Naturally, Lawrence cannot plan the development direction of the island alone, and at this time the importance of having a reliable retainer group is highlighted. Especially the members of this retainer group had managed the fief before. So after entering the conference room for a few simple greetings, Lawrence and the others immediately discussed the future development of the island.

Although everyone had done their homework before coming here, compared with the box of replicas of the island archives taken from the Imperial Archives that Lawrence is now putting on the table, the homework they did before looks too rough. . So after spending a day looking at the entire file roughly, the next day, everyone in the meeting room looked bad.

"This island is really tangled." Butler Bayer was the first to speak at the meeting. "To say bad things, we can find a lot of reasons. For example, we are far away from normal shipping routes, there are no precious minerals or precious animal and plant resources, and there are not many conventional minerals, and even the population is small. The only abundance is those orders. Goblin that people hate."

"But if you say yes, there are many good things. For example, the water and heat conditions on the island are good, and the land can be considered more fertile. The relationship between the immigrants and the indigenous people on the island is very good, and the personality is more down-to-earth. So if we want to develop, I think it’s more appropriate for us to start from the planting industry honestly."

Unlike most of the traversers who start to engage in industry once they cross, Lawrence's plan is to develop agriculture. He is not ignorant of the importance of industry in this era, but the problem is that this small island of more than 60,000 square kilometers but only more than 800,000 people has no potential for industrial development at all.

The development of industry cannot be achieved in a vacuum, it needs to meet many conditions. For example, it needs to have sufficient technology, sufficient human resources, sufficient raw materials and resources, a vast market, and convenient transportation. But on this small island named New Sauer by Lawrence and the others, none of these conditions can be met.

The level of education on this island is limited to universal literacy and low-grade primary education. There are only two schools on the island that combine high, primary and junior high schools. Therefore, if the people on the island want to receive a better education, they must go to other islands or the New World. But even so, the education level of this island is also among the best on the islands in the sea of ​​stars. But this alone cannot support industry.

As mentioned earlier in terms of manpower and raw materials, they are all very poor. There are indeed several coal mines on the island, iron and copper mines, but the reserves are very small. If it is only used for ordinary use, it can last a long time, but if the industry is developed with these mineral resources, it is estimated that it will take only six or seven years to import raw materials from other places.

Considering that the industry in this era is mainly iron and steel, machinery manufacturing, chemical or textile industries. Relying on imported raw materials certainly cannot satisfy industrial development.

Most importantly, the island is located on the sea of ​​stars. Whether it is the White Eagle Federation, the Republic of New Africa, or Elsion, they all belong to the kind of industrialized countries that are ranked in the world. Under this circumstance, Lawrence feels that it is very likely that the things he produced will definitely not be able to compete with those big countries.

After all, a characteristic of industrialized production is that the larger the scale, the lower the cost. Lawrence likes to build at most one small factory on the island. The cost of producing things in this type of factory is likely to be more expensive than the selling price of similar products on the island.

As for the final transportation, although it is more convenient to communicate when it is an island and has a natural harbor. However, the dense islands and main waterways far away from the Star Sea make this advantage greatly reduced. According to the report, apart from the semi-monthly liner, only about 20 merchant ships or passenger ships that have to choose to come to this island to shelter from the wind due to the bad weather will enter the port area every year.

Regarding the industry and handicrafts on the island, Lawrence thinks that the only thing worthy of attention is the information that says that because of the earliest immigrants on the island, there were a group of metalworkers exiled to work for smugglers, so there are many copper blacksmiths with good skills. Inheritance, the same information that they produce copper and iron utensils is considered to be the few commodities that can be exported on the island.

Just because of the development of industry, this kind of handicraft is slowly disappearing. According to the archives, the artisans on the island are now much more difficult to do business than in the past, so that they have to rely on planting and breeding to maintain their business.

So Lawrence decided to wait until he arrived on the island, and he would outsource part of the lighter shell carving work in his factory to them to help them get out of the predicament. Anyway, for luxury goods, handwork is the embodiment of grade, and small things like lighter shells do not take up much capacity and do not have too much additional expenditure.

This can also make up for the current shortage of mid-range products in our own factories. After all, skilled craftsmen must first meet the production of high-end products, and low-grade plain lighters can be manufactured by ordinary workers. The result of this is that the output of carved bronze or steel shell lighters facing the middle class and skilled workers is obviously insufficient.

Safir also telegraphed Lawrence two days ago because of this incident. According to her statement, he has seen many counterfeit products that God knows where they came from, according to her statement. Most of the mid-range products meet the demand. Therefore, he hopes that Lawrence can quickly make up for this shortcoming and not let others make money.

As Lawrence was considering his own business, the louder and louder voices of his retainers interrupted his thoughts. After listening to their quarrel for a few minutes, Lawrence reached out his right index finger and tapped on the table. All the retainers were quiet for a moment.

"I already know the content of your quarrel, you are entangled with the location of the first piece of land we opened up after we went to the island, right?" Lawrence coughed slightly as his retainers closed their mouths and stared at him. "You first talk about the specific situation of the two alternative locations, butler Bayer, you talk first."

"I support the opening up of territory in Mangrove Beach." Butler Bayer said after being named by Lawrence. "Because the area of ​​Mangrove Beach is small, only about 25 square kilometers. But there are several freshwater streams that can be used for irrigation, and the land is good. At the same time, the woods around this territory are not very dense, so we don't have to worry too much about goblins. The problem of attack."

"The most important thing is that there is an island just five or six kilometers away from the coastline of Mangrove Beach, which can provide shelter for this beach. Don't worry about the harsh weather."

"Very good~lightnovelpub.net~ These reasons sound quite reasonable." Lawrence nodded, then looked at the deputy butler on the other side and asked, "Then you think the reason for going to Bullhorn Bay to open up territory is what?"

"Because this place will be more than 2,000 square kilometers if it is opened up, which is the largest in the coastal plain. Among them, at least 1,500 square kilometers can be used for arable land. At the same time, the overall terrain of this place is relatively high, and there is a small peninsula. Stay in the front. Don’t worry about some harsh weather. The most important thing is that there is a river with a lot of flow on the edge of this land. Not only can it provide protection for this land, but it can also pass about 150 tons of ships directly upstream. More than 70 kilometers in the island."

"In that case, why not choose this piece of land?" Lawrence frowned. "The conditions in Egret Bay are obviously better than the conditions in Mangrove Beach."

"Actually, everyone would choose this if they looked at the map." The Butler by Bayer said helplessly. "And people have been there before us, and even have built towns there twice."

"But the map doesn't show the residential area where there used to be people." Lawrence took the island map to his eyes and looked for it carefully, but did not see the small red dot representing the residential area at that location on the map.

"Because those settlements disappeared because they couldn't hold on." The Butler by Bayer said, taking out a yellow and broken document from the pile of documents in front of him. "It was also because I saw this document yesterday that I objected to using this place as the target location for our first development."

"Let me see." Lawrence said as he reached out and took the document handed over, then slowly flipped through it. There was silence in the conference room, and everyone focused on Lawrence.