**Chapter 16**
**Military Academy (5)**
Agustín I stepped forward to clear the situation. The weapons demonstration ended like that.
He sent dozens of rifles back with Fernando, the Lieutenant General.
He had created these rifles while developing the rifling machine, and he gave them to the military so they could do their own verification.
“These are samples with rifling added to existing flintlock muskets. I’m also planning to offer a service to cheaply modify the flintlock muskets currently used by the military. Of course, if you order new rifles, you’ll get a version that’s much better than this.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty. I’m looking forward to it.”
While rifling wasn’t the most significant change, Eduardo would mass-produce a new type of rifle incorporating the improvements he had been thinking about.
Within a week, the government sent a purchase order.
—
1. Modification of 5,000 used flintlock muskets
2. 1,000 new Eduardo rifles
3. 1,000,000 Eduardo bullets
Delivery deadline: ~ April 1827
—
‘The delivery deadline is a year… They’re ordering a lot, but I need to get started right away.’
Even with this deadline, it’s a tight schedule. I plan to invest tens of thousands of pesos in initial capital, but all I have right now is one rifling machine.
“Eduardo, why don’t you drop out of school? You weren’t planning to be a soldier anyway. It doesn’t really suit your personality.”
“I know, but… If I drop out after being in the third year, my father will be furious. If I give up the military academy and become a weapons factory technician…”
“What are you talking about? You’re the boss. I’m thinking of naming the company ‘Vega Defense Industry (Industria de Defensa Vega)’. I’ll give you 10% of the shares. Considering the amount I’ve invested so far and will continue to invest, I think it’s fair for me to have 90%.”
And of course, I gave him the patent rights. 100% for the Eduardo bullet and 20% for the rifling machine.
“What? I’m the boss? I thought I’d be happy to be a weapons technician…”
Eduardo was startled by the word “boss,” shouted, and then trailed off, seeming choked up.
“There’s no one more suitable to build a weapons company than you. You’re the only one I trust.”
Eduardo deserves to be compensated.
“…Thank you. I’ll do my best.”
He said that and then spoke with a resolute expression.
“Since I’m dropping out, I’m no longer your classmate. I’ll be using formal language from now on, Your Majesty.”
Suddenly, he’s being so formal.
It’s understandable that he feels pressured considering the times, but I don’t want to turn a friend I’ll probably only make a few of in this lifetime into just another subordinate.
“…Hey, just be casual when it’s just us. Use formal language only when others are around. It’s too much for me to handle.”
“Oh… Is that so?”
“Yes. And even though the company is established, we’re starting from scratch, so once you leave, you’ll have to do everything from beginning to end. Can you do it?”
“I’ll give my life to it.”
“I’ll provide enough funding, so don’t worry too much. Just start by hiring the technicians who worked with you on the rifling machine.”
“Okay.”
“Once you build the factory and the rifles and bullets are delivered smoothly, I’ll start developing the breech-loading gun I mentioned before.”
“Okay.”
“While working on that, you’ll also modify the cannons as I said and prepare them for mass production.”
“…Okay.”
There’s a lot to do, but it’s not an impossible task.
‘I’ll make you rich, so work hard.’
I’m not too worried because of the experience and skills we’ve accumulated developing the rifling machine, and the technicians who worked with me were already making guns and bullets.
‘Hmm. Now I’ve laid the foundation for the army’s weapons system, but what about the navy? I know about ports, but I don’t know anything about ships. What do I do?’
All I know about the navy is that they used wooden ships of the line, then ironclad dreadnought battleships came out and made the old ships obsolete. And later, aircraft carriers became better than big ships and big guns. In other words, I’m completely clueless, so there’s nothing I can do.
‘No matter how strong the army is, if there’s no navy, we’ll be defeated by the Europeans. In the original history, the French came with their fleet, bombarded the port, and we couldn’t do anything.’
I guess I’ll have to import talent from Europe. England would be best, France is good too, but the Netherlands or Spain wouldn’t be bad either. If that doesn’t work out, I’ll have to go to America.
‘The navy will cost not tens of thousands of pesos, but millions, so I’ll make money first and then think about it.’
If I bring in talent and invest steadily, maybe someday we can catch up to those thugs, the imperialists? I can only hope.
***
June 1826.
About a year after the California Gold Rush officially began, I finally received letters from the agents I had entrusted with the California business.
‘It’s later than I expected. I was about to start worrying.’
I used the letter opener to open the letter from Hernando in Sacramento.
I quickly skimmed through the greetings and flowery language and found the main point.
[With the funds you provided, I have been developing gold mines in Sacramento, as well as building several shops and lodging facilities.
The Gold Rush started a little late, but as you predicted, an enormous number of miners have begun to flock here.
As you instructed, I have controlled only the areas with high reserves and profitability, and I have allowed mining in the rest.]
‘You need to have actual miners to attract more people, so you have to allow some mining.’
It’s bait to lure miners.
[The restaurants, shops, and lodging facilities I built are always full, and your other businesses, agricultural equipment, mining equipment, jeans, and tents, are selling like hotcakes.
I’m paying the miners working in your gold mines double the average wage, 2 pesos per day, but they’re also actively using the commercial facilities in Sacramento, so 1 peso out of the 2 pesos is coming back to us.
I’m using this money to develop the mines and build more shops.]
Levi Strauss just sold tents and jeans, but what about my companies, which provide almost all the necessary services and goods to the miners? It’s like money printing.
[We are also continuously working to encourage miners to settle in California and participate in development.
Many miners have already decided to settle and the land they bought is running out. I would like to ask for your opinion on whether we should buy more land.]
‘The land is already running out? I bought a huge amount of land earlier, at less than 1 peso per 10 acres.’
Land prices are probably starting to rise. I don’t want to use my own money, but I want to be like Stephen Austin in Texas, bringing in settlers and getting paid. But if I do that, the conservative party will be unhappy and their attention will be on me.
‘Well, I guess I’ll have to buy more land with my own money.’
Developing California doesn’t directly benefit me, but it’s definitely beneficial for the entire country.
I need to industrialize, but some people might think, “What are you doing, dispersing the population to the countryside?”, but there are advantages to these independent farmers.
The land given to settlers is large enough that a family of 3 to 8 people, two generations, parents and children, can’t farm it all.
Even so, they produce a lot of crops, and they don’t pay taxes for the first 5 years after settling.
This creates a situation where there is a shortage of manpower to work the land, even though the people are economically prosperous.
‘This creates an environment where the population can explode.’
In other words, this is an investment. An investment to rapidly increase the population. It’s only a matter of time before the children of the families who have settled now get married and have children of their own, creating a third generation.
Mexico’s population at this time is between 6 million and 6.5 million, and the US population is between 9.5 million and 10 million.
You might think the difference in size isn’t that big, but the US GDP is 3.5 times that of Mexico.
The bigger problem is that by 1846, the time of the US-Mexican War, the gap will widen even more crazily, with Mexico having a population of 9.5 million and the US having a population of 21 million.
‘GDP will be completely out of the question.’
Every time I think about this, I feel terrified. Anyway, I finished thinking about buying land and read the last part of the letter.
The last part of the letter informed me that Alfonso’s logistics and passenger company, which he runs, has entered Sacramento and is operating, and that a large number of indigenous people are entering California.
‘Alfonso is doing well as always, and indigenous people? That’s a bit worrying.’
This is an event that could provoke the landowners who consider tenant farmers their property. If their anger reaches a certain level, they could put political pressure to stop the Gold Rush altogether.
‘I need to finish developing the mechanical reaper and improve agricultural efficiency before that happens.’
The letter from Isidro Solis, who is leading development and business in San Francisco, a neighboring city, had almost the same content.
I replied to both of them, telling them they were doing well and to keep investing in land, shops, and mines.
***
‘It feels a little empty.’
The warehouse where I developed the rifling machine with Eduardo is empty.
Clap!
I clapped my hands once and started.
“Alright, let’s get started.”
What I’m going to make is a mechanical reaper, specifically the one invented by an American named Cyrus McCormick in 1831 in the original history.
Of course, I only know the concept, not the details.
‘But since it’s only about 5 years apart in time, I should be able to develop it.’
This mechanical reaper was called a reaper, and it was known to replace up to 5 farm laborers, drastically reducing labor costs and dramatically increasing harvesting speed.
This is a revolutionary level of productivity improvement. By the time Cyrus McCormick died in 1884, over 100,000 mechanical reapers had been sold.
100,000 machines in this era, and not even consumer goods. That’s enough to say that it made a huge contribution to American agriculture.
‘If it’s too expensive, they definitely won’t adopt it. For landowners, humans are the cheapest. Fortunately, reapers aren’t that expensive.’
Unlike the rifling machine, which requires a steam engine and a huge amount of steel, the reaper doesn’t need a steam engine or a lot of steel.
All you need is steel for the wheels, gears, blades, and platform, and to connect them.
Once I succeed in completing it, I’m going to try to mass-produce it using a steam engine to lower the production cost.
‘It sold for about $120 in the original history in the 1840s, so I’m aiming for mass production at $120 or less.’
I picked up a sheet of iron, looking at the initial design drawings I had drawn up in my spare time.
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