Rise of Rurik

Just as the spring plowing was approaching, Rurik completed the deal with the Kyiv Mako.

The horses have two males and eight females. According to Ma Kesakyi, the total price is equivalent to 90 pounds of silver coins, which is 9,000 silver coins after conversion!

How could ten horses be worth that much money?

In private, Sackey confided that the total value of the horses was at most forty pounds.

"You mean that you feel guilty for cheating on me? You actually suspect that I am a stingy noble? The deal has been settled, and I will not take back the price. You will get the money immediately, and I also encourage you to purchase our country's products on the spot. Supplies, so you can earn both." Rurik made such a generous statement, and Sakyi was once again shocked and grateful.

The point of the deal was not at all what the price of ten horses was. Rurik felt that he had made a lot of money.

Because intelligence information is also a huge wealth, it is difficult to measure with money. For the first time, the Principality of Rus has received intelligence on the geopolitical relations of the South, which will help to formulate appropriate roadmap plans for future conquests.

In this way, Sakyi and his gang still serve delicious food, but now they have to spend their own money to buy delicious food, and even go to the market to trade.

It's April, and most of the ice in the waters near Fort New Rose has melted at the end of March, and everyone is looking forward to the ice breaking enough to sail.

As a high priest, Rumia worships the gods according to the rules on the Julian equinox. She wants to preside over a ceremony to worship seven gods, and now it involves the melting of ice and snow to resume navigation. For the so-called safety of navigation, the sea gods and sea monsters must also sacrifice.

It was ten years ago that the Rus people sacrificed to gods, because they really didn't raise many large ones, and it was extremely extravagant to take out five deer.

Times have changed, and now the offerings start with ten deer.

The Duchy of Rus has inherited the customs of the traditional Vikings and has two grand sacrifices throughout the year. The winter solstice sacrifices Odin, which is equivalent to the New Year. The Spring Festival offering sacrifices to the gods and the sea is actually a celebration of the beginning of production and life.

New Roseburg is fully recovered, and fishermen, farmers and merchants are fully prepared!

However, because Ross lost the Danish market, the average price of all kinds of furs in the fur market in New Rossburg plummeted.

The truth really turned into "Leather slow-moving help us."

This is the moment of bargain hunting,

Rurik ordered the governor Conusson and his son to act immediately, buying as much of the hunters' goods as possible with the money from the treasury.

The princes and merchants worked together to complete the acquisition, and as many as 100,000 large squirrel skins, 5,000 ferret skins, 2,000 fox skins and 200 polar bear skins entered the bag.

Merchants will ship their leather to Lake Mälaren as usual, at least Ross has not lost the Swedish market!

Rurik had at least 50,000 squirrel pelts on hand, as well as a thousand mink pelts and all two hundred polar bear pelts. What he actually paid to the hunter was some silver coins, copper coins, and a higher proportion of actual wheat.

Lake Ladoga has dissolved, and thousands of streams have poured water into it frantically with the water of Lake Onega, which has directly led to a surge in the amount of water in the Neva River!

This situation directly leads to the responsibility of the waterway traffic between Novgorod and Novgorod. Going downstream will be extremely fast, and going retrograde will be an uphill battle with the river.

But the Maharaja ordered that a large amount of leather had to be transported to Novgorod.

What does Rurik mean? Without him, it is only because tens of thousands of Slavic women will suddenly have leisure after the busy farming season. In fact, they also do auxiliary life work such as grass cutting, basket weaving, and woodworking, but the value of the labor produced is difficult to measure in money, in other words, this kind of labor cannot be exchanged for real food remuneration.

A fleet of leather-carrying ships was heading up the Neva, and a distinguished "great tailor", by the order of the maharaja, moved with his full workshop staff.

Times have changed, and Fodgen is no longer a small business owner of a tailor shop in Lake Ladoga. He has as many as 50 slave laborers under his command, and he has also worked out a strategy in production, that is, grouping the personnel into groups, thereby improving the efficiency of making leather jackets.

Since the Principality can produce carbon steel, it is also possible to make steel needles. It's just that the Principality does not have the fine processing technology of the East, and can only make some quenched steel needles that are thicker overall.

Although this needle is unlikely to achieve the level of embroidery, sewing leather and linen is already very suitable.

Making clothes does not require high technology. Even if there is no sewing machine, pure handwork can ensure good efficiency.

The entire workshop staff set off with the fleet, and ten longboats with oars worked together to pull three standard armed cargo ships to Novgorod.

Leather and finished ironware are two competitive products. Slavic women will earn real wheat from participating in leather processing. Finished ironware directly enhances the work efficiency of Slavic men.

More importantly, the Novgorod Shipyard needs a lot of iron tools, such as steel axes, scrapers, planes, and steel consumables such as nails are also in urgent need of a batch.

Soap, glass, and pottery are also on the shipping list, all of which are affordable for Russian immigrants at this stage. They can be few but they must be there because the people need to consume.

A small domestic market is expanding. For example, leather is used to make clothes, first of all, to meet the needs of the people of the Principality of Rus. This market is temporarily small and will expand rapidly as the population grows rapidly!

After all, the Lake Mälaren market in Sweden is only 50,000 people, and the Principality of Ross can theoretically surpass it soon.

Losing the Danish market can't be taken by force for the time being, and Rurik can only comfort himself that tomorrow will be better. At least for the visible year, leather mixed with sackcloth will make a batch of Novgorod new clothes. Changing new clothes is a good thing that can be shown everywhere in ancient society. With the help of this generated domestic demand market, I can earn some scissors difference income.

For Fodegen, Novgorod is a novel place. For his inner consideration, he is not willing to just settle in Novgorod and move to a new area. Obviously, he can run a workshop in Novgorod. Good, why leave?

Since the prince issued a request in winter, he did not dare to disobey, and now the fleet has entered the Volkhov River running north-south.

The fleet of small boats from afar is really a distinguished guest. The arrival of Verdegen with the entire professional team did not cause much turbulence. Only Rurik was very happy. What made him happy was not even Fodeken himself, but the group of skilled workers under his command.

There is such a small group, their identities are all female slaves, and their own value is very pure. They are professional tailors, a group of tailors who are completely separated from the production of the land, relying on making clothes for their masters to survive, so even though they have excellent skills, they are still frantically exploited by the masters. As the master, Fodgen felt that he was a good person, and the so-called leader of his own, all the women have long ended in a tragic end.

Rurik greeted the apprehensive Fodgen with a smile, and after a chat at the pier, he invited him into the palace and had a secret conversation in a separate room.

This move made Fodgen even more uneasy.

The room is almost airtight, the outdoors is a small spring, and the interior is quite dark, and still needs oil lamps to illuminate.

"My lord, what do you mean, there are secrets to talk to me?"

"Exactly. I... ask you to make a concession." Rurik hesitated, but still described firmly.

"What is it? It will never be me building a workshop in Novgorod. Do you have a new resolution? You can do it. Actually, I would like to build a workshop in Novgorod."

"Oh? Do you despise this place?"

"No." Fo Degen hurriedly denied and echoed: "I can have today's wealth thanks to your help. Under your protection, there is no problem with the safety of my wealth."

"Yeah, you're getting old too."

"Me? I'm older, at least much younger than that old guy from Gould."

"You're still old, and you should use events as your life."

Rurik was obviously trying to hide it, and Fodgen was a little impatient, but he didn't dare to ask more, so he could only tentatively ask: "What exactly do you mean."

"Then I'll make it clear. I see you as all female slaves."

"Ah? They? You..." Ford wanted to say it was very absurd, as if the prince had taken a fancy to the looks of those slaves. Wait a minute, those are a group of old mothers, how beautiful they are. It was because he realized the absurdity that Fodgen hurriedly shut up for fear that he would lose his words if he talked too much.

"It's those slave girls. Me!" Rurik patted his chest hard, "I decided to buy them."

"Ah! You!?" Fodgen understood everything in an instant, and his face became hideous and frightened when he stood up suddenly, "You want to take away my wealth? That's my lifeblood, I'm a garment merchant ."

"Sit down first!" Rurik scolded, causing the other party to collapse in a hurry. "You think I'm killing you? Ridiculous. I was afraid that you would be too nervous to meet you in the back room. If you think my request is outrageous, then talk slowly. I tell you clearly, you still have to stay in Nov Gorod builds a permanent garment workshop, it's just that it becomes very different from what you understand."

In this way, Rurik showed his attitude. Because the core of the garment workshop is those female slaves, they are a group of skilled workers, whoever controls them can immediately build the factory. As far as financial resources are concerned, no one can challenge the prince, Rurik's operation is to directly nationalize the purely private workshops that are responsible for their own profits and losses.

Rurik gestured with both hands to describe the grand occasion: "You don't have to pay for the construction of the factory yourself, and you don't have to pay for the slave laborers' accommodation, food and other series of payments. I will not charge even a copper coin for your existing wealth. On the contrary, I will also pay you a sum of money to buy this group of slave laborers. You are still in this business, and I will hire you as a manager for life, and I will pay you handsomely and will not collect taxes. Isn’t that very good? Well, the purpose of your workshop is to make money, you do it according to mine, you don't have to take all the risks, you will only get paid continuously, and you will become a respected master tailor."

"Ah? Then our previous contract..."

"Is the previous contract better than my current proposal? You are smart, it's time for us to revise a better contract."

People like Verdegen belonged to the early industrial capitalists, and they were also the cornerstone of the Hanseatic League. As a businessman, he made a surprise calculation, although he thought it was strange, after all, this must be a sure-fire business.

I think that I have already fallen into the hands of the prince, and if I want to refuse, I will be killed by this kid.

Prince Rurik doesn't look like a handsome man on the surface, but he is a madman who kills and kills fiercely. He must not be deceived by the kindness he shows now, and the prince's orders must not be disobeyed.

With a long sigh, Fodgen felt that his great life had come to an end, and that the next step was to be forced to work for the prince.

Just after landing, a secret contract was signed and directly replaced the old contract.

In a sense, the garment workshop that Verdegen has been running for 20 years has ceased to exist. The factories in the old town of Roseburg or the Birka market have all been sold, and the garment workshop no longer has any heavy assets. , there is only a batch of soft and a group of slave workers that can be transported quickly, these are light assets.

For a long time, the Slavs in the Novgorod region were all made in family workshops, with women sitting at home and operating primitive looms to make linen and make clothes. In principle, they all hope to make better clothes. Of course, they have already mastered very advanced woven fabric technology. Due to the lack of materials and tools, they cannot sew high-end goods, especially the lack of leather and woolen garments.

In fact, aside from Fodkin himself, Rurik was still able to appoint Broma, the mother of Fisk, a close comrade-in-arms, as a master tailor, and quickly pulled out a professional textile team.

Now that Fodgen agrees with the new policy, it is necessary to fake a state-run textile workshop and hire these two managers (factory directors) and one technical director.

On the issue of paying for money, Rurik was happy. Naturally, the biggest reason was that his treasury had always been full of treasuries because of past wars and plunder. He bought the ownership of all the female slaves in Fodegan at a price 10% higher than the market price, and his next move is fantastic.

For those slave laborers, they were very happy to be the heirs of the prince himself. Everyone praised that doing business for the king was always profitable, and everyone's treatment would be better.

On the second day after Fodergen's arrival, all fifty slave laborers were led to the gate of the palace, a small open space.

Rurik directly announced in public: "You! All textile slave workers! You will have the opportunity to be completely free! Work for me for five years and you will be free. Once the five-year period is up, you can continue to do it. Tailor's work, and then I will give you extra pay..."

The prince never broke his promise, he promised room and board and one day off a week, especially the absolute freedom he would get after five years, including the possibility of marriage. Therefore, some young slave workers can still get married and have children. At that time, according to the promise of the prince, they will completely become "Ross natives" and belong to the first echelon of subjects in the hierarchical society of the duchy.

They were moved to tears of joy, and put aside the matter of freedom for the time being. The prince will provide you with more living materials, and maybe promise a rest day every six days. Fodgen would not give all of this, after all, in the eyes of that man, the sisters were all destined to be bulls and horses for a lifetime.

But they still can't rely on Verdegen's management. Although everyone doesn't understand it, we still have to meet each other day and night.

To build a new factory building in the city, fortunately, Novgorod encircled a lot of open space when it was encircling the wall. The city is not the city of White Tree Manor, and the population of other ethnic groups is almost all techies, and they are destined to fill the space of the city.

A plaque covered with chalk mud and coated with carbon black was made in advance. It marked three words, and together it was "Principality Tailoring Factory".

This is the first state-run textile factory in the Principality of Rus. All assets belong to Rurik personally. Of course, on the principle of "I am the state", it is also state-run.

The final form of leather is to become a variety of clothing, and there are processing profits and logistics profits in each link. Rurik’s direct access to the upstream and downstream of the industry, from catching small animals to making leather coats, completes the industrial ecological closed loop, Eat up the profits that an industry can make.

The workplace is some large longhouses in the style of woodcut corrugations, which combine the two styles of Viking Slavic buildings, and are most suitable for intensive workshop-style manual tailoring. The same dormitory area follows the same construction principle. Workers will sleep in Datongpu, but the building is built to accommodate 200 people at once.

How can a state-run factory be just a small workshop with fifty people? The factory dormitory can only accommodate 200 people, and this is only the manpower for the current stage.

The plaque is currently hanging on the newly installed pile foundation column, and the load-bearing wooden piles of the first batch of houses can be described as rapid construction under the reward.

Now there are two large construction sites in the city: a school and a garment factory.

More than 1,000 villagers, male and female, were employed, and the men were paid a pound of wheat a day, and Rurik provided food for the labor.

The thriving urban construction also led to the rapid extinction of the forests outside the city. In the end, people even threw the roots of the trees to level the land. This is the so-called "requesting farmland from the forest". The urban construction and the pioneering movement were carried out at the same time, and everyone who participated in it gained profits, and Rurik himself gained more prestige.

From this scene, the Kyiv horse riders are amazed. They saw that the horses they had sold had already been involved in the work of pulling carts, and they fixed their eyes on those horses that were all mares.

Where are the two stallions? The horses noticed that the Rus Principality nation was waiting for the farmland to become a little harder, and they had already prepared all kinds of farm implements. Horses were authorized to visit the farming routes and were also promised free meals in exchange for their labor.

While waiting, they stumbled across two stallions. The speculation came true, and the Rus people are indeed breeding the local ponies with Pecheneg horses!

Finally, the spring ploughing in 836 began!

The Rus people who have made adequate preparations sowed wheat seeds this spring in various places. Compared with last year, more wheat seeds were sown this year, and in the Lake Ilmen area, because a large number of people who hid in the woods burrowed out of the forest, more people were sown. put into agricultural production. Taking into account the various grades of fields in the area around the lake, as many as 30,000 hectares of fields have been sown with various crops, among which oats, wheat and rye are naturally the absolute mainstream. Onions, yellow-rooted carrots and cabbage, the three oldest vegetables, are also sown in batches.

Naturally there is also flax, which is widely grown in the southern part of the lake.

Rurik set an example in his noble status as a prince. He cultivated the crops himself, and to this end he wrote self-proclaimed articles on paper to publicize it to the people. He personally manipulated the image of the Quyuan Plough and painted it by himself. Not to mention, compared to a group of "handicapped" people, Rurik, who knew a certain amount of sketching knowledge, properly drew a "spring ploughing scene".

This show is to draw in the relationship with the most populous Slavs, and also to experience the use of the curved plough, which integrates the plough, sowing and burying of seeds.

He even used a trick, which was to get ten Kyiv horses to try the beauty of the curved plough and the bound seeder.

Almost instantly, his goal was achieved.

Maksakey asked Rurik, who was dusty, directly in the field: "Sir, this kind of plow is very beautiful. How much does it cost, let's buy it!"

"You want to buy it? Why buy it? I'll give you a set! Hold on, this is for you Kyiv chiefs. Especially you!" Rurik patted Sakyi on the shoulder, "You will return soon, You tell your chief what you have seen and heard in Ross, and tell him about our support for peaceful trade. We expect more merchants to bring goods to Ross."