Mathew was excited to get the iron mine working again, but, unfortunately, only three people came looking for him after the end of the assembly.
-" Sigh... It looks like I will have to go search for people elsewhere." Mathew looked defeated as he faced the small group. " So? Are the three of you interested in joining the mining operations?"
-"Uhhh, Sir... We are not looking for the mining job." The oldest man in the group got up and bowed to Mathew, he had anxiety written clearly on his face. " We came here to ask you if you could sell some iron ores to us, our family ran a blacksmith in this village for decades, and we can't work without it."
-" Oh?! Blacksmiths!" Mathew's eyes shone with excitement, he wanted to get a forge working in the village, as many of the villagers would need repairs to the tools they used. " You came at the right time! We have some ores available!"
The group was relieved as it looked like they could return to their trade, it had been years since their forge was shut down.
-" We also need some help restoring our forge!" The youngest man of the group spoke with haste. " Just like the rest of the village, our forge is in quite a bad shape!"
-" Ollie! Look at how you talk!" The oldest of the group scolded the young man and bowed to Mathew again. " I'm sorry! Youth those days don't know how to act! Please forgive my grandson."
-" You don't have to get so worked up for something like this." Mathew gestured for Irelia to get some of the scrolls he had left in the courtyard and returned his attention to the group. " We don't have much iron in storage, so I want to get the mine working as soon as possible, as for help restoring the forge... How much do you need?"
-" How much do we need?" The old man gasped in surprise, he didn't imagine that the magistrate would be so blunt. " The compensation from the Imperial Palace is quite hefty, but, I fear it may not be enough... Besides restoring the forge, we will have to spend quite a bit on the materials."
Mathew held his chin as he thought about the situation. " Three gold pieces per household is sure a good amount, but, it won't last long..." Mathew knew that the expenditure that the village citizen would have was a big one. "Besides the loan, I can provide your forge with a contract to supply the prefecture with some items."
-" A Contract?" The old man had a mixture of confusion and happiness, he didn't wasn't sure what the contract was about, but, it looked like the man would help then,
-" Firstly, we should introduce ourselves, right?" Mathew extended his hand in greeting. " My name is Mathew."
-" I'm Milton, this one is grandson Ollie, and my son Carl." Milton accepted the handshake with no hesitation, " May I know what this contract is about?"
-" Tools, fences, and some other things that the prefecture will need in the coming months." Mathew received the scrolls that Irelia brought and quickly opened them. " The most urgent matters would be the tools for the mine... Wheelbarrow, Pickaxes." Mathew glanced at the scrolls and began to study how he should proceed with this matter. " I can even sell the ores at a discount to you, but, I will need the items with haste."
-" The Pickaxes shouldn't take too long, but, the wheelbarrows are more difficult." Milton scratched his head, building something complex like a wheelbarrow took time and tools that he didn't have right now.
-" Is this about the stage of your forge?" Mathew was in a hurry to set up the village industry, so he wasn't shy of spending a good amount. " Evan! How much is the pay of a miner? And what is the price of Iron ores?"
-" Miners are generally paid four to five pieces of silver per month." Evan quickly answered, he wanted to see how the man would resolve the first few hurdles that he faced. " The kilogram of iron ore is selling for about 5 pieces of silver."
Mathew nodded and began to write another scroll. -" Take this to the biggest city near us, we will pay 8 pieces of silver for every miner working here, they will work eight hours per day, five days a week."
Mathew's words shocked everyone, not only the pay was quite good, the miners would even have to work fewer hours than most of the farmers.
-" Are you sure about this? Eight hours per day?" Evan was astonished, most miners would spend close to fifteen hours in the mine every day, but, Mathew not only increased their pay but, reduced the working hours. "Besides that, five days a week? Are you crazy?"
-" What we need now is manpower, and for this, we can't be stingy." Mathew finished the scroll and passed it to Evan. " Also, one of you should go with Evan and search around for what your forge needs, the prefecture will pay for it, but, the value will be discounted in the contract."
Milton gulped as he saw how quickly the man had made up his mind, he knew that this was an opportunity for them to prosper once again, and showed no hesitation. " Ollie! You will be accompanying that man!" Milton didn't understand why Mathew was helping them so much, yet, this mattered little to him as all he needed to do was to show the magistrate that his trust was not misplaced. " The sooner the ores arrive in our forge, the faster you will have your items, Carl! Let's go! We have work to do," Milton jolted up, he was full of excitement to finally begin to work again.
-" Irelia, please accompany them and give them the ores in the storage." Mathew finished the calculations in his mind and continued speaking. " We will supply you twenty kilograms of iron for free, but, after those, you will pay 3 pieces of silver per kilogram."
Milton froze once again, the amount of help that Mathew had given him was too astonishing. -" You will not regret this!" He quickly grabbed Carl and dragged him back to his old forge.
-" Are you really sure about this? Do you really think that throwing so much money away is fine?" Evan couldn't agree with Mathew's reasoning.
-" I'm not throwing away money." Mathew smiled as he turned around and patted Evan's shoulder. " I'm subsidizing industries!"
-" Subsidizing?" Evan gave Mathew a perplexed look as he wasn't sure what the word meant.
-" Let me ask you... You have manufactories, one that exist for years and is quite settled." Mathew gazed out of the window and observed the village. " They have many customers and their product is famous all around the kingdom, on the other hand, you have a new factory, whose owner barely has enough money to operate. From those two, who is gonna have the advantage?"
-" What kind of question is that? Of course that the first one is going to dominate the market!" Evan didn't understand where Mathew wanted to get at.
-" What if the second factory suddenly were awarded some good amount of money, and the iron that they brought was cheaper, but, of the same quality?" Mathew turned to Evan, who was still completely confused by Mathew's words.
-" Their production would increase?" Evan thought about Mathew's words and tried to answer, but, he still felt that this wasn't everything that he was hitting at.
-" Yeah, they would increase their production, but, the items would be cheaper too." Mathew's smile grew wider as he continued speaking. " If you were a merchant, what manufactory would you buy from? The same product, the same quality, but, one is cheaper than the other."
-" Of course from the cheaper one." Evan's eyes flashed in realization as he finally understood what Mathew was planning. " So? Do you want to steal the customer from the surrounding cities?"
-" Steal is a bad word... We are going to outcompete everyone." Mathew let out a devilish laugh, it looked like Evan wasn't as much of a blockhead as he previously thought.
-" Outcompete... This makes sense." Evan didn't think that Mathew's idea was that bad, but, there were plenty of holes in his theory. " What about the money? Can you keep this going for long?"
-" We won't lose that much money. Remember one thing! What is the prefecture's biggest source of income?" Mathew approached Evan and stared deep into his eyes.
-" Tax... household tax and production tax..." Evan shivered as he finally understood the situation completely. " Even if we sell the iron ores below the market price, we can recoup some of the lost money by taxing them..." Evan felt as if his mind was about to explode, Mathew's theory was slowly becoming even more complex as he thought about it. " Not only that... the higher the income of our citizen, the higher the household tax we can receive!"
Mathew patted Evans's shoulder once again and smiled; " You are finally wrapping your head around what I'm saying." Mathew was excited to introduce some of the economic thoughts of his past world here. " I can't imagine how you will react when I tell you about protectionism."