So the Medieval Age Has a Split Inheritance System…
Translator: Tsukii
Editor: PalenMisha
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 55 – Textile
While the Carling Empire was making the creaking sound of collapse, my nation’s first silk mill began its operation in the royal capital of Deal Kingdom. Even though I said mill, it was just a place where people gathered to make threads and clothes efficiently. Still, its efficiency was far greater than what it used to be. All the tools were prepared by me. It was a secret that I felt pained by the extra spending while the tax revenue was falling.
A silkworm-like insect existed in this world, and cotton flowers also existed. Therefore, making thread and cloth out of them was centrally managed by the government, creating a large number of jobs. Even the slaves who had time to spare due to the lack of wars were forced to work there, and the mass production of clothing continued.
…Back in Japan, the first factory that existed was also a silk mill known as Tomioka Silk Mill. Textile industrialization always succeeded while a nation was poor. Or rather, it was one of the paths that an industrial nation would naturally take. The biggest reason was that the textile industry could employ a large amount of people.
Also, because it was necessary to keep labor costs low, the nation being not so developed became one of the conditions. Once labor costs rose, they couldn’t be paid off after all. Be it Europe during the Industrial Revolution, Japan before the war, or pre-modern China, they all have a track record of being developed along with the industrialization of textiles.
And above all, there was no other nation that had industrialized the textile field yet. This meant that we could destroy other nations’ textile fields. It was harassment that anyone with even a little knowledge of trade friction could come up with.
No matter what might happen, cheap and high-quality products would always be popular. The reason I went through all the trouble of setting up a checkpoint before was to prevent spies from other nations, information leaks, and food leaks, but it also served to protect domestic industry. So in the future, it would probably prevent the influx of certain goods.
The current situation was that we had a customs office in my own nation while other nations didn’t. Seeing such a delicious opportunity, there was no way modern people wouldn’t take advantage of it.
“…I think it is a waste to take such fine clothes to another territory and sell them at a low price.”
“It will still be distributed in our territory, and there’s meaning to bringing them to other territories. What will happen if these clothes become popular in other territories?”
“In the first place, I think the people of the Carling Empire have no leisure to purchase clothes at the moment… but I’m sure it will be popular in Borghardt Kingdom, Estoani Kingdom, and Lenart Empire. Since it will be traded at a low price, even peasants could purchase them.”
“If that occurs, what will happen to the people who make clothes in other nations?”
“…No way.”
“If you understand that, summon all the clothing craftsmen in the Duke Schult’s family here. I think people who were engaged in the textile industry in other territories could no longer survive.”
As soon as I explained it to Linde-san, she started writing letters to her parents’ house to request the relocation of clothing craftsmen in the territory. As a matter of fact, I think craftsmen who had brand power and connections would still survive, but other than that, craftsmen in general would be in despair.
But well, peasants could also make their own clothes, so only people who lived in the urban areas would be affected. I hadn’t calculated how much damage it would do to other nations, but I doubted it would be as effective as counterfeit currency.
The problem would be when the other nations realized their industry got hijacked… but considering the current level of civilization, I guess it wouldn’t be apparent until it was too late. Of course, if the other nations were able to deal with unemployment issues properly, this move wouldn’t be so effective. But I doubt there was any nation that realized how terrible it was for them to lose the labor-intensive textile industry.
After that, I also wanted to use sea transportation, so I aimed to graduate from being a landlocked nation as soon as possible, but I guess I would have to wait until the collapse of the Carling Empire. Once my territories neighbored Duke Schult’s, I could request they become my vassal and I would effectively have a territory that bordered the sea, but I had no idea whether they would obediently become my vassal.
In the first place, we were some distance away from the Schult duchy. We were separated by two duchies, and considering starvation was still rampaging in most territories, I didn’t want to control said territories at the moment. It would put a heavy burden on me, so I wanted to wait to do so until the number of people had decreased further.
“There’s nothing but a thick ice continent in the sea north of Schult duchy, you know? Moreover, it’s very far away…”
“I simply wanted to make use of the sea route to transport goods to the south of the continent… and further south, there’s supposed to be another continent, isn’t there?”
“It seems so. I didn’t get much information about the south, though.”
“I only knew that in the south of the Lenart Empire was the Anon Kingdom, and there was papal territory further south. But that papal territory faces the sea, right? …I guess I should expand the exploration range.”
There was the Estoani Kingdom south of my kingdom, and there was the Anon Kingdom east of Estoani. Since the papal territory of the Knut religion was south of the Anon Kingdom, it meant it existed south-southeast of Deal Kingdom. How many years would it take for my territory to reach there?
Even the bookworm Linde-san didn’t know much about the south continent, and I didn’t have any information about that either. Rather, I did try gathering information, but it seemed beyond the east mountain range existed a nation on a scale similar to the Carling Empire, and there was a continent beyond the sea in that direction. And that the eastern continent and southern continent seemed to be the same continent.
The world might be big, but first of all, this continent was also big, so maybe the total surface area was bigger than Earth. The planet was not necessarily the same size as Earth, and it was possible that it was actually dozens of times the size of Earth…
Perhaps there were other nations whose civilizations were more advanced. But around this area, my nation should be the first to have a silk mill operational. While using them to earn foreign currency, it would also serve to destroy other nations’ core economies and weaken them, making them easier to attack. That should be the surest method.
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