Chapter 40: Meeting Oswald (2)

"Another piece of advice I would like to give you is in regards to worker hours. I advise you to have them work 5 days per week. 8 hours a day." Kant said.

"5 days a week?" he asks. Oswald takes another small piece of pizza he cut into his mouth.

"Yes. You can convince them by offering higher wages overall. Money has been proved to be a great incentive for people to act in specific ways." Oswald gulps his slice.

"I certainly agree about that statement sire."

"With people working more, compounded with specialization and division of labor, a factory will be able to produce far more, and reach economies of scale." Kant replied.

"I beg your pardon sire?" Oswald asked before taking another bite.

"Economies of scale is where the average costs per unit of output decrease with the increase in the of output being produced in a factory, workshop or any other location. The more you produce, the more cheaper each individual product made will be.

This will give you an advantage over other products, which will have the same quality as your theoretical product, while being cheaper. The result would be obvious to you then. I have evidence to back this up." Kant replied. He takes out a piece of rolled paper in his suit and hands it over to Oswald.

Oswald opened it up to find a chart. It showed the each cost of 1 bag of cement with the amount of quantity produced. The graph showed Oswald that there was a great decrease in cost per unit, though it did slow down as it continued.

"I will accept this answer." he replied after he swallowed.

"Previously you said something about working 5 days a week. Can you please elaborate further on that statement." Oswald asks Kant.

"The worker should work on the first two days of the week, a full day break on Ducesore, then the another three workdays with the final day of the week as another break."

"What are the purpose of those breaks? Wouldn't it be better if I just give a one day break, or even no breaks while offering even higher wages?" Oswald asks.

"Two reasons. The first in which for the workers to be able to use the wages he earned to buy goods. It gives time for a consumer base to use their money, which they will on what is likely to be the cheapest product assuming the quality is the same, yours.

The second is for them to boost productivity. Exhausted workers would not produce as much as well rested workers, which is why there are two separate breaks for them. That is it's purpose." Oswald smiled at what Kant had told him.

"Thank you for the advice sire, I gladly appreciate it. Though I sense a problem."

"What would that be Mr. Oswald?"

"The church themselves won't find your ideas to be... moral. The incentive provided being money, is something the church views as to spend the least of. With the people being overwhelmingly religious, do you have any counters to that?" Oswald asks.

"Currently I am undergoing construction of schools to educate the population to read and write. In these schools. I intend to use these schools, a place of learning, to tarnish the distrust of money from the public conscious."

"Will it involve attacking the church themselves?"

"No. It would rather look like a reinterpretation of their words. It would not be shrewd to go against such a large institution. Is my answer satisfactory?" Kant said.

"For now, yes." Oswald replies.

"Is that all you want Mr. Oswald?"

"No... That's not all. Do have any plans for the future of the city? It would be a shame if someone as intelligent as yourself lack ambition to grow this city. " Oswald asks. Kant smiled at his complement.

"There are multiple yes. My main focus however would be the economic system." he replied. Oswald sat straight on his chair to concentrate on what Kant was about to say.

"In our current economic model, there is not much room for social mobility. If a person is born to, say a farmer, then that person is most likely to become a farmer. Even if he is better off working in some other area of the economy, most people won't because they can't. Since most people in the city are farmers, the chances a potential genius is wasting his life is the reality.

That is why I believe the current economic reality that I consider a waste of human resources."

"Does sire have any ideas on how you could fix this problem you see?"

"Yes. I hope to break down barriers to economic freedom, industrialize the city, and shift toward from the feudalistic economy to a free market capitalist economy."

"Can you elaborate the terms sire? I don't quite understand."  Oswald asks.

"Industrialization is just moving away from agriculture to anything else, be manufacturing, services or such with the exception of hunting and gathering.

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A free market capitalist economy is when the prices are determined by unrestricted competition between privately owned businesses and when trade and industry is controlled by private owners with the motivation for profit, rather than by the state.

Did I make myself clear?"

"Yes sire you did. I would like to hear more sire."

"There are multiple pillars that will support the transition. First is specialization and the division of labor, which you have already heard. The second is the corporate registrar and patent registrar I am currently setting up and the third is the establishment of a more fair and robust legal system that protects the economic freedom of the individual. Do you have any questions?"

"Yes, many. First of all, why would you go for what you call a market economy. Though it does sound... wonderful. Won't it hurt your power? Won't private individuals become more powerful themselves that could hinder their own interests?" Oswald asked

"For any normal person to enter a wealthy position like yourself, they would have had to work hard to give everyone something they wanted. It depends on their skills, talents, intelligence and so on. People like that ultimately make the society and nation stronger and better than before.

Currently, there are a lot of barriers for anyone to do what they please economically. What I want is to break down those barriers in order for those intelligent group of people hidden amongst society to rise up. Of course there will be other factors at play like luck, and some will pay dirty, but that is where government intervention comes in.

My job as the head of government would be to level the playing field as so there is as little of an advantage against anyone else. I am there to break up any monopolies or cartels that would hike up prices to make more profit, or male laws outlawing certain practices because that hurts my interests.

With the industrialization of the city, I hope to grow the wealth of everybody, which would help me in maintaining the city and even expand it's influence." he said.

"Do you have any questions?" Kant asked.

"Yes I do." Oswald replied.

"By all means then, proceed."

"You mentioned that you wanted to move the economy away from agriculture towards... anything else. But if there isn't a sufficient amount of farmers, how will food be produced to feed the city?"

"Two methods. First is the use of more efficient methods like four field farming, which I have already instructed the farmers to do so. The second is to substitute labor with advanced machinery that I want invented." Kant replied.

"Advanced machinery?"

"Specifically machinery that would specialize in a certain task of a manufacturing process of a good. This would make the process of doing a certain task a lot easier. Take textiles for example. A machinery capable to churning out more yarn at a faster rate would increase the productivity of it. Therefor, thanks to economies of scales, cheaper to produce."

"You seem to have a lot of knowledge regarding this field. Who was your teacher."

"An old friend of mine named Martin told me. God bless his soul... So do we have a deal?" Kant asked.

"I beg your pardon sire?"

"Regarding the cement. You have currently not accepted nor declined in purchasing 60 tons of cement for 175 silver coins."

"Of course. I accept sire." Kant smiled.

"When will the shipment be delivered?"

"When will I receive the product?"

"The day after tomorrow. On the 2nd of Asinus. Morning."

"Assuming that I departure in the morning, I will be able to deliver it on around the 9th evening. It would take about a week at most." Oswald replied.

"Good. I would also like to ask you a favor."

"That is sire?"

"Spread the word of what I talked. I need all the support I need."

Oswald smiled. "I understand sire."

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