Volume 4 Chapter 66 On this land, he was king
“Your majesty, this is actually an opportunity.” Duke Stagg had the same smile as he spoke in a confident manner.
“Opportunity?” King Eric looked at Duke Stagg in confusion.
The situation in the kingdom was already this bad and he was calling it an opportunity? What opportunity?
“Your majesty, did you forget? Since her highness Seveni gave up the throne, although it made it much simpler for you, there were many people who opposed you in the kingdom who hid because of this. Since they didn’t move before, we couldn’t find them and it made it hard to do anything to them. Now because of this matter, isn’t it a good chance to deal with them?”
Seeing the dangerous smile on Duke Stagg’s face, King Eric had a cold feeling in his heart.
This Duke Stagg who looked incredibly harmless with this smile actually had quite the fierce heart.
Perhaps this situation was a good chance to eliminate dissidents for him, he definitely wouldn’t show mercy.
But to him the king and the Lampuri Kingdom, was it really a good chance?
If it was before he took the throne, Eric only had a single thought about the kingdom. Now that he had become the king for close to a year, he had a deep understanding of the kingdom’s real situation.
He was very unhappy with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce not supporting him to the throne, he felt that he could take care of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce one he took the throne.
He had indeed done this.
Although the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had been targeted by those n.o.bles, he had greatly supported them.
He didn’t feel like there was a problem before, but with time pa.s.sed, Banta City that had lost the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, even the entire Lampuri Kingdom showed the results of losing them.
Even if this conflict hadn’t erupted, Eric had seen from the various reports that came in what influence the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had.
This influence was direct and positive most of the time.
Eric could even tell that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had played an important role in Banta City being able to develop this quickly.
And the entire Lampuri Kingdom’s finances had visibly improved, which was greatly related to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
If from the standpoint of Lampuri Kingdom’s king and he considered it from the perspective of the Lampuri Kingdom, Eric would have done the same as his father Lampuri Thirteenth, firmly supporting the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
But it was impossible for him to change things now.
Moreover, the n.o.bles that supported him that created the ten companies had squeezed the Frestech Chamber of Commerce out of the Lampuri Kingdom. It was impossible even if he wanted to keep them here.
With the n.o.bles that supported him led by the Stagg Family, they had taken almost all the magic machine market from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and gained great benefits from this.
Even if Eric was the Lampuri Kingdom’s king, he definitely wouldn’t go against the conservative n.o.ble faction that controlled real power and almost controlled the entire Lampuri Kingdom.
Not mentioning anything else, Eric didn’t even have confidence dealing with the Stagg Family represented by Duke Stagg.
Seeing that Eric was silent, Duke Stagg didn’t guess his real thoughts. He thought that he was hesitating, so he said with a smile, “Your majesty, I know that perhaps you’re worried about turmoil in the kingdom, but please be a.s.sured. I already have a perfect series of plans for this matter, it can slowly and effectively take care of the people who oppose you. There definitely won’t be any mistakes.”
Eric gave a sigh in his heart, knowing that he couldn’t resist him at all.
Duke Stagg might have already put his plan in action when he came to tell him about this matter, he was just now officially informing him.
Anyway, all the power in the kingdom was controlled by him, even the royal guards in the royal palace listened to his order. What did it matter if Eric had any objections?
After being silent for a bit, Eric nodded, “Alright, then we’ll follow the ideas of the duke.”
Duke Stagg already expected this, so he gave Eric a bow with a faint smile.
“Then your majesty, please rest up. I’ll be leaving first.”
Watching Duke Stagg walk out, Eric’s expression sunk. He clenched his fists and there was a cracking sound that came from the pen in his hand.
###
The unrest in Banta City didn’t cause any problems to the Stantine Duchy that was several hundred kilometers away.
The conflicts in Banta City that shocked the entire Lampuri Kingdom had caused the spring harvest to become much slower, but for the hundred thousand hectares of land of the Frestech Farm, the harvest had already been over for half a month.
Compared to last year, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had upgraded the agricultural magic machines. There were now new medium agricultural magic machines, which increased the harvest efficiency compared to last year.
Even if there were twenty thousand hectares more of farmland this year, the harvest this year was three days shorter than last year.
The new generation of agricultural magic machines received good evaluations. Not only did Count Wein order several dozen units, even the Rudson Kingdom, the Mirando Duchy, and the Drake Duchy that was over a thousand kilometers away sent representatives. They made orders adding up to over a thousand units to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
Just the value of these orders added up to a total of three million gold coins. It represented the first big order of magic machines the Frestech Chamber of Commerce sold this year.
As for the military magic machines, in order to exchange for land from Lord Wein, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce greatly reduced their sales volume. They only sold to companies that were close to them. The total amount dropped over a million gold coins and it was still dropping.
But if they counted the military magic machines they had delivered to Count Wein, the total profit of the arms department would reach over two million gold coins.
Adding in the household magic machines and the other magic machines the Frestech Chamber of Commerce sold in the beginning of the year, in just less than five months, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s sales had broken a shocking seven million gold coins.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce had high profit margins, so they received a net profit of three million gold coins from that seven million gold coins.
This made Xu Yi a bit surprised.
He thought that since the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was building a new production base and opening the market again, the company’s sales and profits would greatly drop.
But based on this situation, although it had dropped compared to last year, going from a net profit of four million and three hundred thousand gold coins in the first five months of last year to just over three million, it wasn’t that much of a decrease. Not only could he accept this, it even surprised Xu Yi and all the high level members of the company.
To earn such a high profit in this situation, it was enough to prove that the world’s desire for magic machines hadn’t dropped.
Although they were forced out of the Lampuri Kingdom market, with the development of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, they had opened the markets of other areas and other countries. Their prospects had become much wider.
In the Rudson Kingdom, the Mirando Duchy, the Drake Kingdom, and even the Sack Kingdom, the Frestech Brand magic machines represented a tidal wave. It represented the most advanced goods and many families took owning Frestech Brand magic machines as an honour.
With this trend, it wouldn’t take long before the Frestech Chamber of Commerce took most of the magic machine market in these countries like in the Lampuri Kingdom.
Why wasn’t it all the market?
Of course it was because Xu Yi left some s.p.a.ce for other companies to produce magic machines.
But to Xu Yi, during this time, the most important thing was not the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s sales and profits. He didn’t care how much money he made, rather how much money he spent.
Accurately speaking, how much he was spending on Duke Stantine.
Even if Lord Wein had said it casually, to give territory to Xu Yi who was an outsider, it definitely wouldn’t be easy to obtain the approval of Duke Stantine.
After signing the contract with Lord Wein, in a short month, Xu Yi had met Duke Stantine seven times and had spent a giant amount of a million gold coins before finally deciding this matter.
Today was the day Duke Stantine gave Xu Yi his decorum.
According to the customs of the Stantine Duchy, which were the customs of the Sines Continent, those that weren’t n.o.bles couldn’t have private territories.
So to transfer a portion of land from Lord Stantine to Xu Yi required a procedure that was complex and troublesome.
First, Lord Wein had to announce that he couldn’t keep managing all the land under his name and took the initiative to give the land he offered Xu Yi back to the duchy.
Then Duke Stantine would put on a special performance for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, commending them for their contribution in the reform of the Stantine Duchy. Xu Yi as the chairman made great contributions and was honoured as a Stantine Duchy citizen, as well as the t.i.tle of a Lord.
After this, Duke Stantine could give the land Lord Wein gave back to Xu Yi in honour of him becoming a lord and to make it his personal territory.
After this procedure, this piece of land would be considered Xu Yi’s private territory.
After taking the badge of a lord from Duke Stantine and the deed to his private territory, it meant that from that moment, this land became Xu Yi’s private territory.
The situation was different from the Lampuri Kingdom.
As long as Xu Yi had enough power to protect and manage this territory, he would be the king on this land!