At the moment, Ragnar was sitting in his private study, overseeing the ledgers on his heavy oak desk.
There were several memos of critical importance he had to sign off on. Many of these were focused on the procurement of raw materials for his new Iron Fleet.
To accomplish this, Ragnar had dispatched trade envoys to the deep forests of the Danelaw in an attempt to secure an ample supply of old-growth oak timber.
The reason for this was calculated: while the hulls would be iron, the internal bracing and decking still required massive amounts of high-quality wood, and presently the local markets were saturated with cheap pine.
Thus he could acquire his shipbuilding materials at wholesale value.
As for the procurement of coal to fuel the steam engines, Ragnar had already secured the Nottingham mines for some time. Thus he did not need to negotiate tariffs when it came to acquiring the tonnage he was missing from his current stockpiles in Titan.
