Charles greeted the arriving guests one by one, and only after most of them had arrived did he officially step onto the stage.
"Sirs! Welcome everyone to the earl's castle. I won't waste time with pleasantries. The main reason I've invited you all today is because All American Merchants are facing a major crisis that directly affects the vital interests of everyone present. We need to discuss it together..."
Before Charles could elaborate, the guests below were startled by his words and immediately began buzzing with chatter.
Only a few individuals near Charles remained composed, exchanging knowing glances with a smile, not panicking like the others.
These individuals were either exceptionally capable, having anticipated or learned of such an event through other channels and were mentally prepared, or they had simply been informed by Charles the previous night, knowing the specific details, and thus had no need to be surprised like the others.
When the buzzing below subsided and everyone consciously turned their attention back to Charles, he, who had been smiling for a while, continued:
"Sirs, just yesterday, the British Ambassador and the Spanish Ambassador of the Anti-French Alliance came together to the earl's castle, demanding that we cease our arms trade with the French Revolutionary Government, and even all economic and trade relations. I refused them. However, the two Ambassadors were not content and issued a threat, stating that if we continue to sell supplies to the French Revolutionary Government, they would not rule out taking drastic measures to attack my merchant ships. sirs, I believe you should understand that this hostile action is not just directed at me, Charles, alone, but at all of us major merchants who have economic and trade relations with France."
A major merchant immediately stood up beside him and chimed in:
"Exactly, I also received such a threat from the British, saying that we are not allowed to trade with France anymore, otherwise all our goods will be confiscated."
"Yes, I also received a notice..."
Several major merchants nearby, along with a few subordinates belonging to Charles' business system, all confirmed that they had received similar threats from the British, proving that the British were not acting solely against Charles this time, but against All American Merchants.
The American Merchants present were all intelligent people; they originally understood that Charles was right, and that the British were targeting All American Merchants who traded with France. Now, with so much third-party confirmation, they were even more convinced of this view. However, once they reached this conclusion, these individuals became a little worried.
"Respected Speaker Charles, have you accepted the British demands?"
"Will they really attack our merchant ships?"
People below asked questions, speaking over each other.
These individuals had only been truly profiting from the war for a year, but the enormous profits of that year had already given these merchants a sufficient taste of success. However, during this period, Anti-French Alliance Countries like Britain inevitably sent people to interfere with their business. Fortunately, All American Merchants, under Charles' coordination, were very united in facing European Anti-French forces; even rival Northern and Southern Merchants could stand together against the Europeans. As a result, their core business was not affected, and they were now carefully enjoying the benefits of the arms trade.
But these merchants were also sensible people; the reason they had been able to resist before was because the various governments had not truly used their full power to blockade them. If they were to truly take action now, using state means to disrupt their trade with France, then not only would it be impossible to continue doing business and making money, but it was very likely they would lose their initial capital.
Charles noticed the concerns of these people below and did not rush to clarify whether it would be safe, merely saying ambiguously:
"Judging from the British words, they will undoubtedly take action against our trade, but it is unknown to what extent."
"Then we must also take action quickly, we can't just wait for the British to detain all our merchant ships!" a major merchant from Pittsburgh sitting next to Charles immediately echoed.
"Haha! I invited everyone here precisely to discuss how we should respond," Charles said with a smile, pleased with his cooperation.
Among these merchants, with the exception of a very few, all were pure merchants, fundamentally not directly involved in politics. However, their collective influence was still very significant. This was because they fundamentally had many political figures who supported them, and they actually had a lot of say in official circles. However, these people were very prone to blindly following, making them Charles' best targets for winning over.
The people Charles truly intended to discuss with on equal terms this time were actually the few major merchants with political backgrounds. Most of them held positions as congressmen or other politicians. As long as he reached an agreement with them, those merchants without clear political views would be guided to take concerted action, using their influence to ensure the action received support from the American high-level.
"Speaker Charles, you are the strongest in terms of status and economic power among American Merchants. What kind of action do you think we should take?" asked a Virginia plantation owner named John Abel.
He was one of the representative congressmen from Virginia in Philadelphia's political circles, and a major plantation owner himself, with many agricultural products sold to France. Before inviting him this time, Charles had already spoken with him in advance. After a night of consultation and consideration, he had reached a consensus with several major Southern plantation owners and made a decision regarding their stance towards the British. However, he planned to first probe Charles' intentions before stating the opinion of their Southern faction.
Banker Morris, one of the representatives of the Northern industrial and commercial sector, was not directly involved in this matter, but his bank provided loans to many American Merchants, so he naturally had to express an attitude. However, with Charles already representing the Northern Merchants, his influence was naturally not enough to sway those major Northern Merchants. After Abel, he also spoke, stating:
"Charles is involved in the most trade, so he must have made arrangements long ago. We can all listen to his approach and then consider whether to take the same measures."
"Yes! sir Morris is right, let's first hear Speaker Charles' arrangements." Most people nodded in agreement.
Charles wore a faint smile, knowing that these people were indeed very sensible. Since he was leading the effort to invite them to discuss countermeasures, he naturally had made arrangements in advance.
"Indeed, sirs, for the current situation, I have indeed been making arrangements for a long time. Although I cannot guarantee that nothing will happen, that is the best method I could think of. If any of you have other better suggestions, you are welcome to put them forward, and we can discuss them further."
Charles' gaze swept over everyone.
Upon hearing that Charles had already made arrangements, many people breathed a sigh of relief. They all looked at Charles, not interrupting, waiting for his detailed explanation.
"It's like this: according to the British yesterday, before formally going to war with America, the main methods they might employ are merely detaining our merchant ships and confiscating our goods. As for actually firing on our merchant ships, that is fundamentally unlikely, and it's not within our merchants' power to prevent. So, I think what we can do is consider how to avoid the British fleet's interception. And this is not a problem. As you all know, my Atlantic Ocean shipping company has many steam fast ships. After several years of production, we now have nearly twenty professional cargo ships. The biggest characteristic of steam cargo ships is their exceptional speed. I think if we use steam fast ships to transport goods, the British sailing warships will certainly not be able to easily intercept us. And we are not trying to go to war with the British Navy; we just need to avoid them. At that time, if the British can't catch up with us, they won't be too excessive," Charles explained his arrangements.
This matter actually had a bit of a coincidence. Previously, merchants preferred conventional sailing ships because the transportation cost of steam fast ships was higher than that of sailing ships, even though everyone knew that steam and sail hybrid power ships were faster. Charles' shipyards built a large number of steamships, but most of those put into actual use were passenger liners, with almost no steam cargo ships. When the Anti-French war broke out in Europe, Charles anticipated that selling arms to the French Revolutionary army would definitely invite trouble from the British fleet in the future. Therefore, Charles' first thought was to use the advanced nature of steamships to contend with the British Navy. Over this past year, several shipyards worked overtime, producing and converting nearly twenty steam merchant ships. Although the British Navy also used the steam engines sold by Charles to produce several steam cruisers, which had no problem dealing with ordinary sailing ships, it was still relatively difficult for them to match the speed of Charles' professional steam merchant ships.
The merchants present were all familiar with steamships, and upon hearing Charles' proposal, they immediately began to discuss animatedly.
However, they were not professionals and did not know much about steamships, sea transport, or naval warfare. Some believed Charles' proposal was excellent; as long as steamships were used, the British Navy, even with a tailwind and full sails, would not be able to intercept American merchant ships. Others, however, believed that naval interception was definitely not something that could be avoided simply by being fast, arguing that without naval assistance, merchant ships alone, relying only on speed, would surely be unable to shake off the British warships' interception.
Charles actually agreed with the latter opinion internally, but he never intended to fully concede. On the contrary, he planned to equip the merchant ships with old-fashioned rams. If they absolutely couldn't escape, they would ram the British warships and see what they would do. Hearing the comments on his proposal, he did not interject, quietly waiting to see if any other opinions would emerge.