Chapter 563 Talking about business
The river in the mountains flows slowly, the breeze blows on the riverside, and colorful butterflies are flying.
Two people, an old man and a young man, hold fishing rods and throw the frog-shaped bait on the water surface, and then pull up the line rhythmically.
The fish floating on the bottom felt the message brought by the water waves, took out its body from the dead tree where it was hiding, confirmed that the delicious food was on the surface, twisted its tail with all its strength, and rushed over.
“Young people don’t respect martial ethics!”
Valentine jumped up and down like a child whose toy had been stolen, without any calmness of the Pope.
Frederick saw the fish swimming out and heading for his bait, so he went directly to the net to catch it.
With a smile, Frederick put the fish in the dip net into Valentine's fish guard and continued to set the hook.
After setting the hook again, Valentine said: "When I was a cardinal, I saw a monk being lazy when I was going fishing, so I asked him to help me carry my things."
"He hasn't caught any fish for a long time. The fish guard is empty. There are a lot of fish in my fish guard."
"At that time, I caught a carnivorous fish and thought that if I put it in a fish guard, it would definitely eat the previous vegetarian fish, so I put it in his empty fish guard."
"What about him? , thinking that I was hinting at something, such as promoting him to become a bishop, etc., I was so happy.”
“The young man couldn’t hold his breath, and he was complacent all day long, spreading it everywhere, and was offended by it. Some people."
"Someone asked me later and I said it didn't happen. He was dealt with badly in the end."
"After that time, I never did anything else. For things like hints, just say it directly.”
Frederick continued what he said: "Because the power in your hands is too great for them. Survival or death depends on your thoughts."
Valentin nodded slightly and said: "The same goes for you. Just a few words can determine the future of countless people."
"I am not optimistic about your development of the south."
Frederick raised his eyebrows and asked: " Religious issues?”
Valentin shook his head and said: “No.”
"The swamps on the seaside in the south are different from those in the north. I grew up on the seaside when I was a child. The soil in the ground is salty, and only some palm-high wild vegetables can grow. The old leaves of the wild vegetables can be directly used to stew meat. No need to add salt.”
“The water in the sea is also salty.”
“Our monastery also thought about growing some vegetables on a piece of land by the sea, but it was too much. It’s troublesome, it took a lot of effort to build the embankment to prevent the seawater from flooding the land when the tide rises.”
He rambled on about how the monastery reclaimed the tidal flats when he was young, and finally concluded this. Nothing is worth the loss.
Frederick listened quietly, changed the worm bait, and caught some small fish that eat worms.
After the Pope finished speaking, Frederick said: "Small-scale reclamation and large-scale transformation of swamps are different. The land enclosed by a square dike with a circumference of 400 meters is 16 times that of a dike with a circumference of 100 meters. The project investment and The difference in final benefits is huge.”
“For me, developing the south coast of the inland sea is the least technically problematic.”
“The technology for transforming swamps is in the general direction. It’s the same, you just need to adjust some details according to the situation.”
He is bullying the Pope because he is not good at math and does not understand technology. If he can, he will try to deceive him. It is very simple.
Frederick finally said to Valentine: "I am more worried about religious reasons. We just want to get rich and don't want to provoke a religious war."
Valentin took a deep look at him and said: "Roas, the patriarch of the Linhai Diocese of the Flame Church, he wrote me a letter not long ago."
Does the two parties have contact channels? Strange, Frederick waited carefully for the next step.
Unexpectedly, Valentin mentioned a seemingly unrelated thing: "Many Venetians do business and live in the south of the Inland Sea. After they arrived there, they changed their identities and became Local people."
Frederick curled his lips. He had only heard about this recently. They are members of the Church of Light in the north and members of the Church of Fire in the south of Inner Sea. They can switch flexibly.
Valentin continued: "You have a saying that 'the economic base determines the superstructure'. I think it makes sense. These people pay taxes on both sides of the inland sea, so no one cares about it."
"The South Bank has been in chaos in the past two years. The conflicts between some priests of the Church of Fire and the nobles who support the merchants have intensified, and some wars have broken out." "This has affected our business with the Venetians and Loas."
Frederick blinked, twitched the corners of his mouth, and asked in disbelief: "Your Majesty the Pope, are you doing business with pagans?!"
Valentin said seriously: "We are doing business with the Venetians."
Frederick finally understood why the Venetian businessmen were okay with jumping up and down, because they had the support of the church behind them.
These white gloves are very useful, so the church naturally needs to maintain them.
Frederick said frankly: "The conflict between me and the Venetian merchants is irreconcilable. It has not broken out yet, but it will be a matter of time before a conflict breaks out."
Valentin He continued fishing without saying a word.
Frederick continued: "The Venetians can only do business in the inland sea. My business network now covers the Kingdom of Kush in the south to the dark land in the north, and is growing rapidly."
He secretly changed the concept here. It is one thing for the goods of the Principality of Wesson to be sold in these places. It is another thing for Venetian merchants to do business in various ports.
But Valentine didn't know the difference. He subconsciously thought that Frederick's merchants would go wherever the goods from the Duke of Wesson were sold. He never thought that most of them were sold by second-rate dealers.
Frederick also wanted to spread commercial outlets everywhere like the Venetians, but now the Dawn Chamber of Commerce still has a long way to go.
Valentin finally nodded slightly, agreeing with his statement.
Frederick continued to bully the Pope’s head, which had been reading scriptures all his life: “Gold placed in a cabinet is actually the same as copper and iron. You can’t eat it when you’re hungry, you can’t drink it when you’re thirsty, and you can’t use it to keep warm when you’re cold. . ”
“Gold must circulate in the market so that it can reflect its value as currency and be exchanged for food, drink and clothing.”
"Supporting me is actually not inconsistent with supporting the Merchant of Venice. Their business is essentially different from mine."
"The Merchant of Venice is actually just doing some errands to earn some hard money."
“The Principality of Wesson is using its wisdom to make money.”
“A ton of wood has been turned into paper, and the price of these papers is much higher than the raw materials.”
“Paper The price of printing and ink is not much, but the price of printed books and paintings has become higher.”
"This is the role of wisdom. Wisdom has become a new source of wealth."
This time Valentine nodded heavily.
They originally intended to invest in Frederick's industry and conducted research on it. The price difference between raw materials and finished products scared many people.
Frederick said as if he was thinking about the other party: "Of course, there are profits and losses in doing business. Many industries are very profitable, but it is difficult to say when it comes to a specific factory."
< br>“It’s easy to sell screws now. Someone once opened a screw factory with confidence, but his management and technology were poor, the quality was poor and the cost was high, and he went bankrupt two years later.”
"There is also a toilet paper factory. Their paper loses powder when it is made and breaks when folded. The boss ran away overnight."
"If you agree, I can launch a bond with a higher yield. , you will get stable income if you buy it, and the risk of investment failure will be borne by me.”
Valentin didn’t reply until the weather got hotter at noon, and the fish stopped eating and he didn’t say a word. Get up and think about something.
Frederick just talked about some real cases, with losses and profits, focusing on honesty and making people unfamiliar with the situation dare not invest on their own.
On the carriage back to the city, Valentine finally asked: "What is the interest rate on the bonds you sell?"
Frederick had learned about the commercial loan situation in the Kingdom of Sardinia. The general interest rate is 5% to 15%, and it can be around 30% when taking advantage of the situation. At this time, what people are trying to do is use the property as collateral.
He replied: "The specific interest rate will be higher than that of commercial loans, and this kind of bond can only be purchased by people guaranteed by the church bishop and above."
(End of Chapter)