Rise of Rurik - Chapter 754

[Chapter 755 Purely State-Owned Garment Factory]

Just as spring plowing was approaching, Rurik and the Kyiv Maks completed a deal.

There are two males and eight females of the horses. According to Mark Sakey, the total price is equivalent to ninety pounds of silver coins, which is nine thousand silver coins in conversion!

How could ten horses be worth this money?

In private, Sakey simply confided that the so-called total price of these horses was at most forty pounds.

“You mean that you feel guilty for cheating me? You suspect that I am a stingy nobleman? The transaction has been made, and I will not take back the price. You will get the money immediately, and I also encourage you to purchase our country on the spot. supplies, so that you can earn money at both ends.” Rurik’s generous statement once again surprised Sakei to tears of gratitude.

The point of this transaction is not at all about the price of ten horses, Rurik feels that he has made a lot of money.

Because intelligence information is also a huge wealth, which is difficult to measure with money.

For the first time, the Principality of Ross has received intelligence on the geopolitical relations in the south, which will help in formulating suitable roadmap plans for future conquests.

In this way, Sakeyi and his group still provide delicious food and drink, but now they have to spend their own money to buy delicious food, and even go to the market to trade.

It was already April, and most of the ice in the waters near New Roseburg had melted by the end of March, and everyone was hoping that the ice would break enough to sail.

As the high priest, Rumia sacrificed to the gods on the vernal equinox in the Julian calendar according to the rules.

She is going to preside over the ceremony to sacrifice to seven gods, and now it involves the melting of ice and snow to resume navigation. For the so-called safety of navigation, sea gods and sea monsters will also be sacrificed.

It was still ten years ago that the Ross people sacrificed to the gods, because they really didn’t raise many large animals, and it was extremely extravagant to take out five deer.

Times have changed, and now the sacrifices all start with ten deer.

The Principality of Ross inherited from the traditional Viking customs, and there are two grand sacrifices throughout the year.

The winter solstice sacrifices to Odin, which is equivalent to celebrating the new year.

Offering sacrifices to the gods and the sea during the Spring Festival is actually a celebration of the beginning of production and life.

New Roseburg is fully recovered and the fishermen, farmers and traders are ready!

However, because Rose lost the Danish market, the average price of all kinds of fur goods in the new Roseburg leather market plummeted.

The truth really becomes “Leather is unsalable help us”.

This was the moment of bargain hunting, and Rurik ordered Governor Konusson and his sons to act immediately, holding the money from the treasury and buying as much of the hunters’ goods as possible first.

The princes and businessmen worked together to complete the purchase, and as many as 100,000 large squirrel skins, 5,000 ferret skins, 2,000 fox skins, and 200 polar bear skins entered the bag.

As usual, the merchant will transport the leather on hand to Lake Mälaren, at least Ross has not lost the Swedish market!

Rurik had at least 50,000 squirrel skins on hand, as well as a thousand mink skins and all 200 polar bear skins.

What he actually paid to the hunter was some silver coins, copper coins, and a higher proportion of wheat in kind.

Lake Ladoga has dissolved, and thousands of streams flooded here with water from Lake Onega, directly causing the Neva River to surge in water!

This situation directly caused the waterway traffic between Novorosburg and Novgorod to become more responsible. Downstream would be extremely fast, and retrograde would be an arduous battle with the river.

But the prince ordered that a large amount of leather must be shipped to Novgorod.

What does Rurik mean?

Without him, it is only because tens of thousands of Slavic women will suddenly be free after busy farming.

In fact, they also do auxiliary work such as weeding grass, weaving baskets, and making wooden utensils, but the value of the labor produced is difficult to measure in money. In other words, this kind of labor cannot be exchanged for real food compensation.

A leather fleet was heading up the Neva River, and a distinguished “great tailor” moved with his full set of handicraft workshop personnel under the order of the prince.

Times had changed, and Verdegen was no longer the owner of a small tailor’s shop on Lake Ladoga.

He has as many as 50 slave laborers under his command, and he has also explored a strategy in production, which is to divide the personnel into groups, thereby improving the efficiency of leather clothing production.

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Since the Principality can produce carbon steel, it is also possible to make steel needles.

It’s just that the Principality still doesn’t have the oriental fine processing technology, so it can only make some hardened steel needles that are overall thicker.

Although this needle is unlikely to reach the level of embroidery, it is very suitable for sewing leather and linen.

Making clothes does not require high technology. Even if there is no sewing machine, pure handwork can guarantee good efficiency.

The entire handicraft workshop staff set off with the fleet, and ten long rowing boats pulled together three standard armed cargo ships towards Novgorod.

Leather and finished ironware are two major products. Slavic women will earn real wheat for participating in leather processing, and finished ironware directly enhances the work efficiency of Slavic men.

More importantly, the Novgorod Shipyard needs a large number of iron tools, such as steel axes, scrapers, and planes, and steel consumables such as nails are also in urgent need of a batch.

In addition, soap, glassware, and pottery are also included in the shipping list. At this stage, they are all commodities that Ross immigrants can afford.

There can be fewer types of them but they must be there because the people need to consume them.

A small domestic demand market is expanding, such as leather made of clothes, first of all to meet the needs of the people of the Principality of Ross.

This market is small for now, and it will expand rapidly as the population grows rapidly!

After all, the Swedish Lake Mälaren market is only 50,000 people in size, and the Principality of Ross will surpass it soon in theory.

The loss of the Danish market cannot be taken by force for the time being, and Rurik can only comfort himself that tomorrow will be better.

At least for the visible year, leather mixed with linen will make a batch of Novgorod new clothes.

Changing into new clothes was a good thing to show off in ancient society.

With the help of this domestic demand market, I can earn some scissors income.

For Verdegen, Novgorod is a novel place. Out of inner considerations, he is not willing to move to a new area just after settling down in Novorosberg. Obviously, the workshop can be established in Novorosberg. Well done, why leave?

Since the prince made a request in winter, he dared not disobey, and now the fleet also entered the Volkhov River running north-south.

The small fleet from afar is really a distinguished guest, and the arrival of Verdegen with the entire professional team did not cause much disturbance, only Rurik was very happy.

What makes him happy is not even Fodgen himself, but the group of skilled workers under his command.

There is such a small group, all of them are female slaves, and their own value is very pure.

They are professional tailors, a group of tailors who are completely separated from land production, and live by making clothes for their masters. Therefore, even though they have excellent skills, they are still exploited crazily by their masters.

As the master, Fodegen felt that he was a great kind person. It is said that without his own leader, all the women would have ended up in misery.

Rurik received the apprehensive Verdegen with a smile, and invited him into the palace after some pleasantries on the pier, and had a secret talk in a separate room.

Such a move made Fodgen even more disturbed.

The room is almost airtight, the outside is Xiaoyangchun, the interior is quite dark, and oil lamps are still needed for lighting.

“My lord, what do you mean, that you have something secret to talk to me?”

“Exactly. I… ask you to make a concession.” Rurik hesitated for a moment, but still described firmly.

“What is it? It won’t be that I am building a workshop in Novgorod, and you have a new decision? You can do me a favor. In fact, I am very willing to build a workshop in Novorosberg.”

“Oh? Are you looking down on this place?”

“No.” Fodgen hastily denied and echoed: “I can have today’s wealth thanks to your help. Under your protection, my wealth is safe.”

“That’s right, you’re old too.”

“Me? I’m older, at least much younger than that old Gould.”

“You’re old enough to live by events.”

Rurik was obviously trying to cover up, and Fodegen was a little impatient, but he didn’t dare to ask more, so he tried to ask, “What exactly do you mean?”

“Then I’ll make it clear. I’ve taken a fancy to you as all the slave girls.”

“Ah? They? You…” Fode wanted to say something very absurd, as if the prince had taken a fancy to the beauty of those slaves.

Wait a minute, those are a group of old women, how beautiful they are.

It was because he realized the absurdity that Fodegen hurriedly shut up for fear of losing his words.

“It’s those female slaves. Me!” Rurik patted his chest hard, “I decided to buy them.”

“Ah! You!?” Fodgen understood everything in an instant, and when he stood up abruptly, his face became grim and terrified, “You want to take away my wealth? That is my lifeblood, and I am a clothing businessman .”

“Sit down first!” Rurik yelled, causing him to collapse in a hurry.

“You think I’m killing you? It’s ridiculous. I’m afraid that you’ll be too nervous, so I meet you in the secret room. If you think my request is outrageous, then talk slowly. I’ll tell you clearly, you still have to be in Nuo Fugorod builds a permanent garment workshop, only it will be very different from what you understand.”

In this way, Rurik expressed his attitude.

Because the core of the garment workshop is the female slaves, they are a group of skilled workers, whoever controls them can immediately build the factory.

In terms of financial resources, no one can challenge the prince. Rurik’s operation is to directly nationalize the purely private workshops that are responsible for their own profits and losses.

Rurik gestured with his hands and described the grand occasion: “You don’t have to pay for the construction of the factory building yourself, and you don’t have to pay for the slave labor’s accommodation, food, etc. I won’t charge even a single copper coin for your existing wealth. Taxes, on the contrary I will pay you a sum of money to buy this group of slave labor. You are still in this business, and I will hire you as a life manager and will pay you well and will not collect taxes. Wouldn’t it be nice Well, your purpose of setting up a workshop is to make money, you follow my method, you don’t have to take any risks, you will only get paid continuously, and become a respected master tailor.”

“Ah? Then our previous contract…”

“Is the previous contract more favorable than my current proposal? You are a smart man, it’s time for us to revise a better contract.”

People like Verdegen belonged to the early industrial capitalists, and they were also the cornerstone force that formed the Hanseatic League.

As a businessman, he made a surprise calculation. Although he thought it was strange, after all, it must be a sure-fire business.

Thinking about it, I have already fallen into the hands of the prince, if I want to refuse, maybe this kid will find a reason to do it.

Prince Rurik is not like a handsome man on the surface, but a murderous madman, he must not be deceived by his kindness now, and the prince’s orders must not be disobeyed.

With a long sigh, Fodgen felt that his great life had come to an end, and the next step was to be forced to work for the prince.

Just after landing, a secret contract was signed and it directly replaced the old contract.

The garment workshop that Fodgen has been running for 20 years does not exist in a certain sense. The factory buildings in the old place of Roseburg or the Birka market are all sold, and there is no asset-heavy thing in the garment workshop. , there are only a group of soft goods that can be moved quickly and a group of slave labor, which are asset-light.

For a long time, the clothing of the Slavs in the Novgorod region was all family workshops, nothing more than women sitting at home, operating primitive looms to make linen and using it to make clothes.

In principle, they all hope to make better clothes. Although they have mastered the advanced weaving technology, due to the lack of materials and tools, they cannot sew high-end goods, especially the lack of leather and wool weaving skills.

In fact, regardless of Fodgen himself, Rurik could still appoint Bromar, the mother of his close comrade-in-arms Fisk, as the master tailor, and quickly pull out a professional weaving team.

Now that Verdegen agrees with the new policy, it is necessary to fabricate a state-owned textile workshop and hire these two as the manager (factory director) and the other as the technical director.

On the issue of paying for money, Rurik was quick and happy. Naturally, the biggest reason was that his treasury had always been full due to past wars and plunder.

He bought the ownership of all the female slaves in Verdegen at a price 10% higher than the market price, and his next move was miraculous.

For those slave laborers, they are very happy to be the family members of the prince himself.

Everyone praises that doing business for the prince is always profitable, and everyone’s treatment will be better in the future.

On the second day of Fodegen’s arrival, all fifty slave laborers were led to the gate of the palace, a small open space.

Rurik announced directly in public: “You! All textile slaves! You will have the opportunity to be completely free! Work for me for five years, and you will be free. Once the five-year period is up, you can still continue Work as a tailor, and I will give you extra rewards at that time…”

The prince never broke his promise. He promised board and lodging, one day off a week, and especially absolute freedom after five years, including the possibility of marriage.

Therefore, some young slave laborers can still marry and have children. According to the promise of the prince, they will completely become “Russian people” and belong to the first echelon subjects in the hierarchical society of the principality.

They were so moved that they wept with joy, and put aside the matter of freedom for the time being, the prince will provide everyone with more living supplies, and may promise a rest day every six days.

All of this will not be given by Fo Degen, after all, in the eyes of that man, the sisters are destined to be cows and horses for a lifetime.

But they still couldn’t rely on Verdegen’s management.

Although everyone doesn’t understand, we still have to meet day and night after all.

To build a new factory in the city, fortunately, Novgorod enclosed a lot of open space when it surrounded the wall.

The city is not the city of Whitetree Manor, and the population of other ethnic groups is almost exclusively technical people, and they are destined to fill the space of the city.

A plaque covered with chalk mud and coated with carbon black was prepared in advance. It marked three words, and together they were “Principal Tailor Factory”.

This is the first state-owned textile factory in the Principality of Ross, and all assets belong to Rurik himself. Of course, it is also state-run on the principle of “I am the country”.

The final form of leather is to turn it into a variety of clothes, in which there are processing profits and logistics profits in each link. Rurik has directly opened up the upstream and downstream of the industry, from catching small animals to making fur coats, completing the industrial ecological closed loop, and turning a The profits that the industry can make are wiped out.

The workplaces are some large longhouses with a woodcut style, which combines two styles of Vikingslavic buildings, which are most suitable for intensive workshop-style hand-tailoring labor.

The same construction principle applies to the same dormitory area. Workers will sleep in Datongpu, but the houses built are based on the scale of housing two hundred people at once.

How can a state-owned factory be just a small workshop with 50 employees?

The factory dormitory can only accommodate 200 people, which is just to cope with the current manpower.

The plaque is currently hanging on the newly installed pile foundation pillars, and the load-bearing wooden piles of the first batch of houses can be described as fast construction under the heavy reward.

There are now two large construction sites within the city: a school and a garment factory.

More than a thousand men and women villagers were employed, and the men among them were paid a pound of wheat a day, and Rurik provided food for their labor.

The thriving urban construction also led to the rapid disappearance of the forest outside the city. In the end, people threw out the tree roots and leveled the land. This is the so-called “asking for farmland from the forest”.

The urban construction and the pioneering movement were carried out at the same time, and those who participated in it all got profits, and Rurik himself also gained more prestige, which is really killing four birds with one stone.

From this scene, the Kyiv horsemen were amazed.

They also saw that the horses they had sold had already participated in the work of pulling carts, and they took a closer look at all of them were mares.

Where are the two stallions?

Ma Ke noticed that the people of the Principality of Ross were waiting for the farmland to become harder, and they had already prepared a variety of farm tools.

Ma Ke was authorized to visit the farming roads, and was promised to work in exchange for free meals.

While waiting, they came across two stallions.

The speculation came true, the Rus were indeed using Pechenegs to breed local ponies!

Finally, the spring plowing of 836 began!

The Ross people who have made sufficient preparations are sowing this spring’s wheat seeds in various places. Compared with last year, more wheat seeds have been sown this year, and in the Lake Ilmen area, because a large number of hidden people came out of the forest to open up wasteland, more people into agricultural production.

Counting the acres of fields of various grades in the area around the lake, as many as 30,000 hectares of fields have been planted with various crops, of which oats, wheat, and rye are the absolute mainstream.

Onions, yellow-root carrots and cabbage, the third oldest vegetable, should also be planted in batches.

Naturally there is also flax, which hits extensive cultivation in the south of the lake.

Rurik set an example in the nobility of a prince, he cultivated the land himself, and for this he wrote boastful articles on paper to publicize it.

He personally manipulated the image of Qu Yuanli to be painted by himself. Not to mention, compared to a group of “handicapped” people, a talent like Rurik who knows a certain amount of sketching knowledge properly drew a “spring plowing scene”.

This show is to draw in the relationship with the most populous Slavs, and it is also to personally experience the effect of using the Quyuan plow, which integrates plowing, sowing, and burying of seeds.

He even used a trick, that is, to make ten Kyiv horsemen come to try the beauty of the Quyuanli and the bound planter.

Almost instantly, his goal was achieved.

Mark Sakye directly asked the dusty Rurik in the field: “Master, this plow is very beautiful, how much is it, we will buy it!”

“You want to buy it? Why buy it? I’ll give you a set! Wait a minute, this is for you Kyiv leaders. Especially you!” Rurik patted Sakye on the shoulder, “You will return soon, You tell your chief what you have seen and heard in Ross, and also tell him our support for peaceful trade. We look forward to more merchants coming to Ross with their goods.”

[End of this Chapter]