Pioneer Lord: Starting From Daily Intelligence

Chapter 558: Chapter 22: Financial Review · Meeting Adjourned

The equipment forged by dwarves can be said to be the main financial support of the Hesse Territory.

Su Li had to pay attention to the scale of last year’s forging activities.

In this regard, the dwarves have precise statistics. Belos Dragon Hammer immediately reported, ”This year, we have produced and repaired a total of over 24,500 farming tools.”

”16,800 fine-level weapons, 2,750 sets of fine-level armor, and 120 sets of Vibranium Rune Armor.”

Hearing this, Su Li quickly calculated that the fine-level armor alone consumed as much as 330,000 jin of fine gold and steel.

The most important feature of dwarven fine-level armor is the heavy armor with thick defense. As armor crafted by dwarves for elite knights, each set of plate armor weighs over 120 Imperial jin, nearly double the weight of the heavy plate armor worn by ordinary human soldiers. You should know that the heavy plate armor of ordinary mortals weighs 50 to 70 jin.

The muscle density and endurance of elite knights far exceed those of ordinary soldiers. If only considering weight, the heavy can could be even heavier, breaking through 200 Imperial jin is not impossible.

However, under the dwarves’ exquisite metal processing artistry, the heavy plate armor is not only for protection but also showcases their craftsmanship. Therefore, many parts are intricately crafted to achieve higher level protection with lower weight.

To supply so much armor, nearly a million jin of iron ore is needed.

Fortunately, both iron mines in the Hesse Territory are giant rich mines. The iron ore content of one averages as high as 57%, and the other even reaches an average high of 63%!

This means that out of 10 jin of iron ore, the smelted iron ingots can be as high as 5 to 7 jin.

This extremely high-quality rich iron ore is truly a generous resource from the heavens, not to mention it also contains a considerable amount of Vibranium.

Of course, the scale mentioned by the dwarves is not entirely newly crafted armor, including the maintenance and repair of Vibranium Rune Armor, much of it was for post-war maintenance and restoration.

After all, in the many wars in the Hesse Territory, in each battle, knights in fine plate armor had to withstand the slashing and hacking of monsters.

At its peak, in a war of over 5,000 people, the losses after each battle were an extremely massive number.

But even so, subtracting the losses, the Hesse Territory currently holds nearly 1,000 sets of fine-level armor. Most of the rest have been sold to large knight orders, church congregations, adventurers, and free people’s corps.

For instance, the Corona Knight Order, Fallen Wolf Mercenary Corps, and Blue Heron Mercenary Corps are three major customers of Hesse Territory’s armor.

Even the Corona Knight Order bought as many as 14 sets of Vibranium Rune Armor from the Hesse Territory.

Their purchases greatly alleviated the financial pressure of the Hesse Territory.

Belos Dragon Hammer provided a detailed report, ”This year, the average selling price of heavy plate armor externally is 45 Golden Crowns, which is a very high price. Thanks to the wars in the southeastern direction of the Empire’s Sulande Province with the Green Skin and the southwestern province’s war with the Vampire Legion, the prices of weapons and armor in Marle Castle have soared. At the peak, the armor price once reached nearly 67 Golden Crowns, an unprecedented level. So, the profit is around 35,000 Golden Crowns.”

Regarding this figure, Su Li had no concept; he felt that 35,000 Golden Crowns was indeed a vast fortune, even accounting for a third of the compensation from the Green Dragon.

At this point, the Governor Oliver stood up and began to summarize for everyone, saying, ”This year’s profit is relatively considerable because the price of fine-level equipment sold externally is 2 to 3 times that of previous years. The profit margin of a single set of armor is close to 400%. However, as the Empire begins to counterattack, the wars in the southwest and southeast directions are gradually stabilizing, and the price of armor will return to normal next year. If dwarf armor falls below 30 Golden Crowns per set, our wealth will struggle to support the current scale of military equipment and the Craftsmen’s Guild in the Territory.”

”Based on 800 dwarf artisans, their yearly wages alone amount to 50,000 Golden Crowns. This doesn’t even account for the miners who provide upstream raw material supplies and the merchants, caravan members involved in selling weapons, and so on.”

”Of course, this year, most of the dwarves’ equipment prioritized replenishing our Territory’s army, which is also a significant factor affecting their profit.”

”Therefore, to reverse the fiscal deficit, we must approach from two directions next year. Firstly, reduce the scale and intensity of wars. A military campaign mobilizing 3,000 people, considering the consumption of provisions, the cost of carriages and horses, equipment wear and tear, and so on, amounts to a wealth consumption of at least 30,000 Golden Crowns. Thus, reducing unnecessary military actions, optimizing strategic deployment, stockpiling provisions, training troops, reinforcing the army, and improving combat power will be the key to saving expenses.”

”Secondly, we need to reduce costs and increase efficiency, further enhancing the dwarves’ production efficiency, streamlining the transportation of ore, and enabling the dwarves to produce more equipment to create greater economic value for the Territory.”

After listening to Oliver’s speech, the smiles on everyone’s faces became more restrained. Indeed, industry can create wealth several times greater than agriculture.

But the problem is, the consumption of these occupational workers, freed from agriculture, is also a significant expenditure.

They not only consume a large amount of food but also incur enormously high wage expenditures.

Conservatively estimated, the industrial and commercial population of the Hesse Territory totals 2,000 people, most of whom are directly employed by the Bauhinia family, producing directly for the Su Li owned aristocratic artisans.

If you add the army, the monthly financial expenditure is an astronomical number.