Chapter 40

About forestry.

Awkward. I have no particular plan.

Since wood is everywhere, there is no need to bother selling it to another town. Because it’s good enough to cut it nearby.

It’s the same for woodworking products. Other villages can make anything that can be made in our villages.

We decided to plant trees for the future for the time being, but that won’t lead to an increase in revenue at the moment. The mountain village chiefs who thought that there would be a groundbreaking idea like with the farming group seems disappointed.

After that, I wonder if there’s anything else ……

Oh, what about Shiitake cultivation?

When I asked, they didn’t know about Shiitake mushrooms. If it doesn’t exist, the fungus might not be growing in the first place…….

If we make a large amount of smoked meat and jerky by capturing enough animals, the populations of animals will soon decline and the rest won’t be able to survive……

For the time being, I promise to investigate the possibility of making charcoal and Tatara Fuki to smooth things over(お茶を濁す).

Also, in order to discover metal ore, I gave stern instructions to be quickly informed if there’s anything that looks like it and handed out printouts of ore photographs to a few villagers.

By the way, I tend to confuse “Tatara Fuki” and “Tatara Seitetsu”, but they are different things. “Tatara” means bellows, and many of the early iron processing techniques use bellows, that is to say, the primitive iron making methods that are conducted in various parts of the world are called “Tatara Seitetsu”.

“Tatara Fuki” on the other hand is a special iron processing technique conducted in Japan, which creates high-quality “Tamahagane(ball steel)” from iron sand. Tamahagane is the high-quality steel that becomes the blade of a Japanese sword, and it can take less than one-third of the iron made with Tatara Fuki. The remaining two-thirds or more is low quality and used for parts other than the blade portion, daily necessities, and other applications.

If you make products with the Tamahagane brand power.

Mitsuha was putting her hopes on the discovery of valuable metal ores and this steelmaking technique.

(tl note: I think I translated “Tatara Seitetsu” as Tatara furnace in chapter 37. I’m not sure if I want to change it to primitive steelmaking or leave it)

And about the marine.

The chief who was representing the fishing village had expectations.

Until now, the fishing village was treated roughly by the lord because the number of inhabitants was small and seafood can’t be stockpiled nor sold outdoors or outside the territory.

However, the new lord Mitsuha has visited the fishing village much more frequently than she did the farm villages and mountain villages, asked various questions, and gladly ate the seafood dishes prepared by the fisherman’s wives.

And she showed extraordinary interest in the boats and fishing gear.

In addition, the Viscount’s house that had until now only hire servants from the residents of the town has hired Ninette, someone from the fishing village for the first time.

It wasn’t unreasonable to have expectations.

And……

“First of all, let’s intensify the amount of salt and mass-produce the products made by drying seaweed, also increase the number of catches and categorize our products into sun-dried, shade dried, salted dried, small dried sardines, baked, and smoked”

“Oh!”

The fishing village chief eyes sparkle at Mitsuha being more talkative than the time about forestry.

In contrast, the 2 mountain village chiefs became gloomy.

“And for the mass production of dried fish, we need to increase the catch rate in the first place. So we intend to improve the nets and create a new fishing boat.”

“Oooooo!”

The village chief raises a voice of joy at Mitsuha’s proposals going beyond his expectations.

For Mitsuha, the fishing industry is a delicious industry with immediate results.

Cast nets, gill nets, dragnets. Here where the coastal waters aren’t polluted, we should be able to anticipate reasonable stable hauls by using dragnets on the migratory fish. Also, since the professional fishing industry is hardly developed, you can expect large hauls using nets if you go a bit off the coast. Furthermore, we can also expect catches using angling with the treasure trove of fishes not used to threads.

Mitsuha was willing to bring the nets and fishing tackles from Japan to start off. Otherwise, it’ll take too much time to prepare. If the new nets prove effective, naturally she’ll probably look into those fishing nets to make something similar. The fishing tackles too.

The boat is……

A second-hand small boat can be brought using 20 to 300 thousand. However, the material properties of FRP are unattractive. Should the boats be built locally?

Boats are also necessary for dragnets, but it seems difficult when you consider the weight of our current boats and nets, maintaining balance during work and the number of people required to do work.

In regards to salt production, due to the small population of the fishing village, and the fact that a vast amount of land can’t be used, a Ryouka(流下) type salt field is reasonable. More than anything, the number of needed workers is overwhelmingly fewer than that of Nyuhama(入り浜) type and Agehama(揚浜) type salt fields.

We also need the people from the farm villages to create the facilities. And the mountain villages’ cooperation because a lot of timber is necessary for the boiling it all down.

The chiefs of the mountain villages made light smiles too when I said that a large amount of wood would be needed as fuel.

And finally, the shopkeeper invited from the town.

This territory is at the end of the road facing the sea so there are no travelers passing through. Those with business in the neighborhood would go to the Boses Earldom instead which has a decent town.

Also, most of the goods sold to the villages are carried through the Boses Earldom, of course with higher prices than in the Boses Earldom. Therefore, only people in this territory will buy things from this territory.

“Can you close your shop?”

“””Whaaaaaaaat!”””

At Mitsuha’s words, all the leaders raised surprise voices.

All 678 people and 170 families will have trouble with shopping if the only store in the region is gone.

If you don’t go through a store, you have to buy the things you want one by one by going to the manufacturer, for the goods from outside the territory of course, but even the goods inside the territory too. There are many goods consumed every day. Should every family rotate between the farm, mountain, and fishing villages? It’s impossible.

As everyone thought so.

“No, no, a store will still exist. I want to increase the scale a little and put out a lot more products. There will be the products Pez-san the merchant will regularly bring into our territory, the rare artifacts that will come from my homeland and the new products we’ll make in our territory from now on. I’m not going to leave them all to a privately owned store, so I’m thinking of opening a store under the direct management of the lord”

“… What if I refuse?”

“I don’t care even if you do, but this will mean that a new store directly managed by the lord will open. Perhaps, they’ll buy the stock at a better price and sells it cheaper than before”

Mitsuha’s answer makes the shopkeeper complexion get worse.

“But then, my house will collapse…”

“That’s why I recommendation closing, You won’t become unemployed of course. In the new store, there’s a need for people to go around each village to stock up, and we are thinking about making direct trades with the Boses Earldom and other territories. People who are used to doing business are needed”

The shop owner swung his head vertically after thinking it through.

There were no other options from the beginning.

Mitsuha was thinking of selling products from Japan even in the store here for a while. Furthermore, at quite cheaper prices than the capital’s store. Customers will come not only from the Boses Earldom but also from other territories in the area, and as a result, the economy will get better.

Of course, the inns and eateries will shore up if the number of customers from other territory increases. The inn will be an ordinary, always-open inn, the eateries will be large and serve Yamano Cooking.

I would like for the territory to perform under its own power as soon as possible. However, a little cheating can’t be avoided at first. Otherwise, there’s no point in talking about it.

After that, Mitsuha talked about the construction of shops, workshops, and salt fields and requested for a dispatch of personnel from the town and each village.

The villagers who thought that it was a heaven’s mandate(天役) and was going to be a free service were surprised to know that Mitsuha is planning to give wages. There’s rarely a chance to gain money from temporary income. Everyone would probably be happy to come and join in.

Also, I asked if there were any cooks and heard about the son of an eatery working at a restaurant in the Boses Earldom. I decided to consult with the couple at the eatery about whether to call him back.

And finally, Mitsuha talked about education for children.

In order to live a prosperous life in the future, education is absolutely necessary.

Explaining that, if they can’t at the very least read, write, or use math, then the only path left is physical labor. And that they would only be deceived or sign an unfair contract and become an unscrupulous merchant’s meal.

The children are also an important workforce so everyone was reluctant, but they agreed after hearing that it’s only in the morning for every other day and they’ll have lunch before returning.

This concludes all of our agenda. When I asked if there was anything else, I got a question asking whether the tax rate would remain the same.

Tax is 70% at the highest. This is beyond the limit where the people can still live decent lives. It’s something temporary for when something big happens. Continuing at 70% is the same as waiting for most of the population to escape and the lord’s household to come to ruin.

The maximum tax rate that can be maintained is 60%. And 40% is the lowest tax rate in the Kingdom. This is only for well managed wealthy territories. Generally, it is approximately around 50%.

Even with the same tax rate, the situation between a territory where the gross tax revenue is 10,000 gold coins and a territory with 100,000 gold coins is completely different, they can’t simply be compared.

By the way, the Boses Earldom is 50%. As a mainly agricultural territory which can’t expect tax revenues from commerce and cargo passing through the territory, it’s enough to put them in the well-managed category.

And the tax rate in this territory is 60%. It’s the same as the previous lord’s time because Mitsuha hasn’t issued any instructions yet.

“Oh, I am sorry, I have forgotten, the tax rate of our territory is now 30% from now”

“” “” Ehhhhhhh~~~ !! “” ”

Surprised voices came not only from the civilians side but also from the Viscount’s side.

Mitsuha doesn’t need to specifically spend that money on meals and clothing, nor does she host parties. She has no need to bribe the Kingdom’s senior nobility or the great temple’s priests and doesn’t buy jewelry. Opening the store occasionally is plenty for her regular living expenses.

Tax revenue in the territory will only be used for the salaries of the servants and civil servants, maintenance fees for the mansion, other than that; for the territory’s public works, education, and things like welfare programs. All projects will head towards financial independence. (各事業は独立採算を目指している。)

(tl note: I think she means they will pay for themselves)

As expected, it will mess with the balance with other territories if it’s set too low, and we won’t be able to do anything if the budget is too low, it was a number she came up with thinking “well, maybe around here”.

But for the citizens, it’s a world-shaking incident.

Their portion went from 40% to 70%.

This doesn’t simply mean the richness of their livelihood becomes 1.75 times.

Suppose that you are using 35% out of the 40% for the minimal amounts of food, fuel, clothing and other necessities. Then, it’s that 5% you can use for a little luxury and not just to live.

What will happen if their share becomes 70%?

The part that can be used for luxury becomes 35%. It’s actually 7 times than before. They can use sevenfold the money you used up till now for luxuries. The people’s purchasing power has explosively increased.

Consumption increases. As consumption increases, the manufacturers’ profits increase. As the manufacturers’ finances get better, their consumption increases as well. As they do, other manufacturers’ finances get better too.

In this way, the economy where the little money from several places only flowed on a definite course towards the town will begin to circulate around everywhere. (少しのお金が一定のルートを回るだけであった田舎町で、次々と経済が回り始めた。)

(tl note: So everyone’s money on hand increases beyond what they can comprehend and only the children are being educated. Won’t that mean that some families will need their children to manage their finances?)