When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 1137 A Day Trip to the Cannery (Part 1)

After hearing Grossien's rather proud laugh, Kuvask was momentarily at a loss for words.

In any other place, a fishmonger like you daring to compare yourself to a bishop or priest would be quite a comparison, wouldn't it?

It's better if they don't hear it; if they do, they'll inevitably be hung from a tree and beaten.

But now, this Grossien is actually saying these words openly and honestly, while in a sober state.

Grossien dared to say that for a reason.

He has received the Order of Merit for Three Years of Fulfilled Taxes, awarded by His Holiness the Pope's grandson, His Holiness the Pope, and the Order of Merit for "Citizen Entrepreneur".

Above the title of "believer entrepreneur," there are other medals waiting for him to strive for, such as "missionary entrepreneur," "senior missionary entrepreneur," and "priest entrepreneur."

He wanted to see who would dare call him a stinky fishmonger again!

Follow Grossien forward; ahead lie two areas, one on the left and one on the right.

On the left is the factory surrounded by the High Court's walls, and on the right are the wooden houses where the workers live.

On the side of the residential buildings facing the street, there were also carriage shops, post offices, barbershops, and so on.

On the right side of the wall, he also saw a towering, tower-like building.

It was a huge cylindrical barrel made of wooden planks, almost like a small pond suspended in mid-air.

White steam mixed with the heavy smell of coal smoke in the air, blowing incessantly into my nose.

Looking at the shops under the buckets and the long queue, Kuvask read the sign syllable by syllable: "Water for the Stop..."

“That’s called a water supply station. Your level is even lower than mine, which I taught myself,” Palak couldn’t help but correct.

Although the Hot Springs cannery was built right by the water, it was still quite a long way to fetch water.

In addition to the horse-drawn carts that sold water along the streets, the tin cannery also set up a special water station for the workers.

The workshop here has a dedicated water supply station and boiler room.

Unlike the horse-drawn water carts typical of most towns, the cannery not only doesn't need to deliver water, but it can even deliver water to nearby remote logging camps or outposts.

They arrived early, just in time to see women in white aprons carrying water bottles wrapped in woolen fabric to fetch water.

These women had a distinctly mountainous appearance; they were tall and had a rugged build.

They rolled up their sleeves to their forearms, revealing the solid muscles beneath their clothes, and each person was carrying three or four water bottles.

Kuvasc craned his neck for a glance and couldn't help but click his tongue in amazement: "Isn't this too extravagant?"

"What luxury?"

“Look for yourselves,” Kuvask said, pointing to the copper sheen in the woolen fabric. “They’re using copper water bottles!”

In this era, as the royal court imported large quantities of precious metals, the price of copper decreased, and the silver-copper exchange rate decreased.

But this does not mean that bronzeware is cheap.

In fact, for an ordinary person to buy a copper basin or pot, it would take at least half a year to save up.

Even if the area around Hot Spring Fortress is rich in copper mines, so copper items are cheaper than in other places, there shouldn't be enough for everyone to have three or four.

“Oh dear, you’ve misunderstood. That’s a thermos, somewhat like the enamelware from Brand City a few years ago,” Grosien explained to the two. “The copper-colored luster on the outside is a byproduct of Dragon Language copper refining—blue copper, which has excellent heat insulation properties.”

Plate the glass bottle with a layer of blue copper, then brush on a layer of slime, and wrap it with woolen cloth and a wicker basket for protection.

This thermos can keep hot water warm for eight hours if you seal it with a wooden stopper.

Moreover, since it is a byproduct, it is very cheap; you can buy one for five dinars.

It seems like the seven dwarf brothers from the Bam family next door are doing this, and it's quite successful.

Moloka was now curious: "There's a water station here, you can just boil water yourself and get whatever hot water you need?"

"Firstly, because this place is newly established and there are wooden buildings everywhere, we're afraid of burning them if we start a fire anywhere," Palak said, holding up two fingers. "Secondly, boiling water is too much trouble and would disturb the housewives' work."

"Do these women still have jobs? Do they weave cloth at home?" Kuvask asked, looking at the burly women. Although Kuvask was from the Thousand River Valley, he had been assimilated by the Fran and preferred women who were relatively delicate and gentle.

“Their weaving is nowhere near as fast as the machines of the Holy See.” Palak put two fingers together, drew an arc in the air, and pointed into the distance. “Look.”

Looking in the direction he pointed, Kuvask and Moloka were surprised to find that there were vegetable fields, chicken farms, and pig farms around the factory.

In the vegetable field, two or three women are watering the cabbages, while in the chicken farm, pig farm, and other meat-producing animal pens, women are spreading feed.

After explanations from Palak and others, they understood that this was a classic layout of the Saint Union factory.

This is not only the case in Hot Springsburg, but also in J.A.B. and other industrial parks.

Simply put, because factories often rely on water power and are far from cities, the prices of various goods are often high.

Therefore, many factories choose to produce and sell their own products, and they all have their own farmland for workers' families to cultivate, forming a unique pattern of male workers and female farmers.

Men go to work while women till the land—that's practically turning the world upside down!

However, considering the Holy Path Sect's skeptical attitude, it's perfectly normal for them to do something unorthodox.

"Thanks to these pig farms, chicken farms and so on, we can be self-sufficient in milk and other things."

"Self-sufficiency? Is it really that exaggerated? There are probably less than 500 workers and their families here."

“Who said that?” Grossian’s business was related to agriculture, so he immediately stood up to refute, “Do you think that the beef and milk produced by a cow in 1444 and a cow in 1457 are the same?”

In Saint Union, a cow produces almost twice as much milk as it used to.

As for the meat produced by beef cattle, it has increased from about 150 pounds to about 250 pounds.

Firstly, the Holy Alliance imported a large number of superior breeding cattle from Norn; secondly, the wizards artificially regulated the process; and thirdly, there was an abundant supply of feed.

As is well known, the Holy Alliance's food production far exceeds its demand.

We thank the two major shareholders, Leia and Fran, for providing initial funding to Saint Union in different ways.

This enabled the Holy Alliance to complete the agricultural revolution and a large number of water conservancy and agricultural infrastructure projects.

Large amounts of abandoned land were restored to cultivation, and large amounts of wasteland were reclaimed. The three-year tax exemption provided farmers with funds to improve the land.

In addition, the recent rise of rice and wheat intercropping and the hillside pond system has led to a near doubling of wheat and rice production.

Currently, prices in the United States are rising slowly, except for food prices, which are the most remarkable exceptions, gradually declining.

The gradual decline is a result of the intervention of the Holy Scythe and Holy Hoe Monastery; in a normal market, grain prices should have plummeted long ago.

What should we do with all that surplus grain that we can't sell?

Whether they switch crops next year or go to the city to work, they will inevitably have to lower the price of grain.

The end result is that no one buys them, no one can eat them, and it's a waste to throw them away, so they might as well be fed to livestock.

Many mountain people are now eating wheat bread, and staple foods like oats are being used to feed pigs, cows, horses, and chickens.

Other livestock are doing better; their numbers are increasing at a relatively steady pace.

However, chickens with a short breeding cycle can quickly soar to new heights in number.

At the time, Abbot Chilvis of the Holy Scythe Monastery publicly declared that he would ensure that every family in the Holy Union could eat an egg every day.

Currently, one egg per household is enough, but it's uncertain whether every household can actually eat one.

However, in these factories, one egg per person per day is still guaranteed.

"One egg per person per day?" Moloka and Kuvask blinked repeatedly upon hearing about the factory's free breakfast perk.

For men who don't wear pants, eggs are the cheapest source of meat, and eating them even once is considered a treat.

So, you Saint Alliance eat this every day, huh?
“Yeah, how can we have the energy to work if we don’t eat?” Grossien shrugged and pointed ahead with his chin. “Maybe this morning’s batch alone will exhaust a lot of people.”

(End of this chapter)