Drawing on his own knowledge-mostly information he looked up on the twenty-first-century internet with his phone-Chris determined that the mountains around Bolas Fortress were unsuitable for growing rice, wheat, and similar crops.
He could only grow crops such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, and yams, and even then, he had to find places without too many rocks or clay soil.
Seen that way, there really was not much land around Bolas suitable for crops. Supporting the three thousand refugees gathered there, whose numbers were still rising, through farming alone was simply out of the question.
So, after giving it serious thought, Chris decided to take a different approach... textiles.
He had asked Isaac and the locals about this, but neither could offer reliable advice. He had to think it through himself, draw his own conclusions, and then investigate the skills of the women among the refugees.
Most of the refugee women who had fled here knew some needlework. With training, they could work as seamstresses in workshops producing finished clothing without much trouble. They would not need many different styles, either; the locals' traditional clothing would do.
The problem was that clothes were easy to make, but where would he sell them?
Chris did not know. The only thing he was certain of was that Bagnia's domestic market was a dead end... a civil war was still raging. Who had spare money to buy clothes?
Even if someone did, getting the clothes to them would be a major problem.
Throughout history, everywhere in the world, civil war inevitably plunged a country's people into misery.
Could he ship goods to the Bohemian Empire through his previous smuggling channels?
No way. Finished clothing could not withstand that sort of handling. Besides, the profit per garment could not cover the costs of smuggling. Clothing