Road To The Crown 177 Moving Forward

10th June 1574

"And that's what you will be responsible for. Remember, we don't really care about the profit for now. All we need to do is make everyone addicted to our beer, and then make the local merchants seek it in Tarnow. That's why, if even a single one of you will be caught selling the beer at more than double its price, not only you will be put to hard physical work for as long as it will take you to repay everything that you earned, but you will never be allowed to work under me again in your life. Is that clear?"

With the first batch of the future managers already taking part in the second to last set of lessons, rather than teaching them the tricks that the corporate life taught me about the economy, I preferred to keep nailing the short set of rules that they would have to follow when doing their jobs.

This particular group would be the ones that would leave the cradle of my lands and reach either for the furthest parts of the country in order to establish outposts there or even go beyond the Commonwealth borders with the task of promoting the wares that I would be selling.

While the beer alone would soon net more profit than necessary to put me on the same table as some of the most powerful families in the entire country, I wasn't as shortsighted to limit myself to just a single source of income. After all, it was only a matter of time for some crafty n.o.bles or brewmasters to try their hands at improving their own recipes, putting my potential profits at risk!

"For the Hebre, Peter and Olio, I want you to go get the sixth case from the shelf and solve the problems there. The rest of you do the seventh. Dismissed!"

With the entire cla.s.s of the fifteen men rising up from their seats and approaching the shelf only to reach for the paper folders with various formulas and study cases detailed for their homework, I could leave my cathedra as well. 

After exiting the teaching cla.s.s, rather than going directly to the castle to rest in Elia's soothing arms, I moved to a small study located at the very corner of the entire building. While my castle chambers were far more fitting in terms of s.p.a.ce and comfort for housing all the reports on all the ongoing works, when the amount of the papers that I started receiving on the daily basis increased to its current amount, I decided to move it all to this small study anyway.

In the end, if I were to bring them to my chambers, it would be akin to bringing my work to my home, something that I despised back on the earth. Thanks to forcing myself to do my job in this uncomfortable place, I could at least condition my mind into focusing on the work-related matters while in the study, allowing me to rest more efficiently back in my chambers!

"... finished. For now, the daily output of iron doubled, but the outdated two-weeks s.h.i.+ft system leads to the periodical shortages of the ore. After discussing with the miners, we proposed to implement new split of the workers into four groups, each working eight hours a day, with first and the last hour of their work happening with two groups simultaneously to allow the workers to a.s.similate back to their tasks."

"The first line of the carpentry is working around the clock. The entire current output is directed to the docks. Requesting more workers to finish the second line and start cash production."

"Construction of the east bank inbound port is finished. We are currently laying down the foundation for the outbound part. Estimated date of finis.h.i.+ng the logistic structure, 15th June."

Looking through the reports, I couldn't help but scoff at how everyone was at first flaunting their achievements only to bury me down with the request for more and more resources.

Despite setting up the carpentry and even seeing with my own eyes as the first logs moved up the conveyor line only to end up being split by several sets of fast-spinning blades, its output was barely enough to cover the needs of the river's s.h.i.+pyard, not to speak about all the other ongoing projects of mine that required all sorts of wooden part in order to decrease the usage of the cement that was directed mostly towards building the road.

As for the road project, if not for the fact that connecting the road required to destroy the already existing one, it would be long finished. Yet with how using explosives to make the work easier could upset the balance of the city walls, I was forced to watch daily how countless labourers were wasting their efforts in picking the old road apart!

But all of this couldn't be outs.h.i.+ned by the fact that not only the foundation digging of the mining town was nearing its finish. With just a few more days, despite how I continued to poach workers from the digging site whenever I wanted to develop a new project, this big hole in the ground could finally be filled with cement mix, laying down the proper foundation for the entire d.a.m.ned town!

From what I could deduce from the reports of the other managers, all the housing that was previously put in the townsite, was already moved towards the finished areas, with some of the workers already doing their best to finish the very first neighbourhood that I designed myself!

"I can't wait to see the riches…"

While I wasn't as shallow as to greed for money just for the sake of having it, it went without a question that ever a single project of mine was a greater undertaking in the financial terms that most of the projects that other n.o.bles would ever bother with taking care off. Yet despite moving about as much money on a weekly basis as most of the major n.o.ble families that have yet to reach the purpure could see in the entire year, I had yet to develop any form of court!

When other n.o.bles with as much fiscal potential as me surrounded themselves with courtiers, servants and private armies, the number of the maids and butlers that took care of the castle remained exactly the same as it was ever since I transmigrated! 

To be completely honest, just by looking at the weekly expense of those servants, I was seriously considering removing at least half of them from my household! Even if paying nearly half a golden coin daily for the service of a professional cook or a bit less for a proper maid wasn't something that I could notice when I moved around hundreds and even thousands of golden coins between my projects at a time, when all the costs of keeping such huge personnel of almost fifty people only for the sake of keeping the castle clean…

But as I thought about it, I realised that no matter how much I would produce, unless I could find someone to buy it off from me, all kinds of luxury or practical items would lose all its meaning… Unless...