Volume 4: How big is the heart, how vast is the earth Chapter 94 We Are the Heritage
At least 20 people are needed to make canned fruit in glass bottles. How many days do these 20 people spend on the production? How many working hours are consumed if one working hour is counted per day? Can the profit of making canned fruit match the cost with the same working hours? How much gross profit and net profit are there? Cost accounting is not only a business or a collective, but also a small stall selling egg-filled pancakes. Only after you have calculated the cost, you will know how to make the next decision. For example, should you suggest customers to add bacon or sausage to make more money? This small vendor must have a clear idea.
After calculating the cost, we also need to consider the market response. What is the main income group of customers on this street? Are most people more willing to spend two yuan to add ham sausage or three yuan to add bacon? This also needs to be known in mind.
Xiao Yun didn't care whether the people in the room could hear or understand what he said. He calculated his own accounts and the accounts of the forest elves and the St. Bridget's fleet. He told everyone how much the tribe had earned from the canned fruit trade this year, why the forest elves were willing to lend their hens (fruits) to the tribe to lay eggs, why the fleet had a demand for canned fruit... and so on. He broke it all down and explained it to everyone in detail.
"——Trading means exchanging your useless or less useful things with others, so that the value of the goods or labor hours increases, generating economic benefits and becoming valuable commodities. For our tribe, the labor hours during the slack season are low-value commodities. For the forest elves, the abundant fruits in spring, summer and autumn are low-value commodities. We make canned sweet water for them to store until winter, and they give us five times the means of production, which means five times the fresh fruits consumed in canning. This is a high-quality transaction that benefits both parties."
"We obtained five times the means of production and processed five times the canned fruit. One third of them were sold to Saint Bridger at five copper coins per can. If the coins they paid were converted into soybeans, it would be equivalent to exchanging five kilograms of soybeans for one of our cans. This means that our twenty people worked a total of twenty-eight days and earned fifty thousand kilograms of soybeans for the tribe in these two transactions, which is equivalent to the annual output of 83 mu of land. At the same time, we also obtained more than 10,000 cans, preserved fruits, dried fruits, and jams for our tribe to keep... Tell me, is this a business worth doing?"
Everyone knew that the tribe had exchanged 60,000 kilograms of fruit with the forest elves in the summer, and that part of the canned fruit was sold to the fleet, part was kept in the warehouse for their own use and for the start-up capital for next year, and part that was not suitable for canning was made into preserved fruit and jam, which everyone could eat when they got snacks; but no one had carefully calculated the cost and profit of this business. After hearing Ayun's calculation, the grassroots chiefs who knew the situation in the tribe the best opened their mouths wide... Wait, is this really the case? Those burned glass bottles and fruits soaked in dried maltose water can actually make so much money? !
Xiao Yun calmly waited for everyone to be shocked enough before continuing the class: "Society and economy should be discussed together because the economic circulation in different regions brought about by transactions also requires understanding the social form and economic structure of the transaction counterparty. Only in this way can we know the consumption capacity of the transaction counterparty and their acceptance of a certain transaction. Because people will only do business with us if there is profit and benefit. Otherwise, why would others do business with you?"
"Why did the Saint Bridge Merchants Group pay 100 gold coins to buy 10,000 cans of our fruit? Because the fruit in these cans comes from the forest elves, and is cultivated by the great . Humans believe that eating this kind of fruit is good for the body..."
During the days Xiao Yun spent at the port, he not only inquired about the situation of the forest elves, but also about the situation of humans. After all, if the source of intelligence only came from Carlisle, it would be a bit single... Just like the Chinese people tirelessly pay IQ tax on the consumption of bird's nests, humans also believe that the natural products of the forest elves have magical effects, so Xiao Yun quoted a price of five copper coins for a can - it would be strange if the people on the ship could eat 10,000 3-jin cans in a month. He knew very well that only a few hundred of this batch of cans would be consumed on the road, and the others would definitely be shipped back to St. Bridget for sale... Prince Carlisle was also aware of this, but it was just a tacit understanding between both parties.
Once the canned fruits produced by these 10,000 forest elves open up the market in St. Brigid's, Carlisle will definitely come to buy them next year... Modern Chinese people are willing to pay the IQ tax for something like bird's nest, which has a lower nutritional value than eggs. Why not the canned fruits of forest elves, which at least have a better taste and style?
Xiao Yun didn't tell Prince Carlisle this clearly, but there was no need to hide it from the talent he wanted to cultivate, so all the fluffy people were stunned again... Can business be done this way? !
"Of course you can. The horn of a snow beast that we picked up from the swamp before, what's the difference between the composition of that thing and the fingernails we grow? But just because it is the horn of a snow beast, we exchanged twenty bags of peppercorns for such a thing that can only be used as a decoration. Even so, we still lost money. The person who bought the horn transported the thing to St. Bridget and made dozens of times the profit by reselling it. It's like playing." Xiao Yun said seriously.
Everyone: “???”
"So I said, we need to study economics and society together. Next, I will give you a brief introduction to the economic structure of human society, so that you can have some idea of what to do when dealing with humans in the future."
On the grassland, wealth belongs to the tribe, and in human society, wealth belongs to the powerful... Well, it seems that there is not much difference between the two at first glance, but if you think about it carefully, the difference is huge: the wealth of the tribe belongs to the group, but the wealth of the human kingdom has nothing to do with the bottom-level citizens with the largest base. Of course, this is also related to the fact that the wealth of the tribe is not sufficient to a certain level and is not enough to support the blood-sucking class, but there is no need to elaborate on this... Xiao Yun will not allow non-working blood-sucking insects to exist in the tribe anyway.
Take St. Bridget's as an example. The ownership of land is in the hands of the royal family, and the right to use land is in the hands of the nobles. The nobles exploit the labor force at the bottom to generate wealth from the land, the largest means of production. Part of the wealth produced belongs to the nobles, and part of the wealth belongs to the royal family. It seems that the royal family is sure to make a lot of money, but the problem is that when the supervision is not in place, and the supervisor and the actual operator are the same person, it is simply a fairy tale if others do not interfere. Then the following situation will inevitably occur: the nobles who manage the local area intercept taxes under various excuses, and the royal family takes a small share while they take the big share. If something happens, such as rebellion or natural disasters in the local area, the royal family has to allocate troops to suppress it, and they have to pay the nobles...
After understanding the political ecology and power distribution in St. Brigid, it will be no problem to understand their main consumer groups: the royal family is rich, the nobles must be rich, and the lower-class people are lucky to have enough food and clothing and a little extra money. Consumption capacity? Don't expect too much... The people will spend on people's livelihood at most, and luxury goods don't exist.
"The conclusion is that most of the goods we sell to Saint Bridge are resold domestically, and the main consumers are nobles and people related to the nobility. The purchasing power of this group is considerable, but the customer base is too single, which is not a good thing for us. Therefore, we must find a way to increase the consumption level of our goods and launch goods that the lower-class citizens, who make up the absolute majority of the Kingdom of Saint Bridge, can afford and have consumption needs."
Everyone was so confused that they saw stars in front of their eyes. The cruel Xiao Yun did not give everyone time to catch their breath: "At present, the more feasible way for us is to sell wool textiles to Saint Bridge. For us, wool is a by-product of sheep farming and an added value generated in the breeding process. The cost of raw materials is infinitely low. Therefore, the cost we pay for wool processing is only the man-hours consumed during processing, the development and manufacture of auxiliary equipment, the extraction of mineral dyes for dyeing, and the transportation capacity to transport large amounts of wool to the Elf Port..."
"Everyone knows how many people there are in the wool spinning mill. You can ask about the man-hours spent by Sally and the other gray dwarves on making the combing machines and spinning machines, and the steel consumption of the machines. I have already written down the man-hours consumed during the extraction and dyeing of mineral dyes..." Xiao Yun picked up the stack of bark paper in front of him, "This is the homework you will hand in for the first class. Calculate our labor costs for wool products. Take the first batch of wool we sold to St. Bridget this year as an example. How much labor costs were consumed in the whole process? Go back and calculate carefully... Submit it within three days. The answer is not required to be correct. As long as there are no major omissions in the calculation of the manpower consumed in each processing link, it can be considered a pass."
All the staff were bewildered...even Qiu, the head of the woolen mill, had a blank look in his eyes.
"Don't be so timid. I have said it many times before, there are always more solutions than problems. I am not asking you to solve the problems now. I just want you to calculate the labor cost we have paid from the problems we have solved. It's not difficult!" Xiao Yun said earnestly, stood up and distributed the bark paper.
"Ayun, how do we calculate this?" Qiu's face turned pale.
"I have used the example of canned fruit processing before. I have calculated the labor costs from obtaining raw materials to the specific processing steps and each step. In this section, we will not worry about the source of wool raw materials. We only need to calculate the labor costs during the processing period from raw wool to wool yarn. It is very simple."
Qiu's eyes started to roll back - how could it be simple?!
"Don't feel pressured. I've said before that you don't have to answer correctly. As long as you can calculate the approximate manpower consumed in each processing link, you'll pass. You can discuss with each other and brainstorm." Xiao Yun finished handing out the homework and sat back with a smile. "Okay, everyone put away the homework first. Next, we'll start the second lesson, ideological education."
Xia's expression changed immediately. The light bark paper in his hand seemed to weigh a thousand pounds. Wouldn't this force him to seek help from the manul warrior Qiu? !
A thought subconsciously appeared in Xia's mind...Is Ayun targeting me?
This idea was quickly rejected by Xia himself, because everyone present, regardless of their race, had a grim look on their faces and was nervous. It was obvious that the difficulty of the homework that Ayun asked everyone to do this time was a bit too high for everyone...
Trying his best to control his trembling hands, Xia folded the bark paper and put it in his waist bag. His mind was in a mess and he couldn't even hear clearly what Ayun had started teaching in the second lesson - asking him to communicate and help others sincerely, to consult the caracals and the gray dwarves, and to reach the "passing line" with the help of others. For Xia... this was an unbearable humiliation.
You have to know that he doesn't really agree with the Snow Wolf Tribe's way of doing things, which puts collective interests first in everything. Although he has no choice and is forced to live in this collective, what he expects and pursues is still a status within the group that can highlight himself, where only he is special and superior to others.
A special status that is different from others, standing out from the crowd, is what he is willing to pursue. How could he tolerate a life like others, mixing in the group and receiving treatment that is not much different from others!
He was unwilling to go to the tiger tribe and live under someone else's roof! He was also unwilling to be drowned in mediocrity in the group!
Biting his teeth hard, Xia painfully suppressed the burning sensation in his heart and forced himself to calm down - he had endured it for so long, and even had difficulty accepting that Qingyan and Hongye were more capable of leading others than he was, so now, it was just a matter of adding a few more people to the list of patience.
Well... although the inner drama was quite strong, unfortunately the leopard sitting among the werewolves was not very conspicuous, so Xiao Yun did not notice Xia's hateful and unwilling eyes at all...
The ideological and political education naturally talks about the history of the Snow Wolf Tribe. The history of the Snow Wolf Tribe learned from the friendly elf warrior and alchemist Tim is very scattered, with only a rough outline. But since it is a history that ends in tragedy, it has the value of inspiring people... ahem!
The Snow Wolf Tribe was once the royal guards of the Orc Empire and the strongest fighting force. The royal family was defeated in the political struggle, and the Snow Wolf Tribe also paid a huge price. Countless tribe members died in the Far East, and their inheritance was once cut off. Only a few underage cubs retreated hastily to the grassland. When such a tragic history was told, everyone present felt particularly bitter and vengeful...
Then, the story is told from the perspectives of the elves and humans about the glorious past of the Snow Wolf Clan, which makes everyone yearn for it and feel regretful...
Finally, a deafening and heroic oath was made to continue the heritage on the grassland:
"Our ancestors died on the other side of the York Mountains. This is an indelible pain that history has left on our Snow Wolf Clan." Xiao Yun said in a deep voice, "But we will not be defeated by pain. After two hundred years of reproduction and development, our Snow Wolf Clan has found a new way to survive on the grassland. So what if the inheritance is cut off? We are still alive on the grassland, so we are the new inheritance, belonging to our Snow Wolf Clan and the grassland people, and it will be passed down from our generation to the next."
"In the lost heritage, we had two companions, the tiger tribe and the cat tribe. In the new heritage, we have cat tribe, goblins, gray dwarves, and even humans as companions. History always moves forward and is bound to spiral upward. We have more companions than our ancestors, so we will definitely be able to develop a heritage that is better than our ancestors."
"When more people unite and more races come together, the power will be greater, and we will be able to create more beautiful and unprecedented things." Xiao Yun smiled and looked at everyone in the room. There were snow wolves, cats, goblins, and gray dwarves. No matter what race they were, everyone's eyes were excited because of his words. "The goblins mined stones, the snow wolves burned them into lime and made bricks, the gray dwarves burned glass, and the cats looked after the greenhouses and planted vegetables. Through our unity, we can also farm in winter, and we can grow food on the land we own on snowy days when the earth is frozen... Our unity has created such a miracle, so what difficulty is there for us to create a new heritage?"
"Not only our Snow Wolf tribe needs to create a legacy, but also the goblins, gray dwarves, and cats. These legacies should not only be history that our descendants will feel proud of, but also real knowledge and civilization that can improve the living environment of our descendants. We should make the grassland a paradise where the descendants of all our races can survive more easily. Isn't such a legacy even greater and more amazing?"
"Yes! That's right!" The gray dwarf Baru jumped up excitedly and waved his fist vigorously. "If we can create miracles, what else can't we do? We gray dwarves can also create the heritage of the gray dwarves on the grassland!"
"Well said, Baru!" Hongye slapped Baru on the side of Lan Guo. Xiaohua quickly reached out to support Baru, and they all laughed.
"Inheritance, inheritance...!" the old goblin monk muttered softly, shaking his metal fist vigorously in front of his chest.
Qiu laughed happily, small cats like caracals, cheetahs and lynxes can create wealth for the collective with their own hands and are no longer a burden to the tribe. Such inheritance is certainly more beneficial to future generations than for these warriors who are not at an advantage in size and combat effectiveness to fight against monsters like others.
Qingyan smiled. He was once confused about the future of the cat clan, but now he is no longer confused.
The golden cat warrior with beautiful short brown-red hair grinned foolishly. Golden cats are quite special in the cat family. Although they are small in size, they are powerful in combat and are generally considered large cats. This golden cat warrior used to be a staunch supporter of Xia, but after living in the Snow Wolf Tribe for a year, he has accepted the new lifestyle, although his intelligence is not inferior to Xia's, but he does not have Xia's strong obsession.
Xia, who had only listened to the second half of the class, was almost moved by Xiao Yun's words. He raised his clenched fist halfway before he became alert and slowly put it down.
Xiao Yun and the others were excited enough, so they clapped their hands to wake everyone up: "Okay, everyone calm down, it's a bit late now, let's hurry up and have the elementary math class--"
The wailing sounded immediately...
The three courses taught for the first time were just introductory courses. No matter whether everyone was excited or not, the difficulty level was just that high for Xiao Yun... After beating everyone with algebra exercises for upper-grade elementary school students, Xiao Yun generously did not leave any homework and sent everyone back to sleep in a daze.
The days that followed... were a familiar mixture of pain and joy for the people in the tribe. Delicious potato stew, stir-fried potato slices, hot and sour potato shreds, and spicy and sour sweet potato noodles were combined with increasingly difficult and intensive homework assignments. Snow sweeping and labor when it wasn't snowing became a hot job that everyone rushed to do, just to give their brains some time to relax...
While everyone in the tribe was in dire straits, an accident happened quietly in the north of the grassland, under the snow-capped mountains of Samar...
In front of the mountain outpost leading to the Ice and Snow King City, a group of snow elf warriors wearing silver-white armor, sun cloth and magic pattern cloth lining under the armor, carrying longbows and weapons in hand, silently confronted the uninvited guests. Behind them, at the top of the outpost, on the ice wall more than ten meters high, a row of city defense crossbows were placed side by side. Armor-piercing enchanted arrows emitting cold light were stuck in the crossbow strings, and the arrows pointed to the sky on the slope, blocking the entire airspace on the mountain.
The green dragon lord Austin, with a grim look on his face, did not dare to fly too high, with his feet only twenty meters from the ground. He also did not dare to get too close. The snow elf warrior holding a two-meter-long saber had an instant attack range of ten meters. If he got any closer, the heavy saber blade that could even cut off the neck of a snow beast would cut his face.
In the oppressive silence, the captain of the sentry team took a step forward, raised his hand and took off his armor, revealing the ruby-like eyes unique to the Snow Elves, and looked at the visitor coldly: "Please go back, Lord Austin, my king does not plan to receive guests in the near future."
Lord Austin took a deep breath, floated down from the sky, and said with a sour face: "Alright, I know what's going on... I am willing to return the gold mine in the west of Samar Snow Mountain, on the condition that the snow elves help me find my son Balk..." His voice suddenly trembled, and his tone was a little low, "Even if... just find Balk's body, I want to know where my son is and what happened to him."
The captain of the sentry team was silent for a moment again, then nodded slightly: "Please wait, I will ask my king for instructions."
Half an hour later, the guards on the sentry post finally agreed to let him go. Lord Austin eagerly transformed into a dragon, spread his wings, and flew towards the Ice and Snow King City on the top of the mountain.
The Elf King's promise was as reliable as the towering Samar Snow Mountain. A few days later, groups of Snow Elf warriors, either on skis or on sleds pulled by tamed snow beasts, went deep into the cursed land to search for the young green dragon that had been missing for more than a year...
