”

After listening to Prince Carroll's speech, Roland had some speculations in his heart, but he did not take the initiative to break it, and said calmly: "Although I only arrived in Parnia yesterday, I have deeply felt the wealth of this city-state, the living standards of the local people are generally higher than those of the Far Easterners, and it is reasonable that the prices and labor are more expensive. ”

Prince Carroll admired Roland's attitude of neither humility nor arrogance, nor impatience, and exchanged glances with his wife with a smile.

Lady Theodora nodded lightly and said to Roland, "Have you noticed a very interesting phenomenon, the Far East and Parnia happen to complement each other in many ways? ”

Roland agreed. Evidence to support Lady Theodora's assertion is abundant, such as: the Far East is scarce, and Parnia's Crystal is abundant; The Far East is rich in iron ore reserves and has a well-developed metallurgical industry, while Parnia is the opposite; In the Far East, where agriculture is growing rapidly, and grain exports are a major source of revenue, Parnia is not self-sufficient in cereals, but cash crops such as mulberry, olives and grapes are highly productive; In addition, Parnia had accumulated large sums of gold and silver through trade, and there was a relative surplus of capital, while the Far East was in ruins, and domestic capital was relatively scarce, as evidenced by the disparity in wages and prices between the two places.

"Since the Far East and Parnia have their own strengths in many areas of the national economy, they should give full play to their respective strengths and make up for each other's shortcomings with their own strengths, so that both of us will benefit from them."

Roland couldn't help but be in awe. In his opinion, Prince Carroll and Lady Theodora are a bit like William and Mary after the "Glorious Revolution" in England on Earth, the husband and wife govern together, Prince Carroll is in charge of military affairs and diplomacy, and Parnia's internal affairs are helmed by Lady Theodora.

Lady Theodora's words are actually illustrating a concept of comparative advantage. In Vares, where economic theory has not yet been systematic, most of the economic policies pursued by governments are simple and crude "mercantilism", thinking about increasing the trade surplus and selling as many of their own goods as possible to neighboring countries to earn more gold and silver, but they have not considered a very real problem: how can there be money to import goods due to the lack of gold and silver caused by the persistent trade deficits of neighboring countries? Since neighboring countries cannot afford to import, and there is nowhere to dump their surplus goods, what will happen next?

Against this backdrop, Lady Theodora was able to recognize the seemingly simple but easily overlooked economic principle of "comparative advantage" and took the initiative to apply it to international trade, which was worthy of Prince Carroll's virtuous help.

"Lady Theodora, I fully agree with your opinion, the Far East and Parnia are complementary in many aspects, as far as the Southern Railway Project is concerned, the raw materials and labor costs of the section in the Far East are lower, so adhering to the principle of learning from each other's strengths, why don't we provide rails and sleepers from the Far East, and send an engineering team to contract all the projects from Parnia to Mochizuki City?" Roland looked at the Vlads.

"That's exactly what I'm going to do, you help, we'll pay," Lady Theodora smiled slightly, her eyes lit up with fighting spirit, "As for the cost of contracting this section...... Let's take our time. ”

Roland smiled bitterly, guessing that there would be an unusually difficult tug-of-war next. Lady Theodora seems to be enjoying bargaining. Veronica is not like her mother in this aspect, but inherits more of Prince Carol's bold character.

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