Chapter 485: Chapter 353: The Significance of Promoting the Great Development of the Textile Industry
The maid immediately stopped stepping on the board, and the other maid who had been spinning yarn walked over and cut the finished fabric from the loom with scissors.
The maid carefully pulled out the fabric and was about to hand it to Maximus when Sesret, usually calm, unexpectedly snatched it first, saying, "Let me see."
This linen was one meter wide and about two meters long, with even textures and very orderly and dense yarns with no twists or tangles horizontally or vertically...
"It’s really good fabric! Such good fabric!" Sesret gently stroked the fabric surface, exclaiming in admiration, then she looked at Maximus, her eyes seemingly burning with intense fire, and spoke loudly and eagerly, "Leader, this spinning wheel! And this loom—"
"This is called the pedal spinning wheel! This is called the pedal vertical loom! Both were taught by the Goddess Danu in my dreams, and I had the craftsmen of the Public Works Department make them after repeated attempts," Maximus said with a calm expression.
"I specifically brought you, the supervisor of the Weaving Workshop, here today because I wanted you to give an evaluation after seeing these two weaving machines—how do you find them?"
"These ingenious designs truly come from the great Goddess Danu’s enlightenment to our leader! Ordinary people couldn’t have conceived of such designs," Sesret exclaimed without a hint of doubt towards Maximus’s words, because over the past two years, the Goddess Danu had indeed enabled Maximus to invent extraordinary machines, significantly enhancing the tribe’s power. On the contrary, she was overwhelmingly excited: "This time, the divine light of the Goddess Danu has finally shone on the Weaving Workshop. I’m sure it won’t take long for some of the people in the workshop to achieve merits and advance!"
"Leader, our Weaving Workshop, to weave a piece of fabric like this—" Sesret praised seriously while holding the freshly woven cloth in her hands, "From spinning the thread to completely weaving it, if it involves four people doing the job, it takes about two days to complete. If the number of people is halved, the time doubles. However, using these two machines, only two people can accomplish it in less than half a day!
If our Weaving Workshop continuously uses these new spinning wheels and looms in the future, not only can we produce more fabric in a short amount of time, but we can also decrease the number of people to keep the workshop from being too bloated—"
"No, the Weaving Workshop cannot reduce its workforce!" Maximus reminded solemnly, "Since we settled down here, with everyone’s efforts, every member of the Nix community has had fertile land, comfortable housing, and enough food, but one thing has not changed significantly—what we wear.
"On one hand, we previously lacked sufficient raw materials, on the other hand, spinning and weaving take too much time and manpower, so until now, we’ve woven very little fabric and made even fewer clothes. Many of my people who have risked their lives with me still wear clothes obtained in Italy, now washed and worn repeatedly, they are becoming ragged..."
Maximus’s face was full of self-blame: "Every time I see Volenus, Gaius, and Capito wearing faded and tattered clothes to the Political Affairs Hall meetings, I feel ashamed. The better life I promised everyone should not be like this! So, I devoutly prayed to the Goddess Danu, and she answered me!
Now, with these two machines made, you see they are much better than the existing spinning wheels and looms, so next, I will have the craftsmen of the Furniture Workshop manufacture more of these spinning wheels and looms to give to the Weaving Workshop. As for you—"
Maximus emphasized, "Sesret, you must organize all the skilled weavers in the workshop to quickly familiarize and operate these two new machines, to produce more and better textiles as soon as possible, to meet the needs of the tribe for clothing urgently, and maybe in the future, trade fabrics with other tribes, bringing more resources that our tribe urgently needs!"
Sesret hearing this, excited about the Weaving Workshop beginning to receive the leader’s attention, yet feeling the pressure, couldn’t help but interject, "Leader, to meet your requirements, the existing staff might not be enough."
"The Weaving Workshop can recruit more people, looking for members of the tribe skilled in weaving, especially women! Women have less strength than men for farming, but their agile hands make them more adept at weaving. They can use the wages they earn from the Weaving Workshop to pay for hiring foreign auxilaries or other tribespeople to do the farming," Maximus advised.
"If people are insufficient, the workshop needs expansion... For these issues, you can directly seek your superior Capito for help. Should there be any shortcomings you find in these new machines during usage, you can relay feedback to Capito for the craftsmen to help improve and perfect these machines...
After the cloth is woven, it’s up to you to think of a way for dyes. If your Weaving Workshop can find new good dyes that make our clothes more brilliant and lessen fading during washing, the tribe will greatly reward your workshop!"
Maximus was able to draw diagrams for the spinning and weaving machines because in his past life, he had been involved in graphic design for a civilization strategy game, which included textile elements, and he made a point to research them extensively to ensure he could accurately draw ancient spinning and weaving devices.
But as for dyes, he couldn’t offer much help, as the dyes at that time were mainly derived from natural plants and minerals. Each region had different resources, like the famous Tyrian Purple, discovered by the residents of Tyre City on the eastern Mediterranean coast, from a type of shellfish that could extract a liquid dyeing cloth a striking purple, thus becoming an extremely costly dye. The people who discovered it were then known throughout the Mediterranean as the Phoenicians.
In fact, after the Nix settled here, the Weaving Workshop and Pottery Workshop had already discovered several plant and mineral dyes through the Reserve Tribe Members, but those were accumulated by the Segestica people, the Aldeans, and the Skodisqi in their long-term labor practice here. Maximus hoped to motivate the female weavers to actively seek out more and better dyes through merit advancements.
Indeed, Sesret enthusiastically said, "Leader, the Goddess Danu has favored our Weaving Workshop so! With your tremendous help, I will not let you down and will certainly do my best to lead everyone in our workshop to weave more fabric and dye more colorful and beautiful cloth!"
"Good, I look forward to you leading the Weaving Workshop to bring greater contributions to our tribe!" Maximus encouraged with a smile.
The reason why Maximus introduced the new spinning and weaving machines at this time was not only that the tribe had enough linen materials, but more importantly, the Nix tribe’s paper money would be released by the end of the year. To ensure the currency’s value remained stable and provided tribesmen more products to purchase, he had to focus more on "clothing," one of the four human basic needs—food, clothing, housing, and transportation.
As long as the raw materials and manpower were sufficient, and production efficiency improved, the textile industry could easily achieve economies of scale, generating immense wealth. In turn, it would not only meet the tribe’s demand but also allow for sales to surrounding tribes, thus accumulating their wealth and strengthening the tribe’s power.
Unaware of the heavy responsibility on her shoulders, Sesret eagerly requested Maximus to immediately try operating the spinning wheel and loom herself.
After Maximus nodded in agreement, Sesret, under the guidance of the maid, enthusiastically began operating the loom.
At this moment, the Attendant came over and whispered a few words to Maximus.
"Capito, the Weaving Workshop is what you should focus on next. Help Sesret with any issues she might encounter. I hope before the end of the year to see this new spinning and weaving machinery widely implemented in the workshop, producing a large amount of fabric!" Maximus once again solemnly stated.
"As you wish, leader." Capito bowed in response.
Maximus nodded, turned, and left the Ministry of Internal Affairs, heading to his office in the front courtyard, where Military Intelligence Bureau Chief Glicus was waiting outside.
"Leader!" Glicus greeted respectfully.
Maximus entered the room, gesturing for Glicus to follow, "What important intelligence do you have now?"
"Leader, the alliance army made up of Dacians and Boyi people has already seen the outcome of their war. This is intelligence sent back by our agents in Brochi," Glicus said, handing over a secret report.
Maximus took it and opened it, clearly reading: On September 3rd, the Panoni Alliance Army, having crossed the Danube River and camped on the east bank, attacked the Dacian territory along the north bank of the Danube as directed by the Boyi instructions. On the way, they encountered the main force of the Dacians. After fighting, the Pannonians were defeated and quickly retreated to their territory on the west bank of the Danube. Two days later, they learned that the Boyi army was also defeated by the Dacians. The Panoni Alliance Army took this opportunity to disband and return home. According to current intelligence, the Panoni Alliance Army suffered minimal loss, with only seven or eight hundred casualties in Brochi.
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At the end of 71 BC, after suppressing Spartacus’ rebellion army and quelling the Spanish rebellion, Crassus and Pompey jointly ran for the office of Roman Governor. Through their brilliant battle merits and outstanding prestige, they smoothly became the Roman Governors of the following year.
Pompey, being a general with remarkable battle achievements, habitually brought his battlefield valor into politics after becoming the Governor.