Til Kingdom Comes - The Banished Prince Vol 1: The Beginning

C035 The Bread of Life

When we had finished our light refreshments, Jack went to prepare the ingredients of gruel and set them aside for his wife to return from her trip and would set it up for lunch thereafter.

The grains, flour, vegetables and other ingredients were set aside to prepare for the simple gruel that would be made into lunch. Besides, it would be better for old Kayla to setup the meals as it would not disrupt her daily routine at all.

So we sat at the courtyard, as we proceed our negotiations as usual. The Engineers were engaged by Marcel and their salaries were paid directly. They had a time frame of 7 days to complete it and would use some stripped structures.

"7 days to complete constructing a windmill? Is this some kind of a joke? Even with the set of men and the fully completed windmill, could a group of people actually managed to achieve that?" I thought inwardly as I rubbed my chin and imagined I had a stubby beard like old Jack.

This windmill and sawmill were extricated from the ghost town and with the help of the engineers from Corral, they were able to practically strip piece by piece of that equipment.

Marcel got the items for free but he had to pay the engineers for the work on stripping it down to parts and it would be our part to pay them the salary. Marcel openly discussed the matter to us and we nodded our heads.

"Don't mind me taking a look first before I give my evaluation, do you?" I motioned for Jack to follow me and by looking at the parts, most were made by blocks of wood. Only the sawmill had a circular metal blade and the operations were made up of heavy metal gears and it was hand-operated.

A differential gear was set up so that one revolution of a hand crank would move the circular saw blade several revolutions. Hence 1 crank resulted in 3 to 4 revolutions of the circular saw blade. The faster someone cranks it up, the faster the circular blade would revolve and cut planks in a more quicker manner.

A long bench with half of the circular saw blade was also included. That's all for the sawmill. It was compact and practical.

"This parts don't seem to take much maintenance and would be easily replicated and replaced if worn. I would say 5s for this."

"As for the windmill, only the gears for the rod to move the mill is made from metal. I would remove this and make a clay mould to replicate them in case of we need replacements. It's from 5s to 10s."

There was a loom that was used to weave yarns into cloth so upon close inspection, it was entirely made from wood but with some delicate pedals which operates the levers in order to make intricate designs. "I won't know of this price but you can bargain, of course." Jack solemnly informed me since it was out of his league.

We returned to the courtyard and before I made a calculation and offer for the sawmill and windmill, I asked, "How much did you spend to hire these engineers?"

"I engaged these fine gentlemen for 15c a day, no food, and they worked about 3 days to dismantle the windmill which was a bit troublesome as well as the sawmill too," replied Marcel. I calculated 15c for 10 engineers for 3 days would equal to 450c or 4s 50c.

I shook out 4s and 50c and handed it to Marcel." This is for the services rendered for the dismantling works, and here's another 12s for the sawmill, windmill and loom." I handed another 12s to Marcel and he was pleasantly surprised as he was not expecting us to pay for the services he had paid the engineers back then.

Even at 12s for the sawmill, windmill and handloom, it was better than nothing because practically he salvaged those three FOR FREE...!

I turned to the engineers and shot a question, "I would like to offer 10c with 3 square meals daily, but no lodging, each day for 7 days would that be alright?" the amount I offered was slightly higher than a labourer would get and since they would be getting 3 meals a day, who would refuse?

"It's a done deal, sir. We can make do sleeping at the worksite but could we speak our mind?" one of the engineers asked. I nodded and he continued, "Could we request for bread daily for the 10 of us? You mentioned that there are more than 3 flavours, and the mention of bread do really piqued our interests."

"Just bread? You hadn't tasted our seasoned meat with vegetables steamed buns yet...! You would definitely work free for us once you have tasted that... HAHAHAHA...!!" I laughed my head off and everyone laughed along with me.

"S... Seasoned meat with vegetables in a steamed bun?! My golly... I've never heard of that before...! We had only plain steamed buns and it's slightly more expensive than a loaf of bread... A bun is for one person but a loaf of bread would be for 3...!" stammered one of the engineers and everyone eyes was as big as the mouths of the bamboo cups they were holding, even Marcel and his young assistant included.

"Hey Marcel, you should bring steamed buns back to Corral to sell to us you know... This village is indeed a delightful surprise... I never would expect a small sleepy village like this would hidden gems, waiting to be discovered."

"Or better, get the Baker to be at Corral instead so we could have steamed buns and more kinds of bread every day without even feeling bored of it... Hahahaha."

Looking at those men really made my heart swell. Not only our discussion on the sales was disrupted, but it also ends up discussing food. I cleared my throat and immediately changed the subject, "Here's 7s to pay for one week's worth of construction. Whether you complete within 3 days or delays the job for 30 days, your salary is all here. I don't have change but I guess Marcel has them."

I handed the coins to one senior looking engineer and I explained that one day is 1s worth of salary and 7 days is 7s or 700c. Seeing that their salary had been paid in advance, they were full of vigour and can't wait to start their work as soon as possible.

"Marcel my good friend, I require 60 pounds of grains and flour weekly. Would you be able to accommodate me?"

"Young Master, I only have 100 pounds of grains and 100 pounds of flour with me right now. You can take them all but I could make a fortnight trip since I have other places to go and serve. Would that be alright? On the following fortnight, I would bring 180 pounds of grains and 180 pounds of flour. The grains and flour would be 5 pounders each, right? "

"That's fine, I will take all of them. Our engineers would not mind assisting to offload them, would you? Just place them in the courtyard here and separate the grains from the flour."

I paid for the goods using a gold coin and gotten back 38 silvers back. (Author's Note: This is just a quick price that I used based on 2c per pound. Actually, it was quite variable and it is hard for me to pinpoint the actual price for grains and flour)

(Furthermore, 1 pound in weight would be 0.454kg so a 100 pounds of grains or flour would merely weigh 45.4kg. A study shows that a man requires 250kg of grains per year or 0.68kg or 1.5 pounds daily. The earlier figure of 5 pounds weekly grains for a family of 4 is also an estimation. Thank you.)

I set the coins back into the coin pouch as I concluded the first part of sales for Marcel. There are a billy and 5 nannies on the wagon but I set the intent to buy for later. Furthermore, Crystal was busy tending to the current nannies and was milking them.

Since it was close to midday, everyone would have made their way back soon for meals. I would have to wait for the ones who were in charge to deal with the woven mats, pelts, cured tanned leather as well as hunting bows.

There were also 144 clay bricks, a dozen of rocket stoves and the discovery of the prices for the firewood and planks depending on the kind of tree types. Cheese and clay jars would also be included for the forthcoming sales so I offered them tea and they relished the hospitality.

Before long, the streams of pioneers and the new families returned and greeted Marcel warmly. They saw the piles of sacks and Crystal immediately deployed helping hands to store them in the grains and flour sheds respectively.

Kayla saw the crumbs on the clay platter on the table and knew the earlier bread for breakfast was served to the visitors. I motioned for Kayla and informed her that Marcel loved bread and maybe as a parting gift, we could make some bread for him to take away later when he leaves.

Kayla nodded as she and some ladies made some variations of bread that would be sweet cinnamon bread, chewy cheese bread and sweet cornbread. Three pounds of flour was prepared for each of the variations as the visitors watched the ladies prepare to knead the dough.

At least there would be more choices of bread to eat during dinner or supper time later. As these bread were the sweet ones, it would fit to be eaten at any time they wished. I noticed the pioneers were not calculated what they had done for the bread and how it was supposed to be consumed.

Kayla prepared gruel for lunch assisted by Gwen and Heather and after the men had washed themselves up, they sat and entertained the guests.

I excused myself as I went back to my table to prepare the records for all the transactions. Besides, 3 horses and wagons would be left behind due to the materials contained in them.

After making a quick count through my accounts journal, there's still more silvers inside to go around. I intend to purchase another 2 more horses and wagons and I wondered who owns them at the moment.

"Marcel, I had requested Kayla to freshly bake some bread for you. You could take them along with you and I specifically indicated to let you try the chewy cheese, sweet cinnamon and milky sweet cornbread since you had tried the garlicky bread earlier."

"Wow...thank you so much young master...! I am deeply honoured by the hospitality. These loaves of bread would definitely cost up to 5c per loaf because of the flavours since the plain, hard ones cost 2c.

"Well, my dear friend. I don't think it would costs that much. It may even cost about 1c due to its size since we do not have a mould to bake these bread in. These are free form bread and it's as big as old Jack's fist. Hahaha."

"Do you really think that this bread would be able to fetch 5c as what you mentioned? I know of those hard bread ones and especially the trenchers, but really, I am against giving away food that has been in our mouths to people. I would give it to animals though but as for food for others, I would ensure they got the freshest ones."

"By the way, let me know what you would think once you have tasted our bread, especially from GraceHaven where it was baked with love. Hahaha."

I finally concluded with Marcel about my thoughts on the bread as he flashed his wide grin at me.

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