The next morning

Parkview Green

The house in the town hall was filled with the strong smell of coffee, and Richard led Gai Wangshan, Gao Shiheng, Liu Wu and other men to come here, and was welcomed by Captain William Richardson.

Both sides attached great importance to this meeting.

On William Richardson's side, in addition to grocery store owner Odom Russell, there are three new faces, respected Dutch captain Doug, mayor Fox and British adventurer Ronald Evenson, a negotiating lineup that represents the interests of Parkview Barrow.

"Please take a seat, Mr. Richard, the development of the Datang Club in the past half a month is impressive, and the future is even more worth looking forward to, I think it's time to sit down and talk about it."

The negotiating leader on the Yerba Buena side was again Captain John Richardson, who made a "please take a seat" gesture and sat down next to the long table, with the others sitting down one after the other.

"Thank you, Mr. Captain John, I have been looking forward to this meeting and hope it will be a good start to our cooperation."

Richard sat down quietly, his eyes resting on Dutch captain Doug and British adventurer Ronald Evenson, revealing a solemn meaning.

As far as he knew;

Born into a down-and-out aristocratic family in the Netherlands, Doug is the second son of a family with no right to inherit noble titles and titles, he left Amsterdam to roam the world since he was young, and has the Dutch fanatical nautical adventure genes, and is a respected boss in Yerba Buenadi.

Marriages were frequent among European royal families, especially the British and Dutch royal families, both of which were Protestant countries.

As a result, Doug's aristocratic status made him highly respected on the North American continent, and he was able to develop a good personal friendship with Rear Admiral Bacon, commander of the Caribbean Fleet of the British Royal Navy, and was even invited to attend the engagement of Rear Admiral Bacon's daughter.

The implications of this are worth pondering.

The British adventurer Ronald Evenson is a different type, these so-called adventurers with great powers and mysterious backgrounds, may have been spies or spies sent around the world by the British Empire's colonial office.

This is a tradition that originated from the Age of Discovery, in which Europeans, under the guise of missionaries or adventurers, went deep into the deserts of West Asia and the rainforests of Indochina with ulterior motives, explored unknown islands and the Amazon of South America, and traveled almost all over Asia, Africa and Latin America to rare places.

This was followed by European colonizers and armies, setting off round after round of frenzy of partitioning the colonies.

Among them, the United Kingdom, France and other emerging colonial powers are the mainstay, and they are particularly keen on this.

Richard didn't expect to see one here.

"Mr. Richard, I have called New York to meet your needs, and Mr. Samuel Colt, a renowned firearms designer, will be on his team on a short journey, which is expected to arrive here in three weeks, with an entire weapons manufacturing plant and several excellent construction engineers."

The beginning of the talks

William Richardson threw out a surprise news that shows the depth of Parkview Green.

Whether it is the United States or Europe on the other side of the Atlantic, Datang will need any talent or material, and Parkview Green can meet the demand, which is so hardcore.

Hearing the good news, Richard's brows flashed with a hint of joy, and he couldn't help but sit up straight and said; "Thank you, Mr. Captain, Mr. Samuel Colt for coming, which will be the beginning of an exciting collaboration between our two sides."

"You're welcome, Mr. Richard, Datang will pay for Mr. Colt's weapons factory and ferry tickets, we just completed the transaction, and for the sake of in-depth cooperation between the two sides, we will give preferential commission ratios and transportation costs."

"It makes sense, but on top of that, we need almost everything, including some of the plant equipment." Richard said, pulling out a thick stack of papers from his body and handing it over.

William Richardson didn't expect him to be so direct, and after being stunned for a moment, he took it and looked at it carefully, and Captain Doug also leaned over curiously to study the list of requirements.

The list of material requirements was very long, ranging from cotton, billet ingots, cocoa, coffee, tobacco, sugar, wheat flour, cowboy hats, gloves, blankets, iron nails, kerosene lamps, British woven fabrics, French wine, to 300 sewing machines, 50 looms, chemical dyes, 20 sets of steam machine tools, 3000 spindle textile machinery, and finally, two orders for 3,400 tons of iron-hulled steamships.

The material orders provided by Richard are not only large in quantity, but also variety, involving a high level of industrial level, especially sewing machines, looms, 20 sets of steam machine tools and 3,000 spindles of textile machinery, all of which belong to the world's leading industrial scientific and technological achievements.

The order for two 3,400-tonne iron-hulled steamships is even more eye-catching, with this alone worth £237,000, which is a huge order for British shipyards.

Back in 1837

Britain built the "Great West" iron-hulled steamship, with a displacement of 3,000 tons, which can cross the Atlantic route in 14 days and transport a large number of materials and personnel, causing a sensation in the entire European and American world, and is known as "cross-era steam technology".

In 1843, the iron-hulled steamship "Great Britain", which had undergone major scientific and technological improvements, was launched, with a displacement of 3,400 tons, and the technical level of the steam turbine was matured, and it was immediately put into the Atlantic route.

So far, there have been many steam iron-hulled ships in European and American countries, which have gradually become the main fleet of transatlantic routes, and have the momentum of replacing sail cargo ships.

The sail cargo ship originally needed 2~3 months to sail the Atlantic, and today's steam iron-hulled ship needs 11 or 2 days, which not only has a large cargo capacity and is easy to maintain, but also requires less crew members, and the economy is greatly improved.

This list of valuable material needs shocked everyone in Yerba Buena and silenced them all.

The list was teleported to the British adventurer Ronald Evenson, who couldn't help but explode when he saw the order for two 3,400-ton iron and steamships; "Oh sell, Shet, are you sure it's not a joke?"

"I'm pretty sure, Mr. Evenson." Richard replied in the affirmative.

"Oh...... I'm sorry, I'm so shocked, do you know how much these two state-of-the-art ships are worth that are the jewels of the British shipbuilding industry today? After the news broke, this order was enough to make the British shipyard crazy and break through the threshold of the Datang Club. ”

"You mean...... Shipyard Trade Representative from Europe? ”

"No, Europe is too far away, and the British shipyards will commission a former partner or an officer of the Caribbean Fleet, or...... An adventurer of my identity. Fearing that Richard would not understand what he meant, Ronald Evenson shrugged his shoulders and continued with a very sincere attitude;

"Hmm...... As far as I know;

There are at least 5 shipyards in Great Britain that have the capacity to produce the iron-hulled steamships you need, and they all need ship orders to maintain sufficient technical capacity and workforce and make reasonable profits, and there is fierce competition among them.

And I happen to be familiar with the relevant personnel of the Royal Navy Shipyard in Portsmouth, England, and now I only need an authorized telegram to talk about shipbuilding orders.

Be assured that if it's not a joke, you'll get a great price.

As an adventurer, although he is keen to explore the unknown discoveries of the world, this does not prevent him from making a lot of extra money, and the two are not contradictory. ”

"Oh......" Richard suddenly realized, but he was not in a hurry to accede to Ronald Evenson's request.

After all, this is a cooperation with Parkview Green, and Richard will not make a hasty decision when Ronald Evenson does not show enough strength, and when William Richardson's attitude is unclear.

The total value of this order is more than 300,000 pounds, which is equivalent to about 1.5 million US dollars, or 76,000 ounces of gold, which is almost two-thirds of the existing wealth of the Datang Club, and the value is very staggering.

If this business can be done, Parkview Green can make a lot of money just by taking commissions and transportation costs, and the temptation is undoubted.

This is the bargaining chip for Richard to deepen the cooperation between the two sides, and strive to establish an all-round intimate relationship with Parkview Green.

Richard did not believe in the friendship of the British, and the most suitable relationship was only when the interests of both sides were closely tied together, one was prosperous and the other was lost.

The order he took out was enough to open 4~5 grocery stores, a garment factory, a weaving factory, a weapons factory, a medium-sized textile factory, and a shipping company with transoceanic transportation capabilities.

William Richardson didn't expect the Datang Society to have such a big appetite, and after careful consideration, he could only say "Sorry, please wait a while, we will have to study before we can reply to you".

After speaking

He left the venue one after another with the list of supplies and several other people to discuss it privately.