European Financial Emperor

023 The Core of Power, Guns (2)

Joshua Rose worked non-stop as much as she had no compassion.

He opened up another question about the job.

“If we were to supply 30,000 firearms, we would have to have equivalent ammunition. How should we deal with that?”

“… … First of all, we need to build a new ammunition factory. Until now, people who made ammunition in the corner of the factory had to squat down and put gunpowder and warheads into cartridge casings and compress them with a manual compressor. to improve it.”

“Then it would be necessary to recruit engineers from France and Germany to build a factory, while also bringing in gunpowder and other chemicals from Amsterdam and deploying them.”

“Well, right?”

“The East Stellar Company I have identified is quite wealthy. However, there is no merchant ship or port to use to transport raw materials or deliver them vice versa. In other words, the infrastructure is too poor.”

Lee Hwan was also fully aware of the problem.

At present, the infrastructure necessary to operate the factory was absolutely insufficient, and human beings had to do everything by hand.

This problem was more serious than expected.

“okay. I think that’s a serious problem too.”

“So, I say to you, didn’t you just set up a construction company and unite carpenters, ironsmiths and architects from all over Europe?”

“Well, I did.”

“Then, why don’t you ask East Stella Construction to build the factory while instructing them to extensively develop the river in front of the factory?”

However, Lee Hwan also had similar thoughts.

However, it was the moment when I was worried because there was not enough people to oversee and carry out the work.

But I thought I might be able to take a breather now that I have people in charge of that.

Of course, I was worried that they would miss out on people’s backs too much.

“good. Choose from among those who followed you as managers and let them do the work yourself. The instructions will be given to me every morning.”

“Yes, I understand.”

“And again… … .”

Joshua seemed to torment Lee Hwan again.

Lee Hwan just listened to him with one ear and couldn’t let it out through the other, so he waved his hand.

“… … We’ll talk about the rest tomorrow.”

“Are you tired?”

“Yes, a little.”

“All right. Then go to sleep.”

As if he had no intention of resting at all, he continued to review the documents.

Lee Hwan wondered if he might be a machine.

On the afternoon of the day he landed in Rotterdam, Joshua and the construction manager Emile Rose came to him and asked for instructions.

I couldn’t explain it other than that it was a really great family.

“President, the carpenters said that if we were to develop a port, it would have to be more than a certain depth and breadth, but now it seems that the development itself is impossible.”

In the future, Lee Hwan was planning to develop the Rotterdam area as a base for East Stella, and for that, it was necessary to develop the land owned by East Stella as a port.

However, this area gave the impression that the river was too narrow to develop a port, so it was rather narrow to bring in ships of a certain size or more.

Lee Hwan decided to fully explain the part where Emile Rose sought guidance.

“okay. You might think so. But that’s a problem we can fully solve.”

Lee Hwan started drawing with charcoal on a notebook the size of his palm.

Emile, who was looking at the painting he was drawing, felt that the sketch was just making a canal.

“Isn’t this a canal?”

“Right. A dam is created by widening the riverbank and building a dam in the middle of the river. It is said that every summer in this area, the lowlands near our factory are flooded. For that reason, no private houses were built around this area.”

The Netherlands was originally a country where much of the land area was submerged in water, and canal technology has developed considerably.

Since the water near the East Stellar Company also fills up regularly every year, it was impossible to find any private houses at all.

Taken from readwn.com

More people will move into this area in the future, and Lee Hwan thought about how to accommodate them all.

The solution to that problem was simpler than I thought.

If Lee Hwan devised a way to control the water level, everything would have been easier than expected.

“If we develop riverbanks and build dams, we will be able to control the water level on our own. Anyway, in the upstream area of our factory, the water level of the river is high enough for a boat to float, so even if the water is blocked, the boat will be able to float to the vicinity of the factory. If you have a car, you can transship in the middle.”

“Ugh! There was a way!”

“And this dam will be a source of power for us in the future.”

“A power source?”

“I told you before. That’s where the power plant comes in. It needs a power source to turn it, doesn’t it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“After the dam is built, we use that fall to get power.”

“It’s a fall… … ?”

Not only Emile, but Joshua, who was next to him, also had a surprised expression on his face. Hopefully, it was not at all expected that the generator would be powered by hydraulic power.

However, this was a very natural reaction from the current paradigm.

“It’s about completely automating the factory by installing a generator that uses nature.”

“It’s an automated system!”

There is a difference between man-by-hand work and printing things based on an automated system using a generator.

If Lee Hwan perfectly devised a fully automatic system and tied the gun production itself to a uniform line, the production capacity would have been increased tenfold, or even tens of times.

However, the problem was that laying the foundation was not easy.

“It will not be an easy road. We will also have to recruit engineers who can generate and support electric power, and it will not be easy to build banks and dams on rivers. But once this system is complete, we will be making a ton of money.”

“Well, if these technologies are built properly, East Stellar Construction will be able to build a market on a scale that cannot even compete with French or British construction companies.”

“I think so too.”

A technology that is ahead of its time always makes money.

Emile Rose looked very excited.

“… … Hydroelectric power, I never really thought of it.”

“In fact, hydropower has been around for quite some time. Think of the time you turn the water wheel.”

“Ugh!”

“I just didn’t try to develop it. No, should I say that it was so obvious that I never thought of making a generator?”

“Also! The scale you think is different!”

“It was nothing.”

“Then I will pass on the boss’s instructions to the construction company and start the construction.”

“Please.”

Emil got excited and ran outside.

Then Emile and Treasurer Henry Rose came in, like a baton touch.

He inherited the bookkeeping style that Lee Hwan gave him, and he decided to start living in earnest from today, inheriting the framework of modern accounting.

If possible, Henry Rose would be in charge of the accounting firm in the future.

But from the first day of the game, what kind of complaints did Lee Hwan have with him?

The answer was fairly simple.

“Sir, it seems that the wage system needs to be improved a bit.”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Recently, wages across continental Europe have fallen, and only our company is paying almost double. This is nonsense.”

“Um, okay? I was going to raise my salary a little bit more.”

“… … Yes? That’s absurd. When paying wages, consideration should also be given to the wage situation in the industry. Do you know?”

Lee Hwan introduced a wage system that was not suitable for this era.

The plant was operated on an hourly basis and a system of bonuses and performance-based pay was established, such as bonuses when full work was completed in a month.

Even at the beginning of the 19th century, workers often lost their jobs due to the development of factory machinery, so wages were fairly low.

The industrial revolution occurred in Europe because it was cheaper for machines to work than for humans, so wages were cheap.

However, as time passed, a contradiction emerged in which workers were pushed to the machine and lost their jobs, so it was only natural for wages to fall.

At that time, Lee Hwan gave preferential treatment to craftsmen and paid workers who worked in factories a wage that could be said to be somewhat excessive.

“Now, let’s think about it. Let’s change our position and say that I only give you half of what you are currently getting. Are you willing to work hard?”

“We obey Prince Ben-Heren’s orders unconditionally. Reducing wages does not reduce efficiency.”

After speaking up, Lee Hwan wanted to miss it.

These people were not people who could communicate with a normal mind.

“Ah, I misunderstood the example. Normal people don’t perform well in harsh environments. Especially for companies like us that make gun parts by hand.”

“You said that before. However, didn’t we give them a three-shift work environment improvement?”

“okay. It did improve the working environment. But that doesn’t mean there’s no one who can afford to pay too low.”

After Lee Hwan raised his wages, the technicians used to compete to leave the factory even one minute late in order to work at the factory one more day, stampede from dawn.

Lee Hwan acted that way, knowing that it would be much more beneficial in the future to treat workers generously, even if he was slightly less profitable.

The Hana Rose family thought differently.

“If that’s what you’re thinking, it’s never a good idea to raise wages as steeply as they are now.”

“Isn’t that a good choice?”

“Originally, interest groups are aimed at creating goods. So it can attract investment. But if you look at the current structure of the company, you can see everything from paying employees wages.”

“You mean the maintenance cost is too high?”

“That’s right. Now that we can sell and sell 30,000 rifles, we can maintain our scale, but imagine if we get a bigger company and more employees than we are now.”

“Hmm.”

“If the jobs are reduced in such a situation, we will face a situation where we have to fire them. It is far more efficient to keep a reasonable wage line now than to go there and fire them in bulk.”

Hwan Lee, who studied business administration, also knew how important it was to control wages within an appropriate level.

However, I just thought that the current wage level was really outrageous and needed to be adjusted.

‘You have a sharp mind. If I had changed my position, I would have said the same thing if I had been in that position.’

Lee Hwan thought he was good at teaching Henry Rose to accounting.

“good. Adjust and increase your wages at the appropriate level that you have set. I will give you permission.”

“Thank you for your trust.”

“There is just one thing to keep in mind.”

“Just speak.”

“Let us prepare a wage system that will not be harmed by the aftermath of the civil revolution and labor movement sweeping Europe in recent years in France and England, and let us adjust the wage accordingly.”

“Yes, I understand. Then so… … .”

“Also, workers should not form unions. Outwardly or inwardly.”

Although Henry Rose is a capable man, he was also an old man with an old way of thinking.

Lee Hwan decided to evolve his mindset by training him strongly.

Lee Hwan, who had given the homework of coordinating labor and management in the line of limiting union formation as much as possible, immediately gave another instruction to the entire management team.

“Prepare to buy government bonds.”

“Soup?”