The sight of piles of gold bars stacked on top of each other was quite striking.
Other than those who were in charge of transporting the gold, Zhang Heng gathered the rest of the crew and gave them weapons. They were tasked with maintaining order at the dock to prevent any accidents.
However, after the incident with the Skeleton, everyone on the island knew that the Jackdaw was not to be messed with. Hence, no one was blinded by the gold.
Zhang Heng sent someone to inform the female merchant, Karina, to clear a warehouse for them to store the gold. Their harvest this time was too much. If they distributed all of it to the crew, security would be a huge problem. Although no one on the island dared to make things difficult for the Jackdaw, thieves and robbers were already waiting for them to strike.
Other than that, Zhang Heng was reminded of the fact that one of his crew members had lost 20 gold coins in a single night at the casino. Although he did not interfere with how people spent their money, and he didn't care what they did with their money, he had to consider the possibility that the Jackdaw's crew members would be targeted if he gave out so much money at once.
Therefore, he planned to distribute a portion of it first and keep the rest for safekeeping. He would set up an account book so that those who needed it could withdraw it at any time.
After a while, Karina arrived at the dock with her crew. Zhang Heng noticed that she did not look too good. However, it was inappropriate for them to say anything in front of outsiders.
When they returned to the warehouse and saw the boxes of gold being transported, Zhang Heng and Karina found a secluded spot. "How was it? How was your side while I was away?"
Karina forced a smile. "Things … aren't going well."
"Hmm?"
Two months ago, when Zhang Heng left Nassau, the Skeleton's incident finally broke the deadlock that had been plaguing Karina for a long time. With the Jackdaw's unstoppable rise, the secondhand goods trading center gradually gained a foothold on the island.
Not only did the captain who worked with Karina privately look for her, but other ships other than the Jackdaw also broke away from the black-market alliance and publicly expressed their willingness to establish a long-term partnership with Karina.
This was undoubtedly a powerful blow to Malcolm, who wanted to monopolize Nassau's black-market trade. And this was just the beginning. Soon, more and more people expressed their interest in working with Karina.
To Karina, who had always been locked down by the black-market alliance, it was like rain from the sky. She saw the hope of defeating Malcolm and his black-market alliance. Without hesitation, she signed a partnership agreement with the pirate ships.
In order to take over such a large market share, Karina added another transport ship to the original two and also recruited more manpower. For this reason, she invested almost all the profits she earned from the previous few times into this operation.
However, things went completely out of her control.
Karina's biggest problem was that she didn't have any experience as a black-market merchant. When she came to Nassau, the black-market alliance was about to be established. Due to her father's imprisonment, all her previous partners had been taken away by others. It was only when she found the Jackdaw that Zhang Heng agreed to work with her that she managed to survive in Nassau. Since then, she had to face pressure from the black-market alliance.
That was why Karina was different from the other black-market merchants on the island. She had never worked with any ship other than the Jackdaw. Although she had secretly purchased goods from other captains behind the black-market alliance's back, it was basically a one-off deal. Working together was much more complicated.
Karina might be talented in business, but she also needed to learn and accumulate experience in unfamiliar fields. Without the pressure from Malcolm, she would have plenty of time to grow. Now, however, she was like a potato sprout that had to use all her strength to push away the stone that was pressing down on her head.
On the other hand, the impact of Malone's betrayal had begun to spread. Malone was her father's most trusted man, and he was also the most familiar with the entire process of her father's business.
Without his guidance and being in opposition to the other merchants, Karina could only rely on herself to figure things out. Only then did she realize that there were more problems than she had imagined.
For example, the previously discussed purchase price was to add another 5% to the black-market alliance's base price. This price was originally agreed upon by both parties, but because the black-market alliance had previously set a different price range for each pirate ship, some pirates realized that even if they sold a batch of goods of the same quality, they wouldn't get as much as another pirate ship that also cooperated with Karina.
As a result, some people were dissatisfied. At that time, Karina happened to be negotiating with other pirate captains. Because she was worried that it might bring about adverse effects, Karina finally unified the purchase price according to the highest standard. However, this way, her profit margin was even smaller.
And this was just the beginning. Because she increased the volume of goods she shipped, the people at the customs came to her and asked her to increase the bribe money. This, in turn, increased her costs. At first, Karina thought that Malcolm's men were behind this, but when she moved to another port, she found out that she was facing the same problem. Only then did she realize that this was the unspoken rule that all black-market merchants had to face.
Other than that, she also ran into trouble when selling her goods. Her large-scale shipment of goods caused the local merchants to be unhappy, and she even got into two lawsuits. Although the lawsuits were settled with money, the losses she suffered were not small.
Before Zhang Heng left, he gave Karina a transport ship. Once the Skeleton was repaired, she would use it as her third transport ship. However, she still needed to pay for the manpower and modification costs. On top of that, she also needed to expand the warehouse and open a new grocery store. When it came time to purchase goods from the pirates, she would have to mortgage her father's house again to raise the money.
However, it would take some time to purchase the goods and transport them to the colony's port to find a buyer. According to Carina's original calculations, there should be enough time for the transfer of funds, but the reality was not as smooth as she imagined. Moreover, the time when the pirates returned to the port was also uncontrollable. Sometimes, several pirate ships would sell their loot at the same time on the same day, which put a lot of pressure on Carina's finances.
A week before Zhang Heng's return, Karina's capital chain was broken, and she still owed two pirate ships. In the morning, Karina was still trying her best to appease her business partners. However, because she couldn't get her payment on time, some angry pirates smashed up Karina's new grocery store.
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