Volume 2 Chapter 74 The price of a horse
There wasn’t anything worth noting at the Banka Road opening ceremony. The only highlight was that after Count Sean’s speech, her highness Seveni said a few simple words.
Although her highness didn’t say much and was most likely her extending congratulations to the Banka Road, she had clearly revealed some important information in her words.
That was that the king acknowledged companies investing in building roads and even showed support.
So the representatives of the large companies were all excited.
Since this matter had the explicit support of the kingdom’s royal family, that meant there were bright prospects.
Now they just needed to see if the Frestech Chamber of Commerce could earn money from this road.
This question had completely disappeared after a horse carriage from the Fersen Carriage Company had arrived in Banta City.
It was because this horse carriage had set off at the beginning of the ceremony and it didn’t even take an entire morning for it to go an entire round trip!
All the merchants understood that time was money.
When the Banka Road hadn’t been constructed, although Banta City was less than sixty kilometers away from Karma City, it would take most of a day even riding in the fastest horse carriage.
Now that the Banka Road was open, a round trip actually only took a single morning! If this was converted to an one way trip, that was a trip of less than two hours!
Compared to before, this without a doubt saved quite a bit of time.
There was no need to mention that if a horse carriage galloped across sixty kilometers of gravel road, a person’s butt would have been destroyed. If it was cargo, in order to protect the cargo, they could only move as slowly as possible, so it might take more than a day for an one way trip.
But because of the new Banka Road’s smooth concrete surface, their horse carriages didn’t jolt when running across it.
Adding in the fact that the Fersen Carriage Company’s carriage had swapped from the old wooden wheel to the new tire developed by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, not only did it lessen the shaking, it made the horse carriage lighter and allowed it to move much faster.
If it wasn’t for the help of this new tire, even if the Banka Road had this kind of incomparably smooth concrete surface, it definitely wouldn’t take just a single morning to run back and forth between Banta City and Karma City.
So after the «Banta Times» had run a special report on these new tires, there was a new wave that appeared in Banta City and the surrounding cities. All the horse carriages switched tires.
In less than half a month, the large and small carriages in the streets of Banta City and the surrounding cities had all changed to the tires manufactured by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
If there was a horse carriage that was still using the old wooden wheels, they wouldn’t have the face to appear in public!
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Some night in the middle of September, the City Lord’s Manor held another banquet. Almost all the chairman of companies and nobles were invited.
“Chairman Xu, I really am filled with admiration towards you” The Fersen Carriage Company’s chairman Pompeii raised his wine glass and clanked it against Xu Yi’s before saying with a sigh of admiration, “Since your Frestech Chamber of Commerce has been established, no matter what you’ve researcher, it has led to a buying spree in Banta City and the surrounding cities. Ignoring the magic machines since your Frestech Chamber of Commerce specializes in it, I never thought that this tire that you casually took out would be this popular.”
Xu Yi shook his head, “Chairman Pompeii, you can’t underestimate the tire, this thing can’t be casually taken out. You have to know that although this thing seems like a simple iron ring, there are many levels of things included in it. Just the cushion inside took the Armani Chamber of Commerce several tries before I was satisfied. Because of this, chairman Vincent complained many times that I was being just too picky.”
In all honesty, the most important part of the tire was the tire’s cover.
But on the Sines Continent, Xu Yi had never discovered the existence of rubber trees. Although he wanted to make the tire before, because there was no rubber, he could only give up.
After the Night Song Tribe did all kinds of strange experiments with the resin following Xu Yi’s requests, they accidentally came up with a resin that was close to rubber.
This resin came from a plant that the elves called Tear Fruit.
After this plant matured, it would grow fruits that were the size of a human head and it would release white liquid when split open.
After this juice and several kinds of pollen were mixed together, then using the special magic of the elves, it became this kind of special resin.
This kind of resin had similar characteristics as processed rubber, so when Xu Yi saw it, he immediately thought that he could use it for tires.
In the end, after a series of experiments, the Night Song Tribe elves came up with this tire cover.
Of course, this special resin was a Frestech Chamber of Commerce secret, so naturally Xu Yi wouldn’t divulge this to chairman Pompeii.
Hearing Xu Yi mention chairman Vincent, chairman Pompeii broke out in laughter, “But now that the tires are selling well, their Armani Chamber of Commerce must be earning a lot, so chairman Vincent won’t be blaming you.”
Xu Yi smiled and looked at chairman Vincent chatting with nobles. He thought that compared to the Armani Chamber of Commerce’s countless experiments, chairman Vincent would rather complain to him about the fact that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce still hadn’t developed the Magic Loom that he wanted.
But there was no other way, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had limited research staff and there were too many things to research. Xu Yi could only focus and choose to research certain things.
Compared to the textile industry which wasn’t that important, it was more important to research gathering and storing energy and the road building technology, which were more important for the development of an industrial system.
“That’s right, chairman Xu, I still haven’t thanked you yet.” Chairman Pompeii suddenly said.
“Un? Thank me for what?” Xu Yi asked.
“Of course it’s to thank you for raising the request with her highness. Now her highness has agreed that the horses that can’t become military horses will be sold to me. Although they are a bit expensive, to my company, being able to have that many horses means being able to bring out more horse carriages, which means plenty of business.” Chairman Pompeii said with an excited red face.
“This isn’t anything, I just casually mentioned it to her highness.” Xu Yi waved his hand, not caring at all. He then casually asked in a curious voice, “That’s right, chairman Pompeii, how much does your company usually spend on a normal horse?”
“It’s not set. The price will vary a lot based on the quality of the horse. The best kind of horses costs several hundred thousand gold coins, which my company can’t use. For a normal ones, other than the best horses being privately raised by large nobles, most of them are given to the royal army. Our company uses inferior grade horses, which cost around one to two hundred gold coins each.” Chairman Pompeii replied.
“One to two hundred gold coins?” Xu Yi thought about it before asking, “If there was something that can replace a horse and pull a horse carriage just as fast, or even two to three times faster, how much money would you spend to buy it?”
Chairman Pompeii looked at Xu Yi in surprise. After a pause, his eyes popped out and he excitedly grabbed Xu Yi’s shoulder while saying, “Chairman Xu, is this true? Is there really such a thing? Your Frestech Chamber of Commerce has already developed this? Quickly tell me! If it is true, even if it is two hundred gold coins…..No! I would definitely buy it at three hundred gold coins each!”
Xu Yi was a bit speechless. When Xu Yi mentioned the tire last time, chairman Pompeii was also this excited. Now he had just heard a bit and he was already excited.
He was still the chairman of a large company, was there a need to be this easily surprised?
“This…..it hasn’t been developed yet and is still in the beginning stages.” Xu Yi moved away from chairman Pompeii’s hands as he answered.
“Ah? Not yet.” Chairman Pompeii’s excited expression became disappointed, “That really is a pity, this kind of thing really is important for our Fersen Carriage Company. Chairman Xu, can you tell me when you will be able to develop it?”
Xu Yi gave a shrug, “I can’t give you an answer. This thing is very complicated, it’s not something that can be easily developed.”
Chairman Pompeii considered it before saying to Xu Yi with a serious face, “Alright, chairman Xu Yi, when you have finished developing this thing, you have to contact me and sell it to our Fersen Carriage Company first, alright?”
“We’ll see.” Xu Yi vaguely replied.
The engine development was indeed very difficult and Xu Yi wasn’t even certain if it could be developed, so how could he easily promise him this.
Then again, if he really could develop the engine, there were many widespread uses for it, so Xu Yi wouldn’t give any priorities.
Seeing Xu Yi’s vague answer, chairman Pompeii knit his brows. He wanted to say something, but he saw that Count Sean had walked through the crowd, so he could only close his mouth and look over at Count Sean.
In front of everyone, Count Sean slowly walked to the stage in the hall. Looking around, he raised his wine cup and said in a loud voice, “Everyone, welcome to the banquet on studying how to make Banta City a better place.”