Volume 5 Chapter 90 Attitude towards slaves
After navigating around the Candra Empire’s southern seas for four hours, the guard fleet stopped at an island that was around five to six kilometers wide.
This island didn’t have any mineral resources and didn’t have any resources worth mentioning, it wasn’t the goal of the guard fleet at all.
But two months ago, Xu Yi had changed the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s plan on the sea. He planned to build a chain of islands on the sea, linking all the islands with resources together to control the area. So even this island that didn’t have any resources, but was suited for having a base built on it was also included in the range of consideration.
There were countless islands like this on the southern seas of the Candra Empire, so it was impossible to build bases on all of these islands.
Through inspecting them, Xu Yi finally through Leslie’s reports had decided that this island and two islands that were around one to two hundred kilometers away were the first sites of construction.
Although the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s guard fleet had been active in the seas of the Candra Empire before, strictly speaking, after building bases on these three islands, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would officially be entering the Candra Empire’s seas.
Although the countries of the continent didn’t really have an accurate concept of sea area, this island was only a hundred kilometers away from the Candra Empire’s shore. This was considered in the area of control for the Candra Empire navy.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce didn’t inform the Candra Empire and built bases on these three islands, it was hard to predict what kind of reaction the Candra Empire would have.
After the guard fleet stopped near the island, they didn’t stay idle. They put down several dozen small Magic Speed Boats and carried over a hundred sailors with building materials that they had brought over from Nissi Harbour to the island, building some simple dwellings near the coast.
After around two hours, before the simple dwellings had been finished, there was a giant silver glowing Magic Ship that was coming from the west.
Leslie brought the guard fleet over and on the “Far Towing” large transport Magic Ship that was just finished last month, he saw the head of the transport fleet Narvil.
The two didn’t exchange greetings and after giving a simple report, they both sent out small magic Speed Boats, bringing large amounts of personnel and construction materials from the “Far Towing” Ship to the island.
These people didn’t just come from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, a lot of them came from the Amrit Chamber of Commerce.
These people were only here with one goal which was to first build a harbour on this island.
Only after constructing a harbour could they deliver goods to this island more easily, making it easier to build the base.
This island base construction had been done on seven islands in the southern Rudson Kingdom seas, so there was no need for Narvil or Leslie to lead them. Whether it was the workers from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce or the Amrit Chamber of Commerce, they were very skilled with the construction.
There were several simple dwellings that were quickly built by the sea and then the Amrit Chamber of Commerce’s construction workers brought their living needs into the buildings.
According to the plan, starting tomorrow, they would be spending three months on this island to build the harbour and the island base. Then they would follow the plan for the next steps.
To stay on this uninhabited island for this long and having to work quite a bit each day, their lives were naturally not good.
But whether it was the workers from the Amrit Chamber of Commerce or the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, not a single person was complaining. Rather they were all smiling as they worked.
This work was back breaking, but they would receive at least thirty gold coins a month.
And because of rush work which led to overtime, they could even receive fifty gold coins a month adding in the overtime pay.
This was already a large amount of money, not to mention that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce provided them with various other benefits.
For example, because the weather in the southern seas were very hot, they would be receiving a subsidy worth three gold coins a month for working in the high temperatures.
At the same time, because the living conditions here weren’t good and the work was hard, they would receive a nutrition subsidy worth five gold coins a month.
Adding in the various subsidies, if it was converted to gold coins, it would be a total of over ten gold coins a month.
With this kind of shocking working conditions, even if the work was hard, so what?
“Hey, Narvil, do you see this? This is the benefit of having money.” Leslie looked at the workers working hard on the island and gave a shrug as he said to Narvil beside him, “As long as they receive enough money, I think that these people might even sell their lives to our company.”
“Using money to buy lives isn’t that hard.” Narvil looked at Leslie, “On Caraska Island five years ago, as long as you took out ten gold coins, you could buy a life.”
Leslie looked at Narvil and had nothing to say in response.
He knew that Narvil came from Caraska Island and knew that the previous Caraska Island was called the island of pirates. The living conditions on the island were bad and it wasn’t considered strange to buy a life for ten gold coins.
But now that he heard Narvil say these words, he felt it was very strange.
“If it wasn’t for chairman Xu and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce changing the living conditions on the island, Caraska Island wouldn’t be that much different from before.,” Narvil suddenly gave a sigh before saying in an emotional voice, “Actually, not to mention Caraska island from five years ago, even if you went to other countries on the continent right now, you can also easily buy a life for ten gold coins.”
Leslie was silent for a bit before nodding.
After being in the Frestech Chamber of Commerce for a while, he had come up with a misconception. The lives of the people around him were very good, everyone didn’t need to worry about food or lodging, this world had become much better.
But in fact, other than the places the Frestech Chamber of Commerce influenced, even in the surrounding countries, there were people that still couldn’t solve the basic problems of food and clothing.
As for the entire Sines Continent? There were even more countless places and countless people living poverty filled lives.
Leslie had urged Xu Yi not to work so hard and enjoy some relaxation, but Xu Yi had firmly rejected this.
Leslie had thought that Xu Yi was just crazy for working, he didn’t know how to enjoy life at all.
Now that he had talked to Narvil, he found that Xu Yi was this crazy about working because there was a lofty goal in his heart.
He was working hard to give everyone on the continent a better life as quickly as possible…..
Thinking of this, Leslie couldn’t help feeling shame in his heart.
In his over thirty five years of life, this was his first time feeling this ashamed.
“Actually, I told sir chairman that we could just buy some slaves from another country and let those slaves do this, which would save us quite a bit of money. It costs at least three hundred thousand gold coins to build this base and if we use slaves, we could save several tens of thousands of gold coins.” Narvil said.
“He wouldn’t agree.” Leslie shook his head, “Xu Yi hates the existence of slaves the most, he’s told this many times. If he had enough money, he would buy all the slaves on the continent and give them back their freedom. If you tell him to buy slaves now, it would be strange if he didn’t scold you.”
“Un…..Although sir chairman didn’t directly scold me, I could tell that he was very angry, so I never mentioned this matter again.” Narvil nodded, “But sir Leslie, I have always considered a problem…..”
“What problem?”
“There’s no problem if our Frestech Chamber of Commerce doesn’t use slaves, but if other companies use a large number of slaves, their cost would be much lower than ours and they can sell for a much lower price. Because of our company’s high quality right now, there’s no problem now, but in the future…..If the quality of the goods from other companies are the same as ours, our company will face a large problem…..”
Leslie was stunned. It was like it was his first time meeting Narvil as he looked him over.
“How did you think of this problem?”
“When I was in Nissi Harbour, I met the chairman of a Rudson Kingdom magic machine company. His company had bought a few slaves and he had boasted about this in front of me, so then I thought of this problem. The more I thought about it, the more I felt this problem was serious. Sir Leslie, you have a close relationship with sir chairman, can you mention this to him?”
Leslie knit his brows to think before slowly shaking his head.
“I’m afraid it’s no use, Xu Yi is someone who sticks to his principles. I remember when the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had just been formed, I sent a group of slaves to work in his factory. At that time, he showed a different attitude to those slaves compared to others. I think that if it wasn’t for him not being strong enough, he might have bought those slaves from me at that time and would have freed them.”
This was Narvil’s first time hearing about when the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had just been formed. His eyes couldn’t help opening wide as he focused on listening to Leslie, afraid that he would miss a single word.
“You can see what happened next, in the entire Frestech Chamber of Commerce, there are over a hundred thousand workers, but there isn’t a single slave. Even his two slave maids have had their freedom given back to them. He’s even promoting a bill in the Stantine Duchy now to have them abolish slavery. Do you think…..he is someone who can accept slave workers?”
Narvil hesitated a bit before shaking his head with a bitter smile.
“What do we do then? If sir chairman isn’t willing to use slaves, our company will be at a disadvantage compared to other companies. How should we solve this problem?”
Leslie paused for a bit before suddenly breaking out in laughter and patting Narvil’s shoulder, “Alright, if you can think of this problem, how could Xu Yi not think of it? We have discussed this for a bit, but perhaps Xu Yi might have already come up with a solution. I’ve known this fellow for six years now and I’ve never seen him truly baffled by anything, so there’s no need for us to blindly worry.”
Narvil tilted his head to think before nodding with a faint smile.
“That’s right, how could sir chairman need us to worry about him? We just need to believe in him and follow what he says.”