"Your Majesty, did you believe it?" Prince Kongdai interjected and asked.

"Your Majesty asked Count Colbert and Duke Letelier to follow up on this matter." Bellisson said with a wicked smile.

"Haha, Duke Letelier." Anne Marie laughed heartily: "This damn stubborn old man finally has such a day! I guess his position as Minister of War has not been long, but I don't know how long he can continue to be Lord Privy Seal.

!"

"Why do you think that this workshop owner cannot develop a new large-caliber artillery?" Miss Scudeli still has a certain fondness for Alphonse, who has never been masked. Probably because educated people believe in miracles.

exists...

"I certainly don't think that the workshop owner, Mr. Alphonse de Moller, can't possibly develop a new artillery piece; I just think that within the scope of my cousin's patience, I'm afraid there won't be any.

What good news has come." Anne Marie said with a smile, she is not only a high-status princess and duchess, but also a wonderful woman who is not inferior to other women:

He participated in the Fronde, commanded the Battle of the Bastille, and even climbed to the top of Orleans to recapture Orleans!

With such extraordinary experience, she naturally knows better than anyone else that the artillery heavy industry is a full-chain industry:

From iron smelting, mold making, mechanics, kinetics, mathematics, etc., strong professional knowledge is required to improve the artillery; and for ordinary artillery factories, even an existing artillery

When imitating, one needs to be careful in order to maintain the quality of the imitation...

Just like Alphonse, the rapid-fire cannon is actually Yasuo's own invention. He has hardly improved the rapid-fire cannon; he only provided a self-tightening gun body to improve the quality, made iron molds to increase production, and at most added a flintlock engine to improve the quality.

Rate of fire.

By the time the 16-pound gun was developed, the design had been revised for more than two months, and two types of three-gun prototypes had been cast; and this was Alphonse's memory that spanned the ages, and his ability to stand in the present moment.

Yasuo, who is at the top of the gun casting industry, has joined forces to develop it, but has not yet completed the design of this 16-pound gun.

Just imagine, except for their partners, which artillery workshop currently has such development capabilities? Not to mention that they are still facing technical bottlenecks in materials, processing accuracy, etc. A workshop that cannot even produce steel can produce it.

What does the artillery look like?

And from a capital perspective, Yasuo has not created new value for the workshop for more than three months, and is still groping over and over again for the 16-pounder gun that is still in the prototype stage.

If it weren't for Alphonse's trust and persistence, he might not have been busy improving and exploring the potential of this artillery. There is a high probability that he would have locked it in the parameters of the first prototype gun from the beginning...

Therefore, even with the most optimistic attitude, Anne Marie believes that Alphonse will not be able to develop high-quality large-caliber artillery very quickly;

It will take about 2 years to develop a 9-pounder gun that can be actually used, and another 3 years to develop an improved 9-pounder gun with the top power of the era. The 12-pounder gun will probably need this.

The time changed to 4 years and 6 years!

In other words, it will take at least 5 years before Louis XIV can harvest the 9-pound cannon that meets his expectations; it will take 15 years before he can harvest the 12-pound cannon that he expected. As for the 16-pound cannon? That is probably a series in his lifetime...

"You probably don't know yet, but the Duke of La Rochefoucauld has already sent Mr. Moller an invitation to the auction in Boulogne next month. It seems that he will go there." Bellisson added.

Tao.

"Auction? Isn't that a place to sell old things? What's the best place to go?" Anne Marie curled her lips and replied. Auctions these days are far less developed than later generations. Basically, they auction old boats, old houses, old books, etc.

Assets that vary from person to person and are idle; even if some artworks, jewelry, collections, etc. are occasionally auctioned, most of them come from the collections of dilapidated nobles or even the harvest of pirates.

For nobles who have reached their level, if they want something, someone will naturally come to their door. Do they still need to go to the auction to bid with the common people to buy it?

"It is said that a flintlock relic of Mahan will be auctioned this time. This is probably why the Duke of La Rochefoucauld went to the auction; and you may want to take a look at "Country Scene" by the Dutch painter Goyen, which

This work will also appear at the auction." Belisson said with a smile.

"Although I am happy to see the jokes of the old man, Duke Letelier, it does not mean that I am also interested in meeting the young people who brought him jokes." Anne Marie shook her head and said, she knew that this was Prince Condé's response to the old man's jokes.

The Duke of La Rochefoucauld is still wary and hopes to invite himself, an outsider, to disrupt the situation.

But she would naturally not do anything that did not bring her any benefit. Instead, she looked at Prince Condé with a smile and asked: "I know that the Duke of Luxembourg's promotion to the military rank has also been repeatedly suppressed by the Duke of Letelier.

, he is not interested in taking a trip? Even if he buys Mahan's gun before Francois (Duke La Rochefoucauld), I think it will bring a lot of help in the future."

"Francois (here refers to Duke of Luxembourg François-Henri de Montmorency) does have plans to go to Boulogne and his party." Prince Condé replied with slightly narrowed eyes, which made Anne

Mary felt that it was quite meaningful!

Prince Condé directly said that the Duke of Luxembourg would go to Boulogne, but did not say that he would attend the auction. He thought that the trip was to cover up the public; if nothing else, it should be with some purpose, to contact someone privately on behalf of Prince Condé.

There are so many people...

"Are there no new plays recently? Mr. Molière?" Anne-Marie turned to look at Molière not far away and changed the subject and asked...

Alphonse had to stay up all night again.

At the beginning of the banquet, people such as Francis Oton and others tried to test Armand, for example, by touting his aristocratic status and good qualities, as well as his extensive contacts and social relations. In fact, everyone just wanted to make some insinuations.

Let’s see if he is involved in Alphonse’s business and if he can use his position to provide convenience for everyone.

It turned out that Armand was wrong, and that was his nature, so he started to popularize aristocratic dress trends and popular masterpieces on the market; he knew all about beauty, culture, and art.

, in short, if you want to show off and spend money, then he is the right person to look for!

Yes, everyone knows very well that this guy is a loser, and the Moller family still needs Alphonse to carry the banner; now everyone can feel at ease and exclude Armand, and just go to Calais.

A preliminary meeting was held in the future!

After discussion, Alphonse represented the Moller family in Calais, Francis represented the Oton family, and William Jr. represented the Dessay family and his mother's Blair family. These four most powerful and powerful families in Calais formally formed the

Alliance:

First, the establishment of the Calais Merchant Alliance has integrated almost 70% of Calais’ local chambers of commerce, workshops, manors, and shipping merchants, using their respective resources and channels to form a business community.

The business alliance is set up as a joint-stock system, and the business alliance is split into 100,000 shares. The original share price is 4 livres per share, and the total share capital is 400,000 livres. Each company can invest in shares according to its needs and capabilities, and it is stipulated that the maximum number of shareholders can be

50% of all assets are invested in shares to protect the interests of most people.

Among them, the Blair family contributed 20,000 livres, the Desai family contributed 50,000 livres, the Oton family contributed 30,000 livres, and Alphonse contributed 150,000 livres. The four major families totaled 250,000 livres.

5 livres per share, that is, a 20% premium for holding 50% of the shares of the Merchant Alliance; in return for the premium, when the Merchant Alliance expands and increases stock capital, the four major families will always have priority to maintain their shareholding ratio.

Second, Darren Desai is recommended to be the first General Secretary of the Business Alliance, responsible for resolving all external affairs of the Business Alliance, whether it is alliance formation, declaration of war, market development or political affairs, Darren Desai is responsible for it.

;

As the largest shareholder holding 30% of the shares of the Merchant Alliance, Alphonse will serve as the affairs officer, centrally coordinating the internal affairs of the Merchant Alliance, and also responsible for investment promotion and stock dividends;

Francis serves as the internal affairs officer. All matters that Darren Desai and Alphonse do not have the authority or energy to manage can be dealt with by Francis.

Third, Alphonse and Francis will be elected as members of Parliament in next month's election, and at the same time, the business alliance will pay for the election of Darren Desai, who was originally a member of the Assembly, to become the deputy mayor of Calais at all costs;

The purpose is very simple, which is to expand the influence of the business alliance in the city hall to protect the interests of the business alliance to the greatest extent.

Fourth, Alphonse transferred the mirror-making workshop under his name to the Merchant Alliance in exchange for 5% of the equity; Francis sold the wooden pier plank road under his name to the Merchant Alliance in exchange for 5% of the equity; the equity of the two

The proportion of sharing will be increased to 35% and 11%, but the additional shares will not have priority. Whether this ratio can be maintained will depend on the future.

In this way, at the beginning of the establishment of the Merchant Alliance, the Merchant Alliance will first fully occupy a mirror-making workshop and a dock plank road, and its income will be owned by the Merchant Alliance as a whole. It will also be used first to pay for the Merchant Alliance's support for Darren Desai's deputy election.
Chapter completed!