Reborn As a Pirate

Wearing a neat tuxedo, Lorraine and Henna sat in the gleaming and tacky living room.

Opposite them is the owner of the room, Mr. Frey, a glassware merchant in Black Harbor.

"Mr. Frey, I sincerely thank you for accepting our meeting request despite your busy schedule."

"uh-huh."

"We bought a boatload of exquisite glassware from the Kingdom of Norway. Although they are not handcrafted by masters, they are clear in shape and high in appearance. May I waste a little time for you to take a look at them?"

"Didn't you bring it already? If I don't let you take it out, it will probably delay me longer." Frey pulled out the silk scarf and slowly wiped the emerald on his finger, "Time is money, young gentleman. "

"I feel the same way about that."

Lorraine smiled like a spring breeze, waved her hand, and asked Hannah to take out the square wooden box and open it in the direction of Frey.

Frey glanced at the back of Henna's brown hand in disgust: "The Moor?"

"She's a Coptic, sir."

"Tch, it's no different."

Frey didn't know that he had just walked on the line of life and death. He put away the silk scarf, took out a pair of white gloves from his pocket, and carefully picked up the glass bowl in the box.

This is a large bowl with arc twill, crystal clear and blooming like flowers.

There are carvings and paintings on all four sides of it, which are four religious pictures of the Virgin Mary, Embracing Christ, the Son saving the Mother, and the Trinity.

Frey looked at it fondly for a long time, and suddenly asked: "Young gentleman, you should be under twenty, right?"

"Sixteen, sir."

"Sixteen years old... When I was sixteen years old, I was still soliciting business in my relative's shop, and my father didn't want me to touch my own shop at all."

Lorraine knew what Frey wanted to ask, because he had heard similar questions many times in the past few days.

He shook his head: "Sir, I am from England. For an Englishman, it is quite normal for an Englishman to board a ship at the age of 13 or 14."

"But their positions are limited to interns. Perhaps the best of them can become seamen, but they can't be captains." Frey put down the basin and narrowed his eyes. "Young sir, I'm curious, how does your family trust you?" safety at sea?"

"Perhaps... this is the benefit of not having a family?"

"No..." Frey groaned, sweeping the side of the glass basin, one circle, two circles, and finally stopped, "The quality is good, if you have this quality in your hand, I am willing to bid 2.5 for each Pound, how much, how much to charge."

Lorraine gently closed the box, got up and left the table: "Mr. Frey, excuse me."

Frey sat upright in a leisurely manner and raised his legs: "Young people should be more realistic. You don't have a resident agreement. In Bermeo, it's not easy to find a buyer who bids more than me..."

"Thank you for your kind words, goodbye."

...

Spain, Bermeo Black Port, on the seventeenth day at anchor on the Artis Belle, Lorraine still failed to sell his glass.

Every black port has its unique characteristics.

Chaos is characteristic of Cherbourg, order is characteristic of Elgin.

Stavanger is as reckless and xenophobic as the Vikings, while Bermeo is very much like the Spanish kingdom in the sunset, open on the outside and conservative on the inside.

The business model of this black port opened Lorraine's horizons.

First of all, she does not set entry thresholds for businessmen like other black ports. Anyone can come to Hong Kong to do business, and everyone can enjoy the protection of the system.

Here you don't have to worry about forced buying and selling, nor do you have to worry about encountering bad things like Lorraine in Cherbourg, who was sold and helped count the money.

However, Bermeo, which has the fairest business environment in Black Harbor, failed to be truly fair.

Based on the tax rate of the management committee,

The local business associations established strict trade barriers and adopted completely different valuation systems for resident merchants and traveling merchants.

Merchants in Bermeo can buy at low prices and sell at high prices while enjoying lower port tax rates; while traveling merchants like Lorraine must accept buying at low prices and selling at low prices while paying higher taxes. tax amount.

When he first entered Hong Kong, Lorraine thought it was a short-sighted approach by the local business group. But after being rejected three times in a row to apply for the eligibility for business residency, his opinion changed again.

This weird secondary market is probably not the spontaneous behavior of businessmen, but a premeditated government behavior.

Its purpose is to forcibly achieve a trade surplus through subtle administrative intervention, and to slow down the outflow of the country's gold and silver reserves while finding dumped exports for Spanish goods.

This kind of obliqueness is very likely to appear in Spain

The once mighty Kingdom of Spain is long gone.

The royal family is extravagant and politically conservative. As the leader of the age of great voyages, she failed to cultivate a solid and reliable middle class in this unparalleled geographical discovery. After the period, the economy showed a trend of substantial recession.

On the one hand, the people were in poverty and domestic purchasing power was weak. On the other hand, the maturing colonies were continuously transporting products back to the country and piling them up in warehouses.

Under the intertwined conflicts between the two parties, overseas products that are in short supply throughout Europe show a strange surplus in the Spanish market.

That's why black ports like Bermeo appear.

In the shrewd calculations of the Spaniards, they never thought of accepting products from other countries through these offshore black ports. They just wanted to use the power of black market merchants to sell the colonial goods accumulated in the country. the better.

After figuring this out, Lorraine completely gave up his plan to change the port.

This is the case in the entire Black Harbor in the Bay of Kebis.

Not only the black port, maybe even the regular ports in Spain are like this. Otherwise, why would a super port like Bilbao collapse so quickly, so fast that people are caught off guard?

Isn't this... asking for trouble for me!

Walking out of Mr. Frey's exchange together with Hannah, Lorraine put down her disguise and rubbed between her brows wearily.

"Hina, which one is this?"

"ten."

"The highest asking price is two pounds twelve shillings, and the lowest asking price is one pound sixteen shillings. These Spanish merchants are so good at calculating accounts. Are they too good at doing business? Or are they not good at doing business?"

The two of them walked in a dispirited manner, walked to a small square, found a bench and sat down.

Lorraine is in a dilemma.

On the one hand, overseas products are the most important part of the triangular trade ring designed by Lorraine. It can ensure the diversity of products in the chamber of commerce, which is conducive to the rapid accumulation of contacts in Lorraine.

He absolutely cannot let go of the special market environment in which Spain is eager to sell overseas products.

On the other hand, accepting unequal treaties for traveling merchants will greatly slow down his accumulation of wealth, and even ruin his good starts in Scotland and Norway, and eventually make him trapped in the small trading circle of black market merchants for the rest of his life. inside.

The best way to solve this dilemma is to get Bermeo's business qualification.

He had found out clearly that the management committee of Bermeo Black Port was composed of seven gentlemen, and the application for a business residence could only be approved if the approval of four gentlemen was obtained at the same time.

Lorraine is unfamiliar with the place here, and it is extremely difficult to achieve this condition in a short period of time.

Fortunately, he has another way out, Viscount Alfonso.

The viscount is a member of the seven-member group of the management committee. He has a great reputation and has a strong influence on other members. Only with his help can Lorraine open up Bermeo's situation.

but……

"The two parties are not relatives, and the Viscount is often not in Hong Kong, how can we get on the line with him?" Lorraine thought with all his heart, without any distractions, and unconsciously spoke out.

Haina raised her eyebrows: "You can find out his home address. I will disguise myself and kidnap his child first, and then you will save him in front of him and beat me away. In this way, friendship will be established."

Lorraine couldn't laugh or cry: "Such a deliberate script, are you a fool to be a viscount?"

"It can be done more realistically." Haina said murderously, "For example, when I rescued you, I poked a few holes in your body to bleed more. Out of guilt, the Viscount is not easy to suspect."

"You... you can't be serious, can you?"

Hannah is serious.

She has had enough of being angry for the past few days, and she wants to poke transparent holes in people's bodies, and she can't fake it at all.

Lorraine saw it, and was dumbfounded with fright.

He swallowed forcefully, his eyes wandered, and suddenly he saw more than a dozen colorful domed caravans driving out from the end of the square, occupying a corner of the square by themselves.

Gospel from heaven!

Lorraine was ecstatic, and hurriedly changed the topic: "Look, Hannah, there are gypsies here!"

deathly silence...

Haina looked at him coldly, and said with a straight voice, "You are the gypsy! Your whole family is a gypsy!"