Chapter 264: Chapter 260: About to Arrive
After exploring the situation at the bottom of the valley, Perfikot returned to Eagle’s Beak Cliff.
The oil discovered on the Death Valley trip is indeed important, but its significance is as the key to unlocking the Second Industrial Revolution, rather than the valley itself or the Oil Lake being crucial.
Although they do hold significant importance for the Northern Territory, it’s not to the extent that Perfikot would need to drop everything and personally oversee the entire process here.
Upon returning to Eagle’s Beak Cliff, Perfikot quickly received several new pieces of news, plunging her into busyness.
First, news from the Royal Academy of Sciences indicates that the scientists requested by Perfikot, as the vice president of the Royal Academy of Sciences and the dean of the Northern branch, have already departed from the empire’s mainland and will arrive in the Northern Territory aboard the repaired Flying Airship.
The telegram was sent before their departure, and according to the schedule, they should still be on their way. However, given the speed of the Flying Airship, it should only take a few days to travel from Langton to the Northern Territory.
Especially since the northern routes are now navigable, the Flying Airship can save time by flying along this route.
This means they’ll actually be arriving in just a few days, but the corresponding Northern branch of the Royal Academy of Sciences isn’t even visible yet.
This sudden realization caused Perfikot a headache, but luckily the problem isn’t too big.
The Eagle’s Beak Cliff base itself was designed to be a research station capable of accommodating more people, especially scholars.
If the first group isn’t too large, they can be temporarily housed at Eagle’s Beak Cliff. As for the Northern branch of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Perfikot thought it could be directly established at Eagle’s Beak Cliff.
After all, it was originally planned as the research station for the Arctic expedition, expanding it into the Northern branch of the Royal Academy of Sciences doesn’t seem to pose much of a problem.
Ultimately, it’s because Perfikot hasn’t adapted to her role as vice president of the Royal Academy of Sciences, a title more useful in Langton, and less regarded in the Northern Territory.
Aside from the Royal Academy of Sciences’ affairs, another party soon arriving in the Northern Territory is the inspection group sent by industrialists and capitalists of the New Continent.
Although they agreed to invest in building factories in the Northern Territory, what kind of factories and where to build them requires discussion and investigation.
The main goal of this inspection group is to assess the investment environment in the Northern Territory and identify suitable locations within the area Perfikot designated for factory construction.
This matter doesn’t require Perfikot’s personal attention; the senior steward Foster and the Northern Territory’s civil officials can handle it.
Regarding another inspection group from Langton with the same purpose but a different starting point, they will be arriving along with the Royal Academy of Sciences personnel.
However, they are not sharing the same Flying Airship with the Royal Academy of Sciences personnel.
After all, the Flying Airship was designed by Perfikot for herself, with limited size and accommodation capacity, tailored for her and the senior steward, plus a group of maid dolls.
The inspection group sent by Langton’s capitalists and industrialists is considerably large, obviously too many to fit in this Flying Airship.
As for traveling traditionally by ship? Time is money, my friend! Traveling by ship would waste substantial time on the journey!
Previously, travel by ship was the only option, but now, with new choices available, these major capitalists and industrialists won’t sit by idly as time is squandered, allowing their New Continent counterparts to get ahead.
Bear in mind that the Northern Territory is an untapped blue ocean market, and those who seize the opportunity first can secure an advantage in future commercial competition.
Especially for Langton’s major capitalists and industrialists, being well-informed is essential, and they’ve begun receiving some inklings of a significant crisis soon to face the empire.
Though they haven’t yet discerned the specifics of the crisis, they know the Northern Territory will be central to the empire’s strategy in navigating it.
Investing in the Northern Territory now represents an opportunity to curry favor with the upper echelons and the Northern Territory’s Count.
These capitalists and industrialists have gone to great lengths, spending large amounts to obtain Flying Airship blueprints from the Royal Shipyard, then constructing the first commercial Flying Airship in their own shipyards.
They succeeded in building the Flying Airship thanks to technical support from the Royal Shipyard, which was authorized by the empire’s high command.
Otherwise, the Flying Airship, as a critical military asset in the empire’s warfare strategy, would never have been allowed to be sold, let alone instruct others on how to replicate it.
If not for higher interests driving this, such an affair could never have succeeded.
Yet when concerning higher-level interests, matters are expedited, and now the first commercially operated Flying Airship has been built, embarked on its maiden flight en route to the Northern Territory.
As they head towards the Northern Territory, the driving industrialists and capitalists also sent a telegram to Perfikot.
Without this telegram, it wouldn’t have required Perfikot’s personal intervention, but she could’ve made an appearance at the welcome banquet at most, following the senior steward’s arrangements.
However, those industrialists and capitalists specifically sent the telegram to Perfikot, indicating matters worthy of her attention.
These major capitalists and industrialists established contact with Eldest Princess Annie through various channels, persuading her to lobby Perfikot for a grand welcoming banquet in the Northern Territory to celebrate the inaugural success of the Flying Airship’s commercial operation.
These capitalists and industrialists collectively gathered thirty thousand pounds sterling as sponsorship for this banquet, hoping the Northern Territory would host a splendid welcoming feast for the occasion, with them wishing for Perfikot, as the Lord of the North and the Flying Airship’s inventor, to attend.
They also sponsored an additional fifty thousand pounds sterling for Perfikot, aiming to gain further support from her as the Northern Territory’s Count.