NOVEL SIMPLE [Vol.4] Ch.4 Economics
I got to work on the tunnel section of the new road, while the goblins were left to build the road itself, and cut the trees in the way. After a week, a noticeable issue started to arise. Despite the population of the village, we seemed to have a labor shortage, which didn't make much sense considering just how many goblins I'd see lazing around not working on anything. I decided to take a day to investigate the cause of the lack of work ethic among the goblins who weren't working.
I really shouldn't have been surprised by what I found. Most of the goblins simply didn't want to do manual labor, and after having seen other goblins not volunteering to help when we were quarrying stone, more decided that they didn't need to work. That's a problem, and not just for me, but the whole village as well.
Until now, outside of occasional incentives or trades for more complicated work, a lot of the goblins would contribute to projects when asked by Zaka without any real incentive other than just being asked. Most knew that whatever was being worked on would end up helping themselves in the long term, so they were easy to convince. I'd previously traded building houses or random furniture as an extra incentive, but now we're basically doing that for free. Plus, all their food is free, which almost all of the production of the food is thanks to our construction efforts.
Thanks to the constructions I've made, the amount of labor necessary to actually sustain the population is way less than the number of goblins here, which means that for many goblins, there is no incentive to contribute to society. Heck, back during the dwarf invasion, many of them didn't even fight for their lives. This can't continue for a healthy society. How long until even the fishermen start only getting fish for themselves and the whole society deteriorates back to just hunting?
Tomorrow, I'll talk with Zaka about this issue to try to come up with a resolution for the issue.
Zaka was surprisingly difficult to discuss this issue with. His initial take on the issue was that it wasn't an issue at all, and if the goblins didn't want to work, then they shouldn't be forced to. I discussed the matter more in depth with him though and voiced my concerns about societal regression occurring.
He made a good counterpoint though. There currently isn't enough consistent work in the village for any individuals to be forced to work. There's a decent amount of seasonal work, and a lot of random work that I want done for construction, but the amount of work that the goblins can just do without any instruction or supplies being built is low. Part of that is my fault, but I'd say the majority of it actually rests on the goblins.
I've been more than willing to help make tools or buildings for goblins who show initiative to develop their own work. That said, we lack an incentive structure to even let goblins know that the work they're doing is valuable. Basically, we lack currency. Without currency, everyone just barters, and since we have a surplus of food, everyone who doesn't have ideas on the scale of barterable actions don't have any incentive to work.
I'm opposed to forcing goblins to work by threat of force, as is Zaka, so that isn't going to be an option. Which basically means I'm stuck with having to develop currency for our country. I'd love to just make it out of stone, but considering there are other individuals with stone shaping, that's not going to be an option. That means we'll probably be stuck using metal. Currency comes with all kinds of problems as well, but those problems also make jobs, so it isn't the end of the world.
Of course, with most of the projects I'm working on being ones that don't directly benefit any individual, but instead benefit the whole of our society, it'd be odd if we didn't also implement some kind of tax system. Of course, we can't just assess taxes and charge the goblins for it, that would require an entire administrative state, which would be a nightmare to implement suddenly at a large scale. We're basically operating as a government already, so figuring this out is just the next step.
Instead, I suggested a few things be done. First, a very small fee be placed on using both the fish harvesting pools, and the bathhouse. We'll have to keep two guards posted at either location to collect the usage fees. They also double as protection in case any trouble happens near those locations. We can also create an emblem of some kind to use for unlimited access to the bathhouse for government usage. Second, when the swamp beets or salt are harvested from the existing fields, the government should be the initial buyer, since we're the ones who made the building. Third, the existing workshops should be charged monthly for usage, or a flat fee can be paid back in to the government given we also built those, and they have the means to trade for currency based on their craft. Fourth, all citizens will be given a one time allotment of currency, equal to five days usage of the fish harvesting pools. These things should get the ball rolling, and help the goblins sort out the value of the currency itself.
Finally, there are going to be some issues that arise over time, and we'll have to adjudicate those issues as they arise. Private property is a natural consequence of introducing money. We will no longer be able to just share food storage with everyone. I mean, I built most of the buildings in the village, and a lot of them are currently shared use among multiple individuals. One of the warehouses is currently being shared by multiple shops in the village. We might need to end up taxing them based on their usage. We also have excess charcoal, but we'll probably need to end up setting a price for that as well.
What about homes? We currently have multiple types of homes in the village, and if we're going to charge for the workshops we built, we should probably charge for the nicer homes that some of the goblins live in for free. There are two different styles of apartment buildings, and the default house design (ignoring Zaka's new house). Given how us demons reproduce, it'd be untenable to charge for basic housing, but anything beyond the basic apartment building will require someone to cough up money. If someone has a lot of currency and wants to pay to have a nice house built, that should be fine.
I'm sure there will be lots more issues when we go to implement this, but for now, that'll have to do. I plan on doing all the minting up on the mountain, where I can hide away the various molds I'll use for currency. It's also close to the source of our metal, which is important. I plan on taking up some of the ingots Katarko made to use for the highest level coinage as well. For now though, the mountain still has snow on it, so I'll have to wait before I can make any of this coinage.
While I waited for the snow to melt, I continued carving a tunnel out of the ridge at the edge of the valley. I worked for four days before I noticed an issue. I had been digging at a slight incline based on measurements I made of the two neighboring valleys, so that the tunnel between the two would connect properly. The issue I noticed was that a slow trickle of water was coming from the tunnel. Normally, I smooth the walls with stone shaping to prevent any water seeping in or out through the rock in case there is an aquifer, but given the size of this tunnel, I hadn't been doing that.
While it isn't a problem itself, the water will cause potential damage if I don't properly handle it. Thankfully, I actually do want more freshwater at the village, which is downhill from here. I'd like to build a channel for the water to flow alongside the road we're making as the first portion of fixing this water issue.
The second portion is harder. I'll need to excavate a smaller drainage tunnel on either side of the main tunnel, with channels to guide the aquifer water out of the mountain. I don't know how much water this is ultimately going to drain, and there will probably be even more after a rain, so I'm honestly planning on making the main tunnel on either side big enough that I can walk through it. Then I'll just bore shafts up into the walls a short distance. Ultimately, I'm just digging horizontal wells to properly drain the rock surrounding the tunnel.
That'll end up eating a lot of extra time to dig, but by the end of the project, we'll probably have a decent trickle of freshwater available for awhile, and I can be a little more certain about the stability of the tunnel. It'll slow down construction of the road to build a small channel out of stone next to it, but that should be fine.