Foreign Merchant Caravan
Powell's order naturally surprised everyone. They were all shocked by his extravagance. After all, even for Two Rivers Territory, which was now burning through its wealth on immigration and territorial expansion, 20,000 gold coins was by no means a small sum.
The territory's civil service system didn't quite approve of their steward's approach either. After all, this item was indeed very useful, but directly taking 20,000 gold was a bit too extravagant.
However, the military system largely approved of Powell's grand gesture, given its higher requirements for information transmission. Ron, who seemed to thrive on chaos, even cheered loudly at the ceremony, though he was soon punished by his brother-in-law, the Viscount Wembley.
It was only then that the officers of the territory's military system realized the drawback of having Viscount Wembley of the War Department. With Viscount Wembley in charge, the War Department would inevitably have an advantage over the army.
Just as everyone was once again discussing this extravagant order, Victor, who had been silent all along, suddenly stepped forward.
"Powell, you did a great job, you really have guts. In my opinion, telegrams must be sent throughout the entire territory. Not to mention the Two Rivers Territory, I also want to have telegrams sent to the Golden Sunflower Territory so that I can know the situation in the Golden Sunflower Territory as soon as possible from the Northlands."
Furthermore, I will spread telegrams throughout the entire Vela Region, and even across the Tears of God Inland Sea, connecting to the Raine Kingdom."
Octavia exclaimed from the side, "That's an astronomical figure!"
Victor shook his head. "It's not that exaggerated. The reason why it's so expensive for you to make telegraph machines and lines is because you still mainly make them by hand, and the copper resources in your territory are limited, which makes the cost of telegraphs so high."
However, if you can continue to simplify the telegraph machine and its associated equipment, enabling more efficient production in the factory, it will certainly significantly reduce costs.
At the same time, expand the mining scale of the Blue Lake Bay Copper Mine, build a railway to Blue Lake Bay to imitate Iron Mountain, increase copper production, reduce transportation costs, and further reduce the cost of the railway line!
In the future, it will be entirely possible to reduce the cost of a complete telegraph system to 20 gold coins and less than 100 gold coins for a one-kilometer telegraph line. At that time, the price of the entire telegraph system will drop significantly.
Furthermore, these telegrams are open to anyone, and sending a telegram costs one Silver Coin per word. It's possible that the construction costs could be recouped just from the fees alone!
After Victor finished speaking, everyone present was somewhat bewildered, and some didn't even quite understand what Victor meant.
These nobles were considered quite cultured people in their territory, and they had even received Victor's education. However, they had little concept of industrial production efficiency and cost reduction, and they didn't quite understand why Victor wanted to open up this amazing telegraph to everyone. After all, these things were clearly important military and national weapons that should be kept strictly confidential.
Victor didn't take it to heart. After all, people rarely have a real sense of what they haven't seen before. He figured they could just show it to them later.
"I plan to establish a chamber of commerce in my territory, specializing in the telegraph project. First, I will invest 20,000 gold in this chamber of commerce in my name as lord. The Government Affairs Office's 20,000 gold will also be converted into an investment, and the research institute's technology will be converted into 20,000 gold. In total, the three will amount to 60,000 gold, with each holding one-third. In the future, all profits earned by the chamber of commerce from operating the telegraph project will be distributed among the three according to their respective proportions."
Victor used the name "Chamber of Commerce" because he was worried that many people might not understand why he would use it as a company name.
The research institute's funding all comes from the Lord's Mansion, which means that Victor still owns two-thirds of the shares in this merchant guild and has absolute control.
Victor was very optimistic about the future of the telegraph business, but estimated that it would take a long time to achieve full coverage of the territory. Therefore, Victor simply instructed Octavia and others to continue to improve the telegraph service, and he would arrange for someone to be in charge of the rest of the factory construction.
After everything was sorted out, Victor announced the end of the ascension ceremony. However, as the nobles who attended the ceremony dispersed, the aftermath of the ceremony lasted for a long time.
Because Victor directly started the trial operation of the telegraph service between Wood Fort Town and Sea Song Town, with a research institute sending special personnel to manage it. Anyone interested could pay to use the telegraph service. As a trial operation, the fee was very low, five coins per Silver Coin.
Soon, Telegraph Office were established in Wood Fort Town and Sea Song Town, and signs were put up. Many citizens and merchants were very curious about this thing. Especially after the promotion ceremony, Victor did not ask the nobles to keep it a secret, and soon news about the telegraph spread throughout the territory.
As the telegraph spread across the territory, it became increasingly magical. Some said it could make a person's voice travel dozens of kilometers in an instant so that the other person could hear it. Others said that the person operating the telegraph could have an out-of-body experience and travel between the two places along the dark lines. In any case, all sorts of messages came and went, which made the Telegraph Office seem mysterious in people's minds.
The telegraph lines that had already been set up attracted attention once again. When these telegraph lines were first set up, many people didn't care at all, but when they learned what they were for, they became very curious.
The chaos was further amplified when news spread that the dark lines were filled with copper, as copper was still very expensive in the territory, with one gold coin able to buy 3 kilograms of copper.
Upon learning this news, some people immediately took the risk of stealing the telegraph lines. Fortunately, Victor had anticipated this and had sent out some Light Cavalry to patrol in advance, and also arranged for militia from the settlements along the route to guard the lines, ensuring their safety.
However, for the next five days, no one went to the Telegraph Office to use the telegraph service until one morning when a foreign caravan suddenly walked into the Telegraph Office and asked to use the telegraph service.
It turns out that this caravan came from Blackwater City in the Central Vira Province. They were a well-known Great Merchant Guilds in Blackwater City. During Victor's occupation of Blackwater City, they made a lot of money by trading with the Southern Marching Legion and even signed some contracts.
Therefore, this year the Chamber of Commerce has been sending caravans to Two Rivers Territory to hand over goods and fulfill orders. Since they come by boat, the delivery location is Sea Song Town.
In addition to the goods purchased for their orders, the caravan also carried other goods that they intended to sell to the people of Two Rivers Territory.
Unfamiliar with the market conditions within the Two Rivers Territory, the caravan leader, accompanied by two assistants, ventured deep into the Two Rivers Territory, traveling westward along the Great Fish River until they reached Wood Fort Town.
After arriving here, he spent half a day exploring the area. He found that Wood Fort Town was very prosperous, densely populated, and its residents had strong purchasing power and active consumption. The goods they brought could be sold at higher prices here than in Sea Song Town.
After all, the main population of Wood Fort Town consists of military families, as well as most of the civil officials in the territory. These people have a lot of money, enough to support a very prosperous market.
So the caravan leader decided to have the caravans from Sea Song Town immediately travel upstream along the Great Fish River and bring their goods over to sell.
As he was preparing to leave Wood Fort Town, he overheard someone talking about the telegraph. When he learned that this telegraph could instantly travel dozens of kilometers to deliver messages to Sea Song Town, he immediately wanted to try it out.
His assistant also raised an objection. "Manager, is this some kind of scam?"
"A Silver Coin only has five characters. If you issue more, it might not even be enough for a gold coin. The three of us only spent three Silver Coin to take the boat back to Sea Song Town. There's absolutely no need to spend this money!"
The Chamber of Commerce leader said, "What do you know? This item has been verified by Victor Marquis; it's definitely not fake."
When I was in Blackwater City, I met the esteemed Marquis Victor. He was the most honest nobleman I had ever met. He was discerning and exceptionally shrewd; no one could fool him!
And didn't you see it yourselves?
The goods we brought are already being sold in the market, and they are twice as expensive as the goods we sold in Sea Song Town, yet many people are still eager to buy them.
If we go back to Sea Song Town and then bring the caravan to Wood Fort Town, it will take another day for us to go back and forth, and then someone else will have made all that money.
"If we can notify Sea Song Town immediately, the caravan can depart at least half a day earlier, and we can sell our goods half a day earlier. We can easily earn 100 gold coins then, so what's one gold coin spent on the telegram?"
The caravan leader immediately convinced his assistant.
He soon went to the Telegraph Office's reception desk and asked to send a telegram.
After carefully confirming the content and recipient information with him, the staff at the reception desk immediately sent the content to the power generation room.
The operators here are all specially trained by the research institute. In order to ensure that there are no problems with the telegrams, the research institute also sent a technician to be stationed here.
However, since no one had used the telegram for so long, this was the first time, and everyone was very excited. With the operator's beeping, the telegram was quickly sent out without any problems.
A minute later, they received a reply. After confirming that the content was correct, the receptionist immediately returned to the reception desk and informed the caravan leader that the telegram had been successfully received and would be delivered to the caravan soon.
Then the caravan leader and his assistants were left waiting. At this point, the caravan leader became somewhat restless, wondering whether the telegram had actually reached the caravan.
But that very afternoon, a fleet of ships arrived at the dock in Wood Fort Town; it was the same caravan with its people and goods.
They quickly met up with the caravan leader as instructed in his telegram, and immediately found a temporary shop to start selling their goods.
During the sale, the Chamber of Commerce leaders kept touting the magic of the telegraph, and the news spread quickly.
Then, people gradually began to come to the Telegraph Office to use the telegraph. At first, there were only a few people, but by the next day, a long queue had formed outside the Telegraph Office.