From Londoner To Lord

Chapter 352 - 346. Trevalo - III

Trevalo shrugged. "The Kal River isn't really a big river, more like medium-sized, but it still has boats of all kinds. The sailing ones are larger than the rowing ones, of course."

"But how much cargo can a sailboat carry?" Kivamus asked.

Trevalo frowned. "I don't know how to describe it... Definitely a lot more than my wagons, for sure."

Kivamus exhaled in frustration. Then he thought of trying another angle. "Then can you tell me how many wagon loads of coal can one of those sailboats carry?"

"That I can do." Trevalo thought for a few seconds. "A medium-sized sailboat should carry around 15 to 20 wagon loads, I'd say. The bigger ones could take above 25, but they'd cost a lot more to rent and wouldn't be worth it for cheap cargo like coal."

Kivamus made a few quick calculations in his mind. A wagon in this world usually carried about twelve to thirteen hundred kilos, so that meant a medium-sized boat could carry somewhere between 20 and 25 tons, which was 150 to 200 sacks of wheat.

"Alright," he said finally, "I think I have a better idea of what to do."

Trevalo and Duvas both looked at him curiously.

"Instead of you traveling all the way from Tiranat to Ulriga for every single trip," Kivamus said, "you can make two trips from here to Cinran, and store the coal in a riverside warehouse there. I saw plenty of them in Cinran. One round trip from here to Cinran should take about seven days, including loading and unloading. After two trips, you'll likely have enough coal stacked up for a full load on a medium sailboat. Then, instead of taking it yourself, you'll hire a ship captain in Cinran to take the coal to Ulriga, sell it, and bring back wheat. He'll need about 12 to 14 days depending on the wind. Let's assume the worst for now—fourteen days. While he's on that trip, you'll continue transporting coal from here to Cinran. By the time he's back, you'll already have made two more trips and will have enough coal gathered for the captain to go again."

He continued, "Add a day for loading and unloading of the boat, as well as some rest for his crew, and the ship captain could leave again after that. That means he can manage a round trip from Cinran to Ulriga around every fifteen days. This way, we'd keep the coal moving regularly—one round-trip of your caravan every week to Cinran, and two full shipments on a sailboat every month to Ulriga. Doing this, we can easily move four caravans worth of coal from Tiranat to Cinran every month, which that captain will sell in Ulriga in two journeys on his boat. That's at least forty wagon loads of coal sold there every month, assuming you can run a caravan of 10 wagons."

Trevalo's eyes brightened. "I can!" He thought for a while and nodded. "If I rent just four more wagons, I can use ten in total—six of mine and the rented four. Then I can easily take twenty wagon loads of coal every 15 days to Cinran. If Tiranat had a river running to Cinran or even to Kirnos, you'd be rich already, but you can still sell a big amount of coal the way you suggested."

Duvas grinned. "That's 40 wagon loads of extra coal we can sell every month, apart from the 40 we already sell to Cinran and Kirnos! It'll easily double our revenue."

Kivamus shook his head. "Not quite. We won't be selling the usual twelve wagon loads to Cinran anymore, since Trevalo will be storing up everything for the boat shipments instead of selling it there. But you're right about the rest. If he rents even more wagons, it can work like you said. For this plan to work, Trevalo will be making about four regular trips every month from here to Cinran to keep it running smoothly. If we add, say, three more wagons to each of those trips, that adds another twelve every month—on top of the forty being stored at the riverside warehouse for shipping to Ulriga. That way, we can fulfill the whole demand of Cinran as well, and this extra cargo space will help us in trading the other way in the future when we have more things to buy and sell." He glanced at Trevalo. "But that'll mean managing a caravan of thirteen wagons."

"That's doable," Trevalo said. "A big caravan like that will need more guards, but if the profit's there, it'll be worth it."

Kivamus nodded, already thinking ahead. If the population of Tiranat kept increasing, they would definitely need more grain in the future. His goal was to feed everyone from the local farms eventually, but that might take time, since every year the population was going to increase between the sowing and harvest time. Until then, having this extra space in the caravans could help them bring back more wheat or anything else they wanted. If needed, they could even rent another boat in Cinran to transport more wheat from Ulriga to Cinran, and it could be brought back to Tiranat by Trevalo on his 13 wagons in the future.

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Trevalo looked uncertain. "But are you sure you can produce that much coal? If you were only producing forty wagon loads until now, this plan means you'll need at least seventy a month to fill the boat I rent. Maybe eighty, if you still plan to keep selling to Cinran."

"Not immediately," Kivamus said. "But I have plans to reach that amount in a few months."

Trevalo frowned in thought, then nodded slowly. "That'll give me time to find a proper contact in Ulriga to sell the coal and get the trading route set up properly. Once I secure a steady buyer in Ulriga, the sailor I hire in Cinran can handle the route regularly. Still, finding someone to buy forty wagon loads at once—even in Ulriga—won't be easy, but I'm sure I can manage it. For the first trip or two, I'll have to go along to make sure things go smoothly. After that, it'll run on its own." He glanced at Kivamus again. "But even for taking ten wagons of coal on each trip, I'll need ten drivers, plus enough guards to keep the caravan safe from here to Cinran."

Kivamus leaned forward. "Tell you what. You already have six wagons and six drivers. If you rent four more wagons from Cinran, I'll provide enough guards who can double as drivers—four of them to drive the new wagons, and another four for security until the road gets safer. When you rent three more wagons in the future to fulfill Cinran's demand, I'll send more men with you as well. That should save you a fair bit of coin. In return, I'll expect a better price for coal and wheat once we have that trading route set up."

Trevalo grinned, the unease fading from his expression. "That works for me. Eight more men, plus my six—that's fourteen in total for the caravan. When you give me more guards for selling coal to Cinran, I'll have nearly twenty armed men. That's more than enough security to keep the wagons safe on even the northern road."

Kivamus nodded slightly. It meant he wouldn't be able to send two hunting groups while those eight guards were gone, but the trade-off was worth it. The amount of coal they could sell in Ulriga—and the wheat they could bring back—would easily make up for it. They needed to ensure their food security until the farms could sustain the village, so this was a necessary investment of their guard force until then.

"What about security on the Kal River?" Kivamus asked. "Will you need men there too?"

Trevalo laughed. "Of course not. The road from Cinran to Ulriga is patrolled by knights, and it's completely safe. It runs almost parallel to the river, which makes the waterway safe too. Even then, it's just a river—not the open sea. There are no pirates there. Once we load the cargo in Cinran, we won't be getting off until we reach Ulriga, and the same on the return trip. Trust me, that route's as safe as it gets. I've never heard of any bandits trying to loot merchants on that route. The only dangerous stretch is the road from Cinran to Tiranat, because of all the forest surrounding it."

"Well, that's good enough," Kivamus said. "It will be difficult for us to spare more guards anyway."

He paused, his thoughts drifting to the numbers. Last year, their monthly income was around 500 gold when merchants came regularly. It would be a little less now since he wasn't charging border entry and exit duties—he didn't want to discourage the few merchants who still visited—but even then, it should be about 450 gold at the old coal prices, or just above 400 at the current lower rates - once coal trade returned to normal. If they could sell an extra forty wagons of coal each month, their income could cross 800 gold a month. They would still have to pay taxes on that income, since they couldn't hide that sale from the tax collector—unlike on the new products they had made here—but it would still be a lot of money to improve the village as well as to pay the tribute - assuming this new trading route was working well by then.

Of course, all of this depended on producing enough coal to meet Cinran's needs while still selling the surplus to Ulriga. But that city was such a huge market that once they were able to produce even more coal as the laborer population grew, and as he made improvements and introduced new technologies to improve the coal output, they could earn even more from it.

If this plan went well, he would also gain something just as valuable—a dependable merchant. After this deal, Trevalo would be trading solely with Tiranat. He wouldn't dare to risk damaging that relationship. Through him, they could one day sell not just coal to Ulriga, but also the cloth they planned to produce here. Since it was a port city, that meant access to international sea trade routes—and being able to export their products to the vast world market out there.

Doing that through Kirnos—which was much closer to Tiranat compared to Ulriga—would be much faster, but that wasn't an option yet. That village's port only had a single, small pier, and no major ships ever docked there. That was in stark contrast to the dozens of huge piers in Ulriga, where all kinds of big merchants brought their ocean-going ships. For now, Ulriga was the better choice, although he had to see what could be done about Kirnos.