Caribbean, Port of Spain. 【Read full text】
Humphrey Douglas, wearing a brand-new officer's uniform, stepped off the merchant ship with twenty followers.
His residence is no longer that small attic. On the west side of the town, near the church, a two-story all-stone villa became his new residence, where his wife and daughter were waiting for him. It can be said that although he did not return to Port of Spain once this month, his family jumped from the slums to the aristocratic area under the attention of almost everyone in Hong Kong.
What happened in the middle is more legendary than the novel.
As he stepped back onto the ground in Port of Spain, countless people became aware of his return. Most of these people were his creditors, but no one dared to come directly to collect debts.
Finally returned home, after first arranging the work of the twenty followers, the remaining time belonged to the family. In fact, Humphrey Douglas had another task that he had discussed with Lu Yuan a long time ago, and he needed to take this opportunity to carry it out. That document worth two million belonged to him, but it didn't entirely belong to him.
In two days, he had to complete the task assigned by Lu Yuan and rush back to Francois. He only had this little time left for his family. After kissing his lovely daughter and comforting his thirsty wife, it wasn't until the lights came on that Humphrey Douglas appeared in the restaurant with his still blushing wife on his arm.
The restaurant has been replaced with a more than ten meters long beech wood table, covered with a white tablecloth, and twelve neatly arranged silver tableware on the side. But no one sat down at the table now. A dozen or so well-dressed people were standing in the hall, and more people were queuing outside the door. At the door of the hall, there are two small tables, and two clerks are divided into two columns to handle a large number of outstanding bills.
I don’t know how Humphrey owes so much debt. Although most of the debts are very small, in a sense, it is also an amazing talent to be able to let so many people lend him money. .
But now, Humphrey has not intervened in the handling of those debts at all. Every time the clerk counts a certain number of bills. A well-dressed man would stand up in the hall, subscribe, pay the creditor, and take away the bill.
In this way, in a short time, all the debts of Humphrey Douglas were concentrated in the hands of these ten people. When Humphrey was destitute, he borrowed money from almost everyone in Port of Spain, ranging in amounts to dozens of gold coins. As small as a few copper coins. Now that Humphrey is prosperous, he has not only repaid most people's debts with interest, but also everyone who leaves will be respectfully presented with valuable gifts by his entourage to thank them for their past kindness to Humphrey. help.
This behavior undoubtedly won a lot of praise.
Wait until the people gathered outside disperse. Mr. and Mrs. Douglas appeared at the table. They cordially invited the guests to sit down and brought fine wine, plates of precious fruits and delicacies to the table.
A dozen guests were already seated at the dining table. They were talking quietly among themselves, with different expressions on their faces. Today they were all specially invited by Humphrey Douglas. In addition to the sincere invitation, the invitation also asked them to help deal with the debt problem. This kind of request is uncommon and may even seem aggressive! But due to the news that Humphrey became a member of "Opera". No secret here. Therefore, among the ten or so largest creditors invited today, some still stepped in to help deal with the debt, while others just stood aside from the beginning to the end.
After all, not everyone lends money out of good intentions. Now that Humphrey Douglas is back with twenty tough men, things don't look right. However, these people are also the leading figures in Port of Spain. Since they are all gathered here, it is impossible for Douglas to do anything extraordinary. In this case, the few people who did not help deal with the debt gradually let go. Drink to your heart's content.
The lively dinner lasted until late at night, and came to an end when dessert and black tea were served. Mrs. Douglas smiled and directed her servants to remove the tableware, leaving the dining room alone for the men to discuss matters.
After Humphrey Douglas handed out a circle of high-quality cigars provided by Lu Yuan, he broke the silence amidst everyone's puffs of smoke and brought the conversation to the main topic.
"Please accept my credit certificate first." He first took out the two million note and respectfully handed it to the old man sitting on his left. When the old man took the bill, his hand trembled obviously! He then took out a magnifying glass. Check carefully. Five minutes later, he held the thin piece of paper with both hands and handed it to the next person...
It wasn't that Humphrey didn't want to move out a box of gold coins to show off his wealth, but he just didn't have time to redeem the note. Moreover, most of the remaining gold coins in the Caribbean are of poor quality, and those with high gold content have ended up in Lu Yuan's pocket through the screening of loan shark shops.
When everyone had finished reading, Humphrey Douglas clapped his hands and said.
"You gentlemen are all people who have given me great help. In order to express my gratitude to you, I am willing to pay 120% of the price to purchase the debt in your hands."
"Generous!" "Very generous!" A dozen guests clapped their hands happily and praised the host. They became even more envious after seeing the entourage place a stack of new blank bills in front of Humphrey. Being able to use this payment instrument, which is guaranteed by the loan shark shop, is like an identity. The most they could do was lend Humphrey a few thousand pesos, and it was almost impossible to have the financial means to pay the bills.
"Please allow me to take back the documents stored with you, thank you." Humphrey Douglas stood up gracefully and saluted, and looked at those who did not help him deal with his debts. Sure enough, there are not many fools in this world. From the moment he took out two million notes and dominated the city with a crushing attitude, everyone knew that he was not interested in drinking anymore.
Those who did not lend a hand to help can only leave with 20% more income and cannot participate in the subsequent cake distribution.
Although those people were very reluctant, they had already exposed their roots and could only leave with the note with calculated interest and an additional 20%. The remaining six people were all in high spirits, waiting for the next topic.
The wizened old man sitting on Humphrey's left coughed slightly, attracted everyone's attention and said: "Humphrey, bringing us together, it shouldn't be as simple as paying back the money, right? If you have any ideas, you can speak directly. , let’s discuss it. If there is enough profit, and all of you here are people with status in Port of Spain, why not cooperate together?”
As a contract society, a successful loan and repayment transaction leaves behind a good credit record, which lays the foundation for future cooperation. What's more, Humphrey, who is currently waving notes, has no upper limit on his credit rating.
"I think you all probably already know that I am temporarily working for the Opera House." Humphrey said straight to the point. The six people nodded one after another, not saying anything because the person in front of them was a big pirate. "But what you may not know is that I am mainly responsible for the handling of loot and material supply..."
He paused for a moment and saw that although everyone present was still maintaining etiquette, their pupils were dilated and their breathing was rapid. They had obviously guessed something and were extremely excited.
"I would like to invite everyone to form a chamber of commerce to purchase supplies and handle loot for the Opera House. My share capital is two million. You can use your debts and other resources to invest in shares." Humphrey. Douglas said at last, and the words lit up everyone's eyes like a bolt of lightning.
Anyone can set up a simple chamber of commerce as long as they have a boat that can go to sea and go to the local governor's palace to register. You can run boats, transport goods, sell food, or even fish. As long as you pay taxes in the name of the Chamber of Commerce, the Government-General will protect your basic rights and interests.
But that refers to publicly established chambers of commerce.
A chamber of commerce like this, which is not publicly registered but privately established by a few people who control more than half of the local market, only means high-profit but shady transactions - smuggling of contraband, pirates selling stolen goods, etc. This kind of profit is the lowest. It's 50%. If he could be responsible for the sale of stolen goods from a big pirate like the "Opera House", the profits would make even the governor jealous.
Looking at the six excited guests, Humphrey Douglas took a puff of his cigar and let the smoke cover up the smile at the corner of his mouth.
What the captain told us was finally done.
*******
After Lu Yuan left, most of the adjutants on the ship will continue to make a living at sea in the future, even though each of them has a net worth of millions. But people in the world cannot help themselves. As a member of the "Opera House", their reputation will force them to be unable to escape from the sea in the short term.
They may become admirals, captains, join pirates, or become officers of a certain country. The money Lu Yuan left to them could not protect them for the rest of their lives. Therefore, Lu Yuan hopes that there will be such an underground chamber of commerce, which can not only combine everyone's interests well, but also maintain mutual friendship.
They may belong to different camps in the future, and may have their own positions, but as long as everyone maintains the same private interests and supports each other, they will definitely be able to go further together.
…
Two days later, the ship modification was completed, and the warship disguised as the "Barbados" left Francois and quietly sailed south.
The Spanish Treasure Fleet on the southern route is sailing to Belize.
…
The British and French fleets gathered in Port Royal, Jamaica, only two days' sail from Belize, and their goals were obvious.
…
After a battle, the three contractor teams, who understood that each other was a tough guy, finally had to sit down and negotiate.
At the negotiation table, the imaginative Ye Zuo put forward a novel point of view - the Lord God requires each team to obtain a privateering license, but it does not seem to require that the team must be in the same camp as the country that issued the privateering license!
This speculation was met with unanimous praise.
Seemingly seeing the possibility of the Contractor team joining forces, everyone set their sights on Spain and the United Kingdom, the top powers in the Caribbean.
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ps: I owe a chapter.
