Lord of Industrialization

Nowadays, newspapers and magazines are nothing new. In the city of Weissenburg alone, you can buy the "Wesson Daily News" of the Principality of Wesson, the "Wesson Evening News" of the Wesson State, and the "Wesson Evening News" of the Weissenburg City. Times", corresponding to the principality, state and city levels respectively.

In addition, there are publications such as the privately-run White Stork Times, the Science magazine run by the Wesson Society, and the Listen magazine run by Oak City Theological Seminary.

Major cities outside Weisen also had their own newspapers. At the same time, book publishing also developed, and various books began to spread among the people.

Frederick made a lot of money selling equipment, paper and ink, and at the same time, he sold backward products. Weisen State could rely on quality advantages to earn high profits.

Now everyone knows that wood is needed to make paper. The main thing in the forest ocean is that there are not many trees.

"If you can build the railway to my territory, I guarantee that the price of lumber can be 10% lower than in the world."

The person who made the guarantee was Baron Ivan von Catterfeld. Last year, she and her cousin Baron Yvonne von Catterfeld competed for the inheritance of her grandfather's territory. The two sisters wanted to seduce Frederick to gain support, but Frederick No one helped, and they were allowed to get married and have children, so they could inherit the territory through marriage.

Baron Carterfield is now married. It is said that his husband was once a knight of the Franconian Principality. After the fall of the Franconian Principality, he was attracted by him when he went to the forest and ocean area to make a living.

It’s just that Frederick heard too many words like this.

In recent days, he has come to join the nobles of the Elbe Treaty Organization one after another every day, four in the morning and four in the afternoon, each talking alone for an hour.

The nobles from the forest and ocean were greatly encouraged after seeing the news about the railway network in the newspapers, but their families did not have many resources to sell. They sold wood one after another, and some of them could sell some minerals, game, and even sausages.

The Carterfield Territory covers an area of ​​about 400 square kilometers. Even if it is all used as a forest farm, a 500-ton sea-going ship requires about 0.16 square kilometers of woods. The wood that can be produced can build 2,500 ships. The material cost of a ship is about 100. Florin.

Then it disappeared. There were no trees higher than knee high in the territory. I still wanted to build a boat and wait for the trees to grow in 100 years.

The average annual income of 2,500 florins is based on the fact that the trees are all oak trees that can be used to build ships. In fact, most of the wood can only be used for ordinary furniture or even firewood. Two to three hundred florins is good.

Moreover, Frederick is not interested in the wood there now, not because of environmental protection, but mainly because there are many forests in his territory. Many trees will be cut down to open up wasteland. It will take time to increase the production capacity of the wood processing plant. In the short term, local wood is basically enough.

"I have not had to import wood for the last two or three years," said Frederick.

Baron Cutfield said at once: "I have more than just wood in my domain."

“My husband has studied the forest farm economy in Wesson and believes that the forests in the territory can be used as economic forests. Most of them are planted with poplar trees that take a short time to become useful, and a small part are planted with oak and beech trees that will become useful after decades.”

"In other places, the mountains are relatively gentle, and orchards can be developed to grow apples, cherries, currants and other fruits, and canneries can also be opened."

“The remaining area can be used to grow medicinal materials under the forest, or to raise chickens and sheep under the forest.”

Frederick was quite surprised. This was the first time in these days that someone had proposed a business plan, and it was presented in a decent manner.

"You really found a good husband." He couldn't help but admire, "Invite him here for dinner, and we can have a good chat about how to run the territory."

Baron Carterfield's eyes suddenly lit up. The ownership of the grandfather's territory has not yet been decided. As long as Archduke Wesson gives a signal, there will be no suspense.

Now he wants to treat his family to dinner, which is a treatment that no other noble has received. If he doesn't invite another person next, grandpa's territory will be stable.

Frederick didn't think so much, he just thought her husband's idea was good. If other nobles could experience the territory in this way, instead of just cutting down trees, the railway would be worth building.

Next, the two of them talked for a while about the relevant provisions of the Elbe River Convention, which were very favorable to little nobles like them.

Baron Catfield said: "If your Excellency can build a railway to my territory, I agree to join the Customs Union and at the same time repeal the Landing Act and the Merchant Sale of Goods Act."

The "Law of Landing" stipulated that if goods dropped to the ground by outsiders, including merchants, when passing through the territory, the goods would belong to the lord.

The "Merchant Sales of Goods Law" stipulates that passing merchants must sell goods to the lord for one-tenth of the price of the goods when passing through the territory, or pay the same tax.

This kind of law is used by their small nobles in remote areas to grab money, and the passing tariffs are also a big income.

Now if we want people to cancel these methods of making money, they have to make up for it elsewhere, such as building a railway to sell wood.

Frederick had already thought of a countermeasure and said: "We build railways in accordance with the principle of main lines first and branch lines later."

"At present, we plan to build the main railway lines in the three states within the principality first, and at the same time build the main lines leading to the Great Bay, Linden City, Hanma City, Swan City, Bremen City and other places. The railways of the latter four will be Passing through forested ocean areas.”

"For quite some time, I won't be able to lay branch lines to every town."

"However, I can pay for the construction of a gravel road, which will not be muddy during the rainy season, making it easier for horse-drawn carriages and pedestrians to travel. Your Excellency will charge road use taxes for horse-drawn carriages to repay the construction costs."

They wanted the railway mainly to solve traffic problems, but there was no other solution for the time being. It was indeed a good idea to fall back and build a gravel main road.

Nowadays, the roads are still dominated by horse-drawn carriages, and cement roads are very harmful to horses' hooves, so Frederick resorted to using gravel roads on the main roads.

The biggest problem with dirt roads is that accumulated water in the rainy season makes the road surface swampy. Gravel roads and drainage ditches on both sides can avoid water accumulation and at the same time do not cause much damage to horses' hooves, making the horse-drawn carriage much more efficient.

Baron Carterfield knew this very well. The carriage got stuck in the mud several times on the way here, but it was smooth sailing after entering Wesson.

"no problem."

Baron Carterfield agreed. She heard her husband say that as long as the road was open, the things in the territory could be sold. From the current situation, it would not be a problem to use gravel roads if there was no railway.

Frederick breathed a sigh of relief. This was the easiest conversation. The nobles before had difficulty convincing them.

In the evening of that day, Baron Carterfield and his husband went to Frederick's castle as a guest. Frederick and Maria welcomed him in the foyer of the castle. At the dinner, Frederick invited Baron Carterfield and his wife to attend the Germaine Palace on the spring equinox. Church topping out ceremony.

The unprecedented treatment shocked the nobles in the city, and Frederick arranged for people to spread the news to prevent others from gossiping.

Now everyone knows that Grand Duke Wesson doesn't like people with big butts, he likes people who can make money.

Baron Carterfield, who competed with Baron Carterfield for his grandfather's territory, is said to have fainted from tears.

After the dinner, Frederick waited in the study for Alfred to report on his work.

He was somewhat interested in Baron Carterfield's husband and asked Afu to inquire about the situation.

This man's name was Herbert, he was in his early twenties, chubby, and he didn't dare to raise his head in front of him. What he said was just talk on paper. From a few words of conversation, it was clear that he had only read books and had not even studied systematically.

But it was enough to fool Baron Carterfield, a semi-literate man.

It doesn't matter if the local owner doesn't understand the details, as long as he has some ideas in this regard, and leave the details to those who know the business.

Afu soon inquired about Herbert's situation, and Frederick's mouth twitched. Herbert's biological father was shot to death by himself.

But it doesn’t matter, that was something on the battlefield, and now his mother is living a good life because of her great achievements. His half-sister is the favorite of the second generation of knights. Although the relationship between mother and son is generally that of mother and son, some Let them get together as a family.