Chapter 210： Hearts of Iron VII

"Why? Lord Earl?"

Burns looked like a child who wanted to buy a toy but was ruthlessly rejected by his parents.

He fully thought that Paul would give him great approval and fully support him in carrying out research in this field, but he did not expect that the other party's approval was nothing but approval, and finally poured cold water on him.

"This matter is more complicated, and I can't explain a sentence or two."

Paul looked puzzled, he didn't know how to explain to Burns, and he didn't know whether his thinking was correct.

"First of all, the principle of using steam as power is very simple, but I tried to deduce it. There are still many technical details that need to be resolved, and I can't figure it out in a while."

Burns said with determination: "You are right, but I am fully prepared to face these difficulties."

"But I can't afford to wait. The research and development tasks of the machinery factory next year will be very heavy. I have a lot of ideas that need to be realized by you. I can't be caught by a steam engine that I don't know when it will be done. Besides, the steam engine It's not necessarily appropriate to appear at this time..."

Burns was very strange, "What do you mean? Windmills and watermills are too limited by weather and geographical factors, but if steam engines are built, factories like ironworks can bloom everywhere."

Paul shook his head, "What's the use of building so many ironworks?"

"It's so useful? There are more iron smelting plants, and your territory can produce more iron."

"What do I need so much iron for?"

"This this…"

Burns felt very ridiculous. Doesn't the Earl know what a lot of iron means? But due to the identity of the other party, he couldn't explain it clearly.

"You can use it yourself or sell it to others. To make weapons and farm tools, don't you use iron?"

"That's true, but if the ironworks we visited are completed according to the plan, its output will be more than enough to meet the needs of Arda and Bairding, and it can be sold to other territories in large quantities. The reason why I upgraded the iron-making technology is because the development of agriculture and other industries in the territory needs to consume more iron than before, and the rebellion in the south can make us a fortune, but whether it is our territory or the surrounding In other territories, there is an upper limit to the demand for iron every year, and the rebellion in the south will be over sooner or later. If you blindly increase production, the excess iron will not be sold and can only be piled up in the warehouse to rust. Because there was no profit, the ironworks had to be closed, and after a toss, only a few factories that could meet the balance between supply and demand were kept, but the process in the middle has invested countless manpower and financial costs.”

Burns was speechless, "This..."

"Look, before there is such a big demand, why invest too many resources in the development of steam engines? The existing water conservancy conditions in Arda and Bairding are enough for us to build several ironworks."

"But if we combine a steam engine with a harvester, it can still be used in agriculture!"

"It's still the same as iron smelting. Too much food is produced, but there are not so many people to eat it, and the price of food will drop. It is indeed a good thing for urban residents to have abundant and cheap food, but for Those who produce food in the countryside are not a good thing."

"Master Gleiman, there will never be a shortage of hungry people in this world."

"So what? Do they have the money to buy it? Do I still have to show kindness and pay for my own travel expenses to send food to those who have nothing?"

"..."

"Okay, Mr. Grayman, what you said makes sense."

Burns seemed convinced.

In fact, Paul still has another concern that he did not express. In his plan, the development of industry will definitely be the main focus in the future. The key step in this is to transform more than half of the population into an industrial population. If something too advanced appears, A machine can replace dozens of people to work, but it will affect the conversion speed of the industrial population. Now that a group of serious workers have been cultivated with great difficulty, should they be allowed to go back to farming.

Paul remembered the introduction in his previous life textbook that a large-scale "destroy the machine" movement broke out in Britain after the Industrial Revolution. The reason was that the efficiency of the machines was too high and a large number of workers lost their jobs.

Although the number of machines and factories can be controlled so as not to exceed the current social needs, this will inevitably lead to the lack of "industrialization" of the entire social structure, and the population is still dominated by agriculture.

And the few factories that relied heavily on machines became the key nodes of Paul's power. Once these nodes were destroyed for some reason, he couldn't recover immediately, and could only degenerate to the level of the little lord when he just woke up his memory.

Therefore, he would rather maintain some "backward" productivity, but also maintain the "industrial population" first, and gradually convert the agricultural population over by taking advantage of the increase in social demand for industrial products Part of it is lost due to war and other reasons, and the remaining part can continue to be industrially produced.

It is also for the same reason that he subconsciously rejects the use of the mysterious power of this world. After seeing the performance of Ladi and the mysterious magician, it is not that Paul has never thought about whether it is possible to use the mysterious power of magic to develop industries. But after several conversations with the female advisor, he gave up on this idea.

First of all, magic is so profound that even the mage himself can't figure out what's going on, and the spells he learned from Ladi can't help him.

Secondly, Paul doesn’t want to rely too much on the group of mages. Let’s not say that the church’s attitude towards mages may cause him trouble. Even if the status of mages is legalized one day, and they have a way to promote the productivity of this world. Explode, Then the mage's monopoly on magic, an advanced productive force, is bound to form a terrible class.

According to the female consultant, magic requires extremely high talent, and may even have something to do with blood, unlike science and technology, no matter how stupid people work hard, they can master the general idea.

Moreover, with the relatively rare number of mages, it will also become a "key node" that affects the whole body, and an accident will lead to the collapse of the entire industrial system.

It is necessary to choose a good path from the starting point. Once the path is wrong, the cost of changing it will be high, especially after the formation of interest groups.

He still hopes that this society can be as fair as possible.

Therefore, Paul set the tone of his attitude towards magic: at this stage, he should focus on prevention. After he has the ability to get in touch with it further, he can study and use it, but he must not rely on it. Only when the need is urgent and there is no conventional magic Only use the power of magic when there is no alternative.