Volume 2 Chapter 50 - Labour shortage
Volume 2 Chapter 50Labour shortage
Of course chairman Pompeii was not dumb and the Fersen Carriage Company didn’t have money they wanted to waste.
He had raised this idea of a road connecting Banta City and Saltan City because the Frestech Chamber of Commerce investing in a road connecting Banta City to Karma City was a thing that everyone knew, there was even a public announcement from the City Lord’s Manor in the city square.
Regarding this matter, whether it was the newspapers in Banta City or Karma City, they all issued large amounts of reports on it. Even the newspapers in Anvilmar CIty had done a series on this.
From these reports, everyone had learned that after the Frestech Chamber of Commerce finished these roads, they would be establishing toll booths on these roads that would collect fees from all horse carriages using these roads.
On this point, most people didn’t care and a small portion turned their noses at it.
Was the Frestech Chamber of Commerce crazy? They actually wanted to make money on collecting toll fees?
They wanted money? It’s very simple, at best I won’t use that broken road.
Anyway this road was being built somewhere else, it wouldn’t affect the current road between Banta City and Karma City.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce wanted to use toll fees to collect the costs of building this road, this was simply wishful thinking.
But what other thought was not what chairman Pompeii thought.
As the chairman of the Fersen Carriage Company, he understood better than anyone how much a good road would affect the business of horse carriages.
Not mentioning anything else, the Fersen Chamber of Commerce spent as much as a hundred thousand to a hundred and fifty thousand each year on fixing horse carriages.
If they counted the costs that came from horse carriages running on bad roads, this number would reach close to two hundred thousand.
Chairman Pompeii had thought before that if each road in the Lampuri Kingdom was as smooth as the marble road in front of the Anvilmar City’s royal palace, then the Fersen Chamber of Commerce could save at least a hundred thousand gold coins in fixed costs.
Moreover, as the roads were improved, the speed of the horse carriages would be increased. People would have better journeys and the business of riding horse carriages would be much better.
But all these well wishes were nothing more than simple dreams.
The path in front of the royal palace was only five hundred meters long and ten meters wide, but because the materials used were the best marble blocks, which were carefully carved by the best stonemasons, it cost over seven hundred thousand gold coins to build.
If they wanted to turn all the roads in the Lampuri Kingdom into something similar, the amount of gold coins spent was something even the richest Candra Empire couldn’t support.
Chairman Pompeii had given up on this hope until he saw the road the Frestech Chamber of Commerce built.
Although compared to that smooth road in front of the royal palace, this public road was a bit lacking, but it was countless times better than those roads that were covered in pieces of rocks.
If chairman Pompeii had a choice, even if he had to pay a toll fee to use it, he would definitely have the Fersen Carriage Company’s horse carriages travel on this kind of road.
He was certain that even if the other companies couldn’t see the significance this road had, after comparing them, the other companies would also choose to drive their horse carriages over this road.
Ignoring the damage reduced to their products by going on a road like this, just based on the time saved, it was not something that a trivial toll fee could compare to.
So chairman Pompeii could instantly determine that something like collecting toll fees was definitely worth it.
So he immediately looked for Xu Yi and proposed his idea of building a road to Count Sean.
Of course, the most important factor in his decision was…..the price of building the road was low enough.
According to what Xu Yi said, the fifty seven kilometer road to the Falling Rain Valley cost no more than two hundred thousand gold coins.
As for the close to seventy kilometer road connecting Banta City to Karma City, it would cost around less than three hundred thousand gold coins.
Although Saltan City was a bit further from Banta City, according to their estimates, it wouldn’t cost more than four hundred thousand even if they used the materials. The Fersen Carriage Company could definitely accept this.
The most important thing was that when the other companies reacted, they would all begin building public roads. Not long after, all the roads in the Lampuri Kingdom would be replaced with public roads.
When that time comes, the ones who would profit the most would without a doubt be the Fersen Carriage Company who relied on the roads.
“Hei, that fellow Pompeii looks like his heart’s blooming with joy. He probably thinks that your Frestech Chamber of Commerce is doing everything to help his Fersen Carriage Company.” Chairman Cruise watched the changing scene outside the horse carriage before curling his lips and looking back at Xu Yi. He shook his head and said, “Actually he never would have thought that everything was according to your plan.”
Xu Yi didn’t look out the window and just casually patted his seat before saying with a smile, “You can’t say that it’s everything. Look, if all the roads of the Lampuri Kingdom are turned into smooth roads like this, at least it’ll be much more comfortable sitting in horse carriages.”
The horse carriage the two were in were traveling on the newly finished Falling Rain Road. Because of how smooth the road was, although the carriage kept traveling at a high speed, it was very stable. It wasn’t as uncomfortable as sitting in horse carriages traveling on gravel roads.
Chairman Cruise laughed as he nodded, “That’s right. To be honest, after traveling on these roads a few times, if you have me go back to going on those broken roads, I really can’t take it. Ai, I don’t know when the roads of the Lampuri Kingdom will all be turned into this kind of comfortable road.”
Xu Yi considered it a bit before saying, “It shouldn’t be too long. After this Falling Rain Road has been finished, the newspapers of the kingdom have been reporting on them and the royal family has been advertising it, so the entire Lampuri Kingdom should know of the benefits this road brings. Adding in the fact that the royal family is advertising the two roads being built by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and the Fersen Carriage Company, I believe the companies of the kingdom will understand the benefits of building roads. Not long soon, you will find that many people will be looking for your Amrit Chamber of Commerce to build roads.”
Chairman Cruise slightly knit his brows, “With our company’s current abilities, it takes all our strength to finish these two roads. If there are more people who want to build roads, we might not be able to do it.”
“Then are you willing to reveal the cement technology and let the other companies help you?”
Being teased by Xu Yi, chairman Cruise quickly shook his head without even thinking.
“Of course not. How about this, chairman Xu, with this opportunity, I will order another set of concrete machines from you. Other than that, I hope that you can develop the other road building magic machines, I’m in a rush to use them now.”
“The equipment is easy to say, but what about people?” Xu Yi asked back, “In Banta City right now, I think you shouldn’t be able to find enough people, right?”
Hearing Xu Yi mention manpower, chairman Cruise gave a long sigh and said with a bitter smile, “Speaking of this, I really don’t know whether to praise you or scold you?”
“Oh? What do you mean?” Xu Yi asked with a smile.
“Before your Frestech Chamber of Commerce appeared, there were idle people all over Banta City. If I gave a salary of three gold coins per month, there would be a large group of people willing to work. But now that your Frestech Chamber of Commerce has opened several new factories and have recruited over a thousand people, you also created this small company support plan, causing people to be recruiting all over Banta City. I wanted to hire some more people to fix the road, but can you guess what happened?”
“What? You couldn’t hire any people?” Xu Yi asked.
“It isn’t that I couldn’t hire any people, but for a job that does small work like flattening a road, they actually wanted a salary of seven gold coins a month! This is simply robbery!” Chairman Cruise indignantly said.
Xu Yi couldn’t help smiling, “Not bad, it’s only seven gold coins, it’s not that much. Our starting wage when hiring people is now ten gold coins per month.”
Chairman Cruise looked at Xu Yi, “Who dares compete with your Frestech Chamber of Commerce! You people have always been generous, it’s simply being a wastrel. But in the end, if it wasn’t for your Frestech Chamber of Commerce raising the wages so high, our companies wouldn’t have all this trouble.”
“I explained this to you last year. The increase in wages for workers is a result of economic development, it isn’t something that our Frestech Chamber of Commerce can change alone. With the current demand for workers in Banta City, even if our company didn’t increase it, there would be a company that increased the wages. Perhaps you don’t know, but there were some companies that wanted to poach our workers and they even offered a wage of twenty gold coins a month.” Xu Yi said.
“Twenty gold coins? Which company is crazier than you?” Chairman Cruise asked in surprise, “Weren’t your workers all poached away?”
“It wasn’t one company, it was many companies. As long as it’s a company that wants to produce magic machines like us, they will try to poach our workers. Perhaps they think that if they poach our workers, they will be the same as our company?” A sly smile flashed on Xu Yi’s face, “But it’s a good thing that most of our workers are dwarves, so they are quite loyal. So far, there are only a few human workers who have left, so the impact isn’t big.”
Chairman Cruise enviously looked at Xu Yi, “Why can’t I hire that many dwarves? Not only are dwarves strong and have good physiques, they can also suffer and have good craftsmanship, they are truly suited to being workers. Hey, Xu Yi, since you know that many dwarves, can you introduce some to our company? I promise to give them high wages! At least ten gold coins per month, how about it?”
“You shouldn’t ask me this, you should go ask the dwarves.” Xu Yi gave a shrug, pointing at the two mountains that had appeared outside the horse carriage window, “There are many dwarves currently living in the Falling Rain Valley. If you have the skills, recruit them to your company.”