"No! It's not too late, because I know more about tea trees than coffee. And I like tea more than coffee. Adding the two together, I choose to research tea trees first!" Charles said with a smile.
The few tea trees planted in Scarlet Manor had already reached their third year, and naturally, their leaves could be picked. However, the primary requirement for tea tree growth is humidity, and the secondary requirement is sunlight. Generally, places with abundant rain, dew, and fog are ideal for growing tea. Pittsburgh, being a northern part of the United States and mostly plains, made it difficult to find suitable humid locations. Even though Charles found the most secluded and moist valley near the manor, the quality of the tea produced was noticeably poor. He really wanted to change locations to plant tea trees.
For him, planting tea trees in the United States was indeed better than planting coffee. At least there were many valleys in the United States that met the conditions for tea tree training, so growing some specialty teas was basically not a problem. As for coffee, most parts of the United States, at least the temperate regions in the north, simply could not grow it.
George-Pan was sweating profusely internally; he liked it, but he wasn't familiar with it!
He couldn't understand Charles' preference for tea trees, so he could only honestly say:
"Actually, it's not difficult to trial-plant tea trees. A few years ago, the British had several designated trial plantings in the Thirteen Colonies, and most of them survived. Now, it's just a matter of comparing them, choosing a place that produces better quality tea leaves, and then expanding the planting scale. I don't know much about this, so my role in the research might not be significant."
"Oh? I can choose just by comparing? That's good. Hahaha, I will definitely buy the places most suitable for planting tea trees. Then I can drink green tea when I want green tea, and black tea when I want black tea. In summer, I'll drink iced green tea to quench my thirst, and in winter, warm black tea to keep fit and nourish my stomach. Hahaha, that's the real enjoyment!" Charles said, his face full of intoxication.
Now that he had achieved success, besides properly handling official matters, he should seize the opportunity to enjoy himself thoroughly.
At the same time, he couldn't help but inwardly grumble that since he loved tea, he should also take the opportunity to educate American tea culture in his half-british ways.
"Um, Mr. Godfrey, what about other cash crops? Will you still support their research?" George-Pan asked nervously.
"Haha! Don't worry, for other crops, I will propose to the state assemblies to support your research projects. But for the rubber tree, you still need to trial-plant it. I will buy some rubber from South America. I hope that by the time I develop the correct usage method, your rubber trees will have also been successfully trial-planted."
Rubber trees, these were truly industrial-grade tree species. Regardless of whether the conditions were currently available, or whether he knew how to vulcanize, knowing about rubber and having rubber in hand meant he definitely had to seize the opportunity to experiment and see if it could be developed and utilized.
"Does rubber really have commercial value, Mr. Godfrey!" George-Pan said with an excited look. "What is its commercial value, and how can it be achieved? As soon as I saw that thing, I felt it should have the potential for other uses, but unfortunately, I spent a long time and couldn't formulate it into a suitable material."
"Haha! I know that after vulcanization, rubber can become more solid and wear-resistant, while still maintaining appropriate elasticity, and it won't age as quickly as raw rubber. It's just how to vulcanize it, I also know." Charles shook his head.
"Vulcanization! Vulcanization!" George-Pan muttered a few times, but he couldn't understand the technique from the literal meaning alone.
"Anyway, these rubber trees must be trial-planted, even if it's an asset I leave to my descendants. If Mr. George-Pan is interested, I can sign an employment contract with you specifically for trial-planting other novel crops. Actually, I'm also very interested in botany and know many strange crops whose economic value has basically not yet been developed. If you are willing to accept my employment, then I can let you be specifically responsible for the trial-planting of these crops." Charles encouraged.
He had met quite a few talented people, but a botanist was truly the first. Anyway, these jobs of researching and planting new crops were matters that brought both fame and profit. Besides the slow results, at the current level, the cost was not too high, and he could completely rest assured in arranging people to do it.
"Many new crops? Then I might be too busy alone!" George-Pan nervously and excitedly started rubbing his hat again.
"Hahahaha!"
Charles could only respond with a burst of laughter at George-Pan's naivety.
"If you are too busy, you can hire other people. Since you are a botanist, you must also know some other botanists, right? You can introduce some other botanists you think are good, and I will hire them to help. We can also hire some ordinary workers to help you botanists with tasks."
"Oh!" George-Pan nodded.
He then silently began to consider whether to accept Charles' employment.
Actually, there was no need for much consideration. George-Pan was currently struggling even with a normal life. Now, Charles was willing to hire such a seemingly useless botanist, which was simply an opportunity from heaven. A minute later, George-Pan made up his mind:
"Good! Let's sign the contract immediately!"
Facing such a decisive botanist, Charles was also a little helpless.
Such a person might be absolutely first-rate in academia and good at research, but he absolutely could not be put in charge of the entire research department. Otherwise, it would surely become a mess.
"Good! The contract is fine, but we also need to clarify some things first! That is, the name, nature, and personnel of this research institute must be decided now." Charles stated clearly first.
"No problem! I can listen to you on all these things. As long as I can do my research well and have a stable life, I'll be very satisfied." George-Pan innocently agreed.
Fortunately, although Charles liked to earn money from others, he was still very protective of his subordinates. He earned where he should, and spent where he should, especially on his subordinates. Charles was very generous with money. After the emancipation of slaves last time, Bergnan, as a firearms designer, was given shares worth a thousand pounds, which greatly increased Bergnan's loyalty and work ethic. He had already begun research on the most critical steps of the breech-loading rifle.
The agreement was quickly discussed. Charles would invest in establishing a botanical garden in Georgia, specifically for the research of new crops. The chief researcher would be Mr. George-Pan. Charles guaranteed that he would transport various novel plants from all over the world, and George-Pan would conduct research on the development and utilization of those crops with commercial value.
Finally, Charles also gave George-Pan a verbal promise, guaranteeing that the annual research funding for the botanical garden would not be less than one thousand pounds, and that the funding for the first year could reach five thousand pounds.
—
After the agreement was finalized, Charles asked someone to call a lawyer to draft the formal contract, when he suddenly thought of something.
"By the way. Mr. George-Pan, as a columnist for this Richmond newspaper, are you familiar with the editor and the owner of the newspaper?"
"Of course, the editor and I were classmates, and the owner is a very good friend of mine." George-Pan said with a bit of embarrassment.
His articles were not actually very well written, and not many people liked to read them. If it weren't for the fact that the newspaper owner and editor were both good friends of his, it would have been basically impossible to publish these things. In fact, publishing these was mainly for advertising purposes, hoping to attract the government's attention and receive funding for research in this area.
Fortunately, he didn't get government funding, but government official aid was about to be achieved. Compared to a one-time allocation, this kind of stable work support was more in line with his mindset.
However, hearing Charles ask, he honestly explained, but also felt a bit awkward.
"Haha! That's good. I want you to do me a favor and contact the newspaper owner to publish some advertisements for Pittsburgh there." Charles, however, was completely unconcerned about George-Pan's embarrassment.
"I can help you talk to them, but I can't guarantee whether they will agree." George-Pan answered very honestly.
"Don't worry, as long as you introduce me and get me in touch with them, that's enough!" Charles nodded.
At this time, newspapers, though already very popular in cities, even if not many people read them, still existed in most cities as a form of political propaganda. However, current newspapers were still very limited by time and geographical constraints. For example, a Richmond newspaper could generally only see local Richmond content, perhaps special events in Philadelphia and Paris, but basically nothing from cities of its same level.
Charles planned to contact this seemingly influential newspaper in Richmond to publish several announcements for the acquisition of cotton, tobacco, and other cash crops produced in Virginia, and incidentally, to advertise Pittsburgh's specialties: high-quality and inexpensive woven fabrics, excellent steel equipment, high-grade furs, and various machinery and chemical products.
The plantation owners in Virginia were very fond of reading newspapers, and he believed that even if they were conservative, there would be a few products that appealed to them.
After the lawyer arrived at the hotel where Charles was staying to sign the formal employment contract between Charles and George-Pan, the group then went to the newspaper office and signed a preferential advertising agreement with the newspaper owner.
This newspaper in Virginia would, at a preferential price, help Charles publish advertisements introducing Pittsburgh and the United States, and specifically publish articles and commentaries promoting these two places. In exchange, the newspaper obtained the right to distribute newspapers in Pittsburgh and the United States.
After resolving this matter, Charles' work of consoling the troops and winning over people around Richmond was also nearing completion. He simply took George-Pan, who had packed his luggage, and together they set off to the North and South Carolina and Georgia, further south, for inspection and troop consolation work.
After nearly a month, they successively inspected North Carolina and South Carolina, finally arriving in Georgia. Near Florida, he found a suitable plot of land and planned to build a huge botanical garden. This botanical garden, by coincidence, was located in a town that was originally disputed between the United States and Spain. This made Charles feel a wave of emotion; if not for his persistent efforts back then, perhaps this botanical garden would not exist today.
Charles entrusted the construction of the botanical garden to Guard Jekill and botanist George-Pan, while he continued to be active in the upper echelons of Georgia. He both comforted the Georgia militia and won over prominent local figures, while also promoting the interest group he founded, preparing to win over these "farmers."
Among the Thirteen Colonies in America, Georgia was undoubtedly younger and developed later compared to other states. Coupled with its large area, second only to the current United States, this area was considerably more desolate than the large urban clusters around New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Furthermore, with its distinct Southern economic structure, even in the capital of Georgia, it still had a very rural feel.
Charles had already experienced this peculiar feeling when he was in Richmond.
As Virginia, the most populous state in all of America, its capital, Richmond, should logically have a population not much smaller than Philadelphia, the largest city in America at the time. However, in reality, it was less than half of Philadelphia's.
Charles discovered that at this time, Richmond, let alone its population and urban scale, apart from the particularly prosperous wealthy areas, many places outside the city were even similar to newly opened, desolate regions. It could be said that once you left the city, it was the countryside. However, when traversing the entire Virginia, Charles also found that most of the fertile land along the way had already been developed and utilized. Basically, he passed several plantations every day, and small villages were everywhere, forming a stark contrast to the situation in Pennsylvania where one might not see a village or town for several days.
As an emerging Southern agricultural state, Georgia was naturally far inferior to Virginia.