You were made to farm, and now you're the emperor of an empire?

Chapter 59 Money? As much as you want!

Morey added, "I've contacted my brothers and sisters, and they can help you sign a contract to establish a stable iron supply channel, though the price will be a bit higher."

He spoke with great caution.

As expected, Roman agreed without hesitation.

Price is not a problem!

This commercial contract means that merchants can reap more profits, and the suppliers of iron ingots will also benefit more; the only one who will suffer is Sig Town.

市面上，1枚金币能买到30斤的高品质铁锭，斯格镇却只能用1枚金币买到25斤或者20斤。

Correspondingly, Roman can directly obtain a large number of stable iron ingots.

The contents of this contract were not in Morey's own interest.

Morey would much rather establish a long-term and friendly trade relationship with Sky Town than leech off Sky Town like a bloodsucker.

No noble lord could tolerate being gnawed by bloodsuckers.

This unequal business contract is destined to be short-lived.

Based on his observation of Roman, this promising young lord will soon get out of his current predicament, at which point this hastily drafted business contract will be useless. Will Roman have a good impression of them in the future?
Morey thought his brother was short-sighted.

For a generous nobleman, gaining his friendship is always more important than gaining his benefits.

However, he couldn't sign the commercial contract alone; he needed a specific guarantor, otherwise he wouldn't be able to obtain so many iron ingots. It's a classic case of every gain having its price.

Roman didn't care; let him take advantage if he wanted.

It doesn't matter.

Sacrificing monetary benefits for early development is something he can accept.

Money? We have as much as you want!

These merchants would be better off buying up all the output value of Sig Town to help it continue to accelerate.

"By the way, the maltose you asked me to sell last time was very popular. I shipped it to Pearl Harbor, and it sold out very quickly," Morey said, bringing up the matter again.

He showcased the quality and taste of maltose to everyone at the opening of the Pearl Harbor Market.

The initial price was 1.5 gold coins per barrel of maltose.

The price for selling the last barrel was 1.9 gold coins.

This shows that the prospects for maltose are very good. A nobleman bought three barrels of maltose in one go, weighing a total of 90 jin (45 catties), which was very generous.

Roman nodded slightly. He had the calves and horses at Origin Manor make a lot of maltose these days.

The steps are simple and don't take much time; even Gavier could do it.

"Let's calculate it according to the previous price again this time."

Morey helped him find a source of iron ingots, and Roman didn't mind giving him some of the profits.

The benefits of Morey's expanding caravan are obvious.

This time, Moreira brought 40 barrels of maltose and gave Roman 40 gold coins.

According to his calculations, Morey was surprised to find that the profit from this sugar was actually higher than that from salt. Even after accounting for all expenses, he could still earn about ten gold coins.

Pure profiteering!
It's much better than working yourself to death selling salt.

Selling salt required traveling to many places, and the majority of the profits were taken by the nobles.

Of course, even if maltose sells very well, it cannot have the bottomless consumption potential of salt.

Morey paid Roman another 30 gold coins and took away 3 catties of refined salt.

Next, he will take this salt to different trading markets to sell.

Salt production in Sige Town is constantly increasing due to improved worker skill, more salt-boiling equipment, and a more professional process.

With the advent of iron tools, production will see another significant increase.

……

After Morey left, Roman transported all the iron ingots to the new blacksmith shop. He had found Lax's blacksmith shop cramped when he was forging the heavy plow.

So afterwards, Lax built a new blacksmith shop next to the stream.

The new blacksmith shop had a very simple structure; it was just a large, flat shed without walls.

Its only advantage is that it can accommodate more people.

Now, there are about twenty strong, muscular middle-aged men standing here. Some are slaves from the plateau, while others are locals from Sige Town. In any case, they are all among the best in terms of physique, carefully selected by Roman.

Roman gestured and said, "You need to forge the hammer, wedges, and pickaxe as soon as possible."

He originally wanted to join them in blacksmithing, hoping to quickly accumulate experience points in [Forging] and unlock the subsequent technology trees.

But Roman hadn't finished his work at the kiln yet, and he was too busy to spare any time for it.

“My lord, I understand.” Lax was a pure blacksmith and had no objection to his employer’s request.

The main problem is that they gave too much money.

He had never forged a 1,000-jin (500 kg) high-quality iron ingot in the past ten years. Although his annual income was relatively high, his business was not usually good, and he had never given it his all.

Now we can finally have a good fight.

"Train these people into blacksmiths like you as soon as possible." Roman patted Lax on the shoulder.

The burly blacksmith was somewhat flattered.

If he can train fifty blacksmiths, he will gain more wealth than he would have earned in a lifetime of blacksmithing.

If he brings a qualified blacksmith to Roman, the latter will reward him with two gleaming gold coins, and if he is good enough, he can even get three gold coins.

And it's paid immediately!

The temptation was too strong.

……

Roman was in a good mood.

With sharp steel, the work efficiency of these idiots will increase dramatically.

He will find suitable coal and iron mines to mine before the end of summer, thus achieving self-sufficiency.

However, for a hungry person, ten million dollars is not as good as a sumptuous meal.

The town of Sige is currently lacking labor, money, and, most importantly, confidence.

Roman didn't have time to brainwash them, nor could he.

Without sufficient economic and material support, if he forcibly forces these impoverished people to mine coal and smelt iron for him while ignoring their basic survival needs, the consequences will be disastrous.

At this stage, the most important thing is infrastructure development.

Roman returned to the earthen kiln and saw that the firewood at the bottom of the kiln had begun to burn.

He glanced at the situation.

It's barely acceptable.

Each firing process takes about a week, and he has to supervise it throughout. He also explains the process to the laborers in a simple and easy-to-understand way so that they can fire kilns on their own in the future.

During this time, they also produced a large amount of charcoal from firewood, which was used by the blacksmith for forging.

……

Seven days later.

The lime has come out of the kiln.

It went very smoothly, with no broken ash or kiln collapse.

However, due to its poor insulation properties, the quality of the lime was somewhat subpar, barely meeting Roman's basic requirements for lime.

The blacksmith shop also forged a batch of pickaxes and wedges, which were immediately distributed to the salt mine, resulting in a significant increase in production capacity.

(End of this chapter)