Ryan wanted to unleash the productivity of the civilian population.
The creation of productivity was the foundation of all superstructures. Without a large-scale industrial base, human productivity depended on time and two hands.
Ryan believed that in the world as it was now, the productive capacity humans could bring was far too low.
Leaving aside lofty topics like the Deities suppressing human spirituality, the productivity that existed purely under the ruling system was numb and inefficient.
In a territory, there might be three to five hundred households. In each household, there were only one or two young, strong laborers. As for the elderly in ordinary families—in Ryan's view, there were no true elderly at all. The material foundation they could obtain and the physical injuries caused by labor simply were not enough to support them until the day they grew old.
Grandfather, father, child—across these three generations, anyone who lived past forty was already considered long-lived. For the old and the young, there was no such thing as carefree innocence or peacefully enjoying one's twilight years. Labor ran through the entire life of a family.
Women and children likewise occupied the edges and corners of productivity. No matter the territory, everyone labored, and the productivity they brought provided the foundation of wealth for the rulers.
But in Ryan's eyes, it was not enough.
The efficiency was too low, and the results it brought were too few. This world did not lack population. As the various Otherworld Planes were continuously developed, countless people filled this world. Population had never been the problem.
The Empire was troubled by population not because there were too few people. On the contrary, it was because there were too many, and the resources produced by the land were not enough to feed them all.
Leaving aside