You were made to farm, and now you're the emperor of an empire?

Chapter 124 Finance and Infrastructure

It's the 310th day since Roman arrived in Sig.

He inspected his loyal troops.

It's simply fantastic!

A well-trained army has been formed!

Any army with strong combat capabilities generally has one characteristic.

That means extremely high welfare benefits!
Even barbarian elites and Arctic pirates, those savage, ferocious, and undisciplined individuals, could improve their quality of life by plundering wealth.

This ensured their basic combat effectiveness.

Any elite force is built with money.

Roman naturally understood this principle.

In his first month in Sig, he rapidly increased the guards' income, making them even more loyal.

In the subsequent large-scale recruitment, Roman readjusted the guards' pay.

If you want to maintain an army, you can't just give it money; you also have to provide various material subsidies.

The reason is simple: even noble lords can't afford to pay out money.

Each year, there was only a small surplus of grain, so they had to use it to offset another part of the army's income.

Grains, cereals, vegetables, meat, fur, firewood, steel...

These physical items can be directly used as wages to pay others.

The Iron King, the Sinnoh King, the Iceland King… these earth-kings have to distribute large amounts of salt to their soldiers every year to offset part of their salaries, otherwise they really can't afford to feed them.

Roman had done the same thing before, using goods as payment.

We're so poor!
Maintaining an army is a bottomless pit of expenditure.

With 600 soldiers, each receiving 2 copper coins per month, that's 144 gold coins per year.

Most lower-ranking nobles earned no more than that annually.

He would need to go without eating or drinking and have no other expenses to come up with this money.

Although Roman and Morey's business grew larger and larger, each trade basically involved a hundred gold coins.

However, this was mainly done through barter.

Roman could produce 500,000 catties of salt, but he couldn't produce a thousand gold coins.

Therefore, using physical goods as a form of deduction is a good method.

The downside is that paying salaries becomes a huge hassle! A real pain!

Not to mention that Roman pays monthly.

At the end of each month, a whole day is needed to pay their wages—which can be considered a form of rest.

But wasting time is wasting time.

On rest days, people should take a proper rest instead of sweating profusely and queuing up to carry dozens of kilograms of grain, salt, and meat home.

As the economy of Sig Town developed and Roman became increasingly financially secure, he cancelled the in-kind deduction model.

Each soldier receives 3 copper coins and 10 catties of salt per month.

In other words, a soldier's monthly pay was 5 copper coins.

A soldier's pay could buy an ox in ten months and a gold coin in twenty months.

And this is just the most basic salary.

Instructor-level instructors like Jeter and Dick.

Such close attendants as Kao and Neliel.

Aaron and Green are players of the Cavaliers' caliber.

Sais and Yaki, Ruto, are at the management level.

The waiters include chef Bob, maids, and valet.

Their salaries and benefits will also be increased step by step.

Roman needs to pay about 300 gold coins a year to support his crew.

If all the artisans were employed, such as Vickers, Laxes, bricklayers, tailors, leatherworkers, blacksmiths, etc.

This number requires an additional 100 gold coins.

The annual expenditure of up to 400 gold coins was enough to bankrupt all the lower-ranking nobles.

But the higher the government spending, the happier Roman was.

This means that the development speed of Sig Town is terrifying.

……

The first snowfall lasted for half a day, only covering the grassland and ground with a thin layer of frost. It did not cause a significant drop in temperature and can only be considered a prelude to winter.

After the intense autumn plowing season ended.

The manpower that was never enough before suddenly became much more plentiful.

The salt mine, coal mine, and iron mine have resumed operation, employing a total of six or seven hundred people.

The farm has more than 200 employees. The piglets and lambs are still small and easy to raise, so we will continue to increase manpower in the future.

There are over four hundred people in the livestock shed. The main problem is that taking care of oxen, draft horses, and wild horses is too difficult, and at least ten tons of manure need to be removed every day.

This does not include the number of people at the mess camp and the military camp.

There are currently about 300 unemployed workers in Sigge town.

Of course, it's impossible to truly have free time.

Rapid development also has its drawbacks.

The town of Sig was like a ship strapped to Roman's chariot, speeding along for who knows how far, only to find that furniture parts were scattered all over the place and needed to be slowly repaired.

For example, miners and ironworkers lived in makeshift wooden houses, which were extremely rudimentary and in harsh conditions, barely providing shelter from the wind and rain.

Autumn is alright, but winter is unbearable.

Roman didn't have the time or manpower to build houses for them before; the initial ironworkers even had to sleep on the ground—including Roman himself.

They camped out in the wilderness, eating dry rations, because the distance was too great, so they could only transport bread slices and dried meat, which are easy to store.

But we can't do that in the future. It's okay to work hard for a few months; we can just grit our teeth and get through it.

No one can endure years of hardship; they'd have to grit their teeth to the bone.

For Roman to secure a stable steel production capacity, he must first ensure that his people have a stable living environment.

Therefore, he had to relocate a group of people and build a new town next to the coal and iron processing plant.

That town also needs to be built with brick houses once and for all.

Once completed, the two towns will need a sturdy and durable road for transportation.

Ultimately, it all comes down to infrastructure!

Paving roads and building houses are huge projects; no matter how many people are involved, they can only splash water.

It is worth mentioning that the previously laid salt road is now starting to crack, with dense cracks and some sections even breaking into several pieces.

Even the worst lime road is better than a muddy dirt road.

When cracks appeared in the road, Roman could send people to fill them with clay and lime. The patching and mending would last for two or three years without any problem, and the road would still be unobstructed, with wheels moving fast and steadily.

But how do you repair those rugged dirt roads?
Due to limited resources, Sige Town could not produce cement, only lime. With the availability of coal, production would increase significantly.

Roman doesn't have much need for them.

As long as this 100-kilometer lime road is paved before the end of winter—mud, gravel, grass roots, sand, etc. are the main materials of the lime road, and lime is used as a binder.

On his way back to Origin Manor from the military camp, as he passed the classroom, he heard the sound of students reading aloud coming from the school.
Paper production has now increased significantly.

The children's learning workload has increased dramatically, mainly focusing on learning to read and do arithmetic; they spend three hours in self-study to consolidate their knowledge and copy words.

But the students are not under the most pressure; the teachers are.

There are only about a dozen teachers in Sig Town who are qualified to teach, and most of them are slaves from Seaburg.

Someone like Neliel, who is naturally intelligent and hardworking, is required to master various management skills after becoming the lord of the Sea Castle's maid.

Roman didn't know how capable the other maids were, but Neliel was definitely capable of handling things on her own, and was more talented than Gehmann and Hans.

But the prerequisite is to give her a suitable stage.

(End of this chapter)