pdf-ebookys #611 - Wool industry chain
#611 - Wool industry chain
The night wind passed through the rugged mountain rocks, making a whistling sound.
A thin mist rose from the mountains and forests, enveloping the overly simple rural chapel on the edge of the village.
From the outside, except for a radical number 45 character frame on the roof, it was almost indistinguishable from an ordinary armed farmhouse.
The interior of the church was not luxurious either, with green moss growing on the corners of the walls, a layer of moldy wooden floor, and a low ceiling that exuded a musty wooden smell.
In front of the simple stone altar, there was a lectern and two rows of four seats, barely enough to seat 50 people, which was the scale of this old church.
At this moment, the pointed eaves were hidden in the darkness, and faint candlelight shone through the window frames and door seams, which Ansel had deliberately lit.
For this prayer meeting, he abandoned the oil lamp and lit the few remaining beeswax candles.
It's a pity that, relative to Ansel's expectations, the number of people who actually came to this prayer meeting was not as many as expected.
"Are there only these fifteen people?" Bryson looked at the sparse crowd on the benches and couldn't help but ask Ansel, "Are we late?"
Ansel didn't care much: "Handerson is selecting members of the wolf hunting team. Basically, all families with strong laborers have gone."
Because there are many forests in the mountain county, a large number of wild animals are also born, including wild boars, wolves, foxes, and even monsters.
Wild boars will overturn wheat, wolves will attack humans, foxes and minks will steal chickens and ducks, not to mention monsters.
Therefore, the knight will lead the wolf hunting team to hunt wild animals in the forest every year, and the people who accompany them can get 20%-30% of the wolf hunting income.
Therefore, there are a lot of fierce and good at fighting and archery people among the mountain people. There is a reason why they become mercenaries and serve as the source of the Molliati infantry.
However, the members of the wolf hunting team are about 20-40 people every year, and they are selected by the village head every year, so the villagers will naturally not let go of this opportunity.
Despite the temptation of salt, only 15 of the 22 mutual aid team members sent people, and many of them were fathers and brothers who went to Handerson's house and sent their younger brothers.
As for the rest, either they were too weak to participate in wolf hunting, or they had offended Handerson, and they would not get a position even if they went.
After learning the reason from Ansel, Bryson first slapped his forehead, then smiled self-deprecatingly. Sure enough, it is not so easy to break the convention and tradition.
"Okay, let's prepare, it's about to start."
The fifteen believers sat around in twos and threes. It was already early September, but they had already put on animal skin vests and woolen trousers.
Seeing Ansel walking up to the altar, they immediately fell silent and stopped discussing wolf hunting.
Clearing his throat, Ansel announced loudly to the fifteen believers:
"Fellow believers of the Holy Lord, our fellow Christians, at this moment, we gather in this simple but sacred church, not because of the cold outside, but because of the call of the Holy Lord, the enthusiasm in our hearts.
Perhaps only a few people are present today, but as the scriptures say: Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them.
The Holy Lord does not judge our piety by the number of people, but values our inner faith and actions.
However, today I not only want to share the word of the Lord with you, but also have a message to notify everyone.
Have you seen the wool behind me? I have been wandering around the village recently and found that almost every household has a spinning wheel.
It is a pity that every year they can only borrow and buy wool from armed farmers to weave cloth and make clothes, and they are idle for most of the year, which is a pity."
Speaking of this, Ansel changed his tone: "You obviously have the technology and tools for weaving, but you can only nest here and not exchange for wealth. Our Holy Path Sect has always believed that labor creates value and exchange creates wealth.
You have labor and technology, but no capital, and I happen to have capital. I wonder if we can use the processing with supplied materials model to exchange for wealth?
Winter is coming, and the superior monastery has bought a lot of wool. I have extracted a part of it and want to give it to you to spin into yarn, and then transport it out for sale.
For every pound of yarn you spin, I will buy it at half a dinar for less than 18 counts, and three-quarters of a dinar for more than 18 counts."
The so-called yarn count is the thickness of the wool yarn. According to the definition of the empire, one pound of wool spun into 840 yards of yarn is called 1 count, and 10 840 yards of yarn is called 10 counts.
That is to say, the higher the count, the finer the spun yarn.
Generally, 18 counts are used as the boundary. Above it can be made into thick Kras cloth, used for jackets or robes, and below it can only be made into blankets and the thickest winter wool pants.
Of course, there are more advanced 28 counts or even 58 counts and above. The high-end fabrics woven from 58 counts of yarn are mostly used as underwear and close-fitting shirts for nobles.
That's not something that can be spun out by a hand spinning wheel.
The limit for a household hand spinning wheel used in rural areas is 30 counts of yarn, and even Horn's Starforged Gear cannot spin out more than 58 counts of cloth due to unstable efficiency and mechanical structure problems.
Seeing that the mountain people below were still stunned and didn't understand, Bryson couldn't help but explain: "Friar Ansel is giving you wool for free. Your wife at home spins yarn with a hand spinning wheel all day long. If it's bad, he will exchange it for half a dinar, and if it's good, he will add another 50%. Do you understand?
"Oh, oh, oh."
"Why didn't you say that earlier?"
"Friar Ansel is also, why do you always do so much cultural papermaking?"
The mountain people suddenly realized, but after realizing it, the enthusiastic speeches that Ansel expected did not appear. Instead, they began to talk in low voices.
After they chatted privately for a long time, one of them was finally recommended.
He stood up awkwardly: "You spend money to buy wool and give it to us for free to spin yarn, and then give it to us for free to buy it back. How can this be possible?"
For these mountain people, the transportation cost of buying wool from other places is a lot of money, and how to sell it after spinning it into yarn is a big trouble.
Every time, whether it's buying or selling, merchants will **** them hard. Obviously, it's a bit of a loss to have a clear price like Ansel and even no cost risk.
It's just that autumn has arrived, and winter is hard to endure. They do need more income, but it's difficult to go against their will to lower prices or refuse.
Ansel quickly waved his hand: "You don't have to be embarrassed. This is what I should do. This is my political achievement."
Speaking of this, Ansel was also embarrassed, because according to the calculation of the Gospel Court Commercial Division, the cost of wool should account for about 35% of the total cost of manufacturing woolen cloth.
The purchase price of wool that Ansel got was 1.1 dinars per pound of wool. In other words, the cost of converting each pound of wool into cloth should be about 3.1 dinars.
Ansel only took out 0.5-0.75 dinars from the cost as processing fee, and there were at least 1.2-1.3 dinars of transportation costs and losses. In the end, only 0.05 dinars fell on the workers of the Holy Machine Court's Holy Loom.
But the problem is that the gear looms of the Holy Machine Court are very efficient. A rural spinner can spin 9 pounds of yarn in 10 days, and the scroll loom can weave this 9 pounds of yarn in one hour.
The efficiency of the scroll loom driven by the rotating holy machine is 40 times that of the manual loom.
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A rural spinner earns 0.5 dinars a day for weaving cloth, while a worker in the Holy Machine Court weaving workshop earns 0.5 dinars an hour (actual daily salary is 3 dinars).
A 12-yard long and 1-yard wide Kras cloth sells for 27 dinars, uses 7.2 pounds of wool, and has a total cost of 22.3 dinars.
Horn directly puts it on the market. After deducting miscellaneous expenses, each cloth has at least 4 dinars of net income.
But Horn will not do this, because a Kras cloth jacket uses 2-3 yards of material, costs 6.75 dinars, but sells for 12-14 dinars.
According to the experience of Jeshka's wife, the female merchant Isode, in supplying ready-made military uniforms to the army, Horn has successively established several assembly line workbenches in the Joan of Arc Fortress industrial area.
He is confident that he can reduce the production cost of each ready-made jacket to 1 dinar, and can also reduce the selling price of each garment to less than 10 dinars, so that he can earn a net income of 10 dinars before and after each cloth.
As for the guilds of Joan of Arc Fortress, sorry, the craftsmen in the city are under your control, but the industrial area is outside the city, which is the territory of the Salvation Army.
He spent 4000 gold pounds to buy 4000 dan(担: A unit of dry measure for grain, equal to 100 liters) of wool, distributed it from the Gravel Plains to the spinners in the Hundred Households area of South Mande County to spin it into yarn, transported it to North County, then sent it to the Holy Machine Court to weave it into cloth, and finally went down the river to Joan of Arc Fortress to become ready-made clothes.
Finally, these ready-made clothes will be transported in all directions along the Nauan River.
4000 dan(担: A unit of dry measure for grain, equal to 100 liters) of wool is equivalent to 56000 pieces of cloth. If it is processed into clothing and hats and sold, it can earn about 4660 gold pounds.
In fact, if the canal in South Mande County can be opened, the transportation and loss costs can be reduced again. If Horn transfers the yarn spinning process to the machinery of the Holy Machine Court, the profit can be increased again.
However, Horn does not intend to do this. Profit is not the goal but the means. The goal is to revitalize the economy of Thousand Rivers Valley.
Through yarn spinning, the mountain people of South Mande County can earn about 15 dinars more per month, at least it will not be so difficult during the reform pain period of the four-field rotation.
Ansel and they said a hundred times that the Holy Path Sect is free and equal, and the trust they win is not as good as actually increasing a little income.
This effect is better than Horn's evangelism.
And there is a huge benefit, that is, when Horn announces the dredging of rivers and the construction of canals in the future, he will say: "The canal is open, and the processing fee will be increased by 20%. Who agrees and who opposes."
Not to mention Handerson, even the county governor will have no say.
When recruiting labor at that time, both the enthusiasm for work and the opposition from the people will be much smaller, because they are not only working for Horn, but also for themselves.
Just like Langsand County was able to have a good harvest last year, it was because each hundred households area built and repaired a large number of water conservancy irrigation facilities at extremely low labor costs, and the efficiency of collective labor was also improved.
It's a pity that the mountain people still didn't understand Ansel's explanation, so they had to rely on Bryson to translate: "The wool was bought by His Majesty the Holy Grandson. There are not enough craftsmen in the city. Let you help. If you do well, Friar Ansel will be appreciated and become an archbishop, do you understand?"
As soon as they said this, the mountain people understood. They would earn less money in exchange for political achievements, so they immediately patted their chests and guaranteed: "Don't worry, you are a good person. You are much better than that Urisen as a bishop."
Squatting on the ground or sitting on stools, these mountain people rubbed their hands, and the heat in their eyes was about to ignite the wool piled in the corner.
These farmers are the poorest in the manor. They don't have a few dinars of surplus all year round.
The hand spinning wheels in their homes are left to accumulate dust. On weekdays, they pick some hemp and flax and make some clothes for themselves.
But now their own agricultural income is not affected, and the wives and daughters in the family who cannot do heavy work can just spin yarn.
One person can spin 0.9 pounds of yarn a day, and 30 days a month can bring in a little less than 15 dinars of income, which is more than 1 gold pound a year. Who wouldn't be envious?
"But Friar Ansel," a villager stood up, "we usually have other things to do at home, such as threshing, harvesting, repairing houses and wolf hunting, and housework. It seems that we don't have time."
As soon as the villager said this, Bryson, who was still nodding and smiling, was stunned.
Yes, these villagers have a lot of work to do throughout the year. In spring, they have to sow seeds and make wine, in summer, they have to plow, cultivate and harvest, and in autumn, they have to thresh, chop wood and hunt wolves. Only in winter do they have leisure.
It's no wonder that the mountain people have an average of alcoholism and gambling. In the long and gloomy winter, their cheapest and most nerve-numbing entertainment is only alcohol.
These agricultural activities often require the whole family to work together, and women and children are not idle. Where do they get the time to spin yarn?
In the worried and solemn eyes of everyone, Ansel smiled: "Why don't we have time? If we don't have time, where do we get the time to gather here?"
Looking around, Ansel spread his arms and spread his hands and said: "Don't we have our mutual aid team? You say, our farmer mutual aid team can't always be called that, what should we call it?"