CHAPTER 548: CHAPTER 515 THE PURPOSE OF PERFIKOT

After dividing the shares, the noble ladies expressed they would send money afterwards, marking a successful conclusion to the tea party held by Perfikot.

However, after seeing off the other guests, Perfikot noticed that Eldest Princess Annie had not left. Instead, she was looking at him with a curious and scrutinizing gaze.

This struck Perfikot as odd, so he sat down again in front of her and asked, "What is it, Aunt Annie? Is there something on my face? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I am just curious, why do you want to establish a sugar factory, and why involve these few?" Eldest Princess Annie posed her question, counting on her fingers as she spoke: "Duchess of Gloucester, Lady McIntock, Marchioness of Demell...

Not to mention that their husbands are all members of the Privy Council, just their family backgrounds in the Empire are of significant weight. I am quite curious why you want to ally with them."

"To stabilize the current situation in the Northern Territory," Perfikot was straightforward, freely revealing her intention.

She poured herself a cup of tea from the teapot, taking a sip before continuing, "With the constant migration of Imperial nobility, there have been frequent frictions between the local aristocracy of the Northern Territory and the Northern nobles.

Although both sides have exercised restraint and avoided escalating the conflict, a quick glance at the towering stack of reports on my desk shows that they haven’t ceased their disputes."

Just thinking about the pile of reports regarding the various frictions between the local and Northern aristocracies made Perfikot’s head ache.

Even though she couldn’t be bothered to go through them, and most of the time their fate was to be used as firewood, just the sheer number of them shows how severe the problem is.

From the outset, Perfikot anticipated conflicts between the local and Northern aristocracies, but she never imagined it would be to this extent.

Logically, the Northerners were also once part of the local factions not long ago, considering the whole establishment of the Northern Territory isn’t even three years old. Most people migrated from the Empire’s mainland or the New Continent.

However, when people get tangled up with interests, the formation of factions becomes a natural outcome.

The pioneering nobles who received fiefs in the Northern Territory, those entrepreneurs who meticulously cultivated business relationships with the Northern Territory...

These people quickly formed interest groups and political factions unique to the Northern Territory, seeking greater power and interests for themselves.

When the Northern Territory was just the Northern Territory, their development and expansion went smoothly. After all, there was no one to compete with them for the spoils; they just had to claim land.

Perfikot wasn’t one to care much about such issues; she didn’t mind the factions, as long as they could work for her.

As for whether the bloated factions would eventually become unruly and threaten her control over the Northern Territory, that was of no concern.

Because the reason Northern factions could form, the most important legal basis, was the title of Count of Exploration bestowed upon Perfikot.

This title allowed Perfikot to legally encompass the entire Northern Territory within her domain; the whole Northern Territory was her territory.

And these people of the Northern factions relied on supporting her to gain enough interests to satisfy them, so they only had affection for Perfikot and no thoughts of opposition.

Of course, there were people within the Northern factions who aspired to more, who had ideas about Perfikot’s rule.

But this was no problem for Perfikot so long as she still held the Steam Knights.

Compared to the Northern factions, the local nobles similarly desired to acquire benefits.

Originally, the local nobility looked down upon the trivial benefits of the Northern Territory, but since the abandonment of the mainland and the entire Imperial Center relocated to the Northern Territory, the Northern Territory immediately became the most central and important territory of the Empire.

At such times, any interests related to the Northern Territory became extremely desirable to everyone.

Hence, those local aristocrats who were undermined by the migration of the Imperial Center naturally set their sights on the interests within the Northern Territory.

But unfortunately, these interests were already gobbled up by others; if they wanted them, they would have to compete with the Northern factions.

The restraint by both parties was a tacit rule to avoid escalation. After all, if things escalated and attracted the attention of Perfikot or higher-ranking imperial aristocrats, these trifling interests wouldn’t be enough to go around for the big players.

Perfikot naturally hoped the two factions wouldn’t fight fiercely and certainly didn’t want any rift to grow between the Northern Territory and the Empire itself.

So she hoped to involve the Empire’s local nobility in the interest distribution in the Northern Territory to ease the conflicts between the local aristocracy and the Northern factions.

Of course, this was just one of Perfikot’s purposes in the establishment of this sugar factory.

The fundamental aim was to solve the problem of sugar supply.

After all, when the end-time winter arrives, unless a large scale of greenhouses is built to grow sugarcane or beet for sugar production, it would be challenging to get enough sugar to maintain supply.

The importance of sugar needs no further elaboration, and it serves another crucial function, which is to enrich the variety of food.

It should be known that if one only eats a single food type, it can lead to death.

The most famous example is the rabbit starvation problem, which simply put, if you consume only rabbit meat, you can starve to death.

Since rabbit meat has very low-fat content, consuming only rabbit meat provides almost only protein. The energy the body uses to digest protein exceeds the energy it receives from protein.

This leads to you getting thinner and eventually starving because the body lacks enough energy to digest food.

For the Northern Territory, such a situation wouldn’t happen; the alchemy compressed biscuits produced by Perfikot provide sufficient energy.

But these things... While they’re fine for staving off hunger, if consumed in large quantities or every meal, they can make people feel like eating wax, have difficulty swallowing, and even develop severe aversion to food.

Another very important point is that the diversity of food on the table can significantly enhance the public’s satisfaction and happiness; this is a crucial issue if one wants to maintain social stability.

When bread is the only thing on the table, undoubtedly, the level of public discontent is also high.

After all, solving the problem of eating enough and solving the problem of eating well are two completely different concepts.