Chapter 333 - Big Moves

A week later, after spreading all the rumours by word about the employment and of course placing a nice piece of parchment declaring what jobs are available, they've got decent results.

Sure, the last battle has gotten people a bit startled since two Platoons were completely gone but two reasons worked two the Castle's advantage. The pay rose by 40 Gold Coins for those who earn under 200 and people are loving King Zar more by the day due to the good living he is providing.

They managed to get every bit of employee they required, all 400 of them and even a few were left unemployed because the numbers grew too big! Apparently the fact that the King is looking to hire 400 people, got them intrigued.

Most could figure out that this is just a new way to bring in more profit here, meaning eventually it would bring a better life here. People especially became motivated when King Zar ordered the Construction Workers to break down old houses and build new ones.

If a King can offer something as good as a brand new house, which provides three times the warmth, what else can he provide? A lot were curious, and they just wanted to be part of it in order to progress.

At the bottom of the Parchment, it is written. "No gender restrictions, anyone can apply regardless." This might be their best move yet, because what good would it prove to the Kingdom if they hire 500 men now and end up not having any more to hire for future projects?

But here comes the hard part, crunching numbers. With so many employees hired, they will need to prepare every calculation so the budget isn't accidentally damaged or people aren't accidentally left unpaid. Plus they need to know what the total profit will be after this.

Originally, King Zar included small bonuses for certain craft after each period of time so he could attract workers when the Kingdom was the most desperate. That just became too confusing to calculate each month, so they decided to split the bonuses in 12 pieces and include each piece in a salary.

That being said, it made the calculations a lot easier today. Because along with the bonuses, a pay increase of 40 gold coins has to be added. Every man and women they hired this week are apprentices, experienceless.

The 150 newly hired apprentice Stonemasons for example, are the most important part of this move and they required the most work. Each of them have to be assigned over an experienced Stonemason, this is where the first hired ones come in handy.

Even Stonemasons who a few months ago were as dumb as a board towards the Craft, can host a few apprentices of their own. This opens up new doors, because not only the house foundations will be built faster and the Construction Workers can finally focus on their own work instead of Stonemasonry too.

This caused a lot of work because Maleesa with the help of Seer, had to debate with the most experienced about where to assign everyone. Eventually, after 3 hours they all reached an agreement and the Kingdom will now progress faster than ever.

As for the pay, apprentices in Stonemasonry originally earned 85 Gold Coins a month. Small but better than nothing and overall fair considering that they don't know a thing. Now with the 40 gold coin increase, they earn 125 Gold Coins a month.

When you multiply that with 150 people, the experienceless Stonemasons alone will take 18,750 Gold Coins each month! That's almost as much as the Army previously took.

The Stonemasons are what Seer calls, people who don't bring in monetary profit but bring better or fancier living. It is a good investment, even though this investment just ate up half of the profit.

With this rate, even the large wall won't take a decade to build because after all they need it quick and not after they get invaded or anything like that.

Speaking about protection, 100 Patrol Guards were hired. These people play an important part, because when not patrolling the streets and when in war, they can either be Archers or close combat Swordsmen or women.

Respectfully, Pameres Kingdom can't depend on other domains to protect it, if anything this fine Kingdom should be protecting other domains like BaleTown or Gaster Kingdom.

The expenses however are tad strong, along with the 100 previously hired Patrol Guards, the monthly expenses have arisen to 23,000 Gold Coins. That is, just to pay these 200 Guards.

The salary is low even after the increase, we are talking about people who would put their life on the line here. 115 Gold Coins just isn't enough but it is all the Kingdom can afford at the moment.

Because even though salaries low, in this army of 310 men and women including Ballistaguards and Catapult Operators, a total of 38,400 Gold Coins are spend on the Army. This are more than double compared to last time and it almost eats up half of the monthly income.

At this rate, you might be thinking that Seer did the dumbest mistake ever here and doomed the Domain. Or at least, King Zar did the dumbest mistake of allowing these two main actions?

Worry no longer, because now we can talk about a set of people who will bring the Kingdom a lot of profit. Blacksmiths! 80 people were required to take a career as Blacksmiths and all 80 filled the spot with 14 rejected who just didn't qualify enough age-wise.

This is an important number here, because 80 of these men and women can accomplish what the first team of Blacksmiths couldn't at the very beginning. These Blacksmiths all together can forge 320 Iron Swords in a month.

Seer has already made letters ready for the Zamerians to pick up next month, offering new deals now that a second team is made who can almost out compete the first team of 54.

Although he couldn't care less what the Zamerians would require as long as it it a cutting weapon, he is sure that this team will eventually bring in profits and the best part is that they don't have 300 gold coins salaries like the most experienced Blacksmiths.

To make a workspace for these men and women however, more forges had to be made outside of the City walls because as mentioned previously they just won't fit inside of the Kingdom walls.

With that aside, let's sum up the total expenses. The original salary was 100 Gold Coins, splitting up the 20 Gold Coin bonus every 3 months they are supposed to get, this pushes the salary to 107 Gold Coins a month.

And of course along with the recent raise for anyone earning under 200 Gold Coins a month, the pay is 147 Gold Coins! This is why a lot of people applied, it is just a salary too great for an apprentice. I mean, even the experienced Lumberjacks earn 190 Gold Coins a month now. Who would miss out such a chance?

Summing up the total cost, these Blacksmiths alone take out 11,760 of the monthly income. A small price to pay, considering that if they got a deal now they would fish out double the income! However, along with the first team of Blacksmiths, the total pay for all Blacksmiths is 24,765. That 100 thousand a month income doesn't sound so big now does it?

Moving on to smaller moves, Tailors and Miners. Originally, Tailors were paid 200 Gold Coins a month and they still are considering the fact that they don't go under the salary raise section.

King Zar offered the Tailors big salaries, so he can attract more people. Women working outside of the house is just too rare in these times so he had to compromise, even offered penalties for men who don't let the women of the house work.

Now with 40 Tailors employed, they take 8,000 Gold Coins out of the monthly budget. Smallest price to pay really, clothing is very expensive regardless of the Continent they are sold at. With only 30 Tailors they managed to bring in a great 18,000 Gold Coins a month.

As for the Miners, 10 more of them were hired due to all the recent increases in Blacksmithery. They aren't required at a large amount considering that even the most experienced Blacksmiths now use 6 ores a week, but it is good to have them here so the orders can be handled perfectly.

They earn 140 Gold Coins a month, considerably one of the smallest pays here since it doesn't require any experience but at least they aren't earning a hundred anymore and chances are that more than one person in a house is earning a salary.

All 20 miners together, take out a small amount of 2,800 Gold Coins from the budget each month. The smallest outcome here no doubt, even though without them great sources of profit would go flat.

Last but not least, the Lumberjacks. 50 more of them were hired, now Pameres Kingdom has 90 in total. Wood consumption has increased rapidly due to the house construction, Wagon Construction, Furniture and Weaponry too.

Along with the salary increase, they now earn 190 Gold Coins a month. All together, they take 17,100 Gold Coins from the budget. It might sound large but after all they play the possibly most important part here. If they don't bring in wood, Pameres Kingdom might as well hand their behind to the Alliance because the Economy would collapse in no time.

Now moving on to more important matters, what did all these expenses result too? Due to the 40 Gold Coin increase on certain crafts and groups of people, with 400 more people being hired and considering the fact that Pameres Kingdom imports food.

The total monthly expenses now are 165,015 Gold Coins! You know what this means! In order for the Kingdom to earn profit again or at least break even, they need to figure out a way of bringing over 60 thousand Gold Coins in the Treasury.

This is the biggest move Pameres Kingdom ever did, even when it was under the ill.u.s.tratian Alliance's influence. At the same time it can crumble the economy in to dust and starve everyone unless the King fired 400 people which is another bad idea.

Like it or not, the monthly expenses now have increased by a hundred thousand!! 165k isn't exactly easy to tackle, but now there are 718 people under the Kingdom's employment.

They indeed have chances to bring in big profit until a day comes when they can monetize the Stonemasons as well. Until that day, they now can primarily rely on the Gr.a.p.e Ale project.