I Was Reincarnated as a Baron in Another World

278 – Side Story – The Best Rule (1)

When I, William von Kreutel, was attending school, a young professor in the Department of Public Administration at the Imperial Academy of the Empire was studying supply and supply for the development of the empire. He greatly emphasized the importance of transportation.

“Ship! Transporting goods by boat on a river or sea is at least 10 times more efficient than transporting them by land using a horse or cart! So, if you graduate from the academy and become an administrator, suggest transportation by ship first. Because it is always right!”

He was a professor who, if there was a blockage in supply or transportation, would try to solve it by first finding a way for ships to travel.

As a result, he often fought with another older professor who advocated for improving the problems of traditional overland transportation, and was fired by the vice-chancellor…

When his father heard the anecdote, he specially hired him from a dismissed professor to a supervisor, making him a man of great fortune.

And the reason why I am thinking this way is because the person I called to meet now is the professor.

“No. 1 Sales supervisor, you’ve had a hard time. He said that for the past three months he had been looking for ways to operate the vessel in Britannia. “Did you make a good plan?”

For the past three months, the sales supervisor seems to have only studied supply and transportation by ship in his office, with the exception of minimal meals and bathroom breaks.

His face, which had not seen the sun, was pale to the point of thinness, and his body was originally of average build, but now he had become very thin.

But on his face was an eerie, bright smile, like his only younger brother, Martin, who was going crazy studying coal-powered engines at the Academy.

“This is to repay the kindness of His Majesty back home, who appointed a humble professor like me to this position. So, I did my best to come up with the best plan I could come up with. hehehehe…You can look forward to it.”

If my father hadn’t just told me to overlook most things as long as it wasn’t lese majeste, since many of the professor-turned-officials were too smart or studied too much and became strange.

I feel a bit uncomfortable when I see him obsessively pursuing his favorite research and approaching a slightly mad state.

So, from now on, I want to continue to entrust important tasks and give promotions, but only receive reports in writing.

“First of all, the Kreutel Empire has a transportation network built around Nantes, with the Amstra River flowing vertically, the Uber River flowing horizontally about 120 km away from there, and the North Sea. Through this, we were able to reduce transportation costs by at least two to up to five times compared to transporting the same distance by land.”

“At the academy, we were singing about the introduction of transportation using ships, and we succeeded in achieving results that exceeded our expectations.”

“It is an honor, Your Majesty. However, if Britanya adopts the method I will now describe, the effect will go far beyond that.”

In the eyes of Sales, who was saying that, beyond the joy of proposing a new business, a burning sense of mission could be seen that he would make sure that the transportation business using waterways was a success in Britanya.

“I see, then please explain as concisely as possible. “Even if you explain it in a complicated way, I still don’t understand.”

If another administrator brought this report, I would have told him to explain it in detail so that he could understand it well.

If you ask a former professor who is crazy about research to introduce a new business plan, he will start with the definition of ship transportation, with a bit of exaggeration, and talk about the history, success stories, the transportation capacity of the caravel, and the number of wooden pegs and iron nails inside.

Of course, the poor inspectors and secretaries under that gentleman may be pressured to study and memorize it all.

That’s the study they have to do in order to do their jobs well in return for receiving salaries as administrators, so I don’t need to worry about it.

“First, place 50 Italian-built galleys in Londimium, and 40 ships each in Chains, Donover, and English Castles. And about 10 ships are deployed in castles with a population of 10,000 or more. “Wherever ships can go, we establish a system to transport goods by ship rather than by land.”

“How are we going to save the sailors? Each galley would have to accommodate at least 150 people, which would require a crew of nearly 20,000.”

“According to a report from an administrator under my command, I heard that even if the reconstruction of agricultural land is accelerated, the number of unemployed people who are essentially day laborers in the village will reach tens of thousands. “You can hire them as low-level sailors, and hire people who have been discharged from the Navy as middle- and upper-level sailors.”

When I was given the opportunity to plan ship transport myself, Professor Lee even touched on the issue of finding employment for the unemployed, which is somewhat outside of his specialty.

At least on that scale, it’s something I can realistically do, and unlike the mainland of the empire, ramen on this island is surrounded by sea on all sides.

As part of the territory stabilization and development plan, conducting a large-scale shipping business of that scale will be of great help from a long-term perspective.

“Of course, this is a private domain. Therefore, the Navy must establish separate bases and ports to protect merchant ships from the danger of pirates.”

When the United Kingdom of Britannia was in existence, they did not expect to be invaded by foreign countries because they were an island nation.

Looking back now, I think it was a really foolish thing to do, but on the other hand, even if we did such a strange thing, it means that we were not seriously invaded by foreign armies other than the Kreutel Imperial Army.

It would be right for us to follow the lessons of that time and focus on training the navy rather than the army.

Assuming that is the case, naval forces equivalent to at least half of the civilian merchant fleet should be stationed in Britanya to prepare for any emergency.

In other words, if there are that many ships, you never know when they might collude and start a rebellion.

“If we have this system in place, this is how transportation will work. Horse-drawn carriages travel from remote villages in the countryside to port cities with a population of more than 10,000 people, and goods are transported by ship from the port city to the city port near the destination. Then, you will travel by land to the city where you purchased the goods. A similar structure will be used when selling goods.”

“I guess so.”

“However, if the authority to transport goods throughout Britannia is unconditionally entrusted to the private sector in this way, corruption will inevitably occur. Therefore, Your Majesty, leave management to the top of the private sector, but create an organization to strictly monitor their management and irregularities.”

“Then, in addition to creating an organization in charge of surveillance, the ownership of ships should be returned to the imperial government, and the private sector should be able to take charge of transportation so that they can make some profit. That way, it would be better to keep them from stagnating.”

To the sales supervisor, the operating method I proposed, operated by the private sector and supervised by the government, seemed very unique.

He looked at me with a very interested expression and spoke passionately.

“Then, how about creating a school to train excellent merchant marine executives to fulfill His Majesty’s plan for the Age of Exploration? A merchant marine officer in the same sense as the commander of a merchant marine! “Merchant Marine Academy!!”

“Yes, yes. Don’t do that. “Anyway, that’s enough explanation…”

“What are you talking about? I’ve only just talked about the table of contents. “This plan is an important matter that will take 100 years of the empire, and I know that your highness is in a hurry to attend to official duties, but you must memorize all the essential information.”

The sales supervisor has a bad habit of talking endlessly once he starts talking about sailing, ever since he was a professor.

He held me, the crown prince, and explained the plan in detail until 3 a.M.

If it had been any other plan, I could have sent her off with a promise that I would have to sleep for tomorrow’s work, but no matter how I thought about it, this matter was important enough to change the foundation of Britanya.

I had to listen to what he said, recalling the terrible memory of being plagued by Professor Sales’ endless lectures when I attended the Academy about 10 years ago.

And when the sales supervisor’s report was over, I saw the disappointed look on his face and the way he opened his mouth several times, then looked at his watch and carefully retreated, and I made up my mind.

That child is an essential talent for the empire, but from now on, he will only receive reports in writing.

And that man is a human being who, if left alone, may starve to death at any moment or die of illness without treatment.

I thought I should marry a woman who is wise and pretty and doesn’t nag me much, but she nags me so much that I get scabs on my ears if I don’t take care of my health properly.

That way, I will be able to pamper my child for a very long time until he ascends to the throne of emperor.

Trying to find a wife and a wife for him like this is by no means an intention to take revenge on him by further reducing his already short sleep time.

That’s right.

This is the imperial family’s consideration for loyal officials who are too busy working for the empire to take care of themselves and have difficulty even passing down the generations.

Anyway, that’s the way it is.