Chapter 63 Sixty-three Buff Cage
Gosley had just told Olivia in the glazing room that the glaze used agate, quartz, and wood ash.
The base is composed of kaolin, clay and quartz.
The firing temperature is much higher than that of the white-glazed pottery shipped in large quantities from the workshop.
This innovation is one of many experiments conducted by Gosley, Ethan, and Adam.
After experimenting, all three of them liked this glaze the best, so they continued using this recipe and made one of each shape.
Olivia looked at the glazed vessel in her hand, which almost had the texture of glass. When she knocked on it, it made a crisp sound.
She could clearly feel the difference between pottery and porcelain.
This porcelain jar stands out among the pottery.
I can't help but sigh, the immortal is so serious.
How could such a technically demanding skill as burning mud be developed to the highest level in such a short time?
The effect of these three working together is truly a buff cage, which is terrifying.
Olivia didn't make too many comments, put down the almost perfect bottle, and only asked about the raw materials and craftsmanship.
After the three people replied, Olivia pursed her lips and said:
“Well done.
However, the raw materials for this vessel are hard to come by and the process is complicated, so it cannot be mass-produced at present.
Put the things away and remember the recipe. We'll need it someday."
The three of them looked at each other. They all knew very well that this was a good thing. If it entered the market, it would be immediately sought after.
Gosley initially thought that the lady would give the recipe to the Baron in exchange for a favor.
This was not a good thing for him, as all his hard work would be used by the nobles to make money.
Not only would he not get anything good, he might even be forced by the Baron to work in the kiln day and night.
But after much hesitation, he still wanted to make it first, present it to his wife, and let her decide how to make it.
If the lady objects, then we will immediately step back and continue to produce ordinary white-glazed pottery.
If the lady wants to use this celadon bottle to flatter the baron and hand over the recipe in exchange for benefits...
Gao Sili thought that he could hand over the recipe, but he could not do hard labor under a nobleman.
Anyway, his household registration has not been moved here yet, so he will run away and find another wise leader when the time comes.
Now it seems that although the lady has high expectations for these utensils, she is not a person who is eager for quick success and does not treat them as consumables.
Gosri nodded in agreement.
Seeing that Gao Sili had no objection, Adam and Ethan had nothing to say either.
The workshop owner standing by was trembling and dared not breathe.
Seeing that they were too nervous, Olivia changed the topic into a joke and asked them to study how to burn glass bottles.
Glass is formed by melting, which requires a higher temperature than firing ceramics, but the process is much simpler and less complicated.
Glassware has now developed to a very mature stage. The price of the utensils is more expensive than pottery, but if they are not fine products, the price is lower than silver and gold.
Even if it could be burned, it would not cause any sensation.
At present, the technology of glassmaking in the north is not as good as that in the south. The south can already produce glass with high brightness and color patterns, while the northern continent can only produce green cloudy glass.
But even such a turbid glass bottle is not cheap for ordinary people. It can only be used to store expensive seasonings. It is too luxurious to use it as an oil bottle.
No one, whether in the north or the south, could produce the kind of large, whole piece of transparent glass that was produced in later generations. At most, they could produce small pieces of glass, and those were not necessarily flawless.
In the main hall of the monastery, an arched window requires more than a dozen small pieces of glass to be pieced together in a wire frame, and the price of a window is as high as two gold coins.
The three members of the construction team did not take the lady's casual joke as a joke and took it to heart.
The three of them immediately instructed the pottery kiln owner, Old Duke, to continue mass-producing the previous white-glazed pottery, which had a simpler process and lower kiln temperature.
Old Duke didn't dare to disobey at all.
The big boss put the second boss's innovation on hold, and he, as the team leader, just hoped that he would not be affected.
Old Duke had no ambition and was already making a lot of money just by continuing to make white-glazed pottery.
However, since she had arrived at the workshop area, Olivia didn't want to go back early.
"Bring me the workshop's account book."
Upon hearing this, Old Duke went into the house and found a thin piece of parchment. The data recorded on the parchment had been sorted out and had no water due to strict review.
Olivia can visually see how many items have been shipped out this month.
Since low-temperature white-glazed pottery began to be shipped in large quantities, the profit of each piece of pottery has become considerable.
The account book shows that forty white-glazed pottery amphorae, forty white-glazed pottery high-necked vases, and forty white-glazed pottery bowls were shipped last week.
Take the two-handled jar as an example. The processing price the workshop owner gets is one koli per piece.
But the wholesale price to Letilen is three korri.
Olivia made a profit of eighty kilograms just from the two-handled jars.
After giving 10% of the profit to each of the three construction teams, she received a net profit of sixty li.
That is six silver coins.
Including a few other items, you can earn almost one or two gold coins every week, which is about ten gold coins a month.
This figure is already very profitable among pottery workshops of the same size.
Afterwards, she began to inspect the work door to door.
After leaving the pottery workshop, the leather workshop is in front.
There is also a courtyard surrounded by a wooden fence, with several wooden pavilions, a drying area, a leather kneading area, and a leather making area.
As soon as Olivia led people into the yard, they could see the leather kneading area in the yard, where two women were operating hand-cranked hammers with cam wheels.
This hammer is many times bigger than the one Ethan made in the kitchen.
One woman was responsible for shaking the hammer while the other turned the leather over.
Walking further into the pavilion, there are several racks of sheepskin, cowhide, donkey skin and deerskin drying inside. Most of them were purchased from nearby villages or towns, and a small number were skins of prey that soldiers had hunted while practicing archery outside.
The current processing of these leathers requires ventilation and cannot be exposed to the sun, so they can only be placed in a pavilion.
Going further into the house, there is a leather-making area where two skinny old men in simple clothes are holding soft leather and punching holes in it.
Adam was the sole manager of the workshop. He walked up and showed Olivia the cowhide vest he had designed.
This leather vest can be worn under chain mail, and is waterproof and warm in the cold winter.
Olivia asked Adam to be disciplined so that he could use his personal skill "Blade Buster"
Adam directly manages the workshop. He comes to conduct quality inspection every day and occasionally does design work on new products. This level of participation is enough to give leather goods a buff.
Of course, the surrounding manors are currently preparing supplies for war. The most difficult part of fighting in winter is not the fighting, but the battle against the cold.
A waterproof vest can ensure that soldiers' clothes remain dry and reduce the chance of catching cold.
According to Olivia's idea, the clothing of ordinary soldiers should be a linen shirt on the inside, a few layers of felt shirts in the middle to keep warm, a leather vest to protect against snow and water, and a chain mail on the outside to protect against knife cuts.
She picked up two pieces at random and looked at them, then asked him how many he had made so far.
"I have made twelve suits of horse armor, twenty quivers, and ten saddles."
"Well, hurry up. The manor will have to recruit soldiers in a few days. We need to prepare at least fifty sets of these vests before November."
Adam calculated and found that time was quite tight. Although his two leather craftsmen had good skills, they were quite slow.
"Well, in that case, I'll go hire two more leatherworkers to do the work."
Afterwards, they went to the blacksmith's workshop, which was the largest workshop in the entire manor, with a wooden fence covering two acres of land.
The workshop is divided into several areas, including a blast furnace, coke oven, and forge.
The blast furnace is used to refine iron ore into iron material, the coke oven is used to refine coal ore into coking coal, and the forge is used to further purify the crude iron material so that the next step is to make iron.
There is also a forging area for blacksmiths, a quenching area, and several wooden houses for storing fuel and minerals.
It was very hot here, and the ground was covered with black coal ash and carbon slag. The heat was felt as soon as one came in, and the workers' clothes were soaked.
Fortunately, there are large blocks of ice everywhere, and these types of stoves will not be used at the same time in summer. The workshop is open-air and the temperature is around 30 to 40 degrees.
As long as we can make it to October or November, this place will be transformed into a warm and pleasant place.
Olivia first came to the blast furnace and asked about the iron output of the local iron ore.
Gosley replied: "One hundred pounds of local iron ore can produce at least forty pounds of iron.
These iron materials can be processed into two sets of finished chain mail."
The forging of chain mail initially involves processing the iron into strips, cutting them into short pieces, combining them into thumb-sized rings, and then splicing the rings together.
There is now an assembly line in the workshop. If all employees are mobilized, five sets of chain mail can be produced every week.
Most of the items in the blacksmith's workshop are prepared for war.
Gao Sili spent the entire month completing the basic construction of the processing workshop, so it only took the past two days for the blacksmith workshop to get on track and start producing weapons.
In other words, Olivia currently uses the economic light industrial income created by pottery workshops, weaving workshops, fishing workshops, charcoal burning workshops, brick kilns, and other workshops to support the heavy industry of foundry.
Now that the price of iron ore in the market cannot be reduced, Olivia has asked the housekeeper to go to her father to get the iron ore she had stockpiled in advance.
Now the cost of making a set of chain mail in the workshop is half that of the blacksmith shop in the market, and the raw materials she has stockpiled are enough to last for several months.
It would probably take another month or two to complete the construction of the equipment to be used in his manor.
After that, the goods and weapons produced by the workshop can be sold on the market, and her investment in the blacksmith workshop can begin to pay off.
After the inspection, Olivia and the construction team left the workshop and prepared to return to the manor from the other side.
On the way, passing through the small path in the middle of the self-cultivating farmers' residential area, Olivia suddenly saw several stalls selling food.
These stalls are hidden in the southern part of the workshop area. It is almost noon now, and groups of craftsmen are already buying food from the vendors.
I don't know when they started operating, but their stall is set up on the roadside.
The ground was simply leveled, and a few straw huts were built, with rough tables and chairs placed in them.
Some sell porridge, bread, and pickles; some sell beer; some sell bread and grilled fish; and some sell blood sausage, mushroom soup, and bean soup.
Each vegetarian portion only costs one suri.
Most of these stalls are run by a single woman. Their sales do not meet the tax standards, but they look very lively.
It is easy to imagine that if a region has a fixed industry and dozens or hundreds of people work every day, many service industries will definitely emerge, centered around the wages of these workers.
As long as heavy industry prospers, light industry can develop safely, and as long as light industry prospers, the individual economy will prosper.
This is a chain reaction. If we look at it together, we can know the industrial scale of a place by just looking at how the catering industry develops in that place.
During dinner that night, Olivia and Caesar briefly discussed the conscription and recruitment of soldiers, as well as the construction of barracks.
Caesar planned to train the twenty newly recruited soldiers and place them in the manor as guards, and not take them to the battlefield.
He only planned to take the twenty elite soldiers currently in training with him outside.
The Earl had already given instructions that he would be transferred to the Knights Templar when the time came, and no matter how many people he brought with him, they would only follow behind the Knights Templar to transport supplies.
After the barracks were built at the manor, he would arrange for George to stay at the manor with this group of newly recruited soldiers as guards.
Olivia could clearly see that although Caesar didn't want to leave home at all, he was very much looking forward to the arrival of winter.
Caesar did not deny this.
The next morning, it was still dark.
Outside the manor, old Renault sent someone to deliver the horses and iron ore, and the things were taken over by Gosley and George.
The iron ore was delivered directly to the workshop, and the horses were immediately equipped with saddles, which George distributed to the soldiers with the longest service.
The number of cavalry meets the requirements.
After the soldiers had their fun, Caesar took them to the river bank to build barracks. They could build the barracks and live in them themselves, which was also a kind of physical exercise.
That morning, Olivia rode Lily leisurely to the town with two servants, intending to bring back the potatoes.
When she arrived in the town, Olivia realized that there were fewer small merchants in Lavossen and it was no longer as prosperous as before.
However, it goes without saying that most small businessmen are speculators and have not taken root here. When they heard that a war was going to break out, they moved their businesses to Anko City.
At this moment, people are recruiting soldiers everywhere in the town. After these small businessmen left, most of the unemployed laborers have no choice but to become mercenaries.
Except for small merchants, all large businesses with local shops are operating normally and are even busier than usual.
These people placed their bets on Lavossen, believing that the war would go smoothly and wanted to take the risk to make a fortune.
Olivia brought people to the seed store.
It is now August and the harvest season is not far away. The price of grain in the market has begun to fall slowly, and the prices in seed stores have also begun to decline. Many customers plan to stock up on high-quality seeds now.
Olivia bought a 200-pound cart of potatoes without much trouble.
However, the potatoes in front of her were of very small sizes. The largest one was only the size of a palm, and the smallest one was about the size of a quail egg. They had nothing to do with the edible potatoes of later generations.
However, anyone with a discerning eye can see that this is a high-quality staple crop similar to beets, and even though it comes from overseas, it is very popular.
Seed stores thought it was a rare commodity and sold barrel after barrel at the high price of four souris a pound.
When Olivia showed up, there were just 200 pounds of potatoes left, and she bought them all.
These small potatoes can only be preserved well if they are stored in the cellar together with apples and pears. Next year, Jagbu will be responsible for their cultivation.
After buying potatoes, she went to the fabric store to buy some daily necessities in preparation for making winter clothes.
Olivia rarely comes to the fabric store.
She found the largest fabric store in town and asked the clerk there to introduce her to all the types of fabrics available.
Animal fibers are roughly divided into wool, cashmere, camel hair, rabbit hair, and yak hair.
Plant fibers include flax, ramie, and sisal.
No silk, no cotton.
As for the raw materials currently available, there are fifteen types of fabrics to choose from, using a mix of various raw materials and craftsmanship.
Olivia bought ten yards of madder-red and ten yards of indigo velvet, ten yards of brown wool, ten yards of goose-yellow wool, ten yards of black wool, and ten yards of a blend of linen and camel's hair.
The wool and ramie blended summer fabrics sold in this store are not as good as the ones produced in her workshop, and she has already started to clear out the stock and prepare to focus on fabrics for autumn and winter.
So she went to the fur shop and bought some rabbit fur, mink fur, suede fur, as well as twenty pounds of goose down and twenty pounds of duck down.
After purchasing the furs, he did not forget to visit his uncle's shop, and then went to the barracks to bring some food and drink to his father to simply maintain family ties.
Only then did he go home slowly.
…
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