In the tavern's private room.
Arnold, who had just been discussing with the Earl Of Avon how to dig a hole for the House of Saint Hilde, was now respectfully pouring wine for Colin and smiling flatteringly.
"My Lord, I'm a citizen of the Northern Frontier after all. Of course, I'm loyal to the Northern Frontier! That Saint Prospero Evan actually overestimated himself and tried to encourage me to betray the Northern Frontier. What a joke! "
Colin looked at the righteous Northern Frontier merchant in front of him with a faint smile, as if he had forgotten that Arnold had secretly contacted the Earl Of Avon in the Butter Tavern.
Obviously, if Colin did not have something on him, how could Arnold suddenly become a loyal and unyielding citizen of the Northern Frontier?
Colin would never forget that these merchants were willing to sell anything for the sake of profit.
But fortunately, he could give them greater benefits as long as they were obedient.
Similarly, if they were not obedient, he could take everything away from them.
"Mr. Arnold, you're really a model for the merchants of the Northern Frontier!"
"My Lord, you flatter me! In my heart, you're the model for the knights of the Northern Frontier, the best among the nobles! "
The two of them flattered each other sincerely for a while, then raised their wine glasses and toasted their friendship.
After downing the wine in his cup, Arnold put down the cup and quietly sized up Colin's expression. He then probed, "Sir, I'm not sure if you'll be able to do anything.
He then asked tentatively, "My Lord, there's something I don't know if I should ask …"
Colin casually glanced at him and said indifferently, "Don't worry, I won't go back on my word. Don't you believe in my credibility?"
"No, no, no." Arnold waved his hand and said, "My Lord, you misunderstood. Of course, I believe that you won't mistreat your loyal subordinates. I just don't understand why you would give the Eastern Frontier such an opportunity to make a fortune? "
"Get rich?" Colin sneered. "You also think that it's a good opportunity to get rich?"
Arnold was worried, but he still mustered up his courage and said, "Sir, are you really going to renege on those bonds? With all due respect, I'm afraid this will severely damage the reputation of the House of Saint Hilde. "
Colin laughed and teased, "You're not bad. You're starting to think for the House of Saint Hilde."
"Of course, the great House of Saint Hilde holds a high place in the hearts of every citizen of the Northern Frontier!" Arnold said with a pious expression, as if he was worshipping his own religion.
Colin ignored Arnold's display of loyalty and lightly said: "Don't worry, the House of Saint Hilde will not destroy its own reputation. No matter who comes to the Lion's Roar Fort with matured bonds, we will honor them, even if they are from the Eastern Territory.
However, if you say that the Eastern Frontier can make a fortune by hoarding bonds and manipulating food prices, hehe, then you're taking it for granted. "
Arnold looked puzzled and asked: "Sir Count, please forgive my stupidity, but I don't quite understand what you mean."
In fact, the trap that Colin dug for the Earl Of Avon was, to put it bluntly, a simple operation similar to futures.
At this time, the Earl Of Avon was buying food at a low price in the Eastern Frontier and bringing it to the Northern Frontier to exchange for bonds. These bonds could be regarded as futures contracts.
On the day of the future delivery, when the bonds matured, as long as the price of food in the Northern Frontier was higher than the current price in the Eastern Frontier, the Earl Of Avon could rely on this difference to make a fortune. He could even make the House of Saint Hilde unable to come up with enough money to buy the corresponding food, thus resulting in a credit default.
But there was a key problem here — the price of food at the time of delivery must be higher than the current price.
Otherwise, the Eastern Frontier would suffer a loss …
The reason why Arnold and the Earl Of Avon were fooled was because their thinking was limited by this era.
In this era of insufficient productivity, food had always been in a state of insufficient food. Therefore, it was very easy to raise the price of food. If there was a war, or even if several large Chambers of Commerce joined forces to hoard food, the price of food would soar to the sky.
This was also the source of the Earl Of Avon's confidence.
In his view, it would not be difficult to manipulate the price of food all the way up in the future, and he would certainly be able to make the House of Saint Hilde swallow the bitter fruit.
But he did not know that Colin was determined to let Scholar Sonny implement the new farming and animal husbandry system in the Northern Frontier.
Moreover, Colin was also confident that with the popularization of this new farming and animal husbandry system, the Northern Frontier would become more and more abundant in the future, and the price of food would certainly fall all the way.
This was the general trend determined by the relationship between supply and demand. If the Eastern Frontier wanted to reverse this trend, hehe, they would have to be prepared to be crushed and swept away by this flood.
Of course, Colin didn't intend to explain this to Arnold. After all, he still couldn't completely trust this merchant. Thus, he only said indifferently:
He just said lightly, "Then you should pay attention to the future trend of food prices and see if the Eastern Frontier can really make a fortune, or even use this to threaten the House of Saint Hilde."
Arnold nodded his head in confusion, but he did not dare to ask more.
Colin gave Arnold a few more words to let him feel at ease in this promising undercover job, and then he left.
…
Three days later, the Northern Frontier Foreign Trade Company, which Colin had high hopes for, was finally officially established.
More than five hundred large and small Northern Frontier merchants gathered in the banquet hall of the Lion's Roar Castle to witness this historic moment.
Since the Earl Of Avon's attention was diverted by Colin to the bonds, without the Eastern Frontier secretly intervening, it did not take much effort for Colin to successfully occupy nearly sixty percent of the shares of the new company.
Of course, such a large sum of money was certainly not enough for the shallow Angele family. Even if they invested all the war reparations of the Great Demon Empire, it would still not be enough.
Fortunately, with the help of the House of Saint Hilde, the Oman family, the Schultz family, and the half-elf kingdom's Miller family, Colin was able to successfully control the board of directors and become the first chairman of the Northern Frontier Foreign Trade Company.
Oliver was also appointed as the company's first general manager by Vera as he wished. Moreover, the management team of the company, especially the two most important departments, were the backbone of the original Tulip Chamber of Commerce.
At this point, a Northern Frontier Foreign Trade Company under Colin's complete control was finally established.
In Colin's vision, it would become a weapon for him to integrate and control the Northern Frontier's business community, as well as to carry out economic invasion.
At the same time, the Northern Frontier Charity Foundation was also announced.
Compared to the Northern Frontier Foreign Trade Company, the foundation's establishment was very low-key.
Moreover, besides Colin, no one else was aware of its huge potential and real role.
After dealing with the business community's problems, Colin began to prepare for his trip to the half-elf kingdom.
In fact, the current hidden dangers in the Northern Frontier had not been completely eliminated, such as Mr. Kong, Prince Rhy, and the Morrison family. However, Colin felt that these problems were quite troublesome and could not be dealt with for the time being.
Fortunately, he had already reached an agreement with Mr. Kong. Although Colin had doubts about the reliability of this agreement, he believed that Mr. Kong would not cause too much trouble in the Northern Frontier in the short term. After all, he and Colin did have a basis for cooperation in some aspects.
What's more, Prince Rhy was watching this terrible mage.
Colin could only temporarily put these hidden dangers aside to deal with a more important and urgent problem — food.
Queen Aisha had sent a letter. Compared to the last time when they were unprepared, this time the half-elf grain merchants had united. They did not want to be forced by Colin to buy a large amount of food at a low price like last year. Moreover, behind them, there seemed to be the support of the Eastern Region.
Therefore, Colin was ready to take the Blood Cavalry to Silvermoon City this time to teach the half-elf merchants a lesson.
After half a year of development, the Blood Cavalry had now expanded to a scale of nearly 20,000 people. Although there was still a big gap between them and the Black Cavalry at its peak, it could already be considered a terrifying military force.
At least in the half-elf kingdom, there was no force that could threaten it.
Unless the Eastern Region sent a large number of troops to the half-elf kingdom.
In that case, it might be a good thing for Colin.
Because this meant that the Eastern Region gave up their biggest geographical advantage — the Nu Shui River.
Colin was very willing to form the Northern Frontier Coalition Army and compete with the Eastern Region Army in the half-elf kingdom.
However, this was just Colin's own thought. As long as the Duke of Saint Prospero was not stupid, he would not do this.
In late September, after bidding farewell to Vera, Colin personally led the Blood Cavalry to leave Winter City and set off for Silvermoon City.
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