New Materials

After finishing her calculations, Veronica said, "We can lend him thirty percent of the funds to start with, based on a loan of 100,000 gold. But he'll need to put up six years of canal tolls as collateral. The whole canal is estimated to bring in around 40,000 gold a year in tolls, but half of that goes to the other nobles. I'm calculating it at 20,000 gold a year. Add twenty percent interest, and that comes to exactly six years."

Victor thought her bargaining had been ruthless.

Ever since the Vela Three Provinces had opened trade routes to the Raine Kingdom's heartland, commerce between the two had grown year by year. Thanks to Vela's location and its access to the north, it had sold plenty of local specialties to the kingdom's heartland, earning the Vela Nobles a great deal of money. According to figures from the Great Merchant Guilds alone, the goods traded between the two regions were worth several hundred thousand gold each year.

The canal Alex was building would certainly boost trade between the Vela Region and the kingdom's heartland. With the canal, goods from the Northern Region could reach the Central Region twice as fast, and in far greater quantities than overland transport had allowed.

Even if tolls were set at just ten percent of the goods' value, the canal would bring in at least seventy or eighty thousand gold a year. The Iron Birch Family would earn thirty to forty thousand gold even with only a half share.

To Victor, Veronica's price was outrageous. She had cut the projected toll revenue straight in half.

"Veronica, using the tolls as collateral is fine. Charging interest is fine too. But add one condition: once the loan is repaid, the lien on the canal tolls can be lifted