God of Technology: Creating the Internet in Another World-Chapter 507: Thoughts on the Future

"Pretty unbelievable, right?"

The man looked at Emmett's expression and chuckled. "I thought so too at first, so I split my production team into two groups. One had an overseer with a whip and slaves."

"The other had a quality inspector and the same number of regular workers." 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"The slaves were just regular slaves—we fed them, housed them, but no wages."

"The other side got a really low base salary, plus piece-rate pay for extras. We didn't provide food or housing—they had to handle that themselves."

"And the result was exactly what I just told you. They produced three times as many clothes as the slaves."

"And that's even with the raw material supply chain not being totally smooth yet—sometimes we run short on materials. Otherwise, I think hitting 10,000 pieces wouldn't be a problem."

10,000 pieces no problem!

10,000 pieces!

The same number of slaves could only produce 3,000.

But these workers could produce 10,000.

Was it that they weren't squeezing every ounce of productivity out of the slaves, or were workers motivated by money really that terrifying?

Honestly, if workers were really that productive, he figured using the money he'd spend on buying slaves to hire workers instead was totally doable.

Hell, he could even sell off all his slaves and use that money to hire tons of workers...

The key thing was that using workers had another advantage—when the market was good, he could hire lots of people, and when business wasn't so hot, he could just lay some of them off.

You couldn't do that with slaves.

Once you bought them, you had to keep feeding them.

And there was another thing!

Emmett suddenly thought of something even more interesting. Buying slaves required a huge upfront investment all at once, but hiring workers?

You just paid them every month.

That way, there'd be way less pressure on his cash flow.

He could even sell off all those slaves, then use that money to expand his factory.

This was totally doable.

Once he'd grabbed the market, he could totally pull this off.

"When I get back, I'm definitely trying this."

The more Emmett thought about it, the more excited he got. If he could pull this off, for his business, it'd be like money falling from the sky.

He had no idea that this guy chatting with him so casually was actually a cleric from the Church of Technology who'd infiltrated the crowd.

Not long ago, they'd received a mission. They were supposed to blend in with these big shots, communicate with them, and convince them to use more advanced management methods.

Hiring workers was obviously one of them.

Besides that, there were tons of plans for different scenarios—from production to sales, from procurement to distribution, from franchise systems to partnership models... they even included some advanced knowledge about factory operations.

For simpler stuff, they'd just explain it directly this way.

For more complex things, they'd choose another approach—give a rough overview, talk about how amazing their own factory was after implementing it, then tell the person they could find more details in the Magic Net Books function.

Stuff like that.

The inauguration ceremony for the ultra-high-speed rail system was packed with all kinds of these 'undercover agents.' With their efforts, if all went according to plan, when these people returned to their hometowns after the ceremony, production systems would be further improved.

"Speaking of which, have you thought of any new business opportunities? We're all along the ultra-high-speed rail line, so if nothing goes wrong, we'll be able to easily ship our goods along the entire main line soon."

After chatting with this guy for a bit and finding him really compatible, Emmett asked cheerfully about other stuff.

This wasn't the kind of thing you'd normally discuss with someone you'd just met.

But the Church of Technology cleric was here on a mission anyway, so naturally he didn't mind discussing these things.

"The reason we chose textile and clothing factories before wasn't because we were worried about transportation issues. Shipping our products took forever, so we obviously couldn't deal with stuff that spoils easily."

The cleric said with a smile, "But now that the rail trains are opening up, we can reach more and more places."

"I think we should consider perishable goods—like local specialty fruits."

"That stuff would be totally fresh to those northerners. Even nobles haven't tried most of it. If you could find a fruit they really love, well, you can imagine."

"Fruit, huh... I figure lots of people will get into that business. After all, there's no production cost—you just buy some and ship it."

Emmett thought for a moment and realized this was indeed a good business, but it was way too simple. Tons of people would want to do it.

Especially those who used to be traveling merchants—they already had established channels.

An outsider like him jumping into this would almost certainly fail in the competition.

"I'm just giving an example. We can use this as our core inspiration and expand our thinking. Are there similar opportunities?"

The cleric said with a smile, "Like me—I'm planning to import some planting techniques from Dawn Southern Development Company to grow off-season fruit."

"Off-season fruit?" Emmett's interest was immediately piqued.

This was the first time he'd heard this concept.

"Yeah, through special planting techniques, you can make fruit that normally ripens in the Month of Harvest ripen in the Frigid Moon instead, or use special methods to preserve it until the Frigid Moon. Then I'd be the only one selling it, right? Naturally I could charge premium prices."

"We can also think about it differently. For example, I heard one guy's territory is covered with stuff people can't eat, but could it be used to feed animals?"

"If we can raise livestock with it, wouldn't that lower the cost of raising them? Then we could sell the meat to other places along the line, right?"

"Of course, we can't just think about food. We should consider other things too. I think as long as it has time-sensitivity, it's worth pursuing."

"Time-sensitivity... that's an interesting way to put it." Though it was the first time he'd heard the term, he immediately understood what it meant.

Have to say, this really was their opportunity.

While the cleric was enthusiastically lecturing and brainwashing the noble in front of him, Viscount Roster walked in from outside.

Almost everyone's eyes immediately fell on him.

The previously noisy venue suddenly quieted down.

Looking at the time, the inauguration ceremony was about to begin!