Establishing Factories

Box after box of coins was carried out of the manor's storerooms, and building after building sprang up across Castel.

The islanders of Castel were astonished to discover that their lord had apparently gone mad. He had started recruiting workers to build workshops.

Well, he called them "factories," but to the islanders, they were just workshops that were bigger and had a stranger layout.

The steward was surveying the plains with a construction crew, marking out plots of land. It took only a few days to put up a factory building.

The islanders had once paid the pirates' sea tax with their catch and the fruit wine they brewed. Now, however, that work suddenly stopped. Most of the freed-up workers were hired by the construction crews. And, supposedly, they were building schools as well as factories. Before long, almost the entire island was a construction site.

Many islanders found it hard to get used to. Their little island, where their families had lived for generations, had changed so much that places they hadn't visited for only a few days were almost unrecognizable when they returned.

What were all these factories going to make?

The islanders didn't know, but they didn't mind. Their lord had forcibly recruited them, but he was actually willing to pay them for it!

Castel had almost no commerce. The islanders could meet most of their needs through primitive barter, but earning even a few Leo coins with their own hands was another matter.

No one knew when they might need money, so the islanders eagerly set aside their usual work and became the lord's hired hands.

With money in their pockets, the islanders suddenly found themselves growing wealthy. Even fishermen who went out to sea noticed more and more people willing to pay for fish.

Coins began circulating around the island, and they circulated faster and faster. Everyone felt as if they were growing richer, and once they had money, they gradually became more willing to spend what they didn't need.

The islanders of Castel gradually became full of energy. They felt their lives were getting better.

"Money only has value when it's in circulation. Otherwise, it's just scrap iron waiting to rust."

When Alexei first heard his lord say this, he hadn't understood. Only now did he realize what extraordinary wisdom it held.

The lord spared no expense with his gold coins. His town hall also provided all its building materials, while the workers freed up by no longer having to pay taxes to the pirates rounded out the effort. Together, these three things produced a chemical reaction, efficiently mobilizing the entire island of Castel and filling it with prosperity.

So this was Lord Theus's plan.

For a moment, Alexei seemed to see Rhine before him—the capital, known as the Empire's jewel. It was just as prosperous there. No, perhaps even Rhine wasn't as lively as this island.

He sighed and looked toward the construction site before him.

A few people were edging closer, peering around curiously.

Those taking part in the construction were all islanders, mostly fishermen. They knew nothing about factories and simply kept their heads down and worked.

But some of the conscripted workers were brewing craftsmen who had spent a long time in workshops. The factory before them struck them as... strange.

"My lord, what's this empty space for?" one craftsman asked Alexei carefully, a smile plastered across his face.

"This... is just a regular passageway." Alexei glanced at the blueprint.

"A passageway?" The craftsman stared at him. "Why does it need to be so wide?"

He measured it with his hands. "We don't need all that space!"

"This is a factory. Every building dimension has its purpose. Do you think it's some haphazard little workshop?"

Alexei shook his head. He had also thought the required dimensions were excessive—until he started moving the olive-pressing millstones inside. The standard-width passageway was just wide enough for the equipment to pass through. Any wider would be wasteful; any narrower, and the equipment wouldn't fit.

At first, he'd thought it was just a coincidence. But as more and more such coincidences piled up, Alexei gradually realized that the blueprints Theus had given him were all carefully designed.

Theus had established several standard measurements. They might seem unnecessary, but whenever they were needed, there was no need to measure anything on-site; the dimensions were immediately clear.

For example, Theus was at the manor now, yet he could still tell exactly how much cargo his factory could move in and out each day, how large a crate could be and still fit through a room's door, and what dimensions any new equipment would need.

Alexei had once asked Theus about this. His lord had smiled and told him it was called standardization.

Standardization. What a remarkable word. There was nothing beyond Alexei's understanding about it, yet it made everything fall into perfect order in an instant.

With a sigh, Alexei turned his attention back to the construction site.

The olive oil factory was nearly complete. There wasn't much to its process: they simply used stone millstones to press oil from the olives.

Alexei noticed that not every factory building had been filled with oil-pressing equipment. Some were left completely empty.

He guessed that Lord Theus intended to use them to make other things.

He had some guesses about what those things might be.

Theus hadn't just tasked him with building factories; he'd also asked him to prospect for minerals. Alexei didn't know the first thing about minerals.

So Alexei went to the blacksmith's shop. The blacksmith might not be a mineral expert, but he certainly knew more than Alexei did.

The result...

"No can do. I'm swamped. I can't go anywhere for the next few days."

The blacksmith flatly refused.

"But this is for Lord Theus—"

"This is for Lord Theus too!" The burly old man glared at him, his beard bristling. "The other day, the lord sent someone to tell me to make parts for some kind of boiler. There, those are the parts."

Alexei followed the blacksmith's gesture and looked inside the shop.

"Hiss!"

He sucked in a breath of hot air from the furnace and stared in astonishment.

A pile of haphazard parts with no obvious purpose was stacked there, but even an outsider like him could see how intricate they were.

"Lord Theus draws a fine blueprint, and the dimensions are marked out clearly. It's just that these things are so strange!"

The old blacksmith frowned at them.

"And he wants a lot of them, in a hurry! I've been working the furnace so hard these past few days it's nearly smoking. How am I supposed to find time to go look at some mineral vein with you?"

Alexei could only return disappointed. He'd build the factories first and figure out the rest later.

The newly built oil-pressing factory was fine, but renovating the Sweet Fruit Wine workshops ran into plenty of difficulties.

Most of those workshops were old and cluttered, and quite a few were filthy enough to make you sick just looking at them.

Theus had come to inspect the workshops himself. After a long hesitation, he eventually gave up.

In his experience, the fact that these places hadn't caught fire over the years was pure luck. If he turned them into large-scale factories, he genuinely feared one fire would destroy everything.

The workshops would stay for now. They could be torn down later, once Castel was more developed.

Besides...

Theus knocked on the crude wall.

The island had plenty of minerals. If he was lucky, he might even be able to produce cement.

Then construction would speed up by leaps and bounds. These factories were only temporary, and they would be demolished in the future anyway.

Cement had another advantage: it wasn't very vulnerable to seawater.

So, pirates? Let's see how quickly I can build some coastal batteries.

Once industrialization began, development would only accelerate. A sound system would drive its own optimization and innovation, spurring the development of all Castel.

By then, all he'd need to do was set the broad direction. He could sit back and watch his territory develop as a flood of iron and fire swept across this ordinary fantasy world.

As long as he provided a healthy path for advancement, the reformists might even drag him forward themselves.

Even the Empire was just a somewhat larger ant. Would they become enemies?

Ha. People who had never witnessed an industrial boom would probably go mad when they saw this industrial giant.

He wouldn't even need to send in an army. He could simply flood their markets with goods, and they would collapse on their own.

Oh, perhaps they'd make one last desperate counterattack with everything they had. Watching them shatter against the wheels of the age should be quite entertaining.