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

Chapter 218 A violent blast!
It's early winter.

Farming is no longer possible.

Roman, on the other hand, thought it was alright.

Farming is the foundation of development, but it is not the entirety of development.

This means that farmers who cultivate the land can go on to do other jobs.

The only downside is that commercial trade has begun to shrink again.

Because Roman has made a name for himself this year, some businessmen are still willing to do business with him during the winter.

At this time, the fabric merchant Albert arrived.

“You’ve really opened my eyes,” Albert said, looking at the thorny iron rings fluttering above the dock.

"Oh?"

"I heard that the army of a mysterious 'King of the Valley' defeated the Broken Archers of the Cracked Armor Clan in the Stag Heights, all to rescue a merchant."

"I am the king of the valley."

Roman sat in the chair, leaning back with his legs crossed, his fingers interlaced and placed on his abdomen, his expression indifferent.

He doesn't care about what others think.

Every single one of you who dares to come closer will get two punches from me!
“That’s really…” Albert didn’t know what to say.

Do you really have such confidence in talking about rebellion?

The flags have all been changed!
They're really determined!

He naturally knew Roman's surname from their previous business dealings, and this surname was equivalent to credibility; the Black Iron Duke's credibility was ridiculously high.

But now things have gone wrong.

Who will supply him with these five ships of textile raw materials?
"That……"

“That’s too little,” Roman said.

"what?"

"You brought too little goods!"

Upon hearing this, Albert immediately flashed his signature business smile: "This is a full 20,000 catties of wool, plus a large amount of flax, nettles, and cotton that I painstakingly acquired. It's enough to sew a suit for 20,000 people."

The King of the Valley said calmly, "They are just raw materials; they will shrink."

"Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to get so many."

"Hmm, what you say makes sense... So, merchant, what do you want from me? I have no money right now, so don't expect me to pay you gold coins."

"Do you produce iron here?"

"Oh? Yes, how much do you want?"

"How much do you think this wool is worth?" Albert passed the ball to Roman.

But Roman didn't like haggling, so he said, "Let's go with the old market price."

Albert panicked immediately, "No, no, no, you said you'd give me three times the price."

"Just tell me, how much do you want?" Roman continued.

If sold in bulk, one copper coin equals two catties of wool.

Wholesale ranches: one copper coin equals three catties of wool—the production volume is too large to be sold off in bulk, so they have to contact merchants, and the price is naturally low.

One gold coin is equivalent to three hundred catties of wool.

The market price is 300 catties of wool in exchange for 30 to 50 catties of iron ingots.

Large-scale sheep farming only requires pastures, and wool and mutton can be harvested in the fall.

In other words, wool grows from the ground, so it's a business with no initial investment.

But steel is different; smelting iron involves too much manpower and resources, and the process is very complicated.

Technology, population, economy, institutions... these are all conditions that limit production.

The people on this land are basically half nomadic.

Iron deficiency!

And there's a severe shortage!

This year's production is 2,000 tons, and the wear and tear is 1,500 tons.

Rounding to the nearest whole number equals stagnation.

It's too difficult to accumulate steel.

The correct approach is to first have some farmers stop farming and instead smelt iron, expand steel production, obtain more iron farm tools, and then use the iron to support agriculture, thus creating a virtuous cycle.

The only standard for measuring social development is technological progress!
Going in circles is equivalent to regressing. Of course, social experience is constantly accumulating, and sooner or later it will lead to a breakthrough.

Although Roman can no longer see the shadow of technological development in this stagnant society, not seeing it does not mean it does not exist.

The seemingly lifeless surface harbors the seeds of change, which may sprout decades or even centuries later.

He simply didn't have time to wait.

Slam on the gas!
accelerate!
Accelerate dramatically!
……

The nobles used to be able to make do.

After all, iron deficiency is just a problem; it doesn't affect their quality of life.

But now it's clear that war is about to break out, and the various noble families are engaged in an arms race. But where can you buy such strategic materials now?
Count El of Irontree Territory immediately halted steel trade.

"I need 15,000 catties of iron ingots," Albert said hastily.

Roman pondered for a moment.

Steel is a strategic material, and in the absence of a technological gap, it is equivalent to munitions themselves.

In other words, the weapons that Roman sold might one day be used to attack Origin City.

Fifteen thousand catties is equivalent to fifteen thousand spears, seven thousand swords, and two hundred and fifty full-body plate armor sets that can arm knights in battle.

In this day and age, it's definitely a big deal.

“Too much,” Roman shook his head. “Merchant, you need to know that your wool and flax are going up in price, and so is my steel.”

Specifically, the price increase was even more dramatic than that of wool.

Albert looked embarrassed, but with his last glimmer of hope, he said, "I also brought you a lot of crop seeds."

Roman's heart skipped a beat. "What kinds?"

"Grape seeds from the Rose Territory—you've probably heard of that delicious rosé wine, of excellent quality, available in both sweet and sour varieties. And cotton, rice, beets, leeks, sugarcane, cabbage, melons…"

As Roman listened to him describe the characteristics of those crops, his expression gradually became subtle.

He interrupted his description: "Alright, I'll give you ten thousand catties of steel, but I have one condition: you have to collect more crop seeds for me."

"Isn't bringing several thousand kilograms of seeds enough? That filled half a boat."

“Not enough!” Roman said, standing up.

After the deal was completed, the dockworkers unloaded the cargo from the merchant ship and then loaded 10,000 catties of iron ingots onto the ship.

For Roman, that's only about ten days' worth of steel production.

The steel inventory is more than ten times that amount, and some of it is even rusty. We simply don't need that much at this stage.

Albert was stunned.

He didn't wait at all and got the batch of iron ingots directly—his worst-case scenario was that he wouldn't be able to take all the iron ingots away until next spring.

After all, everyone knows that iron smelting is not easy.

Damn it, how much iron ingot does Origin City actually have in reserves?
He left completely bewildered.

Roman, his eyes gleaming, opened the wooden crates and reached out to rummage through the crop seeds. The more he looked, the more satisfied he became, and he couldn't help but lightly pump his fist.

He summoned the agricultural supervisor, Barlow. "Make sure they are well preserved!"

"Yes, sir," the steward replied respectfully.

After Roman told Barlow how to better preserve the seeds, especially the rice and sugarcane, he began to regret that Albert was late.

Autumn is over.

Otherwise, he could have directly tested whether sugarcane could be grown in this basin.

Mad!
Roman channeled his grief and anger into motivation and continued to develop the city of Origin.

First, recruit a large number of female textile workers, expand the area of ​​the textile factory, quickly process the textile raw materials, and prepare winter clothing benefits.

Secondly, the warehouse had just received over a million catties of soybeans.

There's no reason to leave it lying around; just take it and use it.

Roman had already planned where the soybeans would go.

First, extract oil from 300,000 jin of soybeans.

We'll use another million catties of soybeans to make tofu.

In the past, when we were short-handed, we had to be cautious in everything we did and leave some room for maneuver.

There's so much labor force now.

What's the point of collecting now!

With plenty of power, I floored the accelerator and unleashed a violent roar!
(End of this chapter)