industrial lord

Chapter 597 Obstacles that must be overcome
The structure of the Southern Fruit Company was no different from that of the large companies in the Principality of Wessen, and after the promotion of Waldemar, there were basically no major problems.

The company's work is satisfactory. Although there are some flaws, they are within controllable range.

Frederick was very satisfied and did not give any further instructions except asking them to report a work briefing to shareholders every month and a detailed progress report every three months.

Maria and everyone in the company breathed a sigh of relief that they had finally passed.

"I knew you would be fine." Susan said as she arranged her winning pajamas. "Don't you know him? As long as there are no problems with principles, it's fine. Mistakes are inevitable, just correct them."

Maria sat on the sofa, patted her chest and said, "You don't know, he always has a stern face these days, which scares me to death."

Susan covered her mouth and laughed, "I thought you were playing some game."

Maria looked at the pajamas. It was more like a fishing net than a pajamas. It was strung with gold beads and various gems, and had only some key concealing functions.

"You are the one playing games," she said to Susan. "The carpenter came to fix the bed this morning."

Susan blushed slightly.

In the past, Frederick was only slightly affectionate with her because she was young.

She is sixteen years old this year. A few days ago, she put on her winning pajamas and went to Frederick's bedroom.

Susan said to Maria, "When it's your turn, you need to get an iron bed. The wooden bed will definitely collapse."

Maria blushed and started to play with Susan.

At this time, Frederick was in a fishing port on the seashore of Cyclops Island. This stretch of the coast was covered with cliffs, and there was a sandy beach of more than 200 meters between the cliffs. The local landlords built several villas on the edge of the cliffs and rented them out to tourists.

Now the Grand Duke of Mainz and the Grand Duke of Bavaria live here. They go fishing, play chess, and take walks every day, leading a leisurely life.

After Frederick arranged the matters of the Southern Fruit Company, he came to see the two of them. Unexpectedly, they ended up chatting about an extremely interesting topic.

Serfs were a group that occupied a major position in agricultural production in the north.

Serfs were attached to the landlord's manor and had no freedom in life. For example, without the lord's permission, they could not leave the territory or village permanently, marry, change their occupations, or dispose of their property.

But in return, they were protected by their lords.

In literary works, stray dogs are often used to describe free people, while serfs are domestic animals.

Although stray dogs are free, there is no "animal protection" here, so they need to bear the social risks themselves.

Although the livestock worked hard, they were at least safe in the territory, and the lord did not want others to harm his property.

Freemen could become serfs due to bankruptcy and other reasons.

Serfs could only become free men through liberation, redemption, or escape from their lords.

In today's society, such production relations are adapted to current productivity.

Due to food problems in the territory and the need to win over allies, Frederick distributed part of his light industry to the Duchy of Mainz and the Duchy of Bavaria, and at the same time exported large quantities of agricultural machinery, fertilizers and improved seeds. Now their industrial and agricultural development began to encounter the obstacle of serfdom.

The use of agricultural machinery not only improved production efficiency and reduced the demand for agricultural population, but also broke the original strip-field system, where each serf had one strip of land, making agricultural machinery useless.

At the same time, newly built factories required a large number of workers, but serfs were bound to the land and could not become workers at will.

In the new territories that Frederick had occupied over the past decade, the serfs had been liberated by him and became freemen. One of the causes of the trade war a few years ago was that a large number of serfs from the Duchy of Franconia and the Regens Union fled to the Duchy of Wessen and became freemen.

Hoffmann, a famous factory owner in Weissenburg, was a member of a former serf family. His sister was favored by Old Birch and bought her freedom and married. In the beginning, he was able to temporarily buy his freedom by paying extra taxes and keeping his parents on the farm.

Frederick had the foresight to solve this problem at the outset.

The Duchy of Mainz and the Duchy of Bavaria could not copy the answer, because the Duchy of Wessen only had one big landowner, Frederick, and these two traditional duchies had a large number of vassals, and the feudal lords could not give orders for their internal affairs.

This was an issue that shook the foundations of feudal rule. The two did not dare to discuss it in the country, so they took the opportunity to go abroad to discuss it.

Now that Frederick has returned from the north, it would be a good opportunity to capture him and discuss things together.

Frederick was silent for a long time. He had been thinking about this question for many years, but he didn't expect that it was these two who raised it.

"This problem is very dangerous," Frederick said, looking at the sea. "If it is not handled properly, there will be a war."

Archduke Mainz frowned and asked, "Is it so serious?"

Frederick nodded.

The Archduke of Bavaria took a breath of sea breeze. With Frederick's talent in war, no one dared not believe his predictions about the war.

After organizing his thoughts, Frederick said, "I have a theory that can explain this problem, but it has not been published yet."

“This theory has two core concepts, namely productivity and production relations.”

He studied the history of this place and found that magic was mainly used in wars. Even though the predecessors used it for production, it was short-lived due to cost-effectiveness and did not lead to qualitative changes, so it did not play a big role in the development of productivity.

Correspondingly, those with extraordinary powers were absorbed into the landlord class, and force and wealth were combined.

Therefore, he used history as the background and described in simple and easy-to-understand language what productivity and production relations are and what kind of relationship they have.

The Grand Duke of Mainz and the Grand Duke of Bavaria had no previous knowledge of this subject, but they suddenly understood after Frederick talked about the example of the serfs at that time.

"I understand a little bit now." Archduke Bavaria used a familiar example to explain Frederick's theory, "Just like the development of war techniques has led to changes in the structure of the army."

"In the past, there was no time for multiple people to work together to cast spells. Magicians could only cast spells alone."

"At that time, many magicians had a small attack range and a short distance. Before the battle, a magic battle would be conducted first, so the magic team was placed at the front of the queue."

"Later, the technique of multi-person collaborative spellcasting was developed, which could gather the strength of an entire mage company, and the power and distance of the spell became even greater."

"At this time, the magician's mission on the battlefield changed from pure offense to taking into account both offense and defense. His position in the army also began to move back to avoid being exposed to direct attacks from the enemy."

"Now that the new weapons you invented are widely used, the original standing army formation has changed to lying on the ground to reduce the number of scattered soldiers attacked. The role of magicians has also gradually changed to using magic weapons."

"If the military formation cannot keep up with the development, and the ancient military formation faces new tactics, there will be a massacre."

Frederick nodded and said, "That's what I mean."

"So the social structure, like the military formation, must change."

(End of this chapter)