"Good day, Sir." An, who came to the door with a smile, took the lead in giving a slight salute to the other party. It was only a glance that he could tell that Benjamin Hawkins, who was always sure of victory, was really a little irritable today.

"It's great to see you here. I heard that you went to Amsterdam, and I wanted to send you a letter." Benjamin Hawkins took off his hat and bowed slightly: "Good day, Charles.

Miss."

"Come in, Sir. I don't know what brought you here. I thought you were busy preparing for the harvest festival in August?" Ann said with a smile as she led Benjamin Hawkins into the yard.

.

"Thanks to your great blessing, we did celebrate once on Midsummer Eve, but for the Harvest Festival in August, there is probably no need to celebrate it at the moment." Benjamin Hawkins said with a wry smile.

"Oh? Why is this?" An pretended not to know, but began to wonder in his heart: before Midsummer Eve, the British robbed a Spanish treasure ship, so they naturally wanted to celebrate, but now they are talking about a good harvest.

There is no need to celebrate the holiday. Could it be that the Spanish rapid-fire artillery has begun to be installed? Is it so powerful? Why is the famous privateer so pessimistic?

"It's hard to explain this matter in one sentence, but if you think about Mr. Mohler's workshop, the artillery output should be much more than 200 guns per month, right?" Benjamin Hawkins changed the topic but said meaningfully.

"Haha, in order to meet the overflowing orders, production has indeed been expanded again, but not by much." Although An was jealous of the additional orders hinted by Benjamin Hawkins, she was still very restrained and did not reveal the details clearly.
p>

"There were magpies chirping outside my window early this morning. I knew something was good. Sure enough, our Sir Hawkins is here. Welcome, Mr. Sir." Alphonse also came down from upstairs at this time.

, greeting Benjamin Hawkins very warmly.

"Good day, Mr. de Moller." Benjamin Hawkins bowed and said.

"Good day." Alphonse smiled and said: "Please sit down, Sir, what would you like to drink?"

"Just hot cocoa." Benjamin Hawkins glanced at the half cup of hot cocoa that was still steaming on the table. He naturally knew that it was what Ann had just drank. Considering not to cause trouble to the host, he naturally had to learn how to be polite.

As you wish.

"Then bring us two cups of hot cocoa, Mr. Alfred." Alphonse sat down on the couch, and Benjamin Hawkins and Ann sat down on the small sofa respectively, and Ann deliberately sat down on the sofa.

On the small sofa further away from Alphonse, he vented his little emotions.

"I took the liberty of visiting today, but I was actually asked to come here." Benjamin Hawkins smiled and spoke first: "Some time ago, you said you wanted to purchase a batch of artillery equipment, so I called my friend for you.

Just a hello, I’ve been busy lately and I’ve been a bit neglected. My friend asked me about this a few days ago, so I hurriedly came to bother you today.”

"It's nothing. I should be the one to apologize to you for not giving you an accurate letter." Alphonse smiled and said: "Actually, our entire workshop has been upgrading during this period, and we have recently received a sum of funds.

We are investing in us, so we want to make purchases after the funds are in place.”

"This is a good thing." Benjamin Hawkins felt a little confused in his heart. Could it be that the Spaniards invested in Alphonse? He pretended to be nonchalant and continued: "You just mentioned getting investment? Do you want to expand further?

”

"Indeed, the total investment will probably exceed 1 million livres." Before Alphonse could speak, An jumped in and said: "We plan to launch a new caliber artillery, which requires a large number of customized equipment and new factory land.

."

"This..." Benjamin Hawkins was a little unsure at once. Just as Alfred came over with hot cocoa, Benjamin Hawkins took the hot cocoa and pretended to taste it carefully.

And after taking the opportunity to make eye contact with An, Alphonse roughly knew that Benjamin Hawkins was in trouble, and not surprisingly, it was the Spanish who did it! This is really karma, the British put the Spaniards in trouble

After beating him up, he helped himself get an order for thousands of artillery pieces. Now the Spaniards counterattacked and brought the British to their door again! It turns out that this is the joy of arms dealers. Selling arms to two families at the same time, let

They shed all their blood, but they made a lot of money!

"Mr. Mohler, you said you have accepted investment recently, right? I don't know if you will accept more investment?" Benjamin Hawkins said with a smile after sorting out his thoughts.

"Oh? Jazz is also interested?" Alphonse naturally would not refuse outright, but he always had to understand whether the other party's investment would affect his Spanish business...

"Of course I'm interested. I think you need a lot of high-quality, advanced artillery equipment, and you even need to specially customize some of it. The cost and effort will not be too low." Benjamin Hawkins said with a smile: "If you have

If you are interested, I can use part of my friend’s shares in the artillery equipment factory to buy shares, so that you can obtain long-term and stable acquisitions at a lower cost, and you can keep many of your technical secrets secret."

"That's great. I'll seriously consider your proposal." Alphonse replied with a smile: "Thank you so much, Sir."

"Haha, we are friends." Benjamin Hawkins picked up the hot cocoa leisurely and said, "Isn't it right for friends to help each other?"

"Of course." Knowing that Benjamin Hawkins was tricking him, Alphonse did not immediately change his face. Instead, he continued: "I think Sir is coming today. There should be other things that I need help with."

?"

"Ha, I really can't hide anything from you." Benjamin Hawkins, who was forced into a corner by Alphonse's words, had to take the initiative: "I came here today because I also want to add some artillery orders."

Alphonse fell silent after hearing this. He put one hand on his thigh and knocked it gently, as if he was repeatedly weighing the pros and cons. After a full five or six minutes, Alphonse opened his mouth slightly and turned around to look.

Asked Benjamin Hawkins seriously: "How much more do the Jazz need?"

"There are still three hundred rapid-fire cannons, but they have to be delivered within a month, and the batch that will be delivered in a few days is not included in them." Benjamin Hawkins quickly replied.

An's breathing suddenly became unnatural. This was the white-flowered Leifre waving to him. Damn it, he finally sold an order this month. Unexpectedly, Alphonse shook his head gently.

Said: "We are friends, so I won't hide it from you. Last month I got an order from Spain. If nothing else happens, I will have to wait until November to receive new orders. I can only take one month at most.

Delivering 50 artillery pieces to you is the best I can do to help you."

"Mr. De Moller, this batch of artillery is really important to me. I can pay the full price right away." Benjamin Hawkins said anxiously. He only received the news last night that Christopher Meinings, a loser, actually shot

He suffered a huge defeat. Not only did he lose four three-masted clippers, three single-masted clippers and a large square sail, but he also lost a total of 108 rapid-fire cannons! What a pity, the loss this time was enough.

Let him spit out half of his last harvest!

"Sir, you may not know that the Spanish order was obtained by an uncle of Alphonse, and the Spanish paid a huge premium, a full 80 livres! Even if you just move the Spanish one,

For the artillery order, that uncle will lose 40 livres of profit, and our boss can't give him an explanation." An had to remind Mr. Benjamin that now it is no longer a matter of paying the full price, but more money!

"How much?" Benjamin Hawkins asked, stunned for a moment.

"You heard that right, 80 livres." An replied calmly, which made Benjamin Hawkins stunned on the spot...

After a long time, Benjamin Hawkins said in a bitter voice: "Is there really no other way?"

"I have a batch of goods on hand that will be delivered to the Netherlands in a while. It contains less than 100 artillery pieces. If you are willing to give me 80 livres..." An weighed his tone and said, really reluctant to part with such a huge order!

Benjamin Hawkins had to weigh it. After all, the Spaniards had a purpose and put a large number of rapid-fire cannons on a cargo ship. One cargo was worth more than ten or two hundred thousand pounds of silver. Even if a cargo ship was equipped with 300 rapid-fire cannons,

Cannons are only about two thousand pounds, which is still a hundredfold return. On the other hand, what about Benjamin Hawkins? First, he needs to invest in a large number of armed merchant ships. One ship ranges from 200 to 2,000 pounds. Like this time, 17 ships are worth more than

Twenty thousand pounds, and then the sailors and artillery equipment on the ship, a sailor's annual salary is 15 pounds, there are more than 1,000 sailors on 17 ships, and the artillery also costs almost 8,000 pounds. These three items add up to an investment of 45,000 pounds!

Then there is the investment in intelligence and the necessary tribute, which probably accounts for 20,000 pounds of investment. And of all the proceeds from each robbery, he has to divide the money with the captain and sailors. The actual amount he gets is only 60%, which is 120,000 pounds.

Pounds, that is to say, a successful robbery can only offset the losses caused by three failures at most! Then, after encountering a major loss, every penny of investment needs to be more cautious...

The British guy who wants money! Ann was quite displeased with Benjamin Hawkins's expression of being cut off when he mentioned adding money, but he didn't want to get angry, so he could only use his eyes to beg Alphonse, and quickly thought of something.

How to get the British to cut the flesh!

"Sir, look at this, I will still give you 50 cannons per month. If you want more, maybe I can sell a batch of technology and molds to you to open a factory for production, but I don't

You will admit that the technology and molds provided by me can only be used for your own use." Alphonse thought for a while and said: "You don't need to spend a lot of cash, I have already roughly drafted some of the artillery.

For the equipment, you can use the goods to cash in. If I need to place additional orders later, I can use the molds to offset it with you. Do you think so?"

"Are you serious? That's great, it's really a big help!" There is no way out, but there is another bright spot! Alphonse's proposal can be said to have solved Benjamin Hawkins's biggest problem.

, although they couldn't get the order, they couldn't stop the Spaniards from getting the order, but they got more important production technology. In time, just by mass-producing rapid-fire cannons at low cost, they could suppress Spain and take back the initiative!
p>

"Wait a moment, I will go upstairs to get the shopping list." Alphonse stood up with a smile and left temporarily to get the list from the study upstairs. Benjamin Hawkins lowered his voice and said to An with a smile.
Chapter completed!