Chapter 75: Silk Stockings Manufacturing Industry
Robb stood at the door of the spider room and looked inside. He saw four large spiders still chained to iron pillars. Around one of the big spiders, numerous eggs were scattered, and the eggs were covered with spider silk. All well protected.
The big spider that laid eggs had a shriveled belly and seemed to have lost a lot of energy.
Robb said with tears and laughter, “Did this happen today?"
Lillian and the four middle-aged women who had been invited to help weave and sew socks hid in the distance, poking their heads inside in fear, and nodded when they heard Robb's question. "Yes, it wasn't like that yesterday."
One woman said, "No wonder this big spider was not willing to spin silk yesterday. It was about to lay eggs."
"This is really scary." Lillian said, "we can still raise them a few dozen eggs, but we can't care for all of them, master. It seems that we can only get rid of more than half of the eggs and leave only a small part of them. Otherwise, if these hundreds of eggs hatch simultaneously, little spiders will run all over the ground. Disgusting."
Robb was actually thinking about this, but he glanced at the middle-aged woman next to him and suddenly thought of hundreds of such women in Westwind town. They were idle, so he laughed and said, "it's too wasteful to dispose of it. This kind of spider silk can be used to make silk stockings and can be sold at a good price, so it can form a very good industry. I'll build a big factory. We’ll hatch these hundreds of spider eggs, use them for silk spinning, and then hire all the women in the town. Let's create the fifth largest industry for Westwind Town-- Silk Stockings Manufacturing Industry.”
At present, there are only four industries in Westwind Town, namely, mining, hunting, agriculture, and herbalism. Apart from agriculture, the 3 industries are all high-risk and heavy physical work, and only men can do it. Westwind women do not have any real value except for helping their families do some farm work.
Undoubtedly, Robb hiring all the women in the town will be a great act of charity.
The four middle-aged women nearby gave Robb their most courteous bow, "praise the God of Light, praise Father Robb!"
"I don’t indulge in praise." Robb said with a smile, "go to someone and call the cloth merchant in the town for me. I'm going to build this factory, but I can't do it without the help of the cloth merchant."
Soon after, the cloth merchant was invited.
The cloth merchant in Westwind Town is actually a very small merchant. When Robb first bought Lillian a month ago, he went to the cloth merchant to buy black dye. As soon as he saw Robb, the merchant quickly saluted his father. Then he stood with his hand down and said, "You called for me? What can I do for you?"
Robb smiled and said, "you must know I use spider silk to make silk stockings?"
The town was too small to keep secrets, and the white stockings on Lillian's legs were too conspicuous. The whole town actually knew that Robb was making silk stockings since there was no privacy law here.
The cloth merchant nodded quickly, "Yes, I know."
Robb said, "my spiders suddenly laid hundreds of eggs. I wanted to burn them all, but when I thought about it, I thought it was too wasteful. I might as well care for all these spiders and build a large silk stocking factory. But, you know, I'm very busy. "
As soon as he said this, a strange expression flashed across the cloth merchant's face, and although he did not speak, Robb seemed to hear him say, "cut!"
Robb, “What’s that look on your face?"
The cloth merchant hurriedly said, "No! I didn’t show any expression.”
"Well, then I’ll continue." Robb put on a pondering face, "where were we? Oh, right, I just mentioned that I am very busy.”
Cloth merchant, "cut!"
Robb, "Damn it, you didn't just look express it this time. You actually said cut."
Cloth merchant: "…..."
Robb said, "forget it. Let’s get down to business. I don't have time to do things like factory and operations management, so I think you are very suitable to become a professional manager or factory director. "
"Huh?" The cloth merchant looked a little excited, "really?"
Robb said, “Most of the townspeople in this town are small producers, small craftsmen, who can't even do the simplest math. Only you, a merchant, can make the overall arrangements and calculations. I think you can do it. "
The cloth merchant was inexplicably moved!
Robb said, "if you only sell linen and cotton cloth, you won’t make much money. Following me to make silk stockings and high-end goods is a better way to get to the top. I won't talk any more nonsense. I'll just ask you if you want to work for me."
"Yes, of course, I want to!" The cloth merchant hurriedly agreed.
In fact, the cloth merchant knew very well how valuable the stockings were because he and the traveling merchant were good friends.
The cloth merchant’s supplier is the traveling merchant, and every time the traveling merchant comes to Westwind Town, he will bring him some cloth and let him sell it in his store.
Because of this, every time the traveling businessman comes to Westwind Town, he will have a chat with him.
A few days ago, the traveling merchant came to Westwind Town and bought a small number of silk stockings from Robb. At that time, he sighed to the cloth merchant, saying that these silk stockings were the only good items in the Fengmo Continent, and the dignitaries absolutely liked them. It sells for a high price, but the quantity is too small.
The cloth merchant listened to it and kept it in mind, but he could not get involved, and now Robb suddenly wanted to leave the business to him to manage, which was a great joy for him.
"Father, just tell me what you want me to do. I’ll do my best!"
He thought about it and said, "the first thing is to build a factory. You need to ask some townspeople to help and pay them. Just build it on a piece of land on the hillside behind my chapel. Pay attention to the problem of raising the spiders first. Ask some experienced hunters to guide us on how to build a house most suitable for raising spiders in large numbers. "
The cloth merchant wrote it all down quickly.
Robb smiled, "While the factory is under construction, you have to hire people. The division of labor must be made with precision. It should be divided into at least four groups of people. One group needs men who’ll be mainly responsible for raising spiders and nothing else. The second group should be all women. They only need to weave cloth and don't care about anything else. The third group also needs women. They’ll be responsible for sewing the woven cloth into silk stockings and nothing else. The fourth group is responsible for counting the number of silk stockings, putting them in the warehouse, managing them well, and shipping them to the traveling merchant when he buys them. If the traveling merchants can't catch up with our production speed, we can set up a caravan for the fourth group and ship the stockings to the Bright Road.”