British hegemon

Chapter 79 Farming and Management

Roger quickly coughed twice. This habitual thief was probably about to start teaching him skills. "Listen, starting today, in addition to your original job, you'll also help me gather the following information."

"The primary concern is any recent news about Earl Robert Bruce of Carrick. For example, is his family's army being mobilized? Is his estate stockpiling food and manufacturing weapons? Are their allies maintaining close contact, and so on."

"Secondly, it concerns the movements of the English army or the Scottish pro-British lords' forces. For example, have the English troops amassed? Which castles have they captured? Are there any signs of attack or retreat, etc."

"Thirdly, news about the bankruptcy and closure of textile workshops or other workshops in various places must be sent quickly. I am currently recruiting all kinds of excellent craftsmen, and if I wait too long, they will be snatched up by others."

"You also need to make a living, so I won't let you work for nothing. Bring me back the three types of information mentioned above, and I will pay you a reward of one penny to one shilling for each piece of information, depending on its usefulness, with no upper limit. But it must be useful and up-to-date information; don't try to fool me with outdated stuff."

"As for other information, you can also inquire about it and let me know. If it's useful, I'll reward you."

Gray Rat had no concept of selling information. After hearing Roger's words, he was stunned. He never expected that he could get paid for asking around like a big-mouthed woman.

However, Grey Mouse had some questions. He could understand Roger collecting news of the workshop's bankruptcy, since the news of the new textile workshop opening outside the town had already spread; he could also understand collecting information on the movements of the English army, after all, the Campbell family went out to fight a battle every year, and Roger's father and brothers had both died at the hands of pro-English lords.

But he didn't understand why Roger would care about the Bruce family; it seemed the two families had no connection. "Lord Roger, I can understand other news, but why are you spending money to inquire about Earl Carrick?"

"It's nothing. I'm just curious about this family and think that Earl Carrick might be able to achieve something great." Roger's words weren't entirely untrue.

Grey Rat, however, looked disdainful. "Lord Roger, you're going to be disappointed. The Bruce family is no benevolent family. They sometimes support the Scottish guerrillas fighting against the English lords, and sometimes they turn to their English masters."

"If the Bruce family hadn't betrayed us at the last minute, my father wouldn't have died in Falkirk."

Roger never imagined that Gray Rat's father was actually a warrior who died fighting against England.

Of course, he could also just be cannon fodder who was captured and forced into labor.

"Well, that family might not be very respectable, but I'm still interested." Roger didn't intend to explain further. Instead, he took out a small handful of silver pennies, about twenty, from his purse and handed them to Gray Rat. "This is a deposit. Tomorrow, Baldy and Ponytail are going to El County to recruit craftsmen. You'll be going with them by boat. I'll be waiting for your news."

............

Early the next morning, the recruitment team set off from Ramrush. The team consisted of a bald man, a man with a ponytail, a sailor named Tolan, an old fisherman, a henchman, and an unofficial intelligence agent, a habitual thief named Gray Rat. They left the island with three pounds of funds in their ship, Noor.

Roger originally planned to have the more reliable Olaf lead the trip, but considering that Olaf was still a wanted criminal on the mainland, he had to abandon the plan.

Aside from the gray rats, the team's mission for the next four days was to recruit artisans and skilled workers in places like El and Carrick along the west coast.

The main focus was on dyeing craftsmen, spinning workers, weaving workers, as well as blacksmiths, builders, bricklayers, and carpenters. Secondary workers included tanners, sewing workers, potters, miners, and salt workers. If craftsmen could be recruited, they would be recruited; if not, apprentices would be recruited.

Anyone with a skill was brought aboard the Nor ship and taken back to Arun Island.

Roger is currently expanding the salt-making workshop and rebuilding the textile workshop, which requires human resources. At the same time, Roger is also building up his pool of technical talent. He knows that not all those people brought in by Baldy's silver tongue will be willing to stay, but there will always be one or two slightly less capable people out of ten who will condescend to serve him.

This was a big deal for Milk House Manor, so while sending Baldy, Roger also sent a more composed girl with a ponytail to accompany him, just in case this talkative guy caused any trouble.

The night before the bald man with the ponytail left with the money and his team, Roger convened a council meeting in the main hall on the first floor of Milk House Manor. The topic of the meeting was the development and prosperity of Milk House Manor.

The Milk House Manor's business development currently focuses solely on agriculture and handicrafts.

Agriculture is the foundation of business, so Roger should bring about some agricultural technological revolution, or at least some technological innovation.

Unfortunately, he was simply not cut out for agricultural technology.

He proposed agricultural techniques such as composting to nourish the soil and selecting superior seeds with water, and discovered that the Milk House Manor already had these techniques. As the lord, he exclusively enjoyed most of the manure resources of the Milk House Manor.

However, his suggestion to send a ship to Elsa Rock to transport bird droppings for fertilizer was unanimously praised by everyone.

They immediately arranged for fishing boats to go to Elsa Rock Island to collect bird droppings.

Then he thought of trying to make a set of curved plows based on his rudimentary knowledge from his previous life to solve the problem of production tools. However, after he gave several open descriptions, the lean head of the village rejected his idea because the land on Arun Island was not those soft, fertile fields, and such things were simply not suitable for the soil here.

Finally, Roger, having learned about the operation of the manor, proposed encouraging all the residents of Milk House Manor to freely cultivate the uncultivated wasteland around the manor, provided that it did not affect their obligations to Boone. For the first three years, only a symbolic tax of one penny per acre would be collected, and after three years, only a rent of six pennies per acre would be collected.

Five years later, the ownership of the land reclaimed will be determined according to the following system: four for free people, six for lords, and two for non-free people, eight for lords.

Under this policy, serfs who received ten acres of cultivated land could become independent farmers.

Arran Island has scarce arable land, so this policy could incentivize its inhabitants to cultivate wasteland. After all, it's just making a fuss on their own land, so this kind of reform is worth a try.

Bitterface accepted the suggestion and proposed that the tax on serfs reclaiming wasteland should be doubled, which Roger agreed to.

Ultimately, Arun Island has poor arable land and limited room for development.

Since there weren't many solutions for agriculture at the moment, Roger decided to focus on the handicraft industry, mainly on expanding the salt-making workshops on the sea salt flats.

It was late September, and the winter wheat in the Milk House Manor was about to be planted, and the cattle and sheep were about to be moved to other pastures. Therefore, the people of the Milk House Manor could not be mobilized to perform labor for the lord. However, after some maneuvering, the Bitter Gourd Face still managed to mobilize ten tenant farmers and serfs to participate in the expansion of the salt-making workshop.

Bitter Gourd Face himself handed over the autumn plowing task to that lean village head and devoted himself to the work on the sea salt flats.

With the addition of the man with the sour face, things became much easier.

With the assistance of an experienced surveyor on Arun Island, Bitterface led two laborers to dig pits and survey the terrain around Peat Bay on Holly Island in search of a suitable site for building a factory.

Black Dog led a laborer to drive a wagon and distribute the ordinary iron materials brought back from the south to the blacksmiths scattered throughout the villages and manors of Arun Island. These two blacksmith shops were responsible for making iron nails for building workshops, and the other two blacksmith shops were responsible for forging the rectangular flat shallow pots that Roger had envisioned.

Olaf went to Holly Island to command six captured "pirates" to find a rocky slope to quarry stone for future use.

Mann led the manor carpenters and six laborers into the Milk House Manor to cut timber in the Gort Hill forest, and then transported it by sea to Holly Island for later use.

The young horseman followed Roger to two sea salt processing workshops on the salt flats to study improvements to the refined salt production process.

Roger needed to finalize the saltworks' operations before the tournament on Arran Island began, so he could focus on his next, more important project...

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