When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#603 - Papermaking workshop and its foundry monks

The sunlight of approaching July fell on everyone's shoulders as Armand and the Fran trio strolled through the workshop district. The blinding sun made Lufiel raise her parasol.

The surrounding trees had been mostly cut down, leaving only leveled plots, with upright wooden stakes and lime powder marking out areas of various sizes.

Knights, wearing heavy shackles around their necks, were covered in mud and carrying mortar, evenly pouring concrete onto the sunken roadbed.

This so-called industrial area was located in the suburbs south of Jeanne d'Arc Castle, downstream of the Yvette River. Standing on the pier under construction and looking south, one could see four new workshops being built.

Shielding her eyes with her hand, Lufiel looked at the row of new workshops: "What kind of workshops are those?"

"Those are paper mills. They need to use hydraulic machinery to beat the pulp, so they are built by the river."

"Four paper mills? Can you get that much animal glue and reagent?" Lufiel, who knew a thing or two about paper mills, frowned as she asked.

"Probably hemp paper?" Venise quipped sarcastically, winking.

The so-called animal glue is the paper adhesive, made by boiling the skin, tendons, and hooves of livestock, while the reagent ensures that the paper is smooth and does not bleed ink.

After beating rags and tree bark into pulp, animal glue is poured in and mixed to bind the short fibers of the rags and bark into long fibers, and then the paper is scooped up with a copper wire mesh.

Paper is expensive, mainly because of the tree bark and reagents. Different types of tree bark require different formulas of animal glue and reagents.

A ream (500 sheets) of fine Golden Horn Bay paper can sell for an expensive 2-3 gold pounds, ordinary paper costs about 1.5 gold pounds, and the cheapest hemp paper for civilians costs 100 deniers per ream.

Hemp paper is made from ordinary hemp fibers, using only animal glue without reagents.

"We have found a new material to replace animal glue and reagents. It's a trade secret, so I can't reveal it."

Abas asked in a low voice, not giving up: "Alchemy?"

Armand nodded, his eyes even filled with a hint of pity.

"Heretic..." Venise groaned in a voice as faint as a mosquito.

"Why do you have such a large demand for paper?" Using the question as an excuse, Lufiel stepped forward and, amidst the distorted expressions of the other two, held the parasol over Armand's head.

Armand looked up at the floral parasol: "Because the Papal Palace is promoting paper-based office work. On average, each administrative monk consumes 10 pounds of paper per year. We have to write annals, and we also have to post notices in nearby villages every month. The demand for paper is quite large."

Posting notices in villages is the main task of the Truth Tribunal, counted as part of the annual evangelism and truth propaganda targets.

These are basically various news, short stories, and accounts of Hohen's own deeds from Langsand County, as well as various policies.

The Cheka occasionally makes unannounced visits to nearby villages to see if the itinerant monks and centurions are posting and reading the Truth notices on time and in sufficient quantity.

The Guards were able to expand rapidly and maintain high morale thanks in no small part to these trivial notices.

As he spoke, Armand led the group into a paper mill that had already been completed. Similar to the sugar mill, this was also a production line design.

However, it was L-shaped, because the corner had to be close to the river to use hydraulic power to beat the pulp.

Harkin told the workshop manager, then took out a stack of Jeanne d'Arc paper from the warehouse and distributed it to the three.

The moment Lufiel touched the paper, her eyes lit up. Pure white paper was very rare in the Empire and required specific tree bark and reagents.

The paper in her hand wasn't snow-white, but it only had a faint yellowish tinge at the edges.

Touching the surface of the paper with her fingertips, it was slightly rough and thick, and overall had a texture that seemed to be coated.

Lufiel came from a wealthy family and was a scholar, so she had seen all kinds of things since she was a child. Based on this texture, she could basically determine that it was of medium-high quality, the kind that cost 1.5 gold pounds (180 deniers) per ream.

"How much does this paper cost?" Venise asked, picking up the edge of the paper and observing its hardness and toughness.

Harkin rubbed his hands and replied: "90 deniers per ream, and a further reduction of 5 deniers for wholesale by the ton."

"90 deniers per ream? Can you make a profit?" Venise stared, "Don't be deliberately tricking us into buying industrial bonds, are you?"

"Tsk, what are you saying?" Harkin shook the paper in his hand, "It's 85 deniers, 85 deniers for everyone.

Hehe, let me tell you, even at this price of 85 deniers, we can still earn 25 deniers. This workshop has 10 paper-scooping workers, and each paper-scooping worker can produce 400-600 sheets of paper per day.

Each workshop can produce 1 ton of paper per month, which is 400 reams, equivalent to 83 gold pounds in profit, a small income of 1,000 gold pounds a year.

Otherwise, why do you think we dare to issue bonds with a 10% interest rate? There's a reason for all this!"

Venise couldn't help but ask: "Then why did you only build 4? Building more, even if you sell them outside, would be a considerable income."

"Hey, His Holy Grace is noble and upright, and does not compete with the people for profit," Harkin said with a chuckle.

But Lufiel immediately exposed him: "Papermaking is a technical job. They can only recruit about 40 papermaking craftsmen. Unlike sugar making, it doesn't require much skill and can be expanded on a large scale.

However, there are three to four million people in Thousand River Valley, and even the citizens should number around 150,000 to 250,000. Finding a hundred or so papermaking craftsmen shouldn't be too difficult, right?"

"In fact, the buildings in the industrial area are for civilian use. They are workshops jointly funded by the Papal Palace and the Megede Merchant Guild. In several important county seats, there will be royal paper mills or Salvation Army-affiliated paper mills," Armand explained.

"The paper from these directly-affiliated paper mills is basically not sold externally, but is provided for internal procurement at cost price. If there is too much, it is stored; if there is too little, it is purchased externally.

Their wages are relatively low, but they are guaranteed against drought and flood, and they also receive free housing. If the monastic order in the area has a lot of fiscal revenue, they will also give bonuses to the workshops with the most efficiency and output at the end of the year."

"You're saying the priests give bonuses to the craftsmen?" Venise cupped his ear, "Are you sure you didn't say something wrong?"

"Of course." Raising his eyebrows, Armand looked at Venise meaningfully, "In Langsand County, war monks, administrative monks, and forging monks are all monks, with no distinction between high and low."

"Moreover, the central monastic order's budget allocation for the coming year is based on the local monastic order's fiscal revenue from the previous year.

If they don't spend it all, the central budget for the coming year will be reduced, so the local monastic order will definitely tend to spend it all," Harkin explained with a bitter face, following Armand's lead, "The Papal Palace workshop treats the forging monks so well that the papermaking craftsmen have all run off to the Papal Palace."

Currently, there are relatively few papermaking craftsmen, and there is a large demand for paper for the promotion of accounting and tax statistics in various places, so Hohen can play like this.

When the number of people increases in the future, he will not be able to monopolize all the industries in Langsand County in this way.

Harkin only recruited 40, which does not mean that there are no other papermaking craftsmen in the entire Thousand River Valley, but that there are only so many papermaking craftsmen who are willing to accept the Holy Son and Holy Daughter.

Don't look at the fact that the entire Thousand River Valley has fallen into the hands of this so-called Grand Patriarch Hohen, but in some closed areas, even in urban areas, the power of church propaganda has not disappeared.

Some citizen craftsmen think the Papal Palace is lying. How could there be such good conditions? They are simply unwilling to come, and there are even rumors that "the Papal Palace is tricking craftsmen into coming to Langsand County to work as slaves."

Before the permanent leasehold and the comprehensive promotion of reforms in the centurion district, I am afraid that most farmers and craftsmen will not be willing to accept Hohen's leadership.

After all, no matter how you look at it, he has a witch by his side!

But Lufiel felt that the future prospects were great. If they could defeat the Laya army, when a flood of money came, who would care about witches? Or rather, there would always be people who didn't care!

Otherwise, should she write a letter and ask her family to send someone to invest? Just invest a few thousand gold pounds; it wouldn't hurt even if she lost it.

Of course, this was entirely out of rational consideration and had nothing to do with Armand.

"How about it, do you want to continue looking?" Armand asked Lufiel.

Changing her mind, Lufiel shook her head: "It's almost noon, right? The sun is too strong. Let's go have lunch first, and then you bring the clockwork gun and targets over. I'll play a few rounds here with you."