Ermu
Chapter 47: Market and Circulation
According to Iron Axe and Brian, the strength and number of demonic beasts would gradually increase as the Months of Demons continued. Taking advantage of the current low defensive pressure, Roland sent another brig full of ore to Willow Town.
With the introduction of Steam Engine No. 1, the number of workers in the North Slope Mine had been halved, while the output was steadily increasing, now restored to the level before the collapse. With the help of machines, manpower was greatly saved.
At the same time, Roland carried out a preliminary reform of the mining area's production system, changing the original fixed salary to a variable salary based on output. He asked Barov to compile the average daily output of the past few years, set it as the standard, and added a bonus for each additional share of output, with extra rewards for discovering gem veins. This move effectively promoted the workers' enthusiasm for production, and the entire mining area was a scene of bustling activity.
With extra ore in hand, Roland naturally wanted to do something.
In addition to including Steam Engine No. 2 in the production plan, he also planned to manufacture a batch of manual machine tools.
Machine tools have a long history. In layman's terms, they are essentially workbenches used to process tools. Therefore, the anvil can be regarded as the most primitive machine tool—manually fixed and manually forged.
Manual forging is fine, but manual fixing is too inconvenient, so people added buckles or grooves to the table to fix the parts to be processed. For example, the barrels of early matchlock guns and flintlock guns were all hammered out by hand on anvils with grooves.
Later, manual planing and milling could no longer meet the needs of processing, and machine tools diverged. According to different purposes, different fixing methods and processing tools were adopted. Manual and mechanical linkage effectively improved the shortcomings of pure manual exertion, where the force of each strike was inconsistent.
Roland was considering a manual milling machine.
Although milling machines have a variety of functions, he mainly used them to process involute gears, so the structure could be simplified accordingly, requiring only a pair of slots to fix the gear disc and a rotating steel grinding disc. Special-shaped grinding discs specifically for cutting gears could be easily manufactured with the help of Anna—after grinding the top of the mold into a trapezoid and heating it to a red-hot state, iron bars were used to draw imprints on it, and then it was immersed in water for quenching to obtain a customized grinding disc with high rigidity.
After solving the key problem, Roland immediately summoned Carter and asked him to hire two carpenters to build a milling machine base for him, while Anna continued to manufacture other metal parts in the backyard of the castle.
It must be said that with Anna, metal processing became as easy as kneading mud, especially after she skillfully mastered the control of flames. Now, she uses her hands to knead out the approximate shape of small parts during the initial processing. Seeing her melt the iron ingot into a viscous liquid and knead it around, Roland couldn't help but marvel.
Without the witch, these plans in his mind might have been delayed for more than a decade.
Two days later, the first simple milling machine appeared in the backyard.
Roland was not idle during this time. Drawing gears could be considered his old profession. He designed a set of gears for speed regulation and stabilization of the steam engine output. The corresponding gear discs had already been molded and were ready for the gear milling process once the milling machine was assembled.
Gears are not new. Most mines in this world rely on livestock to pull wooden gears and winch mechanisms to drain water. This time, the Chief Knight finally felt satisfied—he had worked so hard for His Highness the Prince so many times, and at least this time he could understand what the other party was planning to do.
Roland also asked him to bring three blacksmiths and their apprentices to learn how to use the milling machine in the yard. He couldn't operate these machine tools himself every day, so he had to train a group of professional workers.
After everyone respectfully saluted, Roland began to demonstrate how to use the milling machine to process gears.
He didn't mind acting as a senior fitter in front of everyone. In fact, there were all kinds of princes in this era, and their hobbies were also diverse. In addition, he had a reputation for being unconventional before, so he felt no pressure operating the machine tool.
The Chief Knight was responsible for pouring warm lard on the side—in an era without lubricating oil, using lard as a substitute was a bit wasteful, but it was better than nothing. The lard dripped onto the grinding disc and fell into the porcelain basin below, where it could be reused.
Roland first scribed division marks on the gear disc at the designed angle, then stood the gear disc upright and fixed it on the workbench. Then he pulled the grinding disc above the gear disc, aligned it with the scribe line, and stepped on the pedal. The pedal drove the wooden wheel, transmitting power to the grinding disc shaft through a belt.
Then he steadied the grinding disc handle with his hand, gently pulled it down, and the rotating grinding disc slowly cut into the gear disc at a 90-degree angle.
Since the material of the gear disc was pig iron, and the grinding disc was quenched steel, cutting out the teeth was not very difficult. The smell of lard filled the air, making the blacksmiths and apprentices who had not tasted meat for a long time swallow their saliva in unison.
After the demonstration, it was time to sign the contract. The commerce in Border Town was still in its infancy, and industry was even more non-existent. Whether it was a steam engine or a machine tool, there would be no phenomenon of various shops rushing to purchase them as soon as they were manufactured. In this era, most people would not realize the great significance and potential commercial value of these things. So Roland could only actively promote the use of machinery.
He stipulated in the contract that blacksmith shops using the milling machine needed to produce at least one set of gears per week. All required materials were provided by the castle, and the processing fee was 10 silver royals. At the same time, a machinery usage fee of 2 silver royals per week must be paid. Because this set of machine tools was not given to the blacksmith shop for free use, but was more like a lease.
After entering the Months of Demons, the business of the blacksmith shop also declined a lot. At this time, being able to have an opportunity to earn money, and still an order personally arranged by His Highness the Prince, everyone naturally had no objection. At the same time, Roland told them that this was only the first milling machine, and several more would be produced one after another in the future. Those who were interested could apply to the City Hall.
"Your Highness, why not just write the processing fee as 8 silver royals on the contract?" Carter asked in confusion after the blacksmiths left.
"Although these two numbers are the same, the meanings they contain are not equal," Roland explained, "This is probably the first commercial lease contract in Border Town, and I need to establish an industry standard."
The Chief Knight wiped his forehead. The Fourth Prince seemed to be talking nonsense again, but he already had experience with this. As long as he pretended to listen carefully, the Prince would continue to explain.
"With a good start, a virtuous cycle can be formed. Currently, only I need to buy gears, so I provide the machine tools, they contribute the manpower, and the compensation they receive is also employment remuneration. In the future, when others also have this kind of demand, they will realize that buying a machine tool to produce by themselves will earn much more than employment remuneration," Roland paused, "In this way, when facing new things, they can first use the way of substitution production to avoid risks, and I can also get returns through leasing, while the subsequent development of new things is determined by market demand. This is a virtuous cycle."