The so-called assembly line was to break down the production process of an item into several steps, and then a number of workers who were only responsible for a single step would take turns to complete the entire task.
For example, to make a stool, you need to first make the wooden planks and wooden slats, then make the wooden planks and wooden slats, and finally assemble them.
If a carpenter were to do it, he would first need to find a suitable tree, then chop it down and make it into wood. Then, the wood would be processed into wooden planks and wooden slats, and then, little by little, the stool would be made. In this way, a carpenter can only make one stool at a time, and it takes a lot of time and energy. If you need to make a lot of stools, you either have to wait patiently, or find more carpenters.
But if you use the assembly line method, the chopper only needs to cut the tree, the wood processing only needs to process the wood, the wooden planks and wooden slats, the stool legs and wooden slats, and finally the assembly, are all different people. They only need to focus on their own part of the work, and don't need to know too much. In this way, as long as you are clever with your hands, you can do the work with a little training, and you don't need to work for these small things.
Moreover, because each group of workers only needs to be responsible for their own part of the work, their skills will improve very quickly, and it won't be long before the stools they make will not be worse than those made by the carpenters.
Because they always only know one thing, their wages will naturally not be as high as those of professional carpenters. So even if the production efficiency is slightly lower, the total cost will be reduced a lot.
Not only that, as the workers become more skilled, the production efficiency will also increase. In the end, their overall production efficiency will be able to surpass most carpenters, and provide a larger profit for the workshop owner.
Most importantly, the number of carpenters was limited, and it was impossible to train too many of them. To train a skilled carpenter, it would take at least five years, and this was only for making stools. If it was something more complicated, it might even take ten years.
In contrast, training a group of skilled assembly line workers can be done in a few months at most.
This means that the workshop can have a high output, enough to open up the supply, and occupy the market.
In this world, most handicrafts were in short supply, so the prices were often a little high. For example, in some remote places where carpenters were in short supply, the price of a stool might even be equivalent to four or five times the price of a stool in a prosperous place.
In fact, in those remote and poor places, people used wooden stakes as stools.
Although that stake could be made into three or four stools, its price was often not even one-tenth of the stools.
There was an example that was very illustrative. Ever since the Republic of Northwest began to use the assembly line method to produce armors and weapons, Void City had now become the largest trading place for armors and weapons in the world. It was even steadily advancing in the direction of becoming the world's largest arms supplier.
All of this was because of an insignificant piece of technology.
Sui Xiong was not particularly secretive, but the armor and weapon workshops of the Republic of Northwest paid great attention to confidentiality and never leaked their technology.
The Goddess of Wealth did not steal their technology, but she told the idea of the assembly line method to some big merchants who believed in her.
Those merchants naturally did not dare to compete with Void City for business. Perhaps the Goddess of Wealth had also warned them at that time, but there were many things that could be produced in the world. They did not produce armors and weapons, but that did not prevent them from producing things such as woodwork, ornaments, all kinds of furniture and daily necessities.
Anyway, as long as they could make money, what was produced made a big difference?
It was fine as long as the gold coins were the same …
It was just that the Goddess of Wealth did not expect that this thieving behavior that skirted the line would actually bring her so much trouble.
This caught her off guard and made her even more distressed. She could not think of a solution.
For the past ten years, the merchants had been tolerating and giving in. They watched helplessly as they could not make money, and their hearts were in pain and entangled.
Now, they finally could not tolerate it anymore.
Not only that, in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, there had always been contradictions between the aristocratic party and the merchant party. This contradiction had been buried almost since the founding of the country. It continued to accumulate and ferment over the years. It was almost like a barrel of gunpowder. Once it was touched with a spark, it could "boom" at any time and blow everyone into pieces.
The root of the contradiction came from "how to spend the money after making money."
Some people wanted to be safe, so they chose to buy land and people to manage their territories; others wanted to be aggressive, so they chose to expand their businesses and make their businesses bigger and bigger.
At first, these two kinds of people lived in harmony. But as time passed, the former slowly developed into aristocrats who controlled territories, and the latter slowly developed into big merchants who controlled trade routes. Thus, the contradiction gradually arose — the merchants made money by selling things, and the aristocrats found that the wealth they earned from their own business was far less than that of the merchants, so they demanded to collect taxes from them.
That was the first major conflict between the aristocratic party and the merchant party in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. At that time, it almost reached the point of a civil war. Finally, under the mediation of the Goddess of Wealth, the two sides sat down to negotiate. After almost two years of difficult negotiations, they drew up a tax standard that was barely acceptable to both sides.
After that, the lords hoped to consolidate their rule and did not allow any forces that could threaten their rule to exist in their territories. The merchants, on the other hand, wanted to be able to protect their property no matter where they went. They even hoped that there would be no forces that could threaten their property.
This was the second major conflict in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins. The result was, of course, that the merchants made concessions again. In the end, most of the major trading companies chose to build their headquarters outside the city, which increased a lot of expenses and risks for no reason.
As the saying goes, "You can do it twice, but you can't do it again." This time, the merchants refused to give in. They shouted, "We have already given in twice," and demanded that the aristocratic lords also give in once.
But the aristocratic lords had long been used to the merchants giving in. How could they be willing to give in?
Of course, this was also driven by the Church of the God of Aristocracy. The Church of the God of Aristocracy claimed that the aristocratic lords should rule their own territories. Other than pledging allegiance to the superior lords, they did not need to give in to other secular forces, and they did not need to allow the existence of those big merchant organizations that seemed to have extraterritorial rights.
This statement was obviously not in line with the teachings of the Goddess of Wealth, and it was sneered at by the merchants. But many aristocrats did not believe this on the surface, but they often secretly praised and applauded this statement. The lobbyists sent by the Church of the God of Aristocracy were often able to eat and drink well in their mansions and receive the hospitality of distinguished guests.
"Maybe …" The Goddess of Wealth was silent for a long time. Finally, she said somewhat listlessly, "I was wrong from the beginning. It is impossible for a purely merchant country to exist …"
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