4th May 1574"I"m telling you, this meeting will be far more important than everything you have achieved here so far!"
Sitting down at the chair inside my own house, Jan was barely holding back his anger when I dared to refuse his request. After all, it was the pinnacle of what we always wanted, to get the crown to sponsor our investments!
"My lord, I can"t leave right now. There is simply too much work! The carpentry is already in the process of making, the concrete is finally produced, I don"t think there is even a point to mention the fact that not only our steam horses are produced at a rate of one per day, but if everything goes just like I project it will, instead of lacking the infrastructure to finish our projects, we will soon start running out of the raw, base materials like ore or fresh wood!"
While I was doing everything I could excuse myself from this delegation to the capital that would put a strain over my control of all those vital projects, not even a single of the points that I brough up was made up.
Even though to build the entire carpentry wasn"t that hard of a task as it limited itself to just filling the hole in the ground with a concrete bit by bit and as soon as only about one-twentieth of its final designated size would be stable, all the walls would be bricked along with several openings in all sides aimed to push the conveyors through them. After finis.h.i.+ng the first floor with bricks, the second one would be made out of wood to save the costs, and a temporary roof would be placed above, providing enough s.p.a.ce to hold the finished products while allowing the stable base floor to be used fully for the sake of production.
But while all of that sounded fairly complicated, with just a few papers filled with blueprints for all the sides of the building, everything could be easily finished with just the management of the managers of the project. It was what came next that made me wish to stay here just for a little longer!
The machinery.
Building a building wasn"t something that would change or improve anything. It was how the steam power was put to use that would allow to turn this elaborate and oversized building into its proper use, allowing me to finally start earning from the monstrous project of mine, while also allowing to start building the first steam-powered s.h.i.+ps that would allow me fast transportation of goods between this detached part of my land and my privately owned grounds.
From the correct placing of the conveyor belts, through the sewing machines, stationary nailguns, all the way to the cranes and docking ports… Everything that this place would require to operate properly would have to be not only put on the paper first, tested in the separate area but also remodelled to work on the primitive means of transporting the energy from the centralised powerplant and the factory itself!
"Mike, listen. Seeing how excited you are about everything that you are building here, I can"t help but be amazed. This is only the second time I came here, and what looked like just a few towers placed amongst shady housing for your workers now turned in a ma.s.sive hive where your workers are basically turning the ground around. Just by the sheer size of the ditch, you prepared for that carpentry, I could realise how insane your ideas are. But you need to realise one thing!"
Taking a long breath, Jan sat on the chair supplied by the first generation of the carpentry when they forced me to accept this house for my own. After taking his time to sort his own thoughts in his head, the governor raised his face and looked me in the eyes.
"Listen. I can"t even begin to imagine how much money, workers and all sorts of resources this place will require to really grow. When comparing how much materials my s.h.i.+ps are bringing here on a daily basis, and how much you have already built, I can only a.s.sume that your speed of turning this place on its head make you use up most of the goods that I send your way, am I right?"
Attacked from the unexpected angle, I had no other way than to lower my head in defeat and nod it a few times to answer the question.
"And that is the reason why you have to come with me. While I don"t want people to a.s.sociate us with Zabors (*), if we won"t start playing the political game soon, we will be completely deprived of all the means of either influencing the King or profiting of his rule!"
It was a known fact that in reality, Henry never considered Poland as his final destination. Due to the commonly known poor health of his older brother, the current king of France, historians would agree that rather than trying to rule the country, he simply wasted away the tax money on his own enjoyment, while leaving most of the ruling to his both french and local advisors, the said family of Zabors.
"So you want to tell me that if I leave everything here with hopes that people that so far only followed my orders will be capable of moving the work forward at the same rate when they won"t receive my guidance… Or what can we get from this d.a.m.ned visit if we consider the only real outcome of our trip, being most of the projects either breaking down or completely stalling, while the money I have to pay to the workers will keep draining my coffers?"
That was, in fact, my greatest worry. The reason I was rus.h.i.+ng everything to finish the carpentry was that it would be the first project that could start bringing any real profits capable of supporting every other project of mine in this area while giving me something that I could show off in the capital to buy the favour of the King.
"Listen. While those are only rumours I heard… I think your wish to obtain this piece of lands for your family could be achieved in the capital! As long as you manage to convince the king that the crown should invest in your projects, we can get him to grant you some lands, that you could trade for this area here with me!"