Chapter 95 The Merchant Ship Returns

Half of the Gold Coin Master's mission was completed by Letilen from selling porcelain during this trip to the sea, and the remaining half was from various income within the territory in the past few months.

After receiving the reward, the experience points were only over 3,000, and there were still more than 900 experience points to accumulate before the next mysterious seed reward.

Olivia guessed that the next mysterious seed would definitely not be a staple food.

She has now unlocked soybeans, potatoes, and corn.

These crops, which can easily be grown and produce high yields per mu, are enough to prevent famine in the territory.

If the system wants to make it more difficult for her, then other important seeds will be unlocked, such as cotton seeds.

She refreshed the dungeon mission.

Congratulations on unlocking:

Plantation

Mission Description: Own a piece of southern real estate of no less than 20 hectares by any means and establish a plantation.

Mission Rewards:

＊5《Youxue Qionglin》

5. The Art of War

*5 The Wealth of Nations

+555 Experience Points

There is no limit to any form, which should mean that whether she sends troops to fight, rents land, buys land, or owns 20 hectares of land in the form of policy reciprocity, any method is acceptable.

The only requirement is the area, which must not be less than 20 hectares, which is equivalent to a large manor area.

As for the location of the plantation, Olivia thought about leasing property in a country in the southern continent.

Or you can find an agent who has local connections to help you manage the business so that you won’t be disrupted by the locals.

Or, they could spend a large sum of money to bribe the southern nobles and make them willing to share a piece of the pie.

Of these two methods, the first one is to be wary of being sidelined by agents.

The second option is too costly, and she is in the north, far away from the emperor, and difficult to control.

Therefore, it can be seen that we can basically give up developing plantations in the southern continental countries.

A more convenient operation is to set up the plantation on an island some distance away from the mainland.

The island belt is a long strip, like a string of beads of different sizes scattered along the eastern and southern coasts of the continent, with hundreds of them.

Most of these places are still under the rule of various tribes and have not established a complete country.

Several of the islands are relatively large. For example, the island where Letilen docked his ship to look for potatoes is the largest island in the south.

There are many small islands nearby, which are either inhabited by southern pirates or simple small marine tribes.

She opened the map and searched the southern sea area lit up by Letilen, roughly identifying an area.

To the north of the island we are exploring, there are several larger islands.

When the map is zoomed in, you can directly see the population situation, terrain diagram and vegetation distribution on each island.

She chose and chose, and finally picked five targets, and then analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of each one.

There are two islands that are far away from other islands and are relatively safe, but they are prone to typhoons and have more rain.

Too much rain is not good, as it is not suitable for growing cotton in the plantation.

She chose a large island because its dry climate was suitable for growing crops.

Of the remaining three islands, the largest one is biscuit-shaped, with mountains in the east and slopes suitable for farming in the leeward side. If you zoom in to see the vegetation distribution, you will find that it is indeed very dry.

Although it is more difficult to grow cotton on islands than inland areas, there are examples.

Olivia knew in her previous life that sea island cotton was extremely expensive and rare among cotton varieties, but its quality was top-notch and had almost no rivals.

So she immediately took note of this cookie-like island and zoomed in to check the population of the island.

There are about a thousand people living on this biscuit-shaped island, which is a medium-sized tribe. However, they have no agricultural civilization. She did not see any arable land, but she did see a small man-made harbor on the edge of the island.

The residents of this island seem to make a living by fishing, and there are countless small fishing boats in the harbor.

She thought about it and decided that the next time Letilen went out to sea, she would ask him to take people to this island and do business with them first.

Most of the tribes on these islands are fierce, but they are poor and have little money. They are not as extravagant and greedy as the nobles on the southern continent, so their conditions are easier to negotiate.

If anything goes wrong, we can still fight it out.

She began to check on the progress of Letilen and his crew's return.

Tomorrow is the beginning of March, and the return ship has reached the waters near the southern border of Alta. In another half a month, they will arrive at the port of Einweiden.

As March approaches, the north is still covered in ice and snow, but the temperature is slightly less extreme and is gradually warming up.

The snow season in Eindhoven lasts for six months. Light snow begins at the end of October and continues until the end of March or early April.

By early April, when spring has fully arrived, it is suitable for reclaiming farmland and spring plowing.

Olivia closed the map.

So, looking at the timeline, there is still one month of preparation time before spring plowing, and half a month before the ship returns to the port.

Military recruitment also took place at the same time as spring plowing.

In April, the second giant ship was outfitted and ready to go to sea.

She checked the current prosperity of the town.

The current prosperity progress has reached thirty.

"Genius Refresh Rate: 1/2000"

Town Tax: +50%

Available Recruits: +15%

She could see from the map that the area currently under development occupied one-third of the entire town.

Two-thirds of the land is still under planning. However, the areas that are currently developing very prosperously are near the front and back gates of the fortress, the city gate, and the port.

As factories and shops occupied the territory, the number of residents increased to 2,500 compared to a few months ago.

She was not surprised by the growth rate. There were four intermediary shops in the city that specialized in finding jobs for workers. They had to submit tax reports every month, and the audits had clearly checked their scale.

Most of these workers are migrant workers who work in Eindhoven and take a boat from the port back to their hometowns during holidays.

However, some workers choose to bring their families to Eindhoven after working for two months, as there are many job opportunities here.

City construction needs workers, workshops need workers, ports need workers, and commercial markets also need workers.

When transportation is inconvenient in winter, there is no increase in the number of workers, so these businessmen have to raise wages to compete with local workers.

For some jobs that require a certain level of operational skills, such as glass workshops, wages have increased to seven souris a day.

However, the most in-demand job is still crew. The salary for senior crew members is ten souris a day, and there are bonuses for completing long routes.

After the port was repaired, they followed the ship merchants and slowly moved north from the south of Alta. Now the most common place they stay after getting off the ship is Einweiden.

When reporting on shipping matters, Gao Sili also mentioned that the townhouse developers in residential areas love seafarers the most, and a seafarer can usually easily rent an entire floor of an apartment.

Correspondingly, more and more people are moving here with their families by water.

In Eindhoven, there is no distinction between local and non-local household registration. As long as you have money and apply according to the rules, even foreigners can buy or rent land in the city.

The reason why Olivia was so concerned about population growth was because the refresh rate of talented people in the territory had narrowed down to a one in two thousand rate.

If nothing unexpected happens, she will soon welcome the first naturally refreshed talent on the map.

I don’t know whether the level of the talented people who are naturally refreshed like this is high.

If it is a person with high star talent, she doesn't need to look for him deliberately, and this talent will naturally stand out from the crowd.

…

In early March, the snow in Einweiden was much lighter, and the glaciers in the south were the first to be unable to withstand the warm sunshine and began to melt the ice.

The port was very busy, preparing to welcome the huge ship returning from afar.

But Gao Sili was not interested in the affairs of the dock and the port. His attention was completely attracted by the paper mill.

The papermaking workshop is small and currently only uses an empty warehouse belonging to the port barracks.

He, Adam and Ethan built a papermaking workshop assembly line here, first training a dozen skilled workers, and then having the old ones guide the newcomers, slowly expanding the production line.

Making paper from hemp may seem troublesome, but the cost is not high. Compared with steel, glass, and shipyards, it is a drop in the bucket.

A bundle of uncombed flax and hemp was worth only a few souris.

The difficult part is the processing procedure, which requires sophisticated control and debugging.

These dozen or so workers actually don’t know what they are doing. Each of them only learns one step in their job and completes their step according to the standard.

As for the ratios, process time, techniques, and basic principles, only one foreman learned them.

The foreman of the paper mill is currently Jacopo's aunt Lavinia.

She moved here only last June, and like other villagers from the estate, she lived on residential land allocated to inter-town migrants.

In fact, Jacob's salary was enough for his family to not have to work, but Lavinia was very restless and found a job as an administrator in the barracks warehouse.

This time, the warehouse she managed was emptied of its contents over the winter.

The lady approved the loan of the warehouse to Gao Sili to use as a papermaking workshop, so she stayed to help out in the papermaking workshop.

Lavinia knew that when it came to making paper from hemp, the cost wasn't high; the recipe was what mattered.

If the recipe is leaked, it is easy for outsiders to imitate it.

Therefore, she is very concerned about confidentiality, and no one except her knows the meaning of each process.

She had her own authority and paid the workers a good salary, but also made it clear that the specific details of her work could not be revealed.

However, Jagbu knew everything about the workshop clearly, and even knew how many acres of hemp could be used to produce how many sheets of paper.

He has been called to meetings by the Director of the Grain Affairs Department for three consecutive days to come up with a solution. The amount of land reclaimed for spring plowing this year must be increased to make room for growing hemp.

No one expects to control the processing formula of hemp paper for a lifetime, but as the first people to try it, they must make the first cycle of windfall brought by hemp paper this year.

As mid-March approached, the lightly loaded boat that had set out three days earlier returned to the port first, reporting the good news of a safe return, and the port was ready to receive the ship.

Olivia and Caesar were studying the reply letter from Anko in the study when they received the letter sent back by the advance ship on behalf of Letilen.

The two letters arrived one after the other, both containing good news.

The first letter was sent by an old friend of Caesar, saying that fifty soldiers of the Knights Templar were preparing to retire this year, and they heard that Caesar was short of people, so they all planned to come over.

As for those who were eliminated in the spring recruitment, they will have to wait another month before they can be recommended.

They first planned the cost of the fifty soldiers who were coming.

It costs money to maintain the soldiers, and they have to provide their clothes, food, equipment and riding gear.

As for military pay, it is divided into two parts, half is salary and the other half is housing.

By becoming a naturalized soldier in Einwidden, you can own a three-bedroom single-story apartment in the city to accommodate your family, as well as an annual salary of four gold coins.

If you do not become a citizen and are purely a contract worker, your annual salary will be six gold coins.

The price of six gold coins is based on the fact that these soldiers are all retired. Although they are not in their peak condition, they all have rich practical experience, which is more than enough for them to serve as non-commissioned officers to train new recruits.

This amount of money is also considerable compared to their salaries in the Knights.

As for the ordinary recruits who come in after the spring recruitment, they can also become citizens.

After becoming a citizen, you can own a two-bedroom house and receive a salary of two silver coins per month.

Even if you don't become a citizen, you can still choose an annual salary of three gold coins.

The population these soldiers brought with them was not just themselves.

They were also born by their parents and have families with children. The actual number of immigrants should be doubled.

I have two days off every month and can go back to my assigned room to spend two days with my family.

Olivia thought that in the future, more soldiers would choose to become naturalized citizens.

However, the pressure to build allocated housing for the soldiers is great, and the Urban Construction Department has to recruit workers.

If there are still people left who want to select new recruits, recommend them to join the Urban Construction Company as workers.

With this layer-by-layer distribution, as long as you are a healthy person with hands and feet, you can always find a job once you come here and never think of leaving Eindhoven.

Caesar was holding a piece of white linen paper and calculating the military supplies expenses for the fifty men.

Olivia turned around, took the letter sent from the port and opened it.

The letter was in Letilon’s own handwriting;

This time, the business was successful. The balance of the original porcelain was paid, and two porcelain orders worth three thousand gold coins were signed.

As for the crops he was asked to look for, a list is also given below.

In total, there were 50,000 pounds of potatoes, 30,000 pounds of new crop corn kernels, 20,000 pounds of soybeans, and 2,000 pounds of cocoa beans, as well as countless seeds, preserved fruits, tropical plants, fish, and wine.

These things come from both ends of the island chain, not just one island.

At the end of the letter, Letilun had to mention what happened to the merchant Moni Anwadi in Galamu.

It turned out that from the first day Anwadi arrived in Karamu, he began to inquire about who owned the best farmland outside the capital of Karamu.

He found out that King Garamu was over seventy years old, had three sons and two daughters, had two queens, illegitimate children, and countless mistresses.

Almost all the fertile land outside the capital of Garamu belongs to these messy royal nobles.

Among them, the piece of land that Anwadi inspected belonged to one of the king's mistresses, a countess.

However, as he dug deeper, he discovered that the land was the subject of many lawsuits and was an inheritance fought over by several noble families.

Therefore, Moni Anwadi immediately gave up the idea of ​​buying land in Galamu and followed Letilen to the southeast island chain.

While traveling around the southeastern island chain in limited time, Anwadi set his sights on another large island and tried to contact the local tribes.

In the letter, Letilen described the geographical location of the island.

Olivia couldn't help scratching her head. Isn't this the cookie-shaped island she had her eyes on?

…