Super Chief

Chapter 183: Controlled by others

Liquor is good. It is the kind of distilled high whiskey that Colonel Jones entrusted Major Hank to bring to the High Tree Tribe last time to prepare a bottle of wine in exchange for 100 **** skins.

Just like Lao Maozi’s vodka and China’s Moutai, whiskey can also be called the national liquor of the United Kingdom.

In fact, the world-recognized whiskey is produced in Scotland and has a brewing history of at least 500 years. As soon as this kind of wine came out, it was welcomed by many British people.

However, in this era, because the British government began to levy a "whiskey tax" on its citizens, whether it is buying or selling alcohol, the tax is required to support wars on various lines and the needs of the nobles, so many wineries The bosses shut down their distillery because they couldn't pay the high taxes, and began to brew whiskey secretly. This type of winery is called "illegal winery" by the British government.

And ordinary people can't afford to pay this tax, so they secretly buy this kind of wine produced by illegal wineries, because the purchase of this kind of wine can also be free of tax.

Therefore, this illegal winery is a thorn in the eye and a thorn in the flesh in the eyes of the British senior management.

In the eighteenth century, there were only eight legal whisky distilleries in the entire United Kingdom, and there were as many as 400 illegal distilleries.

Since it is an illegal distillery, the whiskey they brew cannot be guaranteed in terms of quality or taste. After all, this kind of small distillery that takes a shot and changes places knows what is going on. Although the whisky produced by large legal distilleries is of good quality and good taste, the legal distilleries have to pay a high "whiskey tax", so the prices of the liquors from such legal distilleries are usually high. Very high.

In particular, some special whiskeys are supplied to the nobles and even the royal family, and their prices are even more jaw-dropping.

It's like these bottles of whiskey brought out by Colonel Jones are among the best in the UK. This kind of wine can only appear on the tables of the royal family and the powerful nobles.

A bottle of this whisky made by a legal distillery in Scotland is worth two Royal Rose Gold coins, which is four pounds!

In this era, the pound is still extremely valuable. At this time, the pound sterling is directly linked to silver, and one pound is equal to one pound of silver!

A British civilian, who worked hard for a whole year, could earn ten pounds and eight pounds; as a major, William Hank was considered a mid-level officer in the military, and he also left his home. For the New World, his salary for a year only adds up to only 48 pounds!

So, whiskey worth four pounds is really awkward!

In terms of the current price of silver, the four pounds at that time is approximately equivalent to about one thousand and one hundred dollars in modern times!

One thousand and one hundred dollars is enough to buy a good bottle of red wine at the top five wineries.

Since Colonel Jones showed his sincerity, Shi Xiong would not hide it. Anyway, what Colonel Jones and Major Hank want is refined salt, and this thing is simply too numerous for the Gaoshu tribe now. For the 60,000 pounds proposed by Colonel Jones, the stone bear has no pressure at all. .

The dish is a small stir-fry specially made by Shixiong. Although Ferguson is now trying to make this small-fried stir-fry on his own, but his skills are not good enough, the fried things can only barely be swallowed. In the words of later generations, that is this guy The dishes cooked by yourself are definitely worthy of the British dark cuisine.

Therefore, if you want to eat small stir-fry, you have to eat dishes made by the boss himself.

Major Hank naturally hadn't eaten this kind of stir-fry, so this meal almost prevented him from walking. A dignified major officer of the Royal British Empire, who is very unpromising to eat and support...

Major Hank also brought a little tea from the far east this time. Although it is not a good tea, for the stone bear who had no tea in the past, this kind of tea is estimated to be two yuan a wagon in the future. The tea mozi is also Qiongye Yuye now.

Meimei took a sip of tea, and the familiar taste almost made Shi Xiong hum comfortably.

"Guardian, the amount of salt that Colonel Jones wants this time is enough?" Hank lit his pipe and said after taking a sip.

"No problem, isn't it sixty thousand pounds? There are in the tribe!" Shi Xiong also lit his pipe, and replied easily while smoking, "I said William, your greedy boss is going to sell this salt. How much? Did he mention it to you?"

"Of course I mentioned, or where would he go to get so many such good salt?" Major Hank replied happily. It could be seen that the appearance of this kind of salt made this guy's position in the eyes of Colonel Jones rise sharply.

"But the colonel guy is very greedy. He wants to set the price of selling this kind of salt in the country at sixpence and a pound!" With that, Major Hank licked his teeth like a toothache, and issued a "tsk." Said, "This price is six times higher than the price of domestic salt! This fellow Jones really dare to set such a high price."

"Sixpence?" Shi Xiong also shook his head slightly. The price exceeded his estimate. "Can such a high price be sold?"

"It's easy! Master Guardian, you may not know that the 10,000 pounds of salt that was pulled back last time was bought by those powerful guys in Jamestown for more than half, and the price was sixpence. You guys. The salt produced in Jamestown, Philadelphia, New York, and even Boston are robbed crazy. It is said that the price of a pound in Boston has reached eight pence. Therefore, if this salt is shipped back to China , The price of sixpence will soon be robbed by those noble butlers."

Shi Xiong nodded thoughtfully, "In other words, once the salt is shipped to your country, the price is beyond your control?"

Hank nodded, "This is no way. We don't have transportation channels, and we are far less than Jones in China, so these things can only be handled by him. He sells the price of salt to ten in China. Penny, we can only watch."

Shixiong understands this kind of thing very well. Even if it is for later generations, the transportation channels and sales channels are stuck in the hands of others. As the lowest-level manufacturer, you can only watch those channel merchants make a big profit.

This feeling of being controlled by people is very uncomfortable!

"Your profits can still be guaranteed?" Shi Xiong asked after a short silence.

"It's okay. After all, the price I quoted Jones was four pence and a pound, which included three pence profits for me and Ferguson. Ferguson and I can only eat this one. But this one is also very profitable."

"Okay! Since Colonel Jones values ​​our salt so much, go back and tell him that I can supply him with salt at this price for a long time, but he must get me the things I need, otherwise I don't mind. Destroy this business that can make him a lot of money by himself."

Major Hank smiled and nodded and said, "Master Guardian, don't worry about this. Now that fellow Jones is more nervous than I am..."

Major Hank brought a lot of things this time. He brought almost all the things on the list that Shi Xiong gave him when he left last time.

The most of these is naturally food.

Now the British have completely established a foothold in the New World, and they even defeated the powerful French. With the continuous expansion of the territory and more immigrants from the continent across the ocean to the New World, the British power in the New World is getting stronger and stronger.

And with the rapid increase in strength, there is a bumper harvest of food.

Although the most economic crops that the Brits plant in the New World are tobacco leaves, but food crops such as corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes, barley, and wheat, they plant a larger area in the New World. After all, food is the foundation of everything. In addition, in the past two years, the New World has been a good weather, and the land here hasn't been cultivated for many years. It is very fat, so there is no need to worry about the food in the New World.

In fact, it would be difficult for the British to defeat the French in the Seven Years' War if it were not for the back-feeding of the 13 North American colonies to the British mainland.

Therefore, there is no shortage of food in Jamestown.

The last time Major Hank left the Hightree Tribe, the Whistle Snake of the Retich Tribe had not colluded with Major Armand of the Alcron Fortress to invade the Hightree Tribe, so the Hightree Tribe didn’t have enough food at that time. , And Shi Xiong also intends to use grain to hook up some of the small tribes that were previously separated from the Gaoshu tribe when the green and yellow are not picking up. So on that list, the stone bear wants the most food.

Although grain is currently the most circulated and most popular thing, thanks to the high yield of grain in the New World for several years, the price of grain has dropped a lot. In addition, the price of food itself is not as high as salt, so this time Major Hank easily raised 50,000 pounds of food for Stone Bear.

The Stone Bear owed Major Hank 20,000 pounds of salt last time, and this time Colonel Jones needed 60,000 pounds of salt. So this time Major Hank needed to take away 80,000 pounds of salt from the Gaoshu tribe. .

So this time Major Hank brought a huge convoy with nearly one hundred large four-wheeled carriages capable of pulling about a thousand pounds, and the soldiers protecting the convoy were as many as one company, more than one hundred. Mouth man!

A huge convoy pulled heavy supplies from Jamestown, hundreds of miles away, across the mountains and ridges to the Gaoshu tribe. It took nearly a month to walk this way.

Fortunately, the strength of the British became stronger and stronger, and there was no large-scale Indian attack along the way. These materials reached the Gaoshu tribe safely.

Looking at the food, Shi Xiong's face also bloomed with joy. Although a lot of food was seized from Constantine's fleet, a full 30,000 pounds of food was later extorted at the Okron Fortress, but no one would have too much food.

With the addition of the 50,000 pounds of food brought by Major Hank, the amount of food hoarded by the entire Gaoshu tribe is now close to 100,000 pounds.

Calculated on the basis that an adult person eats 0.5 kilograms of grain a day, this close to 100,000 pounds of grain is enough for a thousand people to eat for 80 days. If combined with hunting in the wilderness, the food will be enough for a thousand people to eat for three or four months.

There is so much food. When the green and yellow are not available in April and May, they can be used to attract more people to join the Gaoshu tribe.

In this era, population is the most important, and the basis for increasing population is food!

Shi Xiong knew this very well, so he was desperate to collect food, and at the same time, he also vigorously opened up wasteland and farmed, in order to make the Gaoshu tribe produce more and more food, so as to feed more people of the tribe. And only if there are more clansmen, can the Gaoshu tribe stand at the highest peak.

"William, I laughed at the food!" Shi Xiong looked at the busy people carrying the food with smiles on their faces, and said with a smile to Major Hank, "Well, don't worry, the amount of salt is enough. I promise you can take away 80,000 pounds of grain when you leave."

The grain that Major Hank brought was mainly corn, supplemented by wheat and barley, and about 5,000 pounds of rice. Today's corn is not divided into the category of coarse grains like later generations. The current corn, whether it is in the New World or the European continent, is an out-and-out fine grain.

Not to mention wheat, barley, and rice.

In addition to food, Major Hank also brought in a lot of seeds for various crops. Compared with food, the value of these seeds is much higher.

Originally, Colonel Jones didn't want to provide stone bears with so many grains and cash crop seeds, but he couldn't stand the persuasion of Major Hank. In the end, Colonel Jones agreed to bring a large amount of seeds over for trading.

"I told the fellow Jones that if we don't provide the seeds on this list, they will cut off the salt trade with us. Jones lost his temper and said he would send troops to attack your tribe. I. Tell him immediately that the straight-line distance between your tribe and Jamestown is more than four hundred miles, and your tribe is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is deep in the heart of the Cherokee tribe. Your tribe is even more of a Cherokee tribe. The tribe of Kabru High Priest, if we really attack your tribe, one is difficult to fight there, and the other one will definitely arouse the anger of the entire Cherokee tribe.” Major Hank stood beside the stone bear. He said, "Of course, that fellow Jones didn't dare to attack you at the risk of having **** with your Cherokee tribe, so in the end he had no choice but to provide so many seeds."

Shi Xiong smiled and said, "Whether it’s food or these seeds~lightnovelpub.net~ Actually, these things are not precious to you now. These things are of very low value to you. That fellow Jones doesn’t dare to do it because of this. Do it on us."

"The most important thing is that even if you come, you will definitely not be able to defeat our tribe."

Shi Xiong looked at Major Hank, who looked disbelieving, and pointed to the east of the tribe and said, "Have you seen those two houses? There are two Valerian 12-pounder guns in those two wooden houses, and we have two more. Fourteen Valerian 4-pounder guns, and our tribe still has more than a hundred muskets. How many people do you think can break our defense?"

Major Hank already knew what Shixiong said, so he shrugged his shoulders happily and said, "Anyway, I won't come to attack you. We don't have artillery. Coming to fight you is just killing you."

Shixiong smiled and said: "Yes, the facts are here. In fact, even if we don't have these artillery and muskets, fellow Jones wouldn't dare to do anything with us. What he wants is to make money, not to have **** with our Cherokee. He doesn't dare to befriend us Cherokee, nor does he have the ability to lay down us. Therefore, honestly trading with us is the only way he can make a lot of profit.

Hank smiled and said, "Master Guardian, you are too accurate!"