The Fox of France - Chapter 529 (Patreon)

Chapter 529: Predation

"Your tea leaves are not good enough." Captain Vandesa first picked up a small pinch of tea leaves, sniffed them under his nose, chewed a bit in his mouth, and then shook his head, "Clearly, this is not Darjeeling, or to put it bluntly, it's not from any high-altitude area. Its taste is astringent, its aroma is not pure, and it lacks the grape fragrance of Darjeeling black tea. This is the lowest grade of tea leaves. The price you're asking for is too high."

"Ah, you are an expert, this tea indeed isn't from Darjeeling, but as you know, Darjeeling's output is limited. Where can I get a whole shipload of Darjeeling black tea? But it is indeed tea from the foothills of the Himalayas, of course, the altitude is lower than Darjeeling, and the quality is not as good. However, it's still decent for making milk tea. And as you know, due to the war, the price of tea has risen quite a bit. With the price I'm giving you now, you could make a lot of money by sending these goods to Europe."

"You're right. But you also have to consider, the reason for such a situation is because of the difficulties in transportation. Nowadays, a large number of transport ships are being used for war-related matters, plus blockades and inspections naturally cause the price of these goods to rise. But you must also understand that to get your goods back to Europe, the cost is different than before. Strictly speaking, items from India, except for a few like saltpeter, including tea, are contraband, not directly tradable on the market. It involves a lot of connections and costs a lot of money.

Let me put it this way, buying tea from you, then selling it in Europe, the money made, at least seventy percent has to be spent on greasing palms, with the remaining thirty percent shared with the sailors, before I can pocket a bit more? So, if it's at your price, I'm not making anything, no deal, brother, you have to lower the price of this tea."

The Frenchman's words were certainly not false, indeed, most of the European market has closed its doors to British and its colonial products. Luxuries like tea are strictly limited. But legally speaking, there are indeed ways to sell tea in Europe legally. This method is to claim that the tea is captured war booty.

After the war began, the British declared that civilian ships could attack ships of nations at war with Britain and profit from the captures. In response, France also allowed civilian ships to attack British ships and profit from the captured war spoils. Hmm, this is basically a revival of the privateer system from many years ago.

Of course, how to distinguish between smuggling and war spoils offers a lot of wiggle room. This requires special connections and a lot of money. So, the Frenchman's words weren't entirely unreasonable. It's not just the French who need money to work connections, the British themselves need to do the same.

"But Captain, you can do this business, you have connections, don't you? Compared to those completely without connections, you should be able to save a lot of money, so you already have a lot of profit margins."

"Indeed, I still have profit margins, why would I do this otherwise? I indeed have connections, because of old relationships, I save time, money, and effort when I use these connections. The additional profit I gain from this is also rightfully mine. But now, because I can achieve higher profits than others, you're asking me to give you a discount, don't you think that's inappropriate?"

Thus, the two debated over the price of the tea for a while, but ultimately the Frenchman prevailed, as the British, especially those in India, needed money more urgently. Besides, even if they earned less from the French, they could make it up on the ticket sales. Just now, several captains had inquired about their ticket prices from the French.

"Black, really damn black!" This was the British captains' unanimous sentiment about the French's ticket prices. They also couldn't help but think that "a real man should be like this." However, considering the reality, although they felt that raising prices was inevitable, they found it very difficult to actually charge according to the French standards. Because many of the passengers were influential individuals, they couldn't do anything about the French, so they had to let them slaughter, but, "I can't deal with the French, but can't I deal with you?"

But as Napoleon had said, "As long as the determination doesn't slip, there are always more solutions than difficulties." One captain came up with an idea.

"We can use different cabins, separating those of status from those without, and we maintain a more reasonable price for first-class

 tickets, mainly fleecing those in lower classes. Although they have less meat on them, they are still meat."

"Besides that, I suggest we should also cooperate with those truly influential passengers," another captain said. "Lower class passengers are not fools, they definitely wouldn't want to be fleeced just like that. They might even cause trouble, especially if we give discounts to first class and only raise their prices."

"How do you suggest we cooperate?" someone asked.

"We can't make the first-class tickets too cheap. On the contrary, whatever percentage the lower class is raised by, first-class should be raised by as much or even more. Only in this way can we create panic and sell the tickets. Then, once the ticket money is in hand..."

"Once the ticket money is in hand, we return the first-class ticket money as it was, and split the money collected from lower class tickets with the first-class passengers. This method is quick and stable, a good strategy. It's just that I don't know if those 'higher-ups' will be too demanding, like those bigwigs in India, asking us for a thirty-seventy split, or even twenty-eighty, that would be pointless."

"They probably won't. If they can sit in that position, they know very well what they can do. Indian bigwigs can split profits with us like that because they can help us achieve things we couldn't on our own, or prevent us from accomplishing things we could have. But now, the bigwigs in our first-class have no real power left, of course, they still have their influence, and connections with India's upper class. So now they can only be considered influential brokers, and I think a twenty-eighty split, even nineteen, is possible, and it's us with the eighty or ninety."

Once the plan was set, the captains divided the tasks and set about their duties.

Soon, rumors began to circulate in the port, claiming that the French had dispatched new troops to South Africa, targeting the situation in the East this time, with a ship sold to the British, the "Free Trade," the same model used in the previous whaling operation that left the British Navy disgraced.

"My goodness, you guys don't know yet? This French warship is a hybrid sail and steam-powered warship. The French had originally put it in a museum, but now, they've modified it a bit, removed the original broadside cannons, replaced them with turret guns, and sent her here. This ship, when sailing under sails, is no slower than any ordinary sailing cruiser, and once the steam power is activated, it's faster than any ship we have in the East, plus with new cannons and shells, we have no ship in the East that can match her. If she comes over, we're all going to become prisoners."

"Isn't it the French who brought us here? They wouldn't, would they?"

"The French brought us here to fleece our money. What kind of people the French are, you guys still don't know? The contract they brought us under is already completed. And they know very well how much valuable stuff we brought, do you think they won't rob us again?"

"We already have ships here, right? Let's get on the ship and leave quickly! If we wait any longer, how much longer will we have to wait? Isn't that too dangerous?"

"I heard that the goods on those ships that just arrived haven't all been sold yet. If they rush to sell them off, they might not make any money, they might have to raise the ticket prices."

Upon hearing the term "raise ticket prices," everyone's expressions changed.

"It can't be, after all, it's our own people, they shouldn't be as black as the French, right?"

"They probably won't, although... to tell you the truth... some British are at least as black as the French, and those who are closer to us in blood want to drink our blood more."

"I heard that there aren't enough places on those few ships, this time it's simply impossible to carry so many people away, many people, even most, will have to be left here, waiting for the next few batches."

"Ah? Wait for the next few batches, won't that be next year?"

"Not to mention, staying here, we're also spending quite a bit of money every day. Sigh, if this continues, I'm going to have to look for a job carrying bags at the dock."

"Right, right, we definitely need to go to India as soon as possible, the sooner the better."

"I heard that among the people who came this batch, many are wealthy and influential, they're likely to buy up all the tickets first."

"I heard they're going to start selling tickets openly soon. They say they're selling first-class first, then second and third class."

"What's the price for second and third class?" someone asked.

"Who knows right now? Just

 wait, it should be in the next few days," someone replied.

So everyone waited together, anxiously sighing.

After two days, finally, there was news about the first-class ticket prices. Many thought that if they had to stay here until next year, they might as well spend more money and buy a ticket to leave.

However, the price of first-class was very high. Although after being fleeced by the French, they had developed a higher tolerance for ticket prices, the currently announced price for first-class still deterred most people.

But the sales of first-class tickets were very hot, and in less than half an hour, all the first-class tickets had been sold out. As for second-class tickets, it was said that they would only be sold after lunch.

So those stranded British at the port took this opportunity to discuss.

"The price of this first-class ticket is really too high. But just like that, it sold out instantly. I wonder what the price for second and third class will be?" one person said.

"Tom, no matter how expensive first-class is, the rich can afford it," another person said.

"It's not that simple, Jim," another person said. "Those rich people can indeed afford it. But the fact that they are willing to spend so much money still indicates something. You know, most rich people, the richer they are, the less they are willing to let go; the less they are willing to let go, the richer they become. They are willing to spend so much money quickly, it must mean that staying here for a long time really isn't safe."

"We are on neutral country's soil, the French... they shouldn't trample on the neutrality of a neutral country, right?" one person said. However, from his weak tone, it was clear that he didn't have much confidence in his own words.

"The French? If the French actually send troops in to capture people, would the Portuguese dare to turn against the French? They might even actively help the French cover it up," another person said.

Everyone then fell silent, and finally, Jim sighed again: "Let's see what the prices for second and third class are. Anyway, try to buy tickets as much as possible, otherwise, if the French hybrid warship really comes, then we're done for!"

"Better than spending several more months here, try to buy as much as possible, otherwise, who knows what it'll be like in a few months?"

This view gained more support from the others. Everyone then ate while anxiously waiting for the sale of second-class tickets.

The number of second-class tickets was much more than first-class, which was normal, as second-class passengers were several people squeezed into one room. So, the ticket-selling took much longer. And the crucial ticket price—of course it wouldn't be cheap. Although it was much cheaper than first-class, compared to the peaceful times before, the price had increased several folds, even more expensive than the previous first-class prices. But compared to the French prices, it really wasn't too expensive. Considering the losses from staying here, plus various frightening rumors, the ticket sales were still very vigorous. By the afternoon, all the second-class tickets had also been sold out.

What remained were third-class tickets, which were actually just the recently emptied cargo holds, where everyone could only sleep randomly on the floor—there weren't even beds, and the conditions were not much better than a slave ship. But even under such conditions, even though the price of third-class was still very high, the tickets quickly sold out.

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