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Industrialization Quest

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Kelenas said:
Which could potentially become an issue for us in some regards. If, for example, we set up a textile mill with spinning jennies and the like, we could easily face a lot of backlash from peasant families worried about their livelihood, given they'd lose the income from spinning yarn over winter.
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Something like a textile mill with textile weaving stuff could also get put into the same mental bucket as the mine and/or the flour mill, where it's an asset we own that the villagers can use to make their work easier which they pay us to use but boosts their productivity enough to more than earn that payment back in extra production.

Which is great for not getting immediate backlash, but also means that Profit from additional stuff is capped by internal Neiswald demand for each potential good rather than the full extent of the increase in productivity new inventions add.
 
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Nesiwald Census Results
  • Informational
    • A Summary of the Census of the King's Village of Nesiwald, Taken in the Month of February 1138.

    The village of Nesiwald consists of 227 individual households spread over approximately one mile. All families but two (Mr. Smith - Blacksmith, Mr. Bismarck - Steward) perform some form of Farming, Herding, or Forestry work as their primary employment.

    Sketch of Village Layout with Notable Features:
    (Note: A few homes are located some distance away from the central settlement)

    Distribution of Ages:

    325 Adult Men of Working Age,
    363 Adult Women of Working Age,
    79 Elderly Men,
    114 Elderly Women,
    302 Young Boys,
    287 Young Girls,
    For a total of 1480 people.

    Additionally 46 Men and 5 Women of Nesiwald are noted to have joined the King's armies or otherwise left for other parts but whose families report an intent to return, and there were 88 Babes and Infants when this count was taken, who are not counted as their survival is uncertain.

    Distribution of Work:

    192 Households hold traditional farms, owning fields pastures in the surrounding areas of the village itself. Most households own one to three cattle and perhaps a goat, sheep, or pig as well. Crops grown include Wheat and Winter Wheat, Barley, Rye, various Legumes, certain Vegetables, and a great many Potatoes.
    --62 of these farming households are counted as Cottars, those poorer folk who do not own animals or fine tools of their own and often perform undesirable labor like ditch and latrine digging, mining, and so on.
    27 Households own herds of animals, including Cattle, Sheep, Goats, and Pigs. Mostly Goats. These folk are seen as wealthier and better off, however it seems like they suffer some trouble finding adequate grazing land as the surroundings of Nesiwald are quite hilly and forested.
    6 Households earn their living with Forestry work, this including Hunting and Trapping, as well as the gathering of firewood and cutting of lumber in the forests.
    1 Household is a Master Blacksmith currently training one Apprentice (Note: This has increased drastically to 4 Apprentices since, and one Apprentice is soon approaching Journeyman status)
    1 Household is the Steward's Household whose work consists of management and oversight as well as improvements to the land and village.

    There are no folk who make their whole livings from specialized craft such as Carpentry, Tanning, Weaving, and so on besides the Master Smith and Steward. Rather, such work is done depending on who has relevant skills during evenings and especially during the winter. In the full census individuals noted to earn much of their living through crafts are noted.

    There is also a Mine to the east of Nesiwald, which supplies the Master Smith with much metal to perform his work with. No households make their whole living laboring in the Mine, rather folk who want or need extra coin (particularly Cottars) will spend some of their days breaking and hauling ore. (Note: Steward of Nesiwald purchased the mine and made significant improvements to the tooling and trails in April 1138)

    (The papers continue for several pages to detail every single family in the village and identify what fields and houses they own)
     
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  • Informational
    • Rockeye said:
    however it seems like they suffer some trouble finding adequate grazing land as the surroundings of Nesiwald are quite hilly and forested.
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    Since hills are fairly typically used as grazing land due to the difficulty of using them for agriculture (unless it's for certain crops such as grapes, for example), while animals don't particularly care about that, I'm guessing it's the "forested" part that's the issue?

    Rockeye said:
    Sketch of Village Layout with Notable Features:
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    Huh; looks like the water mill will be located more or less directly inside the village. My initial impression was that the site was a fair bit outside the village.

    Rockeye said:
    For a total of 1480 people.
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    This kinda keeps bothering me. With nearly one and a half thousand inhabitants, I'm pretty sure Nesiwald should qualify as a town by medieval-ish standards, so, is the reason it's still considered a village a political matter? Ie, in much of medieval Europe there were town/city charters which would grant a settlement certain privileges, such as its inhabitants being free burghers instead of serfs, or rights like the building of proper town/city walls or raising certain tolls or taxes, and often placed said settlement under the direct protection/authority of the kingdom's ruler. The latter of course often being to the detriment of whichever feudal lord previously ruled over said settlement, who'd thus have an interest in preventing a town/city charter from being granted...
    Though from everything in the story so far it seems like Nesiwald is already under royal control, what with paying taxes directly to the crown if I understand correctly?

    Or am I just reading way too much into this? :p
     
    If there are a lot of oaks among the trees, we might want to buy some pigs. After all jamon iberico is among the most expensive hams out there and those pigs eat mostly acorns.
     
    Maybe it really ought to be a town by now, because it's grown beyond its bounds, but it's kind of in the middle of nowhere and important political figures haven't gotten around to updating it. The definition of a town is sometimes given as "a settlement with fixed boundaries and a defined local government", which Nesiwald isn't.

    Something to note: Veschwar actually has a shortage of nobles compared to its land. A lot of lands are governed directly by the Lord Governors, who are basically the King's direct underlings, but the Lord Governors have little attention to spare for nowhere villages given all their other duties and haven't really learned the art of delegation, so villages are therefore basically left to their own devices aside from getting taxed and sending soldiers through to keep them safe or "keep them safe" if the officer is corrupt. It's a source of tension among the nobles and populace, when nobles are troubled by the king having too much direct power and a lot of these rural villages were used to doing their own thing a long time chafing when they are suddenly "given" to some knight guy, as much of a war hero as he is. (The King will knight and give a village to war heroes once in a while, or give some noble family's second son a new name and charter in exchange for support on this or that.)
     
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    Let's see how my luck is in this thread!

    Edit: Well that's not great.
    PonKatt threw 1 100-faced dice. Reason: IDK Total: 35
    35 35
     
    Oh, that's alright. I needed a second one anyway.
     
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    Rockeye said:
    A Summary of the Census of the King's Village of Nesiwald, Taken in the Month of February 1138.

    The village of Nesiwald consists of 227 individual households spread over approximately one mile. All families but two (Mr. Smith - Blacksmith, Mr. Bismarck - Steward) perform some form of Farming, Herding, or Forestry work as their primary employment.

    Sketch of Village Layout with Notable Features:
    (Note: A few homes are located some distance away from the central settlement)

    Distribution of Ages:

    325 Adult Men of Working Age,
    363 Adult Women of Working Age,
    79 Elderly Men,
    114 Elderly Women,
    302 Young Boys,
    287 Young Girls,
    For a total of 1480 people.

    Additionally 46 Men and 5 Women of Nesiwald are noted to have joined the King's armies or otherwise left for other parts but whose families report an intent to return, and there were 88 Babes and Infants when this count was taken, who are not counted as their survival is uncertain.

    Distribution of Work:

    192 Households hold traditional farms, owning fields pastures in the surrounding areas of the village itself. Most households own one to three cattle and perhaps a goat, sheep, or pig as well. Crops grown include Wheat and Winter Wheat, Barley, Rye, various Legumes, certain Vegetables, and a great many Potatoes.
    --62 of these farming households are counted as Cottars, those poorer folk who do not own animals or fine tools of their own and often perform undesirable labor like ditch and latrine digging, mining, and so on.
    27 Households own herds of animals, including Cattle, Sheep, Goats, and Pigs. Mostly Goats. These folk are seen as wealthier and better off, however it seems like they suffer some trouble finding adequate grazing land as the surroundings of Nesiwald are quite hilly and forested.
    6 Households earn their living with Forestry work, this including Hunting and Trapping, as well as the gathering of firewood and cutting of lumber in the forests.
    1 Household is a Master Blacksmith currently training one Apprentice (Note: This has increased drastically to 4 Apprentices since, and one Apprentice is soon approaching Journeyman status)
    1 Household is the Steward's Household whose work consists of management and oversight as well as improvements to the land and village.

    There are no folk who make their whole livings from specialized craft such as Carpentry, Tanning, Weaving, and so on besides the Master Smith and Steward. Rather, such work is done depending on who has relevant skills during evenings and especially during the winter. In the full census individuals noted to earn much of their living through crafts are noted.

    There is also a Mine to the east of Nesiwald, which supplies the Master Smith with much metal to perform his work with. No households make their whole living laboring in the Mine, rather folk who want or need extra coin (particularly Cottars) will spend some of their days breaking and hauling ore. (Note: Steward of Nesiwald purchased the mine and made significant improvements to the tooling and trails in April 1138)

    (The papers continue for several pages to detail every single family in the village and identify what fields and houses they own)
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    If my understanding of history is correct then I am a bit surprised that individual families seem to own land and farm by themselves in the village. It was my understanding that before the rise of capitalism most peasantry (at least in Europe, though I think elsewhere too) peasants tended to farm communally and it wasn't until the enclosure of the commons and the privatization of that land by landlords that families began to have more individualized farms.

    Speaking of which, not particularly looking forward to the violent proletarianization that is probably (absent us gaining significant political power & mass political education campaigns) going to accompany our plans for the spread of industrialization.
     
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    Batty Wise Woman
  • Threadmarks
    • "You would let black magic fester and build instead of investigating-"

    "Nothing magic about it. Plagues is plagues. Cow poxes are cow poxes. All we can do is put the beasts out of their misery and move on. Planting's not done!"

    "We have to make a decision soon. Decide, and act on it, then stick to it."

    "Will we make it a vote, then?"

    "If we come to an agreement that this is a serious matter that needs religious investigation there's no need to get into that."

    "You and your curses, I swear to Ordnil I'll-"

    "Shut it, you two! We are being civil."

    "Right, real Azmal-damned civil."

    [Oratory: 35 + 14 (Personal Diplomacy) + 10 (Discovered the Crisis) = 59]

    You choose that moment to speak up.

    "If I may..." They turn to you. "There's not so many sick animals that caring for them a while is unsustainable. I think we should send for herbalists and wise women. Mr. Gemmens and Mrs. Rothschild seem to know where to find such. If someone can heal them, great! If they die, we're not much worse off than before. If they can't be saved, that's fate, but no need to be hasty about it, right?"

    "Oh, aye, we should see if we can save the animals. Near two dozen families could lose a whole lot, isn't it worth trying to prevent that? And-"

    "You're only saying that because your cows are some of the sick."

    "Oh, and what's wrong with that, eh?"

    "He has a point even if his cow is on the line," you chime in. "Or are you going to say nobody can argue his own side in anything?" There is reluctant agreement around the circle at this.

    "Hmph. The folk whose animals are sick are the ones that have to keep them alive, you hear? If it's only a few all told that won't be too much a burden on your planting."

    "Sure. Only reasonable, that. We'll get neighbors to help with the fields."

    "And if nobody's found in two weeks, or they say it's hopeless, we dispose of the poor things."

    "It's decided then. Gemmens, Rothschild, send your sons riding out, and we'll see what happens."



    [Sickened Beasts: 84 - 10 (Never Seen This) = 74]

    Eight days later, the wise woman arrives, grumpily dismounting from a wagon and demanding "Show me the bloody sick beasties, or do ye not want my help after all? And someone get me some willow bark!"

    "Willow bark cures this?"

    "Don't be daft, boy! I haven't even seen the animals. It's for my tea."

    She's dressed in heavy, dark clothes in the simple carl and cotter style, but made with materials and care more befitting that of a burgher, one of the merchant classes. One eye is milky-white but they seem to penetrate anyone they look at, the lines etched into her face by an eternal frown adding to the grumpy look. She carries a strange-smelling bag and a carved bone charm of some kind pinned to her dress, and wears a hat adorned with what is unmistakably poison ivy, for some reason.

    You have some doubts about this person. But Mr. Rothschild swears by Old Gersha's skill and knowledge, if not her manners.

    You move to introduce yourself but she brushes right past you, muttering, "Eat more potatoes, lad. Yer all bones." So instead, you follow along as she proceeds to the barn where the sick animals are isolated.

    Her inspections and rituals don't make much sense to you. There's a lot of peering and tapping and adjusting the poor lethargic cows' heads and legs and hooves, and even scraping a bit of the mucus that formed in their mouth and mixing it with a bitter-smelling paste from her bag, and reaching up their rears and feeling around without any hesitation. She also prays and performs strange rituals of chanting and shuffling around and dusting basil over the animals.

    She takes a break to have willow bark tea with the addition of some leaves pulled from her smelly bag and a hint of honey. She ignores the gathered crowd waiting for her proclamation and calmly and silently finishes her tea, then asks a litany of questions ranging from how the disease progressed to what stars were visible in the sky to everything folk have heard about the undead situation.

    At length, she declares that once all the cattle are recovered or dead, this disease will be no more concern, and looses a bevy of advice that everyone diligently nods along with. You don't know medicine, but it seems like mostly fairly common-sense things, measures to comfort and ease them as much as possible, though the addition of calf massages and exposing them to cedar smoke is more unusual and seems a bit dubious. She also names a particular ritual of Ernalda, one that you're not familiar with and nobody explains. Of course, you write it all down anyway, in exhaustive detail.

    You've no physician or herbalist, but you've seen them work before, and you know how to read people. You can't help but get the feeling that she's acting more confident than she actually feels. Maybe she's so old, now, that she no longer cares if she's wrong and just enjoys playing the batty old woman - or maybe presenting the image of a mysterious source of wisdom that might or might not bear fruit is more reassuring than being honest, in her opinion.

    And then the old bat demands a few coins, a tuft of goat's wool, for burning as an offering, and leaves almost as quickly as she arrived.

    You're not exactly going to gainsay her, however. It was on your argument that the decision to call her here in the first place was made. But the families who those sick cows belong to follow her advice religiously, considering the words of someone so strange to be clearly full of wisdom and insight. And what do you know - the cattle visibly improve for it. By month's end, whatever sort of cow pox this was has passed. The last cow is recovering, and more than half of the animals ultimately survived, though they're too weak to do much work for the rest of the season.

    Your reputation as 'noodle-armed-noble-git' takes another hit and pivots a bit more towards 'some-kind-of-clever-merchant-type'. A few people openly cheer for you and four families send you small gifts - cheese, a nice axe, and surprisingly decent beer and wine 'for helping save Bess and Sharphorn from the blackrot', and the like.

    You're just glad the mess and disruption that a cow-pox could have caused for Nesiwald has been averted. In the worst case, it could have wholly stopped the planting and set your plants back by months! Not to mention ruining families' livelihoods and possibly causing a famine. Instead, you have more goodwill with these rural folk than before, and it makes a warmth bloom in your chest to have them appreciate and praise you. Sasha, Bertram, Abram, Cornet Renns, and Timothy are all congratulatory in their own ways.

    Sasha's way is mostly grinning and joking, Bertram gives you a small carved cow 'to remind you of wisdom'. Abram publicly vouches for you to Renns and Varn, saying, "Not all who serve the King do so with an iron pig sticker!". Cornet Renns gives you a smooth nod and a small but genuine smile contrasting against Captain Varn's neutral expression. And Timothy Greens, the soon-to-be Journeyman blacksmith, tells you that he sees a brighter future with you around, mirroring your own ember of hope, to bring knowledge and progress to help everyone.

    Saving the cattle wasn't the result of the Codex Crystal's revelations, but it's still something that feels like a triumph, and extremely worthwhile. You feel as though you have earned your place in this community now, through dozens of small things and a few big ones. Through dozens of acquaintances and a few friends. Why, you almost feel closer to some of the people in Nesiwald than you ever felt about those you spent time with in court. Aside from your family, who you have very complicated feelings about... You only sort of miss the knights and servants you knew, your friends in the village and the city from cooks to clerks to minstrels.

    Part of you sneers that it's just the bounce-back from being disgraced and shamed so strongly, making the smallest bit of praise and recognition seem grand. You stuff that part in a box and bury it. Metaphorically. You're doing good work here, you're making progress, you're helping people, and that's that.

    +1 Nesiwald Approval

    Status sheet update and Turn 5 Planning will be done when they're done.

    Dialogue is hard sometimes.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Threnodist said:
    If my understanding of history is correct then I am a bit surprised that individual families seem to own land and farm by themselves in the village. It was my understanding that before the rise of capitalism most peasantry (at least in Europe, though I think elsewhere too) peasants tended to farm communally and it wasn't until the enclosure of the commons and the privatization of that land by landlords that families began to have more individualized farms.

    Speaking of which, not particularly looking forward to the violent proletarianization that is probably (absent us gaining significant political power & mass political education campaigns) going to accompany our plans for the spread of industrialization.
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    It's a hard call. Innovation causing violence seems to be more an issue when there's a big, entrenched nobility that would lose out by adopting it. Vesch... doesn't have that. Not much, at least. I figure it might cause some upset, but nothing truly difficult to work with.
     
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