After visiting the steam engine, Roland and Margaret returned to the office in the castle and continued to discuss the details of the business contract. If such a discussion involved bargaining, it could commonly take one or two days. To save effort, the lord would usually entrust its treasurer to do the negotiation, while revealing the number and bottom line to him. But this time Margaret insisted that the price was non-negotiable, which saved Roland a lot of effort.
"I guess I'll be here again after one month, with three sloops full of saltpeter," the businesswoman said as she hastily took notes on a parchment, "Calculated by 90% of the market price, it is worth about 315 gold royals."
"By then the little town would have manufactured two steam engines." Roland lowered the number deliberately. "They're worth 1000 gold royals. You can pay the price difference with gold royals or with other goods."
"What kind of goods?"
