Struggle in the Steam Age

After the two sides have a close relationship, some things can be talked about. So in the next period of time, Viscount Surrey told Lawrence some concerns about his current heart.

It is different from those nobles who were born with a golden spoon and walked very smoothly throughout their lives. Viscount Surrey has experienced the family's process from poverty to outbreak, and he also felt the warmth and coldness of those human feelings, so he now has a little sense of anxiety.

"In recent years, my territory has brought a steady stream of wealth because of the coal mine, but this source of wealth is too single." Viscount Surrey said with a serious face.

"Although this coal mine will take more than 100 years to be mined even if it is fully exploited, it is not a sustainable way of obtaining wealth. Especially in the future exploration, we can be sure that apart from these coal mines, there is nothing else on the territory. There are valuable minerals."

"What you are worried about now is indeed a problem." Lawrence found that the worries of the viscount before him were exactly the same as those of the local tyrants who sold oil in the Middle East in his previous life, so the method of solving the problems of the local tyrants has a good reference value.

"Have you ever thought about opening up new sources of wealth?" After closing his eyes and thinking for a few minutes, Lawrence suddenly opened his eyes and said to everyone who was looking at him. "For example, to manage some industries or something--"

"Of course I have considered this kind of thing." Viscount Surrey shook his head reluctantly. "But doing business does not mean investing money in it. You need to find the right investment direction."

"Unfortunately, it is not so simple to find the right investment direction. Unless you have enough connections, or some kind of unique technology."

Lawrence nodded his head in recognition of this sentence. For example, he himself has a normal personal network, but with the knowledge of another world, he can make some unique business.

For another example, on many islands in the Star Sea, those island owners who produce single cash crops rely on relationships to do business. They can buy part of their production and living materials at a price through the relationship network and sell agricultural products at reasonable prices.

The reason why Lawrence is now able to integrate with the lords around the island is also because he is in a unique business. Those tea, grains and various fish processed products can be regarded as that unique business.

For other islands, these businesses will not only form a competitive relationship with them, but can complement the economic situation on their islands to a certain extent.

So after a brief contact, Lawrence began to slowly establish his own network of relationships in the Star Sea area.

After this network of relationships was gradually established, he naturally gained enough benefits from it. For example, when the price and quality are similar, the owners of the surrounding islands will choose to purchase goods from Lawrence instead of buying others.

After all, this era is not the information and developed world of Lawrence's last life. It is not so simple to know the foundation of a person.

In this case, people tend to look for acquaintances when doing business, rather than looking for strangers who are not sure whether they are reliable.

This is the problem that Viscount Surrey is encountering now, because he is not a court noble who relies on relationships for his food, but because he has been marginalized before, he has a very general relationship with ordinary fief nobles.

To say that the relationship with the Viscount Surrey is relatively good, only the lords around their territory, but the nobles assigned to the northern islands are basically a group of marginalized characters, and naturally they can't provide much help in this regard.

"In this regard, you can slowly find the investment point you need." Lawrence gave his opinion after thinking about it. "After all, this kind of investment really has to pay for it. It's not bad to be cautious."

"Of course we know this." Isabella touched her stomach and said. "But the problem is that now our children are about to be born. We hope to leave a struggling image for the children, rather than just relying on the minerals of the family to enjoy their lives."

"Well, I can understand this." Saifei nodded when he looked at his maternally radiant friend, even though he has no children for the time being. But he can understand what his friend thinks.

Most of the time, people are willing to create a good environment for their offspring, even if it requires more wealth and energy to do so, it doesn't matter. For example, the Viscount Surrey family is like this now.

According to Viscount Surrey, the purpose of the industry he wants to operate is simply to operate the industry itself. So just don't lose money as long as you can keep it going.

It is a pity that after searching for several months, they did not find the industries that they wanted. After careful study of some of the industries that looked good, they found that they were basically all pits.

For example, someone recommended to them about the investment in a steel plant in the White Eagle Federation. Although it is okay to just look at the information, the Viscount Surrey hired a private investigator to investigate and discovered that the plant was not only aging in technology and facilities. , There is also a lot of messy multi-angle debt problems internally.

"Actually, I am not very good at industrial management," Lawrence said helplessly.

"Although I have invested in a lot of factories, the management level of the factories is also very average. I can do this today, I think my only advantage is that those factories just happen to be irreplaceable from some perspectives. ."

Seeing the unbelieving expressions of the Viscount Surrey and his wife in front of him, Lawrence immediately explained the doorway to them.

In fact, Lawrence’s industry can be divided into two parts. One of them is the industry that he manages with technological advantages after he has mastered certain technologies, such as the drug manufacturing plant on the island, and the arsenal on the federal side. And lighter factory.

The other part is the series of small factories that Lawrence built on the island, similar to the fish and seafood processing factories or various small hardware factories built around the Port of New Sauer.

But the problem is that Viscount Surrey basically cannot imitate, because the former factory has to have some unique skills of its own, and their family's traditional skill is only fishing.

But the problem is that fishing is not about making mortars, depth charges, or some medicines, which have certain special characteristics, so this industry cannot meet their requirements.

"Where is the fish processing factory? I think the meat floss made on our island sells well." After hearing about the traditional fishing industry in the Viscount of Surrey, Syfiel immediately suggested it.

"It should not work." Isabella said with a wry smile, "Although our territory is more than 10,000 square kilometers, which is far larger than the normal Viscount territory~www.ltnovel.com~, there are not many people——

Through Isabella's simple explanation, Lawrence also figured out that this piece of territory called New Surrey is indeed not small, probably more than 10,000 square kilometers.

But the problem is that the location of this territory is too far to the north. At the same time, more than 80% of the territory is small hills, so New Surrey has always been a very barren territory.

Even because this territory is too barren, even a tree with a bigger tree does not grow on the mountain. Only some shrubs and grasses exist in the entire territory.

Therefore, before the coal mine was discovered, apart from raising a batch of reindeer who were not afraid of the cold, the local economy had to rely on fishing to sustain the territory's livelihood.

It is a pity that these industries simply cannot feed too many people. According to Isabella, although there are more than 50,000 people in the territory, at least more than half of them came to the island after the coal mine was developed. Temporary workers.

As for the original island residents, there were only more than 20,000 people. Now, most of them have changed their professions because of the mine. For example, many fishermen have given up some dangerous fishing jobs and turned to some. Service industry.