Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 415 Stock Issuance
After the city was officially built, Harvey only gave himself a short day off and began to think about the development plan for the new year.

Ever since he had clearly learned the memory fragments of ancient times from the activated magic core, he no longer focused all his attention on the southern continent, which was separated from him by an entire Divine Spine Mountain Range.

The struggle of faith between the Church and the Federation, the battle for survival between humans and demons... none of them can compare to the powerful alien race far away in the legendary [Center of the Continent], a terrifying enemy referred to as "Him" in the memory fragments of the magic core.

Unknown crises are always more terrifying than foreseeable opponents...

Harvey originally intended to take advantage of the peculiar identity and mind of the time traveler, flexibly move in the gaps between the struggles of spellcasters, the church and the nobles, hide in the wilderness far away from the vortex of power in the south, and adhere to the moderate development path of "I will not offend others unless they offend me".

But after learning the truth about ancient history, his small "private plot" in a remote corner of the wasteland suddenly became the front line of invasion by unknown alien races. How could he not be sweating profusely and unable to sleep at night?

Faced with both long-term and short-term worries, he cannot afford to relax at all. He can only start with the most important things at the moment. It is always better to prepare for a rainy day than to sharpen the sword at the last minute.

The first thing was naturally to mediate the war conflict within the Principality of Saint Valen. No matter what the real purpose of Grand Duke Saint Valen and the Church in launching this war was, as long as Harvey kept pressing forward in the rear, they would always be attacked from both sides and eventually be forced to turn around and deal with him, the thorn in their backs.

In this way, the Federation and the Wizard Kingdom can change direction and fully deal with the long-term conflict with the Demons... It is said that the battle line of the Evil Moon Mountains has been pushed north of the mountains by the Federation. If the supply to the Demon Front Center can be successfully and completely cut off, the Demon offensive may be stopped for a long time. After all, if the alien races really invade on a large scale, the Demons entrenched in the west of the northern border can barely be regarded as a great help in resisting "them" from moving south. Maybe at that time, the situation of the two races forming a brief alliance during the Dragon War can be reproduced.

The best outcome is to directly oust Grand Duke Saint Valen from power. After that, whether he takes over himself or supports a puppet to deal with secular public opinion, both are good options. As long as large-scale civil wars do not break out in the central countries of the southern border and ordinary people are not involved, the population potential within the ethnic group will not be consumed. When the ethnic group faces a life-and-death crisis in the future, there will be hope of resistance and counterattack.

The second thing is to speed up the development of Spark City as quickly as possible and get this future war "bridgehead" under his rule back on track as soon as possible.

After all, in terms of territorial scope, Harvey could not expand and develop more than all the lords of the duchies in the southern border combined. Except for the west controlled by the demons, the entire northern border, and the vast wasteland in the middle and east are pure unowned lands. There are only scattered primitive tribes like the evil orcs who do not even have a national government. It is only a matter of time to wipe them out and drive them away.

What he really lacked was the people to open up and build these lands for him.

Regarding the issue of the southern border, Harvey had discussed it many times with his subordinates and finally decided to launch an offensive in late summer. By then, it would be close to the autumn harvest time, and the professional northern army would naturally not be affected. However, the feudal nobles of the Principality of Saint Valen were different. Whether they were feudal knights or vassal noble landlords, they would be firmly bound to their fiefdoms and farmlands. No one was willing to give up the grain that was about to be harvested and take up arms to fight. After all, hungry subjects would flee because they could not pay taxes, and they might even unite to riot.

If Harvey's army suddenly launches an attack on the royal capital, Jinhui City, it is estimated that the Church and the Grand Duke will be caught off guard. At that time, they can also see that the "modernized" warfare brought about by magic-enhanced thermal weapons is not comparable to their small-scale conflicts with the Federation on the border.

Today's magic military factories, alchemical machinery factories and shipyards are operating around the clock. Workers working in three shifts are busy producing large quantities of war reserve materials. Logistics factories such as pharmaceutical factories and canned food factories are also running at full capacity. Countless logistical resources that are easy to store and transport are continuously sent to the huge storage area that stretches out.

The military's recruitment efforts were even more successful than Harvey had anticipated. The battle-experienced Northern Army had expanded its strength to nearly 5,000 men across ten battalions, and was currently engaged in intensive training. The Defense Force would reorganize its new and veteran recruits before summer arrived, and then deploy them to garrisons in Fengyuan City and various locations within Grizzly Territory. Therefore, the immediate focus remained on the development of Spark City, which brought Harvey back to the ever-present issue of population recruitment...

He summoned the Chief Administrative Officer Reiner to his lord's office.

"Stocks will be issued to redeem land surrendered by the nobles...Have you counted all those properties?"

Reiner pulled out the work manual he always kept with him. "Sir, the statistics have long been compiled. Aside from the military industry and basic agriculture...mining plants, forestry farms, shipping companies, railway companies, and all civilian manufacturing plants are all on this list."

Harvey took it and quickly flipped through it, saying with satisfaction, "Yes, the civilian manufacturing industry will be allocated 10% of the shares based on output and revenue, split into tens of thousands of shares for the nobles who paid the land... However, the shipping and railway companies can only take out 50%, and these will be issued as original shares that cannot be traded or mortgaged without authorization. If they want to withdraw their shares for cash later, they can only sell them back to me intact."

Monetizing the manufacturing industry is a radical measure that is ahead of its time. If Harvey could not afford to buy the land from the nobles, he would not dare to open this loophole easily. Once the shares can be traded, the nobles who have seized the investment opportunity will get wind of it and will be able to grab more benefits before ordinary people. Then Harvey's idea of narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor and alleviating class contradictions will be in vain.

"The stock issuance cycle is only one month. I won't wait for those speculators who hesitate and plan to hold on to the land and raise the price."

Reiner hesitated for a moment and whispered, "Actually... the administrative office and the military, as well as some colleagues who joined the territory long ago and hold management positions in factories and other production departments, have also been quietly discussing and complaining that they've been denied the opportunity to purchase dividend-paying stocks because they lack noble status..."

Harvey nodded in understanding. He had actually anticipated this situation a long time ago. These officials and soldiers, who were originally from commoner backgrounds and had achieved wealth and social status through their own efforts, were strictly speaking a special group of emerging aristocrats - they held real power, had high salaries and benefits, had lived in the territory the longest, and naturally had accumulated much more wealth than ordinary people.

Although the salary and benefits are generous, it is a slow and gradual growth process after all. All the industries in the territory are owned exclusively by the lord himself, and most people have no business acumen. Apart from using money to improve their quality of life, this group of emerging "nobles" do not have many additional channels to accumulate wealth quickly.

"Nobles who have not obtained official resident status in Spark City are not allowed to purchase real estate in the city..." Even Earl Fagan, who manages Grizzly Castle for Harvey, wanted to buy a villa in Spark City, but he failed to do so after inquiring about the connections for a long time.

This policy will continue to be implemented unwaveringly in the future. When Spark City grows and becomes more prosperous, the locals who have always followed Harvey will understand how valuable the properties they hold are.

Being a landlord is much more comfortable than being a shareholder. Playing stocks can easily lead to bankruptcy.

(End of this chapter)