Lord of Industrialization

The mountain stream flows slowly, the breeze blows on the riverside, and colorful butterflies fly.

An old man and a young man hold fishing rods, throw frog-shaped baits onto the water, and then pull them rhythmically to reel them in.

The fish floating on the bottom of the water senses the information brought by the waves, and pulls itself out from under the dead wood where it hides. Confirming that the delicious food is on the surface of the water, it twists its tail vigorously and rushes over.

"Young people don't have martial ethics!"

Valentine jumped up and down like a child whose toy was robbed, without the calmness of the Pope.

Frederick saw that the fish swam out and went for his bait, so he went straight to the scoop net to intercept it.

Frederick smiled and put the fish in the scoop net into Valentine's fish guard and continued to hook.

After Valentin cast his hook again, he said, "When I was still a cardinal, I was going out fishing once and saw a monk being lazy, so I asked him to help me carry things."

"He didn't catch any fish for a long time, and his fish basket was empty. I have a lot of vegetarian fish in my fish basket."

"At that time, I caught a carnivorous fish, and I thought that if I put it in the fish basket, it would definitely eat the vegetarian fish before, so I put it in his empty fish basket."

"He thought I was hinting at something, such as promoting him to be a bishop, and he was very happy."

"Young people can't keep their composure, they are smug all day long, spreading it everywhere, and offending some people for it."

"Later, someone asked me, and I said that it was not the case, and he was finally dealt with badly."

"After that, I never hinted at anything again, and I just said it directly if I had something to say."

Frederick continued his words and said, "Because the power in your hands is too great for them, life is not good enough. Life or death, it's all up to you."

Valentin nodded slightly and said, "You are the same, 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 southern coast are different from those in the north. I grew up by the sea when I was a child. The soil in the ground is salty and can only grow some wild vegetables as high as a palm. The old leaves of those wild vegetables can be used to stew meat directly without adding salt."

"The sea water is not only in the sea, but also underground water is salty."

"In the past, our monastery also thought about planting some vegetables on a piece of land by the sea, but it was too troublesome. It took a lot of effort to build a dike to prevent the sea water from flooding the land when the tide rose."

He rambled about how the monastery reclaimed the tidal flats when he was young, and finally concluded that this kind of thing was not worth the loss.

Frederick listened quietly, changed the insect bait, and caught some small fish that eat insects.

After the Pope finished speaking, Frederick said: "Small-scale reclamation and large-scale transformation of swamps are different. The land enclosed by a square dam with a circumference of 400 meters is 16 times that of a dam with a circumference of 100 meters. The gap between the project investment and the final return is very large."

"For me, the development of the southern coast of the inland sea is the least problematic in terms of technology."

"The technology for transforming swamps is the same in general, and only some minor details need to be adjusted according to the site."

He was bullying the Pope because he was not good at mathematics and did not understand technology. He tried to fool him as much as possible, and said it very simply.

Frederick finally said to Valentine: "I am more worried about religious reasons. We just want to make money and don't want to provoke a religious war."

Valentine looked at him deeply and said: "Royas, the archbishop of the Linhai Parish of the Flame Church, wrote me a letter not long ago."

It is not surprising that the two sides have a communication channel. Frederick is waiting for the next step seriously.

Unexpectedly, Valentine mentioned something that seemed unrelated: "Many Venetians do business and live in the south of the Inland Sea. After they arrived there, they changed their identities and became locals."

Frederick curled his lips. He had only heard about this recently. They were believers of the Church of Light in the north and believers of the Church of Flame in the south of the Inland Sea, and they switched flexibly.

Valentine 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 this."

"The south bank has been very chaotic in the past two years. The contradictions between some priests of the Church of Flame and the nobles who support merchants have intensified, and some wars have broken out."

"This has affected our business with Venice and Rojas."

Frederick blinked, his mouth twitched, and asked in disbelief: "Your Holiness, are you doing business with pagans?!"

Valentine said seriously: "We are doing business with Venetians."

Frederick finally understood why Venetian merchants were so jumpy and nothing happened, because they had the support of the church behind them.

These white gloves are very useful, and the church naturally has to maintain them.

Frederick said frankly: "The conflict between me and the Venetian merchants is irreconcilable. It has not erupted yet, but it is only a matter of time before a conflict breaks out."

Valentin continued fishing without saying a word.

Frederick continued: "Venetians can only do business in the inland sea. My business network now covers from the Kingdom of Kush in the south to the dark land in the north, and is growing rapidly."

He is changing the concept here. It is one thing for the goods of the Duchy of Wessen to be sold in these places, and it is another thing for Venetian merchants to do business in various ports.

But Valentine did not know the difference. He subconsciously thought that wherever the goods of the Duchy of Wessen were sold, Frederick's merchants would go there. He did not think that most of them were sold by middlemen.

Frederick also wanted to spread commercial outlets all over the country like the Venetians, but the Dawn Chamber of Commerce still has a long way to go.

Valentine finally nodded gently and agreed with his statement.

Frederick continued to bully the Pope's head, which had been reading scriptures all his life: "Gold is actually no different from copper and iron when it is placed in the cabinet. You can't eat it when you are hungry, you can't drink it when you are thirsty, and you can't use it to keep warm when you are cold."

"Gold must circulate in the market, so that it can reflect its value as a currency and can be exchanged for food, drink and clothing."

"Supporting me is actually not contradictory to supporting Venetian merchants. Their business is essentially different from my business."

"Venetian merchants actually just do some errands and earn some hard-earned money."

"The Duchy of Wessen is making money with wisdom."

"A ton of wood is turned into paper, and the price of this paper is much higher than the raw material."

"Paper and ink are not worth much, but the price of printed books and paintings becomes 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 had done research on it. The price difference between raw materials and finished products scared many people.

Frederick said with a look of consideration for the other party: "Of course, there are gains and losses in business. Many industries are very profitable, but it is hard to say when it comes to a specific factory."

"Now screws are easy to sell. Someone once opened a screw factory with full confidence, but his management and technology were not good, 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 it breaks when it is folded in half. The boss ran away overnight."

"If you agree, I can specially launch a bond with higher returns. You buy it and you will have stable returns. The risk of investment failure will be borne by me."

Valentine did not reply until the weather got hotter at noon and the fish stopped eating. He did not say a word. He seemed to be thinking about something.

Frederick just talked about some real cases, with losses and gains, focusing on being honest and making people who are not familiar with the situation dare not invest on their own.

On the carriage back to the city, Valentine finally asked, "What's the interest rate of the bonds you're selling?"

Frederick had learned about the commercial loans in the Kingdom of Sardinia. The general interest rate was 5% to 15%. When people took advantage of the situation, the interest rate could be around 30%. At this time, people were plotting to take the property used as collateral.

He replied, "The specific interest rate will be higher than commercial loans, and this kind of bond can only be purchased by people who are guaranteed by the bishop of the church or higher priests."