Ambrose stood on the dock, watching the crates of oysters being loaded into the cold room of the freighter, he hated sea travel ,and hated back water places like owl harbor even more, but Miss Solano said go get some oysters’ so oysters he has obtained.
60 crates to be exact, 20 going to Amaranth its self, and the rest heading to the dining tables of New Babbage ,at one hundred oysters per crate, with an estimated selling price of one and a half Quatloo per hundred in Babbage thats a fifty percent profit over the forty amaranthian silver Badgers paid to buy them in Owl Harbor.
not allot by any means and no real profit to be had, but enough to see if a regular and somewhat larger weekly shipment was practical, and profitable enough to be worth continued effort.
the Hare watched the trade union representatives re count the silver coins after having their assayer check them all for quality, when one of them talked to one of the dock workers loading the ship,and turned to storm over to Ambrose a look of extreme displeasure on his face”hey you!, we made it clear that we weren’t selling no oysters to New Babbage, and now im told thats where this ship came from, and where its going back to!”
the accountant cocked an eye brow, twitched his nose, and spoke” you are quite correct my good sir , this ship did infact come from New Babbage, and will eventually go back there, but only after it has unloaded its cargo of New Babbage soot, and your oysters of course, at Amaranth, before loading a cargo of nickel bars and Amaranthian port, heading to New Babbage”
the little man huffed and scowled ‘ you’d better not be trying to pull something over on us if you ever want to get another load from here, ever!
the lanky Moreau smiled “rest assured sir that your oysters are going strait to amaranth”and his eyes lit up as he thought ” but i never said that our oysters would stay there”
the man looked doubtful but replied ” well if your sure that every one of these oysters is going to market in amaranth, then i apologize for my outburst, its just that theres been a lot of smuggling of our oysters to Babbage of late’
Ambrose wrinkled his nose and spoke in his best reproachful tone ‘sir! i am not some petty smuggler but the Representative of a well respected trading company!,if you do not think us capable of dealing fairly with you, be strait forward with me and i will inform my employer, and we will cease all shipping business with your city!
the man smiled, a look of momentary panic crossing his face as he back peddled ” oh no sir i meant no disrespect, nor sought to imply anything dishonest, its just that we are loosing enough profit to smuggling, that we have become unnaturally defensive “
the Hare looked down at the little man and sniffed” very well i will over look this slight in the interest of fair trade, let us speak no more of it, now if you will excuse me i have business to attend to, good day sir”
“very good sir” the man said as he walked away, and Ambrose looked back to the ship where the last crates had already been secured, and thought to him self ” these people may know their fish, but they know nothing of the shipping business,”
“the Solanos have been masters of the Chinese opium trade for decades, and their ships have sailed the triangle from India, to china, to points west for four generations”
“and these backward yokels think they can get the better of us?,well we will be true to our word, the oysters will be taken to market on Amaranth were they will be sold to sub contractors repackaged on board ship and taken to market in Babbage just as planned”
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