Volume 6 Chapter 5 - Manpower problem (1/2)

Volume 6 Chapter 5 Manpower problem

The Marlow Empire was very big.

As one of the two empires of the continent, the Marlow Empire’s territory on the map was already several dozen times bigger than the small Lampuri Kingdom.

As for the Stantine Duchy that was several times smaller than the Lampuri Kingdom, it was unable to compare to the Marlow Empire.

Even if Xu Yi couldn’t get an accurate figure, just based on his experience of living in the Lampuri Kingdom, he could tell that the Lampuri Kingdom was the same size as a medium sized province of China from earth.

According to this calculation, the Marlow Empire was as big as China had been on earth, so it definitely could be called a giant empire.

However, what Xu Yi didn’t expect was that in this giant empire, the population wasn’t several dozen times more than the Lampuri Kingdom as well.

According to the data Marquis Southgate provided, the Marlow Empire’s population was only around fifty million, which was just ten times more than the population of the Lampuri Kingdom.

Even adding in the population that couldn’t be counted, this difference wasn’t that big.

There were only fifty million people in such a large country, this made the population density in the Marlow Empire very low, which was something that Xu Yi who transmigrated from earth couldn’t get used to.

Just take Marquis Southgate’s private territory, if this was the Lampuri Kingdom, with his status as marquis, he would have received a piece of land that would be fifty square kilometers.

But in the Marlow Empire, his private territory was a surprising thousand square kilometers, which was like a few of the smaller cities on earth to Xu Yi.

However, on such a large territory, according to Marquis Southgate’s stats from the last two years, there were only thirty thousand people!

If these thirty thousand people received even distribution, that would be several hectares of land for each person!

But there was a problem with that.

Putting aside Marquis Southgate’s family, guards, and their servants, of the remaining twenty seven thousand people, putting aside the children and elderly who couldn’t work at all, there were only around fifteen thousand people who could be considered a work force.

Among these fifteen thousand people, putting aside the eight thousand women who weren’t as physically strong, there were only less than seven thousand who were young strapping men.

These seven thousand people were the main labour force of Marquis Southgate’s private territory, which could be considered the foundation and core strength of the Southgate Family.

Now that Xu Yi had suddenly asked for ten thousand people, Marquis Southgate was naturally surprised.

Not to mention it being impossible for him to hire all these seven thousand people to Xu Yi, even if he did, there was still three thousand people missing.

“Chairman Xu……If I remember correctly, you are only planning on building seventeen factories in the beginning, why do you need so many people?” Marquis Southgate asked in a confused voice.

“Is it a lot?” Xu Yi looked at Marquis Southgate who he thought had an excessive reaction with a strange look and after thinking about it, he understood.

He was already used to dealing with people in the Lampuri Kingdom and the surrounding countries when it came to the magic machine industry, these things had already become common knowledge in these countries, but for the Marlow Empire and Marquis Southgate, this surpassed their common understanding.

Thinking of this, Xu Yi thought back to Banta City when they had built several factories, asking Count Sean who was still the City Lord for three thousand workers.

When Count Sean heard his request, he was also as surprised as the current Marquis Southgate. But after Xu Yi explained it, Count Sean was very happy and even supported Xu Yi’s idea.

Because of this, it helped Banta City solve the work problem of three thousand people, which helped him as the City Lord.

Although Marquis Southgate was a bit surprised, he probably wouldn’t reject this opportunity.

However, after hearing Xu Yi explain the reason why they needed a large number of workers for the factories, Marquis Southgate knitted his brows to think for a bit before shaking his head.

“Chairman Xu, I’m afraid I don’t understand. The main priority of the labour force is to grow food, if you can’t even guarantee the most basic needs, there is no meaning in anything else. I can only barely maintain it with the ten thousand people on my territory, but I still have no ways to open more farmland in my territory. If I give you these ten thousand people, even if you say that women also work…..I can’t accept it.”

Xu Yi was a bit confused.

Marquis Southgate had personally seen the Lampuri Kingdom and the Stantine Duchy doing this, could it be that he didn’t know that with the help of the agricultural magic machines, he wouldn’t need that many people for farming?

After he asked Marquis Southgate this question, he received an awkward response.