School and Factory

"Open another school. All of our employees and their families can learn to read and write there for free. The school will also teach some mechanical knowledge and other subjects, with classes held during the day and after work hours."

Does this mean he wants to teach commoners how to read?

Alexei looked up in surprise. Opening a school was certainly a virtuous act, but teaching knowledge for free?

How could precious knowledge be taught for free? How would people understand its importance if it were?

Even in orphanages funded by the imperial family, literacy was a reward that required a great deal of effort to obtain.

Moreover, time was so tight right now. They had to find a way to deal with the pirates within a month; how could there be any spare capacity for such charity?

"My Lord, could we perhaps delay the school? We don't have much time to spare..."

"No, this cannot be delayed. It is far more important than you think, and it must be done immediately." Theus paused, then added, "Also, remember to spread the word that I will be teaching at the school myself."

Though puzzled, Alexei nodded and carefully noted it down in his notebook.

Doing charity? Theus was certainly not doing charity.

People in this era had not yet realized the importance of knowledge, treating it like gold coins to be locked away in a chest.

But Theus knew exactly how important a qualified worker was to industrialization, and the most basic requirement for a qualified worker was literacy.

Literacy allowed one to understand various forms of knowledge and to learn independently; learning was the root of qualitative change.

The foundation of industry was never the factories belching black smoke, but the workers who had a basic understanding of equipment, machinery, and assembly line production.

On the modern Blue Star, many people felt that assembly line work required no cultural knowledge at all, but that was only because compulsory education had become widespread in that era; it was the knowledge from compulsory education that covered the basic skill requirements of the workers.

If a group of people who understood nothing were to walk into a workshop, it would only be a disaster.

Of course, this era had its own methods. The factory owners Theus encountered during his last arrival did not provide much training to their workers, yet the factories could still barely function.

It was simple: just treat the workers as consumables. Once enough people died, people would naturally discover the dangers of the place.

Theus certainly did not intend to do that. If he wanted to open a factory, he would not limit himself to competing with the industrial products of this era. If he wanted to change this world and trigger an industrial torrent, he had to achieve something far greater than that.

That would require a large number of engineers and a large number of skilled workers... These would not grow out of the ground; he would have to cultivate them slowly.

And opening a school was the first step toward that.

Thinking of this, Theus couldn't help but sigh. The process of this arrival had been quite tortuous; only now was he finally beginning to plan and get things on the right track.

"Alexei, I need you to organize some manpower to build a factory on the island."

Alexei had no concept of a factory, knowing only that even in the imperial capital of Rhine, such trendy things were rare and usually run by the church. He had even seen notices for factories recruiting workers—it was truly strange, as they seemed to be hiring forever.

"Yes, a factory. There are so many olives on the island, so I intend to build an olive oil factory."

"But who will we sell it to? There are no merchants here."

"You don't need to worry about that." Theus smiled slightly.

It was simple: he intended to sell to the pirates.

The pirates were not interested in olive oil, but that wasn't all he wanted to sell. Olive oil was merely the most upstream link in his chemical industrial chain, and once this industrial beast began to operate...

The goods and money of Castel would soon pile up like a mountain, and as it happened, he also knew a thing or two about weapons manufacturing.

He had both goods and force. Pirates? They would become the most docile merchants on the Storm Ocean.

The conditions on this island were even better than he had imagined. Theus had the confidence to quickly pull together an entire industrial system.

"You go back first. I will discuss the specific plans with you later. Just get the people organized; we might be a bit short-handed soon."

There were not many residents on the island, which was actually the point that worried Theus the most. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't conjure people out of thin air.

He had to find a way to attract some immigrants. Theus frowned as he calculated; this was quite troublesome. People in this era rarely left their own land, whether in the empire or elsewhere.

He had heard that the White Crow Duchy in the north was migrating south in large numbers; perhaps he could find a way...

"...My Lord?"

"Hmm?" Theus snapped back to reality and found Alexei looking at him. "Is there anything else?"

"Cough, there is indeed something else..." Alexei's expression was somewhat awkward.

"What is it?"

"It seems there is no money left in the city hall's account..."

"Ah?"

Theus was stunned.

"It is like this," Alexei sighed, took the ledger, and began to explain.

The manor where Theus lived, although not built by him, was already somewhat dilapidated when he arrived on the island. The way it looked now was the result of months of repairs.

Repairing the manor was naturally very expensive. Although it was basically paid for out of Theus's own pocket, the city hall had also contributed a lot of labor and building materials.

The island's output was already low, and because manpower had been diverted to repair the manor, things were stretched even thinner.

However, these were not the main reasons. There was another reason...

"The pirates collect a batch of sweet fruit wine every time they come to collect the sea tax?" Theus looked at Alexei in disbelief. "You don't mean to tell me..."

"Yes, my lord." Alexei spoke with some difficulty, "The primary source of revenue for Castel is actually the sweet wine that the pirates happen to buy."

Theus held his forehead and closed his eyes, "I was wondering why everything was just ledgers of transactions with pirates. I thought the account books were stored separately; it turns out the trade here is just this minuscule."

It was a joke; there was no commerce here at all.

However, this was not a major problem. Although Theus could not come up with the money for the moment, a lord of this era had his own methods—defaulting on debts.

Yes, defaulting on debts was a very useful method. As long as one first conscripted the serfs to work and owed them their wages, one could get the people on the territory moving.

After all, he was a lord, a noble lord. No one dared to disobey his words. Even if he explicitly stated that he would not pay wages, the people on the territory would still have to come and work for him while grumbling, even though they were nominally free men.

How could free men ever truly be free?

But after thinking about it, Theus abandoned the idea of defaulting on debts. On one hand, he did not intend to overdraw his own credibility, and on the other hand—

"We cannot default on debts. On the contrary, all wages must be paid in full and on time. If there are financial difficulties, the wages can be set lower, but they must never go unpaid."

Alexei frowned, wanting to offer some persuasion. This was a critical period for the development of the territory; how could they waste precious wealth just to show benevolence at a time like this?

"Alexei, wealth only demonstrates its true purpose when it flows. Piled up in a chest, it is no different from scrap iron!"

Theus stood up and paced rapidly, "The commercial activity of Castel is nearly stagnant. If we only want to be lords here for a lifetime and collect a few baskets of salted fish as taxes, then naturally it doesn't matter. But if we want to mobilize the entire territory for development, we must demonstrate our credibility!"

"Post the notice and send people to notify every household that our hired labor will never have their wages withheld."

"If there is no money, go find Connor and draw it from my private treasury. If there is cash, take the cash; if there is no cash, there are still some jewels that can be exchanged for money."

Theus said through gritted teeth.

Alexei looked at his lord in some surprise. He braced his hands on the table; the pained expression on his face did not look fake, yet his gaze was burning and firm.

"Just watch, Alexei. Once money begins to flow, it possesses magic."