Naturally, the development direction of the island cannot be planned by Lawrence alone, and the importance of having a reliable retainer group became highlighted at this time. Especially the members of this retainer group have managed the fief before. So before entering the meeting
After a few simple greetings in the room, Lawrence and the others immediately started discussing the future development of the island.
Although everyone had done their homework before arriving, compared with the box of replicas of the island archives taken from the Imperial Archives that Lawrence now placed on the table, the homework they had done before seemed too rough.
.So after spending a day looking at the entire file, the next day, everyone in the conference room looked different.
"This island is really confusing." Steward Bayer was the first to speak at the meeting. "If it's bad, we can find a lot of reasons. For example, it's far away from the normal route, and there are no precious minerals or valuables.
There are not many animal and plant resources, conventional minerals, and even a small population. The only thing that is abundant are those disgusting goblins."
"But there are many good things about it. For example, the water and heat conditions on the island are good, and the land is relatively fertile. The relationship between the immigrants and the indigenous people on the island is very good, and their characters are relatively down-to-earth and willing.
So if we want to develop, I think it would be more appropriate for us to start with the planting industry."
Unlike most time travellers, who start to engage in industry once they cross over, Lawrence's plan is to develop agriculture. It's not that he doesn't know the importance of industry in this era, but the problem is that there are only more than 800,000 people in this area of more than 60,000 square kilometers.
There is simply no potential for industrial development on this small human island.
The development of industry cannot be achieved in a vacuum. It needs to meet many conditions. For example, it requires sufficient technology, sufficient human resources, sufficient raw materials and resources, a vast market, and convenient transportation. But in this case, Lawrence
The island they named New Sauer could not meet any of these conditions.
The education level on this island is limited to universal literacy and lower primary school education. There are only two schools on the island that combine upper primary school and junior high school. Therefore, if the people on the island want to receive a better education, they must go to other islands or the New World.
Only then. But even so, the education level of this island is among the best among all the islands in the Star Sea. But this alone cannot support industry.
As mentioned earlier, in terms of manpower and raw materials, they are all very poor. There are indeed several coal mines, iron ores and copper mines on the island, but the reserves are very small. If it is just used normally, it can last for a long time, but if you rely on these mineral resources
If we develop industry, it is estimated that we will need to import raw materials from other places in just six or seven years.
Considering that the industries in this era are mainly steel, machinery manufacturing, chemicals or textile industries, there is definitely no way to meet industrial development by relying on imported raw materials.
The most important thing is that the island is located on the Sea of Stars. Whether it is the White Eagle Federation, the New Island Republic or Elysium, they are all industrialized countries that are ranked high in the world. In this case, Lawrence feels very
Maybe the things they produce cannot compete with those of big countries.
After all, one of the characteristics of industrial production is that the larger the scale, the lower the cost. For example, Lawrence can only build a small factory on the island. And the cost of producing things in this type of factory is likely to be more expensive than the selling price of similar products on the island.
As for the final transportation, although it is more convenient to communicate as an island with a natural harbor. However, the dense island area and main waterways far away from the Star Sea greatly reduce this advantage. According to the content shown in the report, this island has
Apart from the half-monthly liner, there are only about 20 merchant or passenger ships that enter the port every year that have to choose to come to this island to take shelter due to the bad weather.
Regarding the industry and handicrafts on this island, Lawrence felt that the only thing worth paying attention to was the information that said that among the earliest immigrants on the island, there were a group of metal craftsmen who were exiled to work for smugglers, so there were many copper and blacksmiths with good skills from generation to generation.
According to inheritance, they also produce copper and iron utensils, which are one of the few products on the island that can be exported.
However, due to the development of industry, this handicraft industry is slowly disappearing. According to the archives, the business of the craftsmen on the island is much more difficult than in the past, so that they have to rely on planting and breeding to maintain their business.
.
So Lawrence decided to wait until he arrived on the island, and he would outsource part of the lighter casing engraving work in his factory to them to help them out of trouble. Anyway, for luxury goods, handwork is the embodiment of quality, and small things like lighter casings
It won’t take up much transportation capacity, and there won’t be too much additional expenditure.
This can also make up for the current shortage of mid-range products in our own factory. After all, skilled craftsmen must first meet the production of high-end products, and low-end plain lighters can be made by ordinary workers. The result of this is to face
The production of lighters with carved copper shells or carved steel shells among the middle class and skilled workers is obviously insufficient.
Saifei specially telegraphed Lawrence two days ago because of this matter. According to her, he has seen a lot of counterfeit products coming out of God knows where in Eagle Castle, and the output of these counterfeit products cannot be exceeded.
Most of the mid-range products meet the demand. Therefore, he hopes that Lawrence can quickly make up for this shortcoming and not let others make all the money.
Just when Lawrence was thinking about his own business, his thoughts were interrupted by the louder and louder voices of the retainers. After listening to the content of their argument for a few minutes, Lawrence stretched out his right index finger and tapped the table. In an instant, all the retainers
Everyone became quiet.
"I already know the content of your quarrel. You are just arguing about the location of the first piece of land we opened up after arriving on the island, right?" Seeing all the retainers closing their mouths and staring at him, Lawrence coughed lightly and said.
"Please tell me the specific conditions of the two alternative locations first, Butler Bayer, you go first."
"I support opening up territory in the mangrove beach." Steward Bayer said after being named by Lawrence. "Because although the mangrove beach is small, only about 25 square kilometers, there are several freshwater streams here that can be used.
The land is good for irrigation. At the same time, the woods around this territory are not very dense, so we don’t have to worry too much about goblin attacks.”
"The most important thing is that there is an island five or six kilometers away from the coastline of Mangrove Beach, which can provide shelter for this beach. There is no need to worry about the invasion of bad weather."
"Very good, these reasons all sound quite reasonable." Lawrence nodded, then looked at Deputy Butler Irving on the other side and asked, "Then what do you think is the reason for going to Niujiao Bay to expand territory?"
"Because if this place is developed, it will cover more than 2,000 square kilometers, which is the largest of the coastal plains. At least 1,500 square kilometers of it can be used for farming. At the same time, the overall terrain of this place is relatively high, and there is also a small peninsula.
Block the front. You don’t have to worry about some bad weather attacks. The most important thing is that there is a river with a large flow on the edge of this land. It can not only provide protection for this land, but also allow ships of about 150 tons to pass directly upstream.
The location is more than 70 kilometers inside the island.”
"In that case, why not choose this land?" Lawrence frowned, "The conditions in Egret Bay are obviously much better than those in Mangrove Beach."
"Actually, if you look at the map, everyone will choose this way." Butler Bayer said with a somewhat helpless look. "And people have gone there before us, and even built towns there twice."
"But the map doesn't show any residential area where people once lived here." Lawrence once again held the island map in front of his eyes and searched carefully, but he didn't see the red dot representing the residential area at that location on the map.
"Because all those settlements disappeared because they couldn't hold on." Steward Bayer said, taking out a yellowed and broken-looking document from the pile of documents in front of him. "It's also because I saw this document yesterday.
That’s why we object to using this place as our first target location for development.”
"Let me take a look." Lawrence said, reaching out and taking the handed document, and then slowly flipped through it. The conference room suddenly became quiet, and everyone focused on Lawrence.