Chapter 1209: Chapter 1137: A Day Tour of the Canning Factory (Part 1)
Upon hearing Grosien’s somewhat proud laughter, Kuvasz was momentarily unsure of what expression to wear.
In any other place, a mere stinky fishmonger like you would dare compare yourself to a bishop priest, wouldn’t you?
If it weren’t overheard, fine; if it were, you’d inevitably be beaten when hung from a tree.
Yet now, Grosien actually said these words openly and soberly.
Grosien dared to say this, naturally for a reason.
He had a "Three Years of Tax Submission Without Omission or Error" commemorative medal issued by none other than His Majesty Saint Sun, Horn, as well as a "Faith Citizen Entrepreneur" medal.
Above the "Faith Citizen Entrepreneur," there were also medals like "Missionary Entrepreneur," "Senior Missionary Entrepreneur," and "Priest Entrepreneur" awaiting his pursuit.
He dared to see who would still call him a stinky fishmonger!
Following Grosien further ahead, there were two areas on either side.
The left side was the factory within the high wall, while the right side was the wooden residential area for the workers.
In front of the residential area, close to the street, there were also carriage shops, post offices, barbershops, and so on.
In front of the right-side wall, he also saw a tall tower-like building.
It was a huge barrel made of wooden planks, practically like a suspended small pond.
White steam mixed with the strong smell of coal smoke filled the air, tirelessly pushed into the nostrils by the wind.
Looking at the shop below the barrel and the long line formed, Kuvasz spelled out the sign syllable by syllable: "Water Stop..."
"That’s called a water station, even my self-taught level is better than this," Palak couldn’t help but correct him.
Although the Hot Spring Castle Cannery was established by the water, fetching water truly took quite a long way.
Apart from the water delivery carts hawking along the street, the tinplate cannery had also established a dedicated water station for the workers.
This side of the workshop had its dedicated water station and boiler room.
Unlike most towns with their unique water delivery carts, the canning factory here not only did not need water delivery but could even supply water to the remote nearby logging camps or outposts.
They arrived early enough to see women in white aprons carrying water bottles wrapped in wool fabric to fetch water.
These women had a distinct highlander demeanor, tall and rugged in appearance.
With sleeves rolled up to their forearms, revealing muscular arms, each carrying three or four water bottles.
Kuvasz craned his neck for a peek, and couldn’t help but click his tongue: "Isn’t this a bit too extravagant?"
"What extravagance?"
"Just look for yourselves," Kuvasz pointed to the copper glow beneath the wool fabric, "They’re using copper water bottles!"
In this era, as large amounts of precious metals were imported by the Royal Court, copper prices kept dropping, and the silver-to-copper exchange ratio kept declining.
But it didn’t mean that the price of copperware was cheap.
In fact, ordinary civilians wanting to buy a copper basin or pot would have to save for at least half a year.
Even though the Hot Spring Castle area was rich in copper mines, and copperware was cheaper than elsewhere, but having three or four per person?
"Oh, you misunderstood, those are thermos flasks, similar to the enamelware of Branded City years ago," Grosien explained to the two, "The coppery sheen on the outside is a byproduct of dragon language copper smelting - blue copper, which has excellent thermal insulation properties.
Coat the outer layer of a glass bottle with blue copper, brush on a layer of slime glue, wrap it in wool cloth and a wicker basket for impact protection.
This hot water thermos, sealed with a cork, can keep warm for eight hours.
And since it’s a byproduct, it’s very cheap, you can buy one for just five dinars.
It seems like the seven dwarf brothers of the Bam family next door are making them, and business is booming."
Moroka was now intrigued: "With the water station, why not boil it themselves, why fetch hot water?"
"Firstly, because the place is newly established, with wooden structures everywhere, it’s feared that a fire would burn everything," Palak extended two fingers, "Secondly, boiling water is too much trouble, disturbing the housewives’ work."
"Do these women have jobs, weaving at home?" Kuvasz eyed the robust women.
Even though Kuvasz was from the Thousand River Valley, he was still more Falan assimilated, preferring relatively delicate and soft women.
"How could their weaving match the speed of the Royal Court Barracks machines," Palak brought his two fingers together, drawing an arc in the air, pointing afar, "Look there."
Following his direction, Kuvasz and Moroka were surprised to discover patches of vegetable fields and poultry farms around the factory outskirts.
In the vegetable fields, a few women were watering the cabbages, while in the chicken and pig farms and other livestock pens, women were spreading feed.
It was through Palak and the others’ explanations that they understood the classic layout of the Holy Alliance factories.
Not just Hot Spring Castle, but so it was in Joan of Arc Castle and other industrial parks.
Simply put, since factories often relied on water power and were far from cities, goods of all kinds tended to be very expensive.
So many factories chose to be self-sufficient, possessing their own farmland, allowing workers’ families to cultivate, forming a unique role reversal where men worked and women farmed.
Men working while women cultivating, this practically inverted the Holy Father!
But considering the Holy Sect’s challenging of everything stance, a bit of heresy was truly nothing unusual.
"With these pig and chicken barns and such, all the milk and whatnot can easily be self-sufficient."
"Self-sufficient, is it really that exaggerated? The workers and families here are less than five hundred, right?"
"Who says otherwise?" Grosien’s business being agriculture-related, immediately stood up to object, "Do you think the beef and milk output from a cow in 1444 is the same as those in 1457?"
In the Holy Alliance, a single dairy cow’s milk production is almost twice what it used to be.
As for beef cattle, the meat yield increased from about 150 pounds to around 250 pounds.
Firstly, it’s due to the Holy Alliance importing quality breeds from Norn, secondly to the wizards’ artificial modifications, thirdly due to abundant feed supplies.
As everyone knows, the Holy Alliance’s grain output far exceeds the demand.
Thanks to Leia people and Falan people’s initial capital contributions in different ways to the Holy Alliance.
Allowing the Holy Alliance to achieve an agricultural revolution and complete large amounts of irrigation and agricultural infrastructure projects.
Large tracts of fallow land were reclaimed, plenty of wasteland opened up, farmers gained capital for land improvement during the three years of not paying grain taxes.
Along with the recent rise of the rice-barley crop rotation and hill terrace pond system, the outputs of wheat and rice surged nearly twofold.
Presently, prices in the Holy Alliance are slowly rising, except for grain prices as the most beautiful contrarian, slowly declining.
Even the slow decline is the result of price control by the Saint Scythe and Saint Hoe Monasteries, under normal market conditions, grain prices would have plummeted long ago.
What to do with surplus grain that can’t be sold?
Whether switching crops next year or working in the city, they must lower the grain price.
The ultimate result being, no one buying, unable to consume it, couldn’t bear to waste it, so might as well feed it to the livestock.
Many highlanders began eating wheat bread, with oats and other staple grains fed to pigs, cows, horses, and chickens.
Other livestock were okay, their numbers increasing at a steady rate.
However, chickens with short breeding cycles soared rapidly in numbers in a short time.
Initially, Abbot Chervis of the Saint Scythe Monastery publicly stated to ensure every family in the Holy Alliance eats an egg daily.
Currently, the quantity of one egg per household is enough, but whether every household can actually eat one is uncertain.
But in these factories, ensuring one egg per day per person is maintained.
"One egg for each per day?" Hearing about this factory’s free breakfast benefit, both Moroka and Kuvasz kept blinking.
For the Pantsless Men, an egg counted as the cheapest meat dish, having one was already a treat.
So, you mean you in the Holy Alliance eat them every day?
"Yes, without eating where would we get the energy to work?" Grosien shrugged, nodding forward with his chin, "It’s possible that even with just the morning’s work it might tire a lot of people out."
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