Firearms in a Fantasy World

Chapter 82: Leading Industries 1

Translator: Cinder Translations

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Mr. Bennett Todd, residing in Frand Port, is a wealthy man in his prime, owning five cargo ships.

Bennett's grandfather was originally a humble land merchant who accumulated wealth through years of traveling. By the time of his father's generation, the family began to focus on maritime ventures.

Amidst puzzled looks from relatives, his father used the money left by his grandfather to buy the first oar-sail ship for the Todd family and recruited enough sailors to start shipping business in the Northwestern Bay.

By the time Bennett took over, the Todd family already owned five cargo ships.

The presence of pirates did not overly affect the business of ship merchants. Though the annual protection fee was heart-wrenching, since the rise of the great pirate Edward, pirates understood the principle of not killing the goose that lays golden eggs. Only those stubborn enough would be robbed clean by pirates.

Furthermore, even if the money meant as a protection fee were not paid to the pirates, it would still be collected as tax by the lords.

True, what's lost are those lords along the coastline, just on the whole, where pirates are more likely to receive higher protection fees, lords have to collect fewer taxes, after all, a sheep with two pieces of skin cannot be peeled.

However, this year, the Northwestern Bay is said to be ever-changing.

The pirate leader Edward and his main fleet suddenly leave with no clue as to where they are going, and the remaining scattered pirate groups have lost their restraints, beginning to act recklessly, ignoring past rules.

This has caused considerable losses to maritime merchants.

Then several pirate groups landed one after another to loot, a leader named "Shark" from a pirate group even occupied Frand Port and stayed there. More surprisingly, they also ambushed and killed Earl Graymam, the lord of Alda.

Including local merchants like Bennett, they were extorted for a large sum of money by the pirates.

However, the good days of the pirates didn't last long. The new lord, Paul Grayman, quickly recruited soldiers and fought back against the pirates. The Shark and other pirate groups were hanged on the square of Frand Port a few months after their glory.

Initially in Mr. Todd's eyes, the young little Grayman was an ambitious man, of course, he might as well be too tall.

After reclaiming Frand Port, he convened businessmen to wind, saying that he would establish a "far-reaching trading company" in the future, hoping that everyone could participate together.

In his depiction of the future, businessmen's business will no longer be confined to the Northwestern Bay, but will reach further places, such as the Kingdom's west coast, such as the Southern Angle Bay, and even eastward after rounding Angle Bay.

At the time, everyone thought that the lord had been bewildered by the victory of pirates and was asking for money in different ways, how long would it take to travel that far by boat?

However, the recent events that happened to this lord have made Mr. Todd and some of his merchant friends feel that he was not just boasting or deceiving everyone at that time.

Earl Grayman did not force everyone to "invest" in a company as everyone had guessed, but he first produced several novel things that sold well.

Cheap new paper, exquisite porcelain, and harvesters that attracted landlords to place orders, all of which were produced by this young lord.