Chapter 709 Changes on the West Coast
“I don’t expect your understanding! But please believe that I must have a reason to do this.”
In the reception room of the palace, Rodney Shiba said to everyone with a guilty face, "As for the reason, it is not convenient to disclose it for the time being."
The people sitting here are Paul, Catherine, and Mai, who has been staying with the king as a member of the Special Zone Management Committee. Ron Gardner.
"Your Majesty, will this be the end between us and the orcs?" Paul asked him.
After stabilizing the situation in the northwest, Paul and Catherine rushed to Jingyao at the urging of the king. Rodney XVIII wanted to provide him with a knighthood ceremony.
"Of course it won't end here! Five years!" Rodney XVIII frowned tightly and opened his palms. "In five years at most, Aldo's army will stand guard again. "
The king was categorical when he said this. The humiliating peace treaty with the orcs had dealt a major blow to his prestige. Rodney Eighteen now felt like he was sitting on a volcano every moment. Orally.
"I want to organize an army!" He clenched his fists and waved them in the air.
“The Army of Arda is a good template!” The king looked at Paul eagerly, “I have learned in detail about the specific process of your battle with the Orcs, and I have to say that the Army of Arda served as a ballast stone. Role, your subordinates are worthy of emulation by all armies in the kingdom.”
Paul nodded slightly, "I am deeply honored to receive such praise from Your Majesty."
"But I also understand that it takes a lot of money to support an army like Arda, even if we have For military tickets, we also need matching redeemable supplies.”
Rodney Eighteen turned his attention to Mellon.
“So our reforms cannot be limited to small issues in the special zone, but must be rolled out comprehensively, throughout the entire royal territory, and even in other territories loyal to the royal family.”
Mailon stood up and said, "Your Majesty, I will do my best."
Paul thought to himself that it looked like he and the king were getting along well.
The Special Economic Zone centered on Sihanoukville has been operating well since its establishment. The management committee has established many workshops based on the Northwest Bay model.
Paper making, sun salt, wood processing, coke burning...
In fact, except for a few new industries, many industries have existed in Aldo for hundreds or even thousands of years, but they are all It exists in the form of scattered small workshops and handmade products.
The Special Zone Management Committee introduced new organizational forms, new production technologies, and so-called "standardization" from the West Bay, thereby establishing large-scale production units such as "factories." The most important of these is the textile industry. The high efficiency of the spinning jenny and the flying shuttle loom has attracted a large number of wealthy people to join this industry. With huge amounts of private capital investment, textile factories have sprung up one after another. Since then, the abundant water power in the south of the kingdom has provided continuous power for the machines in the factory.
These factories attracted a large number of practitioners to make a living. In the lower class before Aldo, the number of workers (artisans) could be said to be negligible compared to the huge group of farmers, but now this is starting to happen Change.
The traditional Aldo city can only be said to be a commodity distribution center for the surrounding rural areas. Most of the materials in the city rely on the supply of the surrounding rural areas. The number of citizens is also very small. Many cities only have a population of 10,000 or 20,000, but in This situation also changed in special economic zones, where cities grew larger as workers gathered.
The rise of new industries has turned cities into goods production centers in addition to commodity distribution centers. To put it ruthlessly, the handicraft workshops scattered in the countryside were destroyed by the factories in the cities, and the countryside was completely reduced to a mere Raw material supply place.
Bankrupt rural handicraftsmen had to move to the city to find another way to make a living, and factory owners who suffered from labor shortages welcomed their arrival. This was especially obvious in the textile industry.
The rise of the textile industry had another huge impact, because the demand for raw materials—cotton and wool—was so huge that prices for both soared.
Cotton is particularly worth mentioning because the cotton gin invented in the Northwest Bay was also brought to the south. The main body of this powerful machine is a cylinder with a large number of steel teeth installed on the wall of the cylinder, which rotates in the cylinder. At this time, the steel teeth forcibly tear the cotton lint from the cotton seeds, use centrifugal force to filter out the cotton seeds, and throw out the cotton fibers. Driven by water power, one person operating the cotton gin can separate more cotton in a single day than the previous manual work in several months. It is also easy to operate, and only one person is needed to operate the machine. Not to mention it is picked cleaner than manual methods. .
The textile industry's strong demand for raw materials has led to huge changes in the surrounding agricultural production. Combined with the advanced agricultural technology and agricultural machinery also coming from the western bay, the demand for labor per unit of land has been greatly reduced. However, there is no excess wasteland for reclamation near the densely populated Royal Capital and Sihanoukville, thus prompting the rural population to further gather in the city.
The influx of a large population has put great pressure on the public facilities of the special zone. Because of its experimental nature, the royal government’s support for the special zone is limited. The committee had to entrust the Northwest Bank (created by the original Alda Council of Government Developed from banks) to issue bonds to obtain funds for the development of public facilities.
Roads, bridges, factories, dormitories, residences... New buildings are constantly under construction in the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone, and they look new every day.
The booming development of maritime trade has provided a market for goods in the special zone. Driven by the northwest bay, more and more coastal cities have joined in.
Through the continuous iteration of technology, the sailboats built in the Northwest Gulf are getting bigger and stronger, and can carry more and more cargo, which has effectively supported the growth of the trade chain.
The ever-growing trade chain starts from the Northwest Bay, extends to the north to the territories of the forest orcs such as the Quiet Liaoyuan, Lucky Forest, and Blackwater Basin, and to the south covers the entire west coast of Aldo, passing through the Horn Bay. Turning east, passing through the Asal subcontinent under the control of the Holy See, it continued to extend to the eastern end of the continent, and even connected with the land in the southeast of the continent where elves lived.
The trajectory of Aldo’s merchant ships is like a thread, connecting the civilizations of the continent that had little exchanges in the past. Centralized production and shipping with huge cargo capacity make Aldo’s products of high quality. The low price has impacted the backward local handicraft industry, but it has also been welcomed by more local people. When the merchant ships returned, they were also loaded with local specialties and culture.
Using trade as a bridge, the residents of Aldo's coastal cities have greatly broadened their horizons. Market culture is increasingly emerging, and the publishing industry has begun to develop rapidly, especially in the northwest bay where the literacy rate is increasing rapidly.
With the support of the paper industry and printing technology, not only novels, poems and other books appeared in large numbers, but newspapers, publications that mainly carried news and commentary on current affairs, were also invented by the private sector.