Steel, Guns, and the Industrial Party in Another World

TL: Etude

Mr. Erkins rose early today. As dawn was barely breaking, he began to groom and carefully trim his beard. After a hasty breakfast, he rushed to his workplace—a metalwork factory situated on the outskirts of Lakeheart Town.

By the time he arrived, all his employees had already assembled.

Erkins stood on a wooden box and spoke with utter seriousness, “Everyone must do their very best today! Be sharp and focused!”

“Don’t worry, boss!”

“We won’t let anyone look down on us!”

His employees responded one after another.

This was an important day—a day when distinguished guests were coming for a visit!

Erkins hailed from a family of blacksmiths, a profession that was highly esteemed and in demand in the earlier years. Of course, being a blacksmith was still a respectable choice, but it just wasn’t as sought after as it used to be.

Firstly, Count Grayman improved iron-smelting techniques, making raw materials plentiful and no longer a limiting factor.

Then came the rapid development of the Lakeheart Town Mechanical Factory, which required many metal components. Initially, these parts were custom-made by blacksmith shops in the civilian sector. However, these shops were standalone and usually family-run, scattered throughout Alda, leading to considerable time spent in transportation.

Moreover, Count Grayman’s demand for precision in the components’ dimensions could only be described as obsessive, leading him to invent a measuring instrument called the “vernier caliper.” But, due to various reasons, the quality of the products produced by these smaller shops was inconsistent. Therefore, the mechanical factory began training its own blacksmiths.

As a ruling Lord, the Grayman family already had a group of blacksmiths that served them for generations, and they were considered some of the most skilled in all of Alda. For instance, Mr. Herman, whom Erkins greatly admired, was the most revered blacksmith within the Lord’s domain. However, he hadn’t seen Mr. Herman much in the past two years, as it was rumored that he had been assigned an important duty and was no longer in Lakeheart Town.

Count Grayman had now assigned this group entirely to the mechanical factory and adopted an educational approach similar to that of Weiss Academy. He actively recruited and trained blacksmith apprentices, unlike other blacksmiths who were expected to be jacks of all trades. The Count only required that they be proficient in crafting a single type of component but insisted on perfecting their craft. These newly trained young blacksmiths performed simple repetitive actions day after day in what was called “workshops.” Some even more complex items were constructed in stages by several people, each completing a part before passing it onto the next person until the item was finished.

However, the quality control at each stage was stringent, with inspectors using measurement tools to ensure standards. Blacksmiths with a consistently low pass rate had their wages reduced or even lost their jobs. The wages at the mechanical factory were quite generous for the common folk, so everyone worked diligently.

Not just blacksmiths; carpenters in the mechanical factory adopted this streamlined work method as well.

After fulfilling the component needs of large machinery such as four-wheeled carriages and harvesters, the factory began producing smaller products like hoes, rakes, pitchforks, and other common agricultural tools, offering them at very competitive prices.

This seriously affected the livelihoods of traditional craftsmen.

But, these craftsmen were being undermined by a workshop operating under the esteemed name of Alda’s domain, and as commoners, no one dared to organize the craftsmen and stand against their Lord.

Necessity leads to innovation, and some well-off craftsmen began to expand their production scale, recruiting fellow blacksmiths and carpenters to join their production teams, adopting the mechanical factory’s methods. Thus, these workshops were compelled into existence. 𐍂АɴÓβËS

Strangely enough, despite facing competition, Count Grayman didn’t hide his secrets. Instead, he gathered these newly-emerged workshop owners to tour his mechanical factory, allowing them to scrutinize the operational flow and declaring his encouragement for their entrepreneurship with a three-year tax exemption.

Erkins was among those who transitioned from a traditional blacksmith to a workshop owner.

Looking back on those early days of entrepreneurship brought a mix of emotions.

Despite coming from a line of blacksmiths which gave Erkins some financial cushion, the funds were still insufficient for acquiring a location, hiring workers, and purchasing tools.

Erkins tried to raise capital at Port Fran’s stock exchange, but being an outsider with no reputation in the traditional commercial circles, he failed to attract investors. Thus, he had to resort to the traditional means of borrowing money from family and friends, and after much hardship, he managed to establish his workshop.

However, due to the mechanical factory’s early market entry and its reputation for offering high-quality products at low prices, many private workshops struggled on the brink of survival; those who couldn’t keep up silently perished.

Erkins’ workshop faced such misfortune as well, and just when he thought he could no longer hold on and was resigned to dissolve the workshop, take a job at the Lord’s mechanical factory, and spend his remaining years working off debts, a turning point arrived.

Under the guidance of Count Grayman, the Northwest Lords formed a so-called corporation named “Northwest Industries,” mainly to supply the kingdoms with military hardware.

The surviving workshop owners were summoned to a meeting at the Lord’s estate. Count Grayman announced that he had found a profitable path for them—to join Northwest Industries and provide goods for the “company.” The Count asserted that his own industries would not venture into weapon and armor production and wouldn’t compete, urging them to produce with confidence.

They were also assured that they needn’t worry about transportation or other logistical issues; Northwest Industries would handle everything as long as they delivered goods on time.

There were two requirements: one was to maintain a uniform design and style that could leave an impression on customers and instantly signify the products as originating from the Horn Bay area. The second was to strictly control quality.

As soon as Count Grayman finished speaking, the workshop owners burst into cheers for the longevity of their Lord. Everyone knew that war was an opportunity to amass wealth, especially in the arms industry.

Many of these owners had been cursing the Lord’s mechanical factory for leaving them no space to survive when they entered the estate. But in that hall, their tears of frustration turned to joy, as Erkins himself had almost given up hope.

He was genuinely grateful to Count Grayman.

Later, he learned that a rebellion had broken out in the distant South, and the kingdom’s government was purchasing weapons from everywhere.

Erkins realized that he should pay more attention to current events rather than just his immediate surroundings, as overlooking the larger picture would mean missing out on opportunities to prosper. He wondered if Count Grayman established Northwest Industries to help unfortunate souls like them, then chuckled at his own somewhat absurd thought.

The continuous stream of military hardware orders from the South revived the civilian workshops, allowing them not just to stabilize but to thrive and profit immensely. Erkins himself entered the ranks of the wealthy.

But with the end of the rebellion, the demand for military hardware in the South plummeted.

Finding new business opportunities became the top priority for Erkins.

Just when he was at his wit’s end, news came from the Lord’s estate that a major new customer from Horn Bay was coming.

And Erkins’s workshop had been chosen for the visit, with Count Grayman himself leading the customer.

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