Chapter 386 – New Industries

Chapter 386 – New Industry

Seeing Paul asking for his opinion, the crowd was first stunned.

Lord Earl had always been opinionated on how to develop the territory, and most of his strategies turned out to be good. Even the ones that hit a wall, with their status as core members of the Council of State, they were able to judge that it was greatly beneficial to the entire society in the long run.

Everyone who was used to following the Count’s will frowned and meditated.

Guy Burns was the first to jump out, he raised his hand high and said in a loud voice, “Of course it’s to expand the size of the machine shop and agricultural machinery factory and generate more machinery ……”

“Ah!” He suddenly hammered his hand as if he suddenly remembered something.

“With your inspiration, I’ve recently become quite knowledgeable in the study of steam, so if you can set up a project for me as well, allocating special funds like you did with those alchemists, we’ll definitely be able to create even more efficient machines!”

After being informed of the idea of using steam as a power source from Paul, Guy Burns had been thinking about it for a long time, but the Earl Lord had strictly forbidden him to use the financial and manpower resources of the machine shop to research on this thing, and it could only be used as his private hobby at the moment.

“This …… is better to slow down.”

Paul mused, mercilessly cutting off Burns’ thoughts, and Mr. Factory Manager retreated to a corner to draw circles with a frustrated face.

But the earl did not pity him, jokingly, it is hard to cultivate a molded class of skilled workers, which can let a few machines in the district to be wiped out. With the current transportation capacity and consumption level, once the real steam engine is applied on a large scale, most of his precious workers will have to be unemployed and go home to farm – Paul was so judgmental, he did not know if it was right or wrong, but there is always no big mistake to be careful, his palm-sized territory can not afford to be repeated.

But wasn’t it a good idea to work on the boring machine for now? This thing can not only be used to machine cylinders, but also build better cannons ……

“Lord Earl!”

Old Ford’s statement interrupted his thoughts.

“Isn’t it possible to start with the fishing industry?”

“Oh? Tell me about it.”

Old Ford twirled his mustache and said, “In the past two years under your orders we have improved the transportation from Lakewood to Port Fullan, and from Lakewood there are several other roads to Bairdine and Emden under repair, which means that we can ship large quantities of fresh fish from the sea to the mainland for sale. In addition, our coastal inhabitants are very good at salting fish to preserve it for long periods of time. Now that we have the means to make salt in large quantities, this aspect of the industry can grow and expand to sell pickled fish to other places.”

Paul nodded, “That’s a good idea, Bernard, write it down.”

The chief secretary in charge of the minutes of the meeting immediately wielded a quill pen and sashayed on the paper.

Old Ford continued, “To develop the fishery we need a large number of ships, so our ship manufacturing industry will also be driven.”

Paul agreed, “You’re right, only with more orders can our shipbuilding capacity be sustained for a long time, but the lack of shipbuilding craftsmen is a big problem.”

“Lord Greiman, I think it won’t be long before a civilian shipyard is born, according to the news from Port Fulan, there are already merchants who have spontaneously traveled to Horn Bay to recruit craftsmen, the two shipyards that we have now are still mainly for the military, so I guess they want to stand on their own two feet.”

Paul was happy, “This is a good trend, see” right gentlemen, as long as we make good use of the profit-seeking nature of merchants, a lot of things will fall into place.”

But he also had some concerns, “Northwest Gulf in the eyes of outsiders has always been barren land, even with the power of the Council of State recruited craftsmen only built two shipyards ……”

Cecil, the Chief of Intelligence, said, “My lord, the situation in the Horned Bay is now favorable to us. The witch hunt there is intensifying ……””

He worriedly glanced at Lardy who was sitting next to the Earl, and found that the other party’s face did not have any emotional fluctuations before continuing, “This movement …… has already begun to impact the daily lives of the civilians, and there is no lack of wealth holders who have been affected. I guess behind the rising power of the local church there must be a large number of dissatisfied and even hateful people. There must be a lot of people who want to move to other places, including experienced artisans, wealthy people worth thousands of dollars, merchants with wide-ranging connections, etc., and in the past two years our Northwest Bay has gained a certain degree of popularity in Horn Bay by virtue of its porcelain, paper, and other goods, and there are many people there who have come to do business with us, so as long as we put in a little more effort in publicizing it, the Northwest Bay may not not fail to become one of their choices. ”

Paul stroked his chin, “Alright, you will be in charge of the publicity to Horn Bay, make sure to raise the impression of Northwest Bay in the eyes of the locals.”

“Yes, Lord Gleeman, just ……”, Cecil stretched out his thumb and forefinger and rubbed them together, making a gesture that anyone would understand.

Paul smiled and said, “Don’t worry, as long as it’s effective, I naturally won’t be stingy with money.”

“Hehehe, your honor is wise!” Cecil cheerfully retreated to the corner. “Importing talents is important, but the cultivation of local talents is even more important.”

Paul said to Chief Ford, “I think we can prescribe some incentives for merchant ships from out of town, especially from Horn Bay, in exchange for which they must hire a certain number of our people to work on their ships and learn various seafaring knowledge in a real-world environment! Of course, it has to be normal employment, absolutely no slave trading.”

“Yes, Lord Gleeman!” Old Ford nodded his head and took note.

“By the way, how is the seafaring school that the Navy is jointly working on with the local merchants in Fullan Harbor?”

“Everything is going well, the cadets of the first crash course are already practicing on the ships.”

“Very well. Gentlemen, I’m going to show you a new gadget that I recently came up with!”

Huh? The Lord has come up with a new gadget?

Paul clapped his hands, and two servants carried a cylindrical object to the room and set it up, which seemed to be a container. Then two cylindrical, black objects were brought in and ignited and thrown into the cylindrical container, then ……

Everyone choked! The room went into a coughing fit.

“Aaaaaaahhhh! Forgot, forgot, move it outside!”

Paul covered his nose and panicked, ordering the servants to move things out into the courtyard.

Everyone followed out.

“This is ‘honeycomb coal’ that I made by processing ordinary coal and clay!”

Paul held up a piece of that black stuff from earlier and introduced it to the crowd; the cylinder had a flat surface with holes at each end, calling it a honeycomb coal appropriately.

“As for this stove, it’s a honeycomb stove designed to burn honeycomb coal, but of course it has to be burned in the house with a smoker.”

The crowd gathered around the burning coal stove to observe it closely, it was not yet fall and gusts of heat radiated from the stove.

Lardy asked him, “Since you make the coal like this, I suppose there must be some benefit to it?”

Due to the development of the iron smelting industry under the rule of the Council of State, coal was mined in large quantities, and in addition to supplying the ironworks, it also went into thousands of homes to become a fuel for cooking and heating; it was not yet widespread in the newly-affiliated Emden, but it was already quite common in Alda and Baildin.

“Naturally!” Paul slapped his chest, “Look at how it has such a regular shape, easy to stack and convenient to use. And because of this one hole, it increases the contact area with the air, so it burns more efficiently than ordinary coal. Ordinary coal if the block is a little bigger, it is likely that the fire will be extinguished before the inside is burned, in short, you guys can feel it if you use it yourselves.”

Although no one in this world now except him knew what oxygen was, but always knew the concept of air, and also knew that the better the ventilation the better the combustion–wasn’t the blower invented by Lord Earl for this.

“This is a boon for those who don’t have much at home.”

Chief Steward Ford exclaimed in admiration, many people didn’t bother to throw away the leftover cinders they burned at home, just because some of the residue hadn’t been burned yet, and it was a painstaking task to pick it out again and continue to burn it.

With the honeycomb coal, there is no need for such a mess.

“Good, let the State Council take the lead, and the government and the people work together to discover the honeycomb coal industry!”

With that, the fishing industry, ship manufacturing industry, and coal processing industry were included in the new development plan.

Moved a few days ago, a little far away from the workplace, the daily commute to and from work requires more than four hours of commuting time …… For the time being, I hope readers will forgive me. But I will try to adjust.

(End of chapter)