203 Exotic resources

11th July 1574

"Sir, while I'm happy to accept this trade…"

With a quick swipe of his hand, the pouch with the payment was instantly replaced with another one that most likely contained the weeds that I wanted so much with a simple, wooden pipe placed on top. 

"... I don't really think I will be capable of supporting any other requests of yours. While I'm one of the few merchants that are daring enough to provide those exotic goods, doing so is insanely expensive. That's why, I don't think creating any stable trading route will be possible, if that's sir's intention!"

As if reading my mind, the man instantly refuted one of my greatest wishes as if it was nothing. While I could see where he was coming from and what kind of troubles he had to face in order to obtain those precious resources, I wasn't going to give up just like that!

"Okay then, let me put this in another way. If I could provide you with the fastest costal ship that exists on the entire continent, that is free from the influence of winds and can run nearly without manpower, would you be interested in continuing this talk? I think I don't need to mention that all kinds of taxes do not bother me, as long as I could create a stable supply of the items I crave!"

Just like I said when trading from the insanely far kingdom of Spain or Portugal whose so far, were the only providers of the American goods, one had to make multiple stops along the way. Starting with the Dutch straits which were the main choking point that limited the profitability of the baltic trade, all the way through the Hanseatic cities often monopolising the trade in their cities, at the local Spanish cities ending, which were bound to tax any form of trade the moment it turned to a scale massive enough, one could get taxed on the wares he would try to move at least four times before reaching either end of the trade route!

But in the end, as long as one could do it quickly, then even with all those taxes that were bound to increase the price, the supply could be maintained. And it went without saying that outside of those few products that I could simply plant right on my lands, everything else could be sold as a luxury item!

"Sir… Well, as long as the price is not the problem, then sooner or later creating a more or less stable trade route should be possible… The problem is, with all due respect, unless the party organising the trade route is proven to have the stabilised foundation of power and funding for the trade, I doubt that anyone would be interested in investing his time, effort and money, along with risking his own life to partake in such endeavour!"

What this merchant said was also a sad truth. No matter how quickly I was growing, most of the people wouldn't care about my current position. In this kind of long-time endeavours, all that mattered was the stability!

A word that in modern times was associated with the devastation of the natural climate, because it was slowly leading to the heating up of Earth's atmosphere, making it absorb more and more heat from the sun. Greenhouse gasses…

While I wasn't there to judge whether this was natural, a periodical occurrence where the climate of the planet was changing, was interested me the most, was whether it would be possible to build a makeshift greenhouse on my lands! With it, growing cacao right beside my own castle might even be possible!

"Okay then, tell me, can you provide me with cacao fruits, tobacco seeds and corn grains? While I know that planting them and successfully growing them is nearly impossible, I would still love to give it a try."

Even though I was saying that in my mind I could already picture turning most of the lands around the mining town into a vast area filled with nothing but greenhouses. As for the one element required for the greenhouses - huge amounts of thin glass windows - there wouldn't be any problem in procuring it! After all, the area around Sandomir and the mining town itself was filled to the brim with the glassmaking factories!

"While Corn and Tobacco I can sell even right now… For the Cacao fruits… I'm worried not even single fruit would remain fresh by the time I could bring it to you. They go bad too fast."

That was one element that I didn't account for. If that was the case, there was still a way to pay an obscene amount of money to one of the explorers so that he could create several pots with the young cacao trees and attempt to bring them to Spain, from where they would be transported with utmost care to Poland, but it wasn't something that would bear fruits any time soon.

"I see. Then let me tell you this. Since those Cacao fruits are going bad rather quickly, let's do it in old, Polish way. I would like you to put a request for two types of wares. One, I want someone who travels to those new lands and back to the continent to put young cacao trees in a simple container, while making sure to supply it with water, expose it to the sun and water it in regular timing. I will pay fifty red goldens for every single living tree that will make its way back to my lands. As for those who do not want to risk this endeavour, I want them to take the fruits, pull the seeds out from them, ferment it as if they wanted to create a cacao beer, but rather than following with the natural steps, they are to dry it out and then send to Poland. For every bag of those fermented grains, I will pay ten red goldens. Do you think this offer is acceptable?"