They say that when you speak of a tiger, it will come.
After I had taken a small revenge on the Kingdom of Lyon, I did start thinking about the New World. But I never imagined that I would hear from him this quickly.
“We’ve received an urgent message from Erikson, who was focused on developing sea routes in Soros, Maasai Confederation.”
“Please don’t tell me the ships sank while developing the sea routes?”
It’s the kind of insane exploration that madmen engage in, similar to the Portuguese kingdom’s insane venture to find India.
The Europeans spent nearly a century doing this, just barely reaching India in the end. But in the process, thousands, no, tens of thousands of people must have either been devoured by Krakens or captured by savages and roasted on skewers.
The Age of Exploration project I’m leading is still a bit safer, but it’s still a crazy venture as dangerous as fighting a lion with nothing but a spear.
It wouldn’t be strange for a ship or two to sink.
If I’m to put it kindly, it’s a noble sacrifice for the progress of the age. If I’m to put it negatively, it’s a bunch of money-driven fools risking their lives for profit.
“Erikson said that this letter must be delivered directly to you, and that you should not open it before receiving it. Though he’s a peculiar guy, eating cucumbers in sandwiches and sticking sardines in pies, I’m sure he wouldn’t joke with something like this... it must be one of two things.”
Either it’s incredible news, or it’s the kind of news that will break my heart.
I really hope it’s good news.
“Let’s see...”
I cautiously opened the letter, half worried, half excited.
[To the esteemed Baron Rothschild, Captain Sanchez of the Santa Maria ship has succeeded in discovering a new island, or rather, a large landmass on October 5th.]
Worst case scenario, I thought there might be a report of several ships sinking, and hundreds of crew members being massacred, with discussions of temporarily halting the Age of Exploration project...
But it wasn’t that kind of bad news. It was the news of a new land, a very large landmass.
My heart, which usually doesn’t flutter unless I’m playing some mischievous games during intimate moments, started beating wildly.
I may already be at the center of history, but...
The Age of Exploration, which helped elevate the European powers—who had to gather all their national strength and technological prowess just to rival China—to the “center of the world,” is something I’m about to start firsthand.
As a former Western historian with a master’s degree, my heart began to race madly.
Tonight, I’ll probably have to push myself harder to calm down from this excitement.
‘Of course, it’s not like I’m going to drink excessively.’
[After sailing for about 20 days east with the trade winds from Soros, we finally made landfall. The continent we discovered is full of animals and plants never seen in Albania, as well as venomous snakes and strange insects. But the most surprising thing is that, despite it being November, the weather was hot, like a summer day.]
New animals, plants never seen before, and a climate completely different from the Albanian continent.
Even someone who doesn’t know anything about the Age of Exploration would immediately realize this is the New World.
[We also encountered people with brown skin, but we didn’t know how to approach them, so we quietly retreated.]
Are there people living there?
If this goes well, it looks like there could be a huge market that only I could monopolize.
Unlike Ifrikia, which is so close that you can practically see it with the naked eye, this place is far enough that it took over 20 days of sailing to discover, and the location is currently known only to our crew in Soros.
‘It won’t be easy to secretly mobilize funds, personnel, and materials.’
In the world I live in, I don’t need to hide my wealth through things like offshore accounts or data manipulation.
If I sell the gold extracted from the mines Malik sold me and don’t bring it to the Toscana Empire but sell it abroad, that’s all there is to it.
Then, there won’t be any trace of where the money came from, and it’ll be hard to figure out what I’m doing.
‘I’ll use all the money I have right now and find the city there.’
If there’s an opportunity to make money lying in front of me, and I don’t grab it, then I’m not human.
Apart from that, there were mentions of how the return trip took almost twice as long, or how some people died during this voyage.
“Sebastian.”
I called his name, and Sebastian smiled before responding.
“Yes, my lord?”
“I suppose I’ll need to go there myself...?”
We still don’t even have a proper base camp. So, there’s no way I can set foot on a nameless, unknown land just yet.
Even if I do go, it’ll be just a quick detour around Soros and the Maasai Confederation...
But still, I think I need to go personally and take command on the ground.
“Prepare to leave immediately...”
As I was about to rush out in excitement, Sebastian stopped me.
“My lord, it’s not like the exploration will progress because you go there. And if you leave, Lady Chloe, Kris, and the Lady of the House will be very sad.”
I had been away for nearly three months after leaving Guillaume City.
Though I hadn’t touched any other women while away...
Still, my wives must have been lonely with me gone for such a long time.
But leaving after only a day feels a bit...
‘Am I crossing too many lines?’
“Well, that’s true.”
This chapter is updated by freēwēbnovel.com.
Sebastian let out a sigh of relief and continued.
“Right now, it would be better to focus on providing more personnel, ships, and supplies to Erikson.”
The Age of Exploration, just like war, is all about money and supplies.
‘Money, money, more money.’
The United States has an army capable of defeating any coalition of countries on Earth, excluding themselves.
And the reason behind it is their culture of valuing soldiers, along with the immense technological expertise and experience they’ve built.
But ultimately, it’s because they spend over a trillion dollars annually, which is more than South Korea’s entire national budget, just on defense.
To make the Age of Exploration profitable, I’ll need to pour out thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of gold coins. I can’t afford to be frugal with my investments.
“I guess I’ll have to start using the gold coming from Ifrikia.”
I’ve been suppressing using the gold mined from the gold mines given to me by the Maasai Confederation, because it’s a place where they extract huge amounts of gold without using the separation method.
But if I apply the separation method, the efficiency will increase, and I’ll end up with so much gold that even the Toscana Empire won’t be able to handle it.
Just like Spain, which collapsed due to inflation when it kept extracting gold and silver, the Toscana Empire will inevitably suffer a huge blow.
Of course, I could always take advantage of the situation when that blow strikes, if I ever need to.
‘But if I make the slightest mistake, everyone will try to tear me apart.’
Moreover, most of our income, both from the trading company and the family, is generated within the Toscana Empire.
Do I really want to destroy the Empire?
It would be like eating my own flesh.
“However, if I spend the gold within the Toscana Empire, it will cause an inflationary disaster like what happened in the Holy Empire. I can’t use it within the Empire’s territory. Ultimately, investing the money in the Kingdom of Granada or the Kingdom of Lyon seems like the best option.”
“... Your skill of inducing war by flooding the market with cheap cotton fabric truly leaves me speechless, my lord. But to think that flooding the market with gold is a similar act...”
Do I need to explain this myself?
But this worry of mine turned out to be unnecessary.
“Whether it’s gold, silver, or wheat, the more abundant it is, the cheaper it becomes, and the scarcer it is, the more valuable it becomes. If the massive amount of gold from Ifrikia floods the Empire, a disaster will surely strike. The value of gold coins will plummet, and the currency economy will collapse.”
Hearing Sebastian’s words reminded me of that.
People laugh at how the medieval Spaniards didn’t understand ‘inflation,’ but the reality is a bit different, isn’t it?
They knew about inflation, but they never imagined that gold and silver would flood in so quickly, and they had no way of countering it, so the country collapsed.
“Right now, the most urgent matter is Granada. Or rather, the Kingdom of Lyon. We should send manpower and supplies there.”
If my guess is correct, the Kingdom of Lyon must be overflowing with refugees.
How great would it be to turn those refugees into sailors?
“Send Orsini to the Kingdom of Lyon. Have him take charge of supplying sailors and resources.”