Steel, Guns, and the Industrial Party in Another World-Chapter 466: The Royal Dilemma 6

Catherine watched her sister, Eileen, explaining something to them with a face full of confidence, a subtle and indescribable aura slowly gathering around her.

This aura made the girl before her seem extremely reliable.

For a moment, she felt as if her sister had suddenly grown up.

Catherine reminisced about snippets of their past life.

“Sis, sis! Don’t leave me behind, play with me a little longer.”

“Really, you little pest, I’m not your nanny, I still have work to do for father.”

Over the course of their decade-long relationship, conversations like these were common between the sisters.

Every time she reluctantly left Eileen, the little one would pout and gaze longingly at her sister’s retreating figure until she disappeared.

Catherine didn’t really want it to be this way; she wanted to spend more time with her sister.

But she was more driven to prove her worth.

Being the daughter of the king who had no sons, only daughters, was a topic often discussed by the courtiers.

When Catherine began to understand her surroundings, she was surrounded by the sentiment, “Ah, if only Her Highness had been a boy.”

Somewhere along the line, a belief solidified in her heart – she had to achieve something that men couldn’t surpass.

So, while girls of her age played with dolls, she learned to dance with swords; while they lost themselves in tales of heroes saving princesses, she learned to understand the state documents on her father’s desk; while they danced with their beloved in ballrooms, she was in the barracks, strategizing with officers.

Catherine didn’t wish for the throne. The Kingdom of Ordo had no precedent for a female monarch, and she also had an uncle – the king’s brother.

All she wanted was recognition.

Finally, her efforts began to pay off. Now, all the ministers and generals no longer saw her as a canary in a cage, but as a decisive, battle-ready princess who was no less than any man.

But the cost was a slight rift between her and her sister.

Their relationship thawed a bit after Eileen returned from her studies at the White (Scholars) Tower.

Eileen began to understand her constant busyness, but only to an extent; she then secluded herself in the prison of academia.

That changed after her trip to the Northwestern Bay and her return.

The Eileen who came back seemed to have shed her girlish whims; she became more composed, independent, and mature.

Catherine, as an older sister, was filled with joy at her sister’s growth.

“Regarding the limitations of demand, it can be divided into two aspects.”

Unaware of Catherine’s thoughts, Eileen continued her explanation.

“The first aspect involves the demand of merchants who seek to profit from these industrial products. Merchants transport goods from one place to another to make money. However, if they have to pay taxes at multiple checkpoints, they are compelled to raise their prices to compensate for the tax-induced losses. These industrial products, processed from raw materials, are not as essential as food for the people currently. Therefore, a hike in prices leads to a decrease in buyers, ultimately resulting in no profit. This diminishes the merchants’ desire or motivation to purchase and trade in these manufactured industrial goods.”

“The second aspect concerns the demand of the end consumers of industrial products. Even without the factor of merchants raising prices, the current wealth of ordinary citizens is insufficient to purchase many industrial products. But does this mean they lack the desire to buy? No, it’s their limited financial means that suppress their desire to purchase. This lack of buying desire, in turn, reinforces the first limitation – making even fewer people willing to trade in industrial goods.”

“Father! Sister!”

Eileen’s eyes sparkled with a keen light.

“If we could eliminate or reduce these three constraints, we could foster the growth of the secondary industry. This would attract nobles who have lost their lands to engage in this industry. Unlike agriculture, which requires vast tracts of farmland, a relatively small area is sufficient for operational and production purposes in industrial ventures. Wouldn’t this provide a solution for settling those nobles?”

She clenched her delicate fist, “Based on what I observed in the Northwestern Bay, this approach is feasible. The lords there are gradually transitioning from landlords to factory owners.”

“A beautiful concept.”

Eileen’s words were novel to King Rodney XVI and Catherine. The king even clapped his hands in genuine appreciation.

“But…” the king asked, “If we attract a large number of people to engage in this ‘secondary industry,’ who will remain to till the fields? Won’t we starve if the crops fail?”

A smile appeared on Eileen’s face, as if she had anticipated this question.

“There’s a ready solution. In the Northwestern Bay, agriculture has already begun to widely adopt the so-called ‘crop rotation system.’ It involves sequentially alternating different crops or combinations on the same land each year, greatly enhancing land utilization efficiency. As far as I know, the yield of farmland using crop rotation is at least double the original output, and in the case of oats, it can even triple.”

The eyes of the king and Catherine lit up. While they had only listened to Eileen’s description of the “secondary industry” as a curiosity, this new “crop rotation system” immediately captured their attention.

Any feudal ruler would prioritize agriculture.

Eileen waved her arms excitedly.

“We can also import various large-scale agricultural machinery from the Northwestern Bay, like harvesters, plowing machines, cotton gins, threshers, and so on. The advent of these machines has greatly reduced the need for manual labor, allowing us to free up more people to engage in the secondary industry without reducing agricultural output.”

Is there really so much to offer in the Northwestern Bay?

That was the thought in the minds of King Rodney XVI and Princess Catherine. The machinery Eileen mentioned sounded quite impressive, and they could guess their functions from their names, but were they as effective as Eileen claimed? freewebnσvel.cøm

In fact, Eileen had occasionally mentioned industrial and modern agricultural concepts in casual conversations, but she had never described them as systematically as she did today. Today’s explanation was an eye-opener for the king and Catherine.

It seemed that some miraculous developments had taken place in the Northwestern Bay, an area previously overlooked. The Princess thought to herself.

Her mind then drifted to a young count whose family’s honor had recently been restored by the royal family.

If she remembered correctly, Eileen had spent her time in the Northwestern Bay under his care.

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