CHAPTER 274: TO INDUSTRIALIZE?

By the time that they got to the village, Julio was ready with a selection of housing options, and good news from the Merchant’s Guild.

"My Lord, the Guild got my message, and they will be sending a full construction crew with a magitech architect on the next convoy. They are Guild employees, so the rate will be reasonable, but not cheap.

These are the houses that are ready to move in to, how did you want to separate these folk?" He asked.

"There is one family, and then a bunch of singles, but we don’t have a rooming house in town yet. Just pick one of the larger houses, and they can sort out bedrooms and living arrangements." Dominic replied.

One of the women gave him a hopeful look, and Dominic nodded.

"Right. Also, they will be looking for work, if you have a list of anyone who is hiring."

Julio gave a grim chuckle. "Oh, there are folks hiring. But not for the greatest jobs. The tanner needs extra hands, the butcher needs an apprentice who can heft a side of meat, and the Techno Wizards want someone to work the counter who won’t blow a hand off moving things around."

Dominic winced. "I trust that someone managed to get the unfortunate clerk to the healer?"

Julio nodded. "Yeah, they tossed him in a cart and took him out to Larry’s place. He’ll be there a couple of days while he recovers."

One of the newly arrived men smiled. "I will go talk to the Techno Wizard. I worked at an Artificers’ shop when I was in school, to pay tuition."

"What did you study?" Julio asked, ready to make a note of someone who might be helpful in the future.

"Classical Literature."

Or maybe not. He might make a good school teacher, though. The one who came with the lot from Grantbute was frankly terrifying, and he pitied the kids who were in her classes.

The father of the family group bowed slightly to the Castellan. "If you can point me toward the butcher, I have some experience in that field. My father was a huntsman, and while I didn’t follow the family trade, I do at least know the basics of properly butchering an animal."

"One street past the Inn, on the right. He’ll be happy to see you if you’ve got the skills.

Now, I know that nobody wants jobs at the tannery. It smells awful, it’s hot, and the pay isn’t great. But it’s work if anyone wants it. If not, there should be plenty of odd jobs for handymen around town.

Talk to John, the carpenter. He’s doing most of the renovation work on the old houses, and he knows the budget for hiring workers." Julio explained.

Dominic considered their options for moving forward. Eventually, the city was going to need an industry. Something that people could do beyond serving as a marketplace for food exports, and an industry that would employ a large number of people.

The obvious answer was something magitech related, as they had so many magically adept residents in town who would be looking for work for themselves and their children.

For the moment, many of them were just getting by with what they could find, but the work for farm hands was primarily in the planting and harvest seasons. The tractors had taken a lot of the need for extra labour out, but there was still quite a bit available.

He could try for something military, as it would make a lot of money, but they were rather remote here, and that would make getting weapons to those who needed them difficult to do in a timely manner.

So, they could focus on the transport aspect. Perhaps manufacturing roadwork machines?

It shouldn’t take too much to design one, and though it would take a trained operator, it would be incredibly valuable.

With so many smaller roads to be upgraded, it would take years to get to them all.

But that was still only a few years worth of work before there would be enough of the machines to keep up with maintenance.

Perhaps they should diversify? If they had a couple of factories in town, they would have a better chance of weathering downturns in demand. Perhaps one to make vehicles and one to make something else?

It would have to be an unrelated field, but there was an ongoing demand for magitech vehicles.

The taste of the Nobles was constantly changing, and when you introduced them to a new design, many would want it. Then, there was the discard factor.

Old designs would be sold off to less wealthy Nobles, and then eventually scrapped when they were run to the point they needed constant repairs. That kept the cycle of demand going strong, so it should be a solid base for the town.

The question was whether they should risk going with a weapons factory, or if he should just focus on the things everyone needed.

Making Magitech lamps might not sound glamorous, but the vast majority of the continent still didn’t have them.

If they started to mass produce them, it would take a lifetime to make enough for them to spread to every common home, and by then, the first batch would need replacing. Another solid industry.

As long as they had a skilled enough designer to keep up with the times.

"You look deep in thought, My Lord." Sheriff Nate joked quietly.

"Just thinking of ways to get everyone back to work. But we need three things. Factories, workers who can mass produce magitech, and somewhere to train the workers."

The Sheriff chuckled. "Well, I’m sure that we can find a few skilled teachers to run a class on basic magitech engineering for factory workers. But what would you even want to make and sell?"

"Lamps."

The Sheriff smiled. "Magitech lights are the most underrated life altering invention of our time. Seeing the lights on after dark at the farm houses is a strange thing. We all know that they’re not wealthy folk, but with the light, they don’t have to stop at dark, and they can get started early, so they can be on the field at first light."

Dominic nodded. "Exactly. It extends the day. The tractors have lights for the same reason.

But we might not need to just make lamps. If we can mass produce magitech stoves for cooking and heating, water pumps to give houses running water, and incinerating toilets, we can become the best source for all things lifestyle improvement.

Two lines of everything. Simple for the commoners, fancy for the Nobles."

"And then, we all get rich." Nate agreed.