Chapter 41: Not in the Position, Not Meddling with the Policies

Even for resources they possessed themselves, they prioritized purchasing materials from other nobles. The resources within their own territory served as a price ballast, kept largely untouched, only used to suppress price fluctuations and ensure they didn’t rise too outrageously.

As for why she didn’t monopolize the profits, anyone with an ounce of foresight could see the issue clearly. A group of people making money together is called a community of interests; one person making all the money is called a fat sheep!

Did no one want to mess with her? Think about it—is that even possible? Given their current speed of raking in gold by the bucketload every day, the number of jealous people outside was probably countless. Yet why had they remained perfectly safe? The Church couldn’t shut the mouths of every noble in the world.

The reason the Fafnir territory had developed so smoothly was precisely because all the noble lords scattered up and down the entire canal transport network had, more or less, received a share of the dividends from Fafnir’s money-making process.

They produced beer, but the grain used for brewing was imported. They produced steam engines, but the iron was imported. Furthermore, the manufacture and use of steam engines indirectly spurred a massive surge in coal demand, leading to leapfrog development in the productivity of various territories.

The lords along the heavily relied-upon river transport and land trade routes all gained substantial benefits. Now, if the Regent wanted to shake the Fafnir tree to see if any gold coins would fall out, he would have to consider the collective will of every family tied to that web of interests.

In this era of underdeveloped transport, at least seventy percent of the money and grain collected from taxes had to be transported to the royal capital via riverways. If someone decided to tamper with that process along the way, you wouldn’t even be able to find the culprit.

And if he really couldn’t resist the urge, he could just fleece that Baron Blackstone~ Wasn’t a sacrificial lamb already prepared for the Regent to slaughter?

Since the development model had been set from the beginning, Su Na naturally had no intention of casually changing it. She told Yulia directly: “We can consume as much cotton and wool as you have.”

A joyful smile instantly appeared on Yulia’s face. With Su Na’s words, her mind was set. Raising sheep was even easier than smelting iron for the Duchy of Rose; the grasslands were endless, and they were completely free.

However, Su Na suddenly shifted the conversation: “But since we are considered friends now, I will give you a piece of advice: you’d best appropriately control the scale of both cotton and sheep farming.”

Yulia was somewhat bewildered: “Huh?”

Once the Spinning Jenny and other textile machinery were popularized, the prices of cotton and wool were bound to skyrocket, because the raw material production provided by a single kingdom would be completely insufficient to meet the demand. Later on, they would likely have to rely on international maritime trade for imports.

Although the profits and returns in this industry were visibly astronomical, whether it was planting cotton or large-scale sheep farming, both caused immense destruction to the local environment.

After all, one drained the soil of all nutrients, and the other devoured the grass down to the roots. If done excessively, it would lead to nobles driving out commoners, resulting in an “enclosure movement” where “sheep ate men.” Coupled with cotton, a plant that acted like a water pump when planted on a large scale.

If the land was swallowed up by these two, there wouldn’t be enough land to produce food. If that sparked a famine and rebellion, Yulia would lose half her life, to say the least.

Su Na’s reluctance to touch raw material production also stemmed from these considerations. Almost anything involving raw materials generally caused various types of pollution and destruction. Since the profit margins weren’t exceptionally high, it wasn’t worth scraping every last penny; she was better off throwing it to someone else and letting them step into the pitfalls.

Yulia considered it carefully and nodded her agreement: “Alright, Nana, whatever you say goes. I will plan it properly before starting.”

She trusted Su Na completely. Too many people had made money following her lead; there was no reason she would go all-in only to lose.

Moreover, the biggest fear in raw material trade was a lack of demand. As long as there was demand and someone wanted it, she could make a fortune. The major client before her had just offered to buy up her entire output; she couldn’t love her enough, so how could she not trust her?

This was exactly why Su Na said she deserved to make this money. Once the textile machines were running, they would truly be nuclear-powered money printers. Whatever Yulia produced, Su Na would swallow it all; fabric was hard currency, easy to sell anywhere.

It was just that this little lady seemed rather inept at administration. Look at the orders she took on—it was all either raw material cultivation or crude processing for export. These were the kinds of jobs that yielded average profits but consumed a massive amount of manpower.

If she wasn’t careful, the day those subjects couldn’t take it anymore and delivered a little “rebellious shock,” she would learn her lesson.

Speaking of which, due to the vigorous promotion of the steam engine, newly emerging commoner merchants who had made fortunes riding the dividends of this version 0.1 industrial wave were gradually appearing in various territories.