Volume 5 Chapter 167 Worries of Marquis Southgate
Three days later, Marquis Southgate and Xu Yi’s group went back to the Stantine Duchy together.
For his first time here, Marquis Southgate was just there to take a look, but this time he came with a goal in mind.
After a detailed investigation of the water system that had already spread through the Stantine Duchy, he didn’t hesitate to sign a contract with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
The contract was for introducing the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s water system in the Marlow Empire.
Of course, because this was their first cooperation, the contract’s scale wasn’t that big. Marquis Southgate would only be introducing the water system to a small town on his territory, which had a total area of less than five square kilometers.
According to the estimates, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would provide five Magic Water Pumps, as well as the necessary pipes and valves. The total amount for this was set at a total of forty eight thousand gold coins.
If this agreement was signed with the Lampuri Kingdom or the Rudson Kingdom, the total amount would be even lower, being at twenty to thirty thousand gold coins. The reason was that the Marlow Empire was further from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, so the cost to transport the goods and install everything would be higher than the Lampuri Kingdom or the Rudson Kingdom.
So although the price was higher, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s profits had actually dropped a bit.
But since this was the first cooperation between the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and Marquis Southgate, as well as their first cooperation with the Marlow Empire, this had a very big significance and it was normal to give them some discounts.
Moreover, now that the automatic production magic machines were spread in the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s factories, the costs and time consumed for the magic machines they produced had also decreased.
So even if they gave some discounts, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was earning more from this than they did two years ago.
The water system was something Marquis Southgate had already decided on the first time he came, so naturally the contract was signed very smoothly.
But for the roads that Marquis Southgate cared about and the magic communication network that Xu Yi recommended to him, Marquis Southgate had to properly investigate this before making his decision.
It was easy when it came to the magic communication network since Marquis Southgate could keep experimenting with his own territory. So he smoothly signed another contract with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce for a magic communication network, which cost a total of seventy six thousand gold coins.
As for the roads, Marquis Southgate knew that there was no meaning in just building roads in his territory. So after discussing it with Xu Yi and chairman Cruise who represented the Amrit Chamber of Commerce, they decided to put this aside for now. When he returned to the Marlow Empire, he would try to convince the Marlow Empire’s parliament to authorize the construction of a road that ran through the Falk Kingdom and reached the Marlow Empire’s capital of Angelo City.
If nothing unexpected happened, while building this road, the Amrit Chamber of Commerce would also finish building the road in the Falk Kingdom. That way they could link the Falk Kingdom and the Marlow Empire to the transport network in the southwest corner of the continent, making it much easier for them to transport between these countries.
Angelo City was over three thousand kilometers from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s main base in a direct line. On Marquis Southgate’s journey from Angelo City this time, just the one thousand and three hundred kilometers trip to the Drake Duchy’s capital Filios City had taken close to half a month.
When they arrived in Filios City, it took them only a day to travel the eight hundred kilometers to reach the Lampuri Kingdom’s Anvilmar City.
This was the difference between having roads and not having roads.
If they could travel on roads the entire way, they could go from Angelo City to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s main base in just a few days.
Other than infrastructure, Marquis Southgate also experienced the convenience of the various household magic machines, so how could he let them off.
So this time, he signed a contract with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, planning to build several household magic machine factories on his territory with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
He was even willing to give up two mines, deciding to mine them together with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, sharing the various mineral resources.
But he also made a request that the mineral resources couldn’t flow out of the Marlow Empire, so Xu Yi decided to open a steel mill and a non-ferrous metal smelting factory on his territory with him. They would refine the metals and then send it to the various household magic machine factories.
According to the plan Marquis Southgate proposed, his goal was to copy the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s model on his territory. He would create a ‘modern magic machine industry’ base on his private territory like the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s main base or Banta City.
That noun was taught to him by Xu Yi.
“Lord Marquis, I admire your foresight and boldness very much. In this regard, I think that the att.i.tude that you are demonstrating for the Marlow Empire is much more relaxed than the Candra Empire. I believe that you and the Marlow Empire will definitely be able to earn much from this open att.i.tude.”
After Xu Yi saw Marquis Southgate put his name and his stamp on the contract, he revealed a satisfied smile.
He had been going all around with Marquis Southgate in the past few days, while also negotiating with him, so he was quite tired.
Now that everything had finally been set for now, it made him let out a sigh of relief.
Marquis Southgate was also a bit tired, but his eyes still shined bright, clearly showing that he wasn’t calm.
“Ha, ha, chairman Xu, our Marlow Empire is naturally much stronger than that decayed Candra Empire. If your Frestech Chamber of Commerce is looking for someone to work with, our Marlow Empire is countless times better than the Candra Empire.”
If it was said that Marquis Southgate was just curious about the Frestech Chamber of Commerce at first because of the surprising household magic machines, now that he had a better understanding of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, he felt that he couldn’t estimate the power that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was hiding.
He was very certain that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had deeply affected the southwest countries of the continent and would influence the other countries in the future.
If the Marlow Empire was late to this, they would find themselves thrown behind.
Through this and his last trip through the various countries, especially the Lampuri Kingdom that was affected by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce the deepest, he deeply believed this.
But he didn’t believe he could convince those stubborn fellows in the empire, so he wasn’t planning on convincing them. He was going to make them submit with cold hard facts.
As long as he brought the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s things into the Marlow Empire, seeing the powerful charm of these magic machines, he didn’t need to convince them. There would be countless people in the empire that would come chasing after them.
Thinking of this, Marquis Southgate looked at Xu Yi and gave a secret sigh.
In reality, compared to the infrastructure and the household magic machines, what he cared more about were the military magic machines that he had always heard about and had never seen.
According to what he had heard, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s military magic machines were incomparably powerful. They could increase the battle strength of an army armed with them by several times.
The Lampuri Kingdom being able to easily suppress the Sack Kingdom that had suppressed them for several hundred years before, it was said that it was because the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had provided a large amount of military magic machines to them.
This kind of important thing, Marquis Southgate naturally wanted to be able to introduce to the Marlow Empire when the time was right.
But Xu Yi had always kept his mouth shut about this. Even if Marquis Southgate had casually mentioned it several times, Xu Yi had always immediately changed the topic.
After confirming Xu Yi’s stance, Marquis Southgate could only give up this idea for now.
This was their first time working together, so Xu Yi should be a bit careful.
After they cooperated for a longer time, Marquis Southgate believed that there would be a chance to discuss the military magic machines with Xu Yi.
It was like Xu Yi had said, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was a company in the end. He paid more attention to his status as a merchant than his status as a magician, so the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would definitely sell the military magic machines if they made them.
As long as the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was willing to sell, it could be discussed.
In these considerations, there was a problem that made Marquis Southgate feel a bit uneasy.
When he came to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s main base last time, he had b.u.mped into Candra Empire’s navy’s vice chief of staff Remito Russell.
Marquis Southgate once fought this fellow on the battlefield and he was one of the people on the watchlist of the Marlow Empire, he knew that he was not someone who would run around for nothing.
He must have had some goal at the Frestech Chamber of Commerce last time.
Marquis Southgate was worried that his goal was the military magic machines produced by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
There was even a chance that the Candra Empire had secretly made a deal with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce in terms of the military magic machines.
If that was true, that really would be a bit bad.
However, seeing Xu Yi with the same smile, Marquis Southgate firmly pushed down this question in his heart.
There was a long time, he couldn’t be in a rush.