Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord

Chapter 24: School and Factory

"Establish another school. All of our employees and their families can attend for free to learn literacy. The school will also teach some mechanical knowledge and other subjects. Classes will be held both during the day and in the evenings after work."

Was this about teaching commoners to read?

Alexei looked up in surprise. Opening a school was certainly a good deed, but providing knowledge for free?

How could precious knowledge be given away freely? How would people understand its value that way?

Even in royal-funded orphanages, literacy was still a reward that required great effort to earn.

Moreover, time was extremely tight right now. A solution to deal with the pirates had to be found within a month. How could there be any leeway for such charity?

"Lord, should we postpone the establishment of the school? We are short on time."

"No, this cannot be delayed. It is far more important than you think. It must be done immediately." Hughes paused for a moment before adding, "Also, make sure to announce that I will personally teach at the school."

Although he didn't fully understand, Alexei still nodded and carefully noted it down in his journal.

Charity? Hughes certainly wasn't doing charity.

People of this era had yet to realize the importance of knowledge.

They simply locked it away like gold coins in a chest.

But Hughes knew exactly how crucial a skilled worker was to industrialization.

The most basic requirement for a competent worker was literacy.

Being able to read meant being able to understand knowledge.

It meant the ability to learn independently. Learning was the fundamental step toward transformation.

The foundation of industry had never been the factories billowing with black smoke. It was the workers who had a basic understanding of equipment, machinery, and assembly line production.

On modern Earth, many people thought assembly line work required no education.

But that was only because compulsory education had already spread across the land, ensuring that workers met the basic skill requirements.

If a group of completely uneducated people were thrown into a factory, it would be a disaster.

Of course, this era had its own methods.

The last time Hughes transmigrated, factory owners didn't provide much training for workers, yet the factories could still barely operate.

The method was simple: treat workers as consumables. After enough people died, others would naturally recognize the dangers.

Hughes certainly did not plan to do that. If he was going to establish a factory, he wouldn't just settle for competing with this era's industrial goods.

He wanted to change this world, to ignite the flames of industrial revolution. His ambitions reached far beyond that.

For that, he needed a large number of engineers and skilled workers.

They wouldn't just appear out of nowhere so he had to train them himself.

Opening a school was the first step.

Thinking about this, Hughes couldn't help but sigh.

This descent had been truly tumultuous, and only now was he finally beginning to set things on the right track.

"Alexei, I need you to organize some manpower to establish a factory on the island."

Alexei had little concept of what a factory was.

Even in the Empire’s capital, Rhine, such modern things were rare, and they were usually managed by the Church.

He had seen a few recruitment notices for factories before, strange places that always seemed to be hiring.

"Yes, a factory. There are so many olive trees on the island, so I plan to establish an olive oil factory."

"But who are we going to sell it to? There are no merchants here."

"That is not your concern." Hughes smiled faintly.

It was simple, he planned to sell it to the pirates.

Pirates had no interest in olive oil, but that wasn’t really what he intended to sell.

Olive oil was just the first step in his chemical industry chain. Once this industrial behemoth started running…

Castel’s goods and wealth would soon pile up like mountains.

Conveniently, he also had some knowledge of weapons manufacturing.

With both products and force at his disposal, the pirates?

They would become the most obedient merchants in the Storm Ocean.

The conditions on this island were even better than he had expected.

Hughes was confident that he could rapidly establish a complete industrial system.

"You should head back for now. I will discuss the specifics with you later. Just start gathering people, we may soon find ourselves short-handed."

The island’s population was small, and this was Hughes’s biggest headache.

No matter how hard he worked, he couldn’t conjure people out of thin air.

He needed to find a way to attract immigrants. Hughes furrowed his brows, considering the problem.

This was tricky. In this era, people rarely left their homeland, whether in the Empire or elsewhere.

He had heard that the White Raven Principality in the north was undergoing a large-scale migration southward.

Perhaps he could think of a way to make use of that…

"Lord?"

"Hmm?" Hughes snapped out of his thoughts and found Alexei looking at him. "Is there something else?"

"Ahem, yes, there is something else…" Alexei looked a little embarrassed.

"What is it?"

“Right now, the municipal treasury seems to be out of money.”

“Huh?”

Hughes was a bit stunned.

“It’s like this,” Alexei sighed, took the account book, and began explaining.

The manor where Hughes lived was not built by him, but when he arrived on the island, it was already somewhat dilapidated.

Its current state was the result of several months of repairs.

Renovating the manor was originally quite expensive.

Although most of the money came from Hughes' own pocket, the municipal office also contributed a lot in terms of labor and building materials.

The island's production was already scarce, and the diversion of manpower for the manor’s construction made things even more strained.

However, that wasn’t the main issue.

There was another reason—

“The pirates take a batch of sweet fruit wine every time they come to collect the sea tax?” Hughes looked at Alexei in disbelief. “You’re not trying to say—”

“Yes, my lord,” Alexei spoke with some difficulty. “The main financial source of Castel is actually the sweet wine that the pirates conveniently buy.”

Hughes held his forehead and closed his eyes.

“So that’s why all the records are about transactions with pirates. I thought the account books were stored separately, but it turns out this is all the trade there is.”

What a joke, there was no real commerce here at all.

But this wasn’t a big problem.

Even though Hughes didn’t have money at the moment, feudal lords in this era had their own solution, defaulting on payments.

Yes, defaulting was a very useful method.

As long as he recruited the residents for labor and postponed their wages, he could get the territory moving.

After all, he was the lord, a noble lord.

No one dared to disobey his words.

Even if he outright declared that there would be no pay, the people of the territory would still grumble and come to work for him, even though they were nominally free men.

How could free men truly be free?

But after thinking for a moment, Hughes decided to abandon the idea of defaulting on payments.

On one hand, he didn’t want to compromise his credibility.

On the other hand—

“We cannot default on payments. On the contrary, all wages must be paid in full and on time. If the finances are tight, we can set the wages a bit lower, but we must never fail to pay them.”

Alexei frowned, wanting to argue.

This was a critical period for the territory’s development.

How could they waste precious wealth just to appear benevolent?

“Alexei, wealth only reveals its true power when it circulates.

If it just sits in a chest, it’s no different from scrap iron!”

Hughes stood up, pacing quickly.

“Commerce in Castel is nearly stagnant. If we’re content to be lords here for a lifetime, collecting a few baskets of salted fish as tax, then it doesn’t matter. But if we want to mobilize the entire territory for development, we must establish our credibility!”

“Post a notice and send people to inform every household, our workers will never be unpaid.”

“If we run out of money, go find Connor. Withdraw from my private treasury. If there’s money, take money. If there’s no money, there are still some jewels that can be exchanged.”

Hughes gritted his teeth as he spoke.

Alexei looked at his lord in surprise.

Hughes was leaning on the table with both hands, his face filled with an expression of financial pain, but his eyes burned with determination.

“Watch, Alexei, once money starts flowing, it becomes magic.”