I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 900: The Deceitful Merchant

The Chatham Shipyard was overjoyed and immediately began to inquire around for the origin of this magical wood.

After all, Britain is an old maritime power with countless sailors with experience in ocean sailing. Five or six days later, a ship owner who had done business in the Caribbean said that he had seen this plant - a spice produced in Jamaica.

Sir Hope, director of Chatham Shipyard, immediately sent people to search for guaiac wood in the market, but soon discovered that only spice-grade guaiac wood was for sale in the whole of Europe. The thickest was only as thick as an arm, while the axle required wood thicker than a wine barrel and up to 10 meters in length.

Hope had no choice but to report the matter to the Naval Committee.

Finally, the Naval Committee decided to send people to Jamaica to purchase guaiac wood - a round trip to the Caribbean would take three months, barely enough to keep up with the progress of the steam battleship.

5 weeks later.

Major Robert Kane, dressed as a businessman, set foot on the remote island of Jamaica with a group of followers.

He is half Spanish and looks almost without any British features, which is why the Naval Committee sent him here - Jamaica, a former British colony, gained independence during the slave liberation movement a year ago, and the new regime is extremely pro-French and anti-British, making it difficult for ordinary British people to take a single step here.

However, when Major Kane searched all the major timber markets on the island, he could not find a single piece of guaiac wood that met his requirements.

In a warehouse in Kingston, Jamaica's largest timber merchant spoke in awkward French and shook his head at Kane:
"You're late. This time last year, someone bought up all the guaiac trees on the island that were thicker than two feet."

Yes, Joseph knew very well that there were as many as four or five hundred shipbuilding workers at the Brest Shipyard who had access to the axles of steam battleships, and there were even many Italians and Scandinavians among them. It would be difficult to guarantee that there would be no leaks over time.

And how could he leave such a strategic-level material as guaiac wood to the British?

So when Jamaica became independent, he immediately ordered the purchase of all the guaiac wood on the island that was suitable for making ship axles and shipped back to France.

The price is very cheap, almost just the wages of the lumberjacks.

Although the island of Jamaica is covered with guaiac trees, there are actually not many of them that can be used as ship axles - the trees must be old enough and grow very straight.

At the same time, there must not be even a single insect gnawing on the trunk. Even too many branches are not acceptable, as that would make the wood uneven.

In short, the Jamaican Parliament launched a search across the island, but only found about 3 pieces of qualified wood, which were then bought by France for 12 francs.

Directly cut off the source of the British people's thoughts.

Of course, guaiac wood is not unique to Jamaica; it also grows in small quantities on other islands in the Caribbean and along the coast of Mexico.

So Joseph had a backup plan.

Just when Major Kane was in despair, a "Venetian timber merchant" named Valdes found him and said that he had a batch of thick guaiac wood.

Kane was overjoyed and immediately asked for the price in Italian.

"How much do you want?" Valdés looked at the "Spanish businessman" with a smile.

"Well, about 50. They must be more than two feet in diameter and 30 feet long, and they must not have any flaws."

Valdés immediately offered: "4 pounds, or 10 francs."

Jamaica is a former British colony, so there is a large amount of British pounds circulating on the island, but after independence it began to use the French franc.

Kane said without hesitation: "Deal! Please ship the wood to Kingston Port."

Valdez nodded: "No problem. But you know, for such a big business, you have to pay a deposit first." "Of course, how much deposit do I need to pay?"

"One tenth of the price, twenty thousand pounds, or five hundred thousand francs."

Kane was stunned: "Wait, I remember the payment was 4 pounds?"

Valdez smiled and shook his head: "I'm afraid you misunderstood, I meant 4 pounds a stick."

"Four thousand pounds for a piece of wood?!" The British major was shocked and angry. He stared at the "Venetian" and said, "You are a scam!"

Valdez spread his hands and said, "Look at what you said. It's a fair trade. If you think it's expensive, you don't have to buy it."

Kane immediately turned around and left, silently saying in his heart: Let me wait a moment, come on, try to keep me...

However, the profiteer just watched him leave.

The next day.

Kane came to Valdes' shop again with a depressed look on his face, because this was the only place on the entire island that had guaiac wood.

Although he knew he was being blackmailed, he had no choice but to accept the cost no matter how much it cost as it was related to whether the navy could regain control of the Mediterranean. As long as he could defeat the French, today's investment would be earned back a hundred times or a thousand times.

"All right, four thousand pounds a piece. Ship it for me as soon as possible."

Valdez smiled and shook his head: "Sorry, that was yesterday's price. Now it's 5 pounds a piece."

"You!" Kane's face turned green. If it weren't for the dozen or so dark-skinned shop assistants around him staring at him hungrily, he really wanted to beat up this profiteer.

He took a few deep breaths and made a calming gesture: "How about this, I buy 60, still 4 pounds each, is that okay?"

Valdez hesitated for a moment and said, "If you can buy 80 at a time, I can give you a discount, 4 pounds per piece."

He added:
"You know, I'm the only one in Jamaica, in the world, that has guaiac wood. And I never give a discount when I sell it to the French."

Kane's forehead was throbbing with veins, but he felt a little more balanced when he thought about the fact that the French would pay a higher price for this thing.

He squeezed out a few words from between his teeth: "80. I need time to raise the funds."

"of course can."

More than a month later, when Valdés received a bill of exchange for 36 pounds from the Dutch Bank, he had 80 pieces of guaiac wood loaded onto Kane's ship.

The latter finally completed the mission and happily ordered a return trip.

However, what he didn't know was that more than three-quarters of the wood on the ship had been tampered with - using very fine needles to drill holes along the wood's grain, so that nothing unusual could be seen from the outside. But after it was made into a ship's shaft, under the huge torque of the steam engine, these tiny wounds would continue to expand, eventually causing the entire shaft to break.

Yes, the so-called "Venetian timber merchant" was actually an agent of the French Intelligence Service.

He stayed in Jamaica for over a year, during which time he would approach anyone who wanted to buy large-sized pieces of guaiac wood and offer them exorbitant prices.

Anyone who buys these woods at any price must be the British - other countries do not have the ability to develop steam battleships - so we can just rip them off when the time comes.

(End of this chapter)