Chapter 55
The first thing that caught my eye was the sight of over a hundred people weaving cloth on looms.
"No need to rush too much, match your speed with the movement of the shuttle! If the thread gets tangled once, you have to start over from the beginning!"
With each click-clack sound, the weft and warp became one, and cloth was woven.
The process of weaving cloth can be easily seen anywhere in rural countryside.
The important thing is that the speed at which the shuttle moves back and forth is several times faster than when moved directly by a person.
Chloe couldn't hide her surprise seeing this.
And she was excited like a child seeing a new amusement ride.
"Young master, you're really amazing! It's unbelievable to see cloth being made just by clicking with hands and feet, even though I'm seeing it with my own eyes!"
Christina covered her mouth with her hand and opened her eyes wide.
"If this technology to weave cloth so quickly spreads, the world will be turned upside down. I understand why you want to keep it a secret."
In reality, the world did turn upside down after the development of looms using shuttles.
Clothes were originally both essential for human life and a luxury item because they were so difficult to produce.
But when the latest looms came out, production efficiency suddenly jumped more than 4 times, threatening the livelihoods of workers and business owners engaged in the weaving industry in England.
Thanks to that, John Kay, who made it, had to be exiled to France.
Sebastian, although he didn't make it himself, shrugged his shoulders and said boastfully:
"Christina, it's been just under ten days since the workers started using that machine. Nevertheless, one worker is producing as much as 4 rolls of cotton cloth a day. You know how amazing this is, right?"
There's a big misconception we often have about medieval cotton and woolen fabrics.
It's assumed that fabrics like linen, cotton cloth, and linen are cheap because commoners often wear them.
However, clothes in this era are products that require grinding humans where labor costs are at least 65-70% if the market selling price is 100.
So surprisingly, there's not much difference in price between high-end fabrics like velvet and silk that only the rich can wear and cheap clothes that commoners wear when looking at 'new products'.
'What if the labor cost, which accounts for 65-70% of the production cost of clothes, becomes 1/4?'
"If we don't consider raw materials, it means we can make money even if we sell at 1/4 the price of others."
"That's right. However, this isn't the only thing the young master has made, is it? Come follow me quickly, I need to show you the cotton gin and spinning machine."
Sebastian pulled me and immediately took me to where the cotton gin and spinning machine were.
Unlike the loom with the shuttle, which required difficult mechanical design, these two machines were operating in a very simple way.
The cotton gin operated by women and older people putting cotton bolls piled up next to it into the machine and turning the handle.
With each movement, seeds inside the cotton fell out in droves.
On Earth, until this was invented, it was hard labor where black slaves had to remove these seeds one by one by hand, but now it's processed so easily.
"Although I made it, this is truly a revolution too."
And next to it, a spinning machine made in the form of eight spinning wheels connected as one started processing cotton and wool lumps into thread as it turned.
Since it was made to turn just by lightly stepping on it.
It could operate much faster than the small spinning wheels turned by hand.
Sebastian explained to me in an enthusiastic voice:
"Thanks to minimizing the effort to sort out seeds from cotton balls and spin thread, the unit cost of producing thread, which is the raw material for cloth, has also been reduced to about 30%. Therefore, if we reflect both the reduction in raw material costs and production costs, the production unit cost compared to before."
He caught his breath for a moment and said:
"Is reduced to about 20%. Therefore, if you sell cotton or woolen fabrics at the same price as others, you can make more than 4 times the cost in profit. This is a miracle."
Throughout the medieval and early modern periods, cloth was something that would sell no matter what as long as it was produced, exaggerating a bit.
Historians analyze that the real cause of the Hundred Years' War, which the kings of France and England started under the pretext of rightful rule over each other's territories, was securing 'Flemish wool', the raw material for woolen fabrics.
England was just a country that sold clothes made from wool and cotton until it became vicious, but it could play the role of one of the two major powers in Europe along with France.
The clothing industry was so great, so in the early Industrial Revolution, they just kept making clothes with machines.
Chris also came out in support of what Sebastian said:
"This is technology that can greatly change our Albania continent and more."
As someone who knows the historical flow, I strongly agree with those words.
However, I want to hide this technology for at least 10 years, no, if possible, more than 20 years.
Why? Because if this leaks, everyone without exception will jump into the clothing industry.
Then the profits I can make will decrease.
'You become a person of high value by doing what others don't or can't do.'
"So this technology must never leak out. If even one thing leaks out, it will damage our family's interests."
I'm not some altruist, and I have no intention of publicly disclosing the technology I learned, no, newly created, for the development of humanity without compensation.
"I agree, we can't use the technology the young master created just for the good of others."
I patted Sebastian's shoulder.
"Although I came up with this and the craftsmen actually made it. Sebastian, you creating the framework for this factory is definitely not a small contribution. Is there anything you want? If you want, I'll even give you a knight's title considering your merits so far."
I'm just a knight title holder too, but there's no big problem.
Although this isn't like Joseon where slaves could own slaves, it's quite possible for a knight title holder to make another vassal a knight out of necessity.
'Of course, a knight's knight isn't that common.'
"Then can this old man be a bit greedy?"
"The procedure for reporting to the imperial heraldry office is a bit complicated, but it all works if you just pay money. Since we're doing it anyway, I'll even create a nominal territory for you. Your salary will increase by as much as the territory's taxes."
I'll just report a few households in this village where the factory is now as Sebastian's territory, and give him the taxes from there.
This is also a kind of expedient, but the heraldry office that manages nobles is the Emperor's puppet agency, so if I request it, it will be resolved if I give some 'business promotion expenses (bribes)'.
Chloe, who couldn't follow the conversation between Christina, Sebastian, and me, sincerely congratulated him.
"Congratulations, head butler."
"Haha, thank you for congratulating me. I thought I'd never have any connection to becoming a noble in my life."
Actually, strictly speaking, my head butler position receives almost the same treatment as someone with a knight's title, but...
There's a clear difference between treatment equivalent to nobility and formal nobility.
Christina congratulated Sebastian and gave me advice.
"Didn't the tariff on seaweed exported to Guillaume City become tax-free this time? So how about putting the cotton cloth produced here in boxes under the pretext of seaweed packaging material? Then we can avoid tariffs on woolen and cotton fabrics."
It's not that common, but in our empire too, artworks or precious items are often wrapped in soft cloth when carried.
Seaweed is also a precious medicinal ingredient.
If we push a bit, it's not impossible...
"The quantity is too much. There will be limits?"
"If the mayor of Guillaume, the finance department, and their master Viscount Guillaume agree, we can eliminate the tariffs. So tell them you'll give half of the tariffs as political donations to them."
Political donations, in other words, bribes.
And no one dislikes bribes.
"The mayor of Guillaume is aiming to raise his status to nobility of the robe, so he needs to spread money to central nobles. So he needs donations."
"Even if we shut the mayor's mouth like that, won't the viscount catch on?"
"From the viscount's perspective, it would be better to receive about 30% of the cotton fabric tariffs in the form of a slush fund that he can use freely, rather than taking a portion of the tariffs left over after using it for Guillaume City and the viscount's territory budget. Because he can pocket a larger amount."
Politicians always need slush funds.
Especially in this era, if you want to implement policies that other vassals oppose alone, you absolutely need 'independent money'.
"That's right, then with proper persuasion, we can save half of the woolen and cotton fabric tariffs."
We need to give half as bribes for stable tax evasion, no, tax savings.
People get in big trouble if they're too greedy, so we should know how to be satisfied at an appropriate level.
'Just the tariffs we save like this will exceed 1,000 gold coins a year.'
"Alright, now that we've finished inspecting the factory, we should start our first trade."
I have to go again both to evade tariffs and to smoothly carry out future transactions.
This time, since there's nothing special to deal with there, I should be able to return quickly.
"Sebastian, since I finished inspecting the factory today and was very satisfied. Treat the employees working here to a company dinner tomorrow, and give them ample bonuses."
"Yes, understood."
And today I had dinner with the executives of this factory and had conversations about work.
From the conversations, I could tell that the business has been going well so far, like sailing with a tailwind.
**
A week after the factory inspection.
I arrived in Guillaume City again.
"I can see the harbor there, it's Guillaume City!"