Chapter 235 - Capital Woes (2/2)

That was why Carina differed from all the other black-market merchants. She never trusted anyone aside from Zhang Heng. Of course, she traded with many different captains under the radar of the alliance, but those were just one-off trades. The real situation, however, was way more complicated than that. Although Carina had a natural flair for business, she sorely lacked experience, not to mention needing a lot more time. All that in a place she was unfamiliar with. If Malcolm wasn’t after her, she would have had sufficient space to grow like a potato seedling. Right now, Malcolm was akin to a giant stone pinning her down. She had waste precious energy to squirm and crawl underneath its weight. In other words, he had severely stunted her growth.

Malone’s betrayal had also slowly affected Carina. After all, he used to be her father’s most trusted partner. He was also the only one familiar with his trading techniques. Without Malone’s guidance, Carina had to rely on herself to do business in a world filled with hounds and sharks. From that time on, one problem after another began to plague her.

For instance, she had supposedly set her buying price at 5% higher than the black market alliance, a rate Carina and the captains both agreed with. However, the black-market alliance offered different prices to captains from different tiers. Some pirates eventually discovered that they had been offered different rates compared to some others although the items they sold were similar.

It was hardly surprising then, how some pirates felt increasingly displeased with the double-standards. During that time, Carina was busy discussing partnerships with the merchants, worried that the bad reputation of the alliance would spill over to her. Ultimately, she was forced to cap her prices at the highest possible rate. That would mean she would be getting significantly less profit from all her trades.

The low-profit margins were just the beginning. Along with the increase in her cargo volume, the customs officers demanded an increase in bribes as well. This would all translate to higher costs, and subsequently, the retail price for the items would increase as well. Such a situation would only spell fewer buyers in the end. Initially, Carina thought that Malcolm must have been messing with her. Shockingly, she attempted a different port but found the same thing happening to her again. It was then when she realized that this was an unspoken rule for all black market merchants.

As if to worsen the situation, she had troubles at her business spot as well. The local traders were unhappy after seeing Carina dealing on a large scale on their turf. Two lawsuits were filed against her thanks to the jealous and disgruntled lot. The matter had to be settled regardless, and she was forced to spend a considerable sum to settle the case outside court. The detour eventually incurred huge losses for her.

All the above led to only one conclusion: the financial pit, the worst of her woes. Before Zhang Heng left, he gave Carina the Skeleton. Although it was supposed to be her third cargo ship, she would still need to pay for its refit and the manpower required. During that time, she had just spent a large sum of money to expand her warehouse by opening a grocery store. When the time came for her to purchase loot, she was so cash strapped that she was forced to mortgage her father’s property just to have enough.

The entire process of purchasing the goods from the pirate ships, finding prospective buyers, and shipping them to various colonies usually required a set amount of time. It was a well-established system that most traders were familiar with. Unfortunately, the situation didn’t always go as planned. The time the ships would return to port remained an uncontrollable factor. At times, a few pirate ships would all return to Nassau at once, and she would need a tremendous amount of money at hand to purchase their loot.

A week before Zhang Heng’s return to Nassau, Carina was already on the verge of financial collapse. As of now, she still owed two captains a large sum of money. Then, this morning, she was trying her hardest to calm her increasingly disguntled partners who had not received their payment on time.

Unfortunately, the heightened emotions caused some pirates to lose all patience and they proceeded to ransack her grocery store.