Volume 6 Chapter 21 Bad impression
Although the Candra Empire’s att.i.tude was strange for Xu Yi, putting aside Autof, the rest of the merchants that Russell brought from Pompeii City were serious about cooperating with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
There were several of these merchants who had gone to Rudson Kingdom’s Nissi City before and had seen the prosperity of Nissi Harbour, so they yearned for the same thing.
Pompeii City was one of the Candra Empire’s important naval bases and was a seaside city, so there was a military harbour under the Candra Empire navy, as well as a citizen harbour for Pompeii City. It was like Nissi Harbour, it was named after the city, being called Pompeii Harbour.
These merchants wanted to start cooperating with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and the first things they wanted were the magic machines for civilians. So in their discussion with Xu Yi, the first step they decided was to develop Pompeii Harbour with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
They were very active in this matter, even before coming here, they worked together to convince Pompeii City’s City Lord to receive his permission in investing and expanding the harbour.
Of course, the Pompeii City’s City Lord didn’t need to invest a single copper coin in this. The merchants would invest in this independently, so that was why the City Lord didn’t have any reason to oppose this.
Xu Yi naturally welcomed their proposal to develop Pompeii Harbour, but they did not accept his proposal of investing with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, so that everyone owned a share in the harbour.
No matter how they developed Pompeii Harbour, it was still under the Candra Empire. It wasn’t a problem for these companies that came from Pompeii City, but the Frestech Chamber of Commerce wasn’t from the Candra Empire, so there was a big problem.
If the Candra Empire wanted to cause trouble, with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s current strength, they wouldn’t be able to do anything.
But after discussing it, Xu Yi agreed to take out a million gold coins to develop Pompeii Harbour and he would only take a 10% share in the harbour symbolically.
Compared to unreliable controlling rights, what Xu Yi cared about more were the reliable use rights.
Once this Pompeii Harbour was built, it would be an important window for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce into the south of the Candra Empire.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce would send countless transport ships to Pompeii Harbour, it was important to receive the priority rights to use the harbour.
Although the use rights weren’t reliable since the Candra Empire was a giant existence, but comparing it, the use rights didn’t touch on the management of the Candra Empire, so it was more likely that it would be upheld.
Through the discussion with the companies of Pompeii City, Xu Yi found a fact that made him very emotional.
The Candra Empire really was one of the two empires of the continent. Although these companies were only normal companies in a normal city along the coast, they couldn’t be underestimated at all.
In the Pompeii Harbour plan they took out, they would be investing an initial seven million gold coins.
Compared to the Rudson Kingdom’s Nissi Harbour where there were only three million gold coins invested, this was double that.
Moreover, Nissi Harbour was something that the Rudson Kingdom cared greatly about and received King Teruc’s attention, so the Rudson Kingdom had given it such a large budget.
It could be seen that for a super power like the Candra Empire, a small country like the Rudson Kingdom was far from being able to compare.
And this was the reason why Xu Yi had always put importance in developing the markets of the Candra Empire and the Marlow Empire.
But what made Xu Yi depressed was that while the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was smoothly developing in the Marlow Empire, they were hitting a wall in the Candra Empire.
After cooperating with amba.s.sador Hakanin and through him, it made the household magic machines very popular in the Candra Empire’s capital of Wimbledon City.
But after two years now, the request that Xu Yi made to have the Frestech Chamber of Commerce officially enter the Candra Empire market through his relations with amba.s.sador Hakanin had always been rejected.
Xu Yi wasn’t clear on the exact cause, but based on the result, it should be amba.s.sador Hakanin playing hindrance while also the Candra Empire side not caring.
Then there was the Amrit Chamber of Commerce building the road in the southwest province.
They had already been building for a year and the road still wasn’t finished yet.
This was a road that was less than five hundred kilometers and with the abilities of the Amrit Chamber of Commerce, if everything went smoothly, they would be able to finish paving it in half a year. However, they kept meeting hindrances which slowed down their speed.
Chairman Cruise had complained to Xu Yi many times because of this and most of his complaints were about the officials in the southwest province.
The Amrit Chamber of Commerce had already paid over a hundred thousand in bribes to those fellows, but the road still received many hindrances. It almost made chairman Cruise so angry that he wanted to give up on paving it.
Anyway, the advantages of the road were easily seen and if the Candra Empire wasn’t willing, they would be the ones suffering.
Adding in the fact that Belil’s Magic Car shop in Wimbledon City also wasn’t going smoothly, Xu Yi had a bad impression of the Candra Empire.
However, it didn’t matter if Xu Yi had a bad impression of the Candra Empire, this didn’t affect his determination in opening up the Candra Empire market.
So when Russell’s group left this place a week later and when Belil came back to the Stantine Duchy, telling his goal in coming back, Xu Yi became excited again.
“His highness Frank has changed his mind?” Xu Yi was surprised and a bit happy as he looked at Belil, “What did his highness say?”
Belil tilted his head and summarized what his highness Frank had told him during their meetings during this time before saying with a smile, “His highness Frank can’t resist the enticement of the race cars, but he is a prince after all, so he can’t just organize small races in secret like me and the other small n.o.bles. So he wants to make this a regular sporting event, letting many people in the empire accept this, so he can openly partic.i.p.ate.”
“So he wants to hold a proper race with our company?” Xu Yi asked in a surprised voice, “Whose name does his highness Frank want to host this event in?”
“Un…..Specifically speaking, his highness feels that your Frestech Chamber of Commerce has experience in hosting races and also makes the race cars, so his method of cooperating with you is to use his relationship in the Candra Empire to bring your mature racing event to the Candra Empire. He would be in charge of providing his name and everything else would be left to your Frestech Chamber of Commerce.”
“Simply put, everything would be handled by us and his highness would only make it a bit smoother?”
“Yes.”
“Un……This is the method I wanted to use, but his highness never agreed before. I never thought that he would take the initiative to propose this. Belil, why?” Xu Yi asked.
Belil rubbed his hands together and looked at Xu Yi with a bit of hesitation.
Xu Yi felt even more confused.
This wasn’t something hard to answer, so why was Belil hesitating?
“This…..Actually…..Other than the car races, Frank has something more important that he wanted me to pa.s.s onto you……”
Seeing Belil’s hesitant expression, Xu Yi knitted his brows. He felt that this matter would be very hard for him or Belil wouldn’t reveal this kind of expression.
“Alright, speak. No matter what conditions his highness has, we can discuss it.” Xu Yi calmly said.
Belil scratched his head and gave a laugh, “Alright, Frank said that he’s not only interested in the car races, he’s interested in the Magic Cars, so he hopes…..Ke, he wants to work with your Frestech Chamber of Commerce to build a Magic Car factory in the Candra Empire.”
Hearing the first part of Belil’s words, Xu Yi had already guessed what he wanted to say, so he wasn’t surprised by the latter half.
After considering it, Xu Yi asked, “How does his highness want to cooperate?”
“Frank said……He hoped that he could study the Magic Race Cars that he liked, so…..he wanted your Frestech Chamber of Commerce to give the Magic Car technology to him and some researchers to support him, so he could quickly make a Magic Race Car…..”
The more he spoke, the softer Belil’s voice became. The smile on his face became awkward, clearly showing that he thought his highness Frank’s requests were a bit excessive.
However, Xu Yi’s expression didn’t change and he fell into deep thought like he was seriously considering this.
Seeing that Xu Yi wasn’t replying, Belil tried asking, “Chairman Xu, what do you think?”
Xu Yi reached his hand out to Belil.
“Do you have a detailed proposal?”
Belil was surprised, “You’re agreeing?”
Xu Yi shook his head, “I can’t give you a definite answer right now, I’ll have to see his highness Frank’s plan before deciding. So, do you have a proposal?”
Belil awkwardly shook his head, “Frank only wanted me to tell you this and didn’t give a specific plan…..”
Xu Yi gave a sigh, “Are those fellows in the Candra Empire all this unreliable? Alright, Belil, wait a few days and I will draw up a plan for you, you can bring it back to his highness Frank. If he agrees, there’s no problem cooperating this time.”
“Then what if his highness Frank isn’t satisfied with your plan?”
Xu Yi narrowed his eyes and gave a soft snort, “If he still doesn’t agree when I’m willing to take a step back, is there a need to cooperate?”
Belil swallowed a mouthful of spit. He wanted to convince Xu Yi, but seeing the cold look on Xu Yi’s face, he swallowed the words in his mouth.