Volume 6 Chapter 5 Manpower problem
The Marlow Empire was very big.
As one of the two empires of the continent, the Marlow Empire’s territory on the map was already several dozen times bigger than the small Lampuri Kingdom.
As for the Stantine Duchy that was several times smaller than the Lampuri Kingdom, it was unable to compare to the Marlow Empire.
Even if Xu Yi couldn’t get an accurate figure, just based on his experience of living in the Lampuri Kingdom, he could tell that the Lampuri Kingdom was the same size as a medium sized province of China from earth.
According to this calculation, the Marlow Empire was as big as China had been on earth, so it definitely could be called a giant empire.
However, what Xu Yi didn’t expect was that in this giant empire, the population wasn’t several dozen times more than the Lampuri Kingdom as well.
According to the data Marquis Southgate provided, the Marlow Empire’s population was only around fifty million, which was just ten times more than the population of the Lampuri Kingdom.
Even adding in the population that couldn’t be counted, this difference wasn’t that big.
There were only fifty million people in such a large country, this made the population density in the Marlow Empire very low, which was something that Xu Yi who transmigrated from earth couldn’t get used to.
Just take Marquis Southgate’s private territory, if this was the Lampuri Kingdom, with his status as marquis, he would have received a piece of land that would be fifty square kilometers.
But in the Marlow Empire, his private territory was a surprising thousand square kilometers, which was like a few of the smaller cities on earth to Xu Yi.
However, on such a large territory, according to Marquis Southgate’s stats from the last two years, there were only thirty thousand people!
If these thirty thousand people received even distribution, that would be several hectares of land for each person!
But there was a problem with that.
Putting aside Marquis Southgate’s family, guards, and their servants, of the remaining twenty seven thousand people, putting aside the children and elderly who couldn’t work at all, there were only around fifteen thousand people who could be considered a work force.
Among these fifteen thousand people, putting aside the eight thousand women who weren’t as physically strong, there were only less than seven thousand who were young strapping men.
These seven thousand people were the main labour force of Marquis Southgate’s private territory, which could be considered the foundation and core strength of the Southgate Family.
Now that Xu Yi had suddenly asked for ten thousand people, Marquis Southgate was naturally surprised.
Not to mention it being impossible for him to hire all these seven thousand people to Xu Yi, even if he did, there was still three thousand people missing.
“Chairman Xu……If I remember correctly, you are only planning on building seventeen factories in the beginning, why do you need so many people?” Marquis Southgate asked in a confused voice.
“Is it a lot?” Xu Yi looked at Marquis Southgate who he thought had an excessive reaction with a strange look and after thinking about it, he understood.
He was already used to dealing with people in the Lampuri Kingdom and the surrounding countries when it came to the magic machine industry, these things had already become common knowledge in these countries, but for the Marlow Empire and Marquis Southgate, this surpa.s.sed their common understanding.
Thinking of this, Xu Yi thought back to Banta City when they had built several factories, asking Count Sean who was still the City Lord for three thousand workers.
When Count Sean heard his request, he was also as surprised as the current Marquis Southgate. But after Xu Yi explained it, Count Sean was very happy and even supported Xu Yi’s idea.
Because of this, it helped Banta City solve the work problem of three thousand people, which helped him as the City Lord.
Although Marquis Southgate was a bit surprised, he probably wouldn’t reject this opportunity.
However, after hearing Xu Yi explain the reason why they needed a large number of workers for the factories, Marquis Southgate knitted his brows to think for a bit before shaking his head.
“Chairman Xu, I’m afraid I don’t understand. The main priority of the labour force is to grow food, if you can’t even guarantee the most basic needs, there is no meaning in anything else. I can only barely maintain it with the ten thousand people on my territory, but I still have no ways to open more farmland in my territory. If I give you these ten thousand people, even if you say that women also work…..I can’t accept it.”
Xu Yi was a bit confused.
Marquis Southgate had personally seen the Lampuri Kingdom and the Stantine Duchy doing this, could it be that he didn’t know that with the help of the agricultural magic machines, he wouldn’t need that many people for farming?
After he asked Marquis Southgate this question, he received an awkward response.
“This……I only paid attention to the household magic machines and the influence of the buildings, I didn’t pay that much attention to the agricultural magic machines. If it wasn’t for you proposing having the Cantona Chamber of Commerce help with the harvest, I wouldn’t even know what the agricultural magic machines are.”
Xu Yi could only roll his eyes at this. Although Marquis Southgate had mentioned buying some agricultural magic machines, he never thought that he wouldn’t know what the use of the agricultural magic machines would be.
He could only patiently explain it to Marquis Southgate because with the appearance of the agricultural magic machines, it had greatly changed the farming industry of the Lampuri Kingdom and the surrounding countries.
After he finished, Marquis Southgate revealed an excited look.
“So it’s like this! It was no wonder you said that the Cantona Chamber of Commerce could help me solve all the problems of farming on my territory, I thought that you were joking before!”
Xu Yi resisted the urge to roll his eyes again as he continued, “So that means, Lord Marquis, when it comes to farming, you don’t need to worry about manpower. Because this year’s fall harvest is too tight, we can only help you with the fall harvest. Once it is over, you can ask the Cantona Chamber of Commerce to reclaim all the farmland possible on your territory, you can even ask them to help you plant your crops. You just need to have some people maintain it afterwards and you can easily harvest it next year.”
Marquis Southgate thought about it before saying with knitted brows, “But it’s impossible for the Cantona Chamber of Commerce to remain here.”
“The Cantona Chamber of Commerce will be building a branch in the Marlow Empire. As long as you’re willing, you can just ask for their help when it comes to harvests and planting. Of course, if you want to do this yourself, it’s very simple. You just need to buy enough agricultural magic machines from our company and send some people to learn how to use them, which will solve the problem.” Xu Yi patiently said.
“Is the Cantona Chamber of Commerce willing to teach this technique?” Marquis Southgate asked Xu Yi in a doubtful voice.
Xu Yi couldn’t help smiling. This wasn’t some special technique, what reason was there not to spread it?
But thinking about it, Xu Yi had a thought and he said with a smile, “You can discuss this with chairman Cantona, I think that he would be very willing to discuss this with you.”
“Alright, I’ll do this.” Marquis Southgate nodded before knitting his brows again, “But even like this, there still won’t be enough people for you. The gap is too much.”
“You can just work with Duke Makaros. If that still doesn’t work, we can find some other n.o.bles of the empire to work with us. A fee of thirty gold coins a year per employee, I think that would move many n.o.ble lords like you.” Xu Yi suggested.
Actually, what Xu Yi wanted was for the companies to freely recruit in the Marlow Empire, which would make things more flexible and give the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and the other companies more initiative.
But they came into the Marlow Empire with relations to Marquis Southgate, so they needed to solve this through Marquis Southgate.
After hearing Xu Yi’s suggestion, Marquis Southgate fell into deep thought as a bit of hesitation appeared on his face.
Xu Yi could understand his hesitation because this was equal to giving a piece of meat in his mouth to others, so no one would be willing.
After a while, Marquis Southgate let out a deep breath as his expression became firm like he had made his decision.
“Chairman Xu, you don’t need to worry about this, I will take care of it.”
“Un?” Marquis Southgate didn’t tell him what his methods were, so Xu Yi couldn’t help feeling a bit worried.
But in this situation, he couldn’t show that he didn’t trust Marquis Southgate, so he could only nod in agreement.
The two discussed a few more of their future plans before Xu Yi said that he wanted to see situation of the magic machine industry base, so he left Marquis Southgate’s manor.
After driving his car out of the manor’s front gate, Xu Yi leaned back to look at this large manor and gave a deep sigh.
Before coming to the Marlow Empire, he thought that with how open Marquis Southgate acted, this investment matter would go very smoothly.
But when he arrived here, he found that no matter how open Marquis Southgate was and how willing he was to accept new things, he was still limited by the same problems as all the other n.o.bles of this world.
Because of these limitations, Xu Yi was forced to change his plans several times in the past few days, working hard to cooperate with Marquis Southgate.
Although this didn’t affect the basic plan, this did make Xu Yi feel helpless.
In the Stantine Duchy, the Lampuri Kingdom, and the other small countries, with the influence of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, it was much easier for Xu Yi to change them. But now that he wanted to change an important person of the Marlow Empire, he found it hard to begin.
“There’s no other way, this is a path that must be taken.”
Xu Yi gave a bitter laugh. Although the Frestech Chamber of Commerce has taken a step onto the continent through the Marlow Empire, if he wanted to smoothly walk down this path, he had to double his effort.
Thinking of this, Xu Yi turned to the south.
Now that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had taken a step into the Marlow Empire, when would they be able to take a real step into the other empire, the Candra Empire?