Darnel looked at Feng Chou and smiled. "You're smart. You've always been smart. But you still have me as a friend, don't you?"
Feng Chou looked at him. "That depends on what you can give me. Rather than selling my family's property at a low price, I'd rather not have it. At least my family won't hate me."
Darnel said, "Even if you give up Amborite, it won't belong to the Stuart family anymore. According to the succession order, you're now the first in line, and the second in line is the brother of Baron Amborite's wife. Even the third and fourth in line are members of the family of Baron Amborite's wife."
"If you're willing to entrust your territory to the El Chamber of Commerce indefinitely after you get Amborite, you'll definitely get a satisfactory reward."
At this point, Feng Chou went straight to the point. "The Amborite and the Lordship Of Pedro are entrusted indefinitely in exchange for Sir Victor's territory, three gentleman's territories upstream and one gentleman's territory downstream, as well as the rights to develop the land on both sides of the Victor River that's no smaller than Amborite's territory."
Land development was different from land development. Obtaining land development rights was equivalent to obtaining ownership of a piece of land in the wilderness. It could be developed at any time, and once developed, it would become a territory. There was no time limit, and there was no need to pay half of the land development fee to the lord as a reward.
Therefore, obtaining land development rights was far more difficult than obtaining land development rights.
Hearing Feng Chou's request, Darnel frowned and said, "Victor's territory?
Ah!
I know where it is!
Before the dam at the lower reaches of Lake Elven was built, the Vito River was just a small stream. At that time, the Vito Territory was the most barren territory near Antalya. But after the dam at Lake Elven was built and Lake Elven expanded to its current size, the flow of the Vito River increased by several times. The harvests of the farmland on both sides of the river also improved year by year. Even though there were no irrigation facilities, the farmland on both sides of the river was almost as stable as irrigated farmland. "
"The Count had thought of developing that land, but on one hand, the flow of the Victor River, its speed, and the terrain of the river were not enough to support a large-scale irrigation project. There were no other rivers nearby, and it would take too much work to directly draw water from Avon Lake.
In addition, after the construction of the dam at Lake Ivin, Antalya's grain production already had a large surplus, and the pressure on the export was great. This caused the price of grain to fall, so the count gave up on the idea of developing the Vito River. "
Feng Chao asked in confusion, "Why do you want to build irrigation facilities?"
Darnel asked, "Without irrigation facilities, how can it be considered a good territory?"
Feng Chou was speechless. From the noble territories he had seen, the nobles of Antalya were very persistent in their pursuit of irrigation. As long as they had the conditions, they would do their best to build irrigation facilities.
This was actually one of the benefits of land intensification in this world. Lords with large tracts of farmland and wealth had the conditions and ability to build water conservancy facilities to improve the quality of their farmland. If it was a small-scale homesteader, they would not be able to do this.
But the reality was that the area upstream of the Victor River was close to Avon Lake, the source of the water was very rich. It could already be called a wetland. The groundwater there was enough to support the growth of crops. There was no need for irrigation facilities at all.
Of course, Feng Chou would not try to persuade Darnel. In fact, the upstream of the Victor River did not need irrigation facilities at all.
He shrugged and said, "No matter what, this is my condition. I need the right to develop a piece of land that is not smaller than Amborite. If you can meet my request, not only will I give the rights to develop Amborite and the Lordship Of Pedro to the El Chamber of Commerce indefinitely, but I will only ask for one crown per year."
Hearing Feng Chou's request, Darnel thought for a moment and reached out his hand. "Deal."
Feng Chou also reached out his hand with a smile.
The reason why Darnel agreed so readily was that Feng Chou's condition was simply too good for him.
In this era, what the nobles valued the most was their territory, but that was not the case for merchants. The reason was that from the perspective of merchants, the development of agriculture was actually a business with very low profits.
For example, a piece of land like Baron Amborite's territory cost more than two million crowns to develop. It required the unremitting efforts of several generations. But for such a piece of land, if one only counted the income from agriculture, after deducting the various expenses, the final net income was only sixty to seventy thousand crowns. And this was under the condition that the price of food was stable. In the eyes of merchants, such a rate of return was simply too low.
An investment that would take 30 years or even longer to recoup its cost was a business that merchants would never want to engage in. However, nobles would never get tired of it. They would disregard the consequences and throw the silver crowns they excavated into the land one after another, all for the sake of a piece of land that could be passed down eternally.
In Darnel's view, a piece of barren land, even if it was a hundred square kilometers, was worthless. If he wanted to develop it into a manor, it would be a losing business.
And Darnel was confident that he could convince the Counts Of Antalya.
All he had to do was give the Count the rights to manage Amborite and all its profits.
The Count would definitely like to use the unlimited rights to manage a piece of barren land in exchange for the rights to a piece of barren land.
Darnel wasn't interested in a piece of land that only brought in a net income of eighty thousand crowns a year. He only hoped to use this piece of land, which was extremely tempting to the nobles, in exchange for more shares of the Lordship Of Pedro's profits.
In Darnel's eyes, the Lordship Of Pedro's underground tunnels were the golden goose that laid the golden eggs.
A week later, Darnel brought the Counts Of Antalya's clerk to Feng Chou's villa. The two sides had a detailed discussion on the area and location of the land to be developed.
The reason for the delay was that the Counts Of Antalya had been busy dealing with the matter of his second son colluding with the Ogre Bandit Group.
In fact, the Ogre Bandit Group wasn't an ordinary bandit group. They were the priests of the Evil God Bann.
The Evil God Bann was an evil and powerful god who was active in the northern continent before the Arcane Empire. He was also known as the Black Tyrant and was known for his tyranny. He was the protector of many cruel lords.
In the early days of the Arcane Empire, Bann plotted to provoke a dispute between the Arcane Parliament and the good gods, which directly led to the fall of the God of Dawn, Luoshanda.
After the fall of Luoshanda, his priesthood was taken over by the God of Justice, Tyr, which gave birth to the most powerful god today, the God of Light.
Bann's plot was eventually exposed. Not only was he strangled by the Arcane Parliament, but he was also jointly suppressed by the God of Justice, led by the God of Light.
In the end, in the expansion of the Arcane Parliament, which was later the Arcane Empire, the powerful territories controlled by Bann were destroyed one by one. His followers were almost exterminated under the pursuit of powerful arcanists. This made Bann feel the threat of death for a time.