Chapter 17: Capacity constraints

"Once the war begins, you have already made money. Why do you have to deal with the government of the empire after the war this time?" Clark glanced at Dessier and asked.

"Naturally it is for greater benefit! The city lord of Serris is very interesting. He has developed a new woodworking machine that allows the Longtaite family to monopolize the woodworking market." Dessell told the truth, but concealed the truth. The truth of the matter.

"I'm afraid, it's not just woodworkers, right?" Prime Minister Clark was so skilled that he would naturally not easily believe Desaier's explanation, and he asked again.

"Of course, there is also a new type of loom! Think about it, the cloth market is much larger than the woodworking market..." Desaier continued to tell the truth and replied.

"That makes sense... The young city lord of Serris is sure to pay the tax of 4,500 gold coins in three places, so he moved his mind to eat the two places of Mayne and Ferry." Clark nodded, which is considered to be mastered. The ins and outs of the matter.

The Longtaite family is thinking about making a fortune on their own, and they are ready to use fifty thousand gold coins to play their own prime minister, which is really a good calculation! Thinking of this, Clark smiled and stared at Dessier, his tone became a little cold, and he said: "The officer first wishes the Longtaiite family's wealth."

"Here, the Prime Minister still needs to do his best in front of Your Majesty, so this time Desaier is here to prepare to do a good business with the Prime Minister." Desaier knew that Prime Minister Clark was greedy, so he didn't wait for the opponent to attack him. Speaking of cooperation.

Sure enough, Clark had a smile on his face when he heard what the other party said, waiting for Dessier to continue speaking.

Dessier also didn't twist, and stretched out a hand to the Prime Minister Clark: "Fifty thousand gold coins a year!"

"Um..." Clark was noncommittal, waiting for Desaier's words.

"The fifty thousand is sent to the prime minister's mansion, the tax..." Dessier pulled a long tone and waited for Clark to make a statement.

"6000 per year!" Clark didn't let Desaier wait too long, and said directly: "In addition, you have to send me another 200,000 gold coins!"

This time it was Desaier's turn to stop speaking. Although he was young, he was also an old profiteer, knowing that Clark would definitely give the next two hundred thousand gold coins a satisfactory statement.

"After all, this Serris has already occupied three cities and can no longer use the identity of the lord! Let your majesty seal a grand duke, but it must be done well." Clark said solemnly.

Desaier nodded: "The price is fair! I will order people to send the money in the afternoon. The Prime Minister is loyal to the country. He has worked tirelessly, really a model in the world!"

"It's easy to say! It's easy to say! Come on! See you off!" Clark shouted to the hall with a thicker smile on his face.

When Desaier walked out of the residence of Prime Minister Clark, Strider was still waiting outside.

He walked forward with a smile, took Stridd's hand and said: "The matter is done! It cost me 200,000 gold coins!"

"Huh?" Hearing Desaier say this, Strider was trembling with fear: He has never seen 200,000 gold coins in his life. If there are 200,000 gold coins, what kind of territory does he need to operate? Is it?

"The harvest is not without." Desaier smiled and took Strider's hand as he walked forward and said: "Soon, Lord Chris, will be called...Grand Duke Chris!"

After speaking, he glanced at Strider, who was already dumbfounded, and said with a smile: "Let's go! Let's go to Serris City!"

…

At this moment, Chris, who had already been appointed as Grand Duke of Ailan Hill, didn't know about his promotion and salary increase. He was in a daze with a stack of drawings, and it looked like a technical house.

Even though Serris City already has a lot of processing equipment and steam engines as power, there are still many things to do. Rome was not built in a day, and the industrial system of the city of Serris could not be perfected within a dozen days.

Being able to manufacture machinery so quickly is actually directly related to some of the reserve materials in the city of Seris: the city defense forces have a reserve of fire oil, which can extract various petroleum compounds. The city of Seris is already rich in special iron materials such as Pyrite, and its smelting technology is also outstanding.

In addition to some other special materials, temporary substitutes can be found, so Seris can quickly produce a large number of industrial machinery and complete the construction of the first few factories.

But then, the problem began to appear: the various raw materials needed by the industry were too complicated and could not be supported by a small city of Seris. The rapid industrialization has entered a bottleneck period and has to slow down its pace.

"There are so many problems before us..." Diens leaned back in his chair and complained to Chris who hurried back to Seris from Ferry City: "I don't know what to do if you don't come back. All right."

He pushed several reports to Chris, and said helplessly: "We are producing cloth and woodworking products too fast. There are no merchants who can eat so many goods."

Chris just came back, before he even had time to drink his saliva, he picked up the reports from the table and looked at it carefully. I don't know, there are really many problems.

For example, the cotton and other materials stored in Serris have been exhausted, and his factory is facing the dilemma of shortage of materials and shutdown. Even more frightening is that although the price has been adjusted to half of the original price of the goods, these items are still severely unsalable due to the large quantity.

"The iron side is a little better. After the press is assembled according to your drawings, mass production of plates and utensils is started. The speed is very fast... Our raw materials are still sufficient, but the reserves are also decreasing." Deans worried. Said.

Having said that, he looked at Chris and said in pain, "Originally, we still had more than 1,000 Mayne’s captives, which could be used for mining... But because of the need to maintain stability, you ordered the release of most of them. Some people who are not guilty, this makes our plan to increase production ruin."

Hearing Deans say this, Chris was also very helpless: "Mayne was caused by the **** Berman over there. I don't do this. Maybe now I can only calm the chaos in Mayne..."

"I know, but these things must be dealt with one by one at the moment." Dians also tried his best, but the things he faced were so new that he had no experience in handling them properly. .

Chris didn't have a particularly good way. He could only pin his hopes on Dessell, who had not shown up again, hoping that Dessell, a businessman, could help him open up the market and start a thorough benign operation.

"For the time being, first send the excess cloth produced to Mayne and Ferry City!" Chris thought for a while, and began to arrange one thing one by one: "Let the soldiers of Ferry City take care of the transportation. Distribute the cloth! Take it as the comfort of the City Lord's Mansion!"

"Similarly, send surplus cheap woodworking products to these two places at half price. If it doesn't work, you will dump it at a tenth of the price! The cheaper it can be, the cheaper it is!" The order became coherent: "In addition, all the workers in the city of Seris, and those related to the factory, are converted into products with half their wages! The lowest price is deducted... cloth for cloth, furniture for furniture!"

Opening up the internal market and dumping products is the only way Chris has now. The biggest drawback of this approach is that it does not make money. This is also the pain of extreme industrialization, and Chris has to bear it.

Deans nodded and said yes, and smiled bitterly in his heart: The furniture and cloth produced at a low price were finally given out almost for free, almost the same as throwing it away. This is really something that I can’t even think of before. Ironic thing...

Just as Deans was thinking about it, Chris got up, walked to his cabinet, and looked at a stack of drawings from a locked drawer. He looked at the blueprints in front of him, choosing between the pros and cons of the various weapons and equipment on it.

These drawings were all done before he left, and they were all weapons and equipment that the current industrial level of Seris City could not produce. Chris has to choose a suitable weapon for the next step from these weapons. This is a very painful job and can only be done by him alone.

"Our current situation is not optimistic. The factory's production capacity is too low, so low that I have to temporarily give up many advanced weapons and equipment." Putting down a design drawing of an automatic rifle, Chris looked towards Deans who understands or does not understand.

He now has to choose an individual weapon for his troops. Although the artillery is powerful, if the weapons and equipment of each soldier cannot be improved, the troops that have lost the artillery will not be able to perform combat missions alone.

Which type of gun to choose as a personal weapon is worth thinking about Chris: sometimes, not the best weapon is necessarily the most suitable. Thinking of this, he looked at the drawing of the simple and practical ak47 assault rifle on the table, and Chris, who had to reluctantly sighed.

Because of the production capacity, he had to abandon many weapons and equipment that were not complicated in their own manufacturing process, and the ak47 was just one of them. For example, mortars, simple and practical rocket launchers, and so on, he couldn't install them.

With an industrial foundation, Chris is not unwilling to equip more mortars, but the production speed of shells cannot keep up with the consumption of mortars. Now Chris knows how troublesome it is to maintain a modern army: the production of weapons alone is a step that tests the strength of the industry. The poor production capacity he has now cannot even supply the war consumption of an infantry company. …