Starting Today, I’ll Work as a City Lord - Chapter 117: 6 Grades of Fabric

Chapter 117: 6 Grades of Fabric

Liu Feng looked at the carpenters and immediately realized what happened. The carpenters didn’t really have any knowledge about wooden products, and most of them were taught by him! There was no way they would know what hydropower and water wheels were.

I’ll teach you more stuff after you improve the spinning jenny and loom and make the linen thread about a dozen times finer,” Liu Feng said, waving his hand helplessly.

Giving too much information at once would make it hard for the carpenters to digest everything, so he decided to wait until they completed absorbed the knowledge about spinning jennies and looms before teaching them about hydropower.

“Okay!”

“It’s still pretty good considering that it’s the first time you made these.” Liu Feng nodded his head and pulled on the linen threads in his hand. Twisting a few more linen threads together could make extremely strong linen ropes. The only problem with them was that they couldn’t be soaked in water for too long. I need to find a way to get more resistant ones.

“How long would it take to address the issues I pointed out?”

“Very quickly,” a carpenter said.

“Then start right now and get it done and I’ll take a look,” Liu Feng said.

“Yes!” the carpenters immediately took out their tools and got to work…

“Anri, write this down,” Liu Feng said as he looked at the carpenters working. “West Sun City’s fabric will have 6 grades, namely: Supreme Grade, Top Grade, Upper Grade, Middle Grade, Lower Grade, and Bottom Grade.”

Anri immediately took out a thick notebook from her backpack, put it against Mina’s ass, and started to write with a pen.

“…” Mina blushed as she resisted the urge to whip Anri’s ass. If it wasn’t because Liu Feng had a serious expression on his face, she would have already done so.

“The fabric just now is a Bottom Grade fabric, and it’s the cheapest fabric that can be brought with just a few copper coins.” The corners of Liu Feng’s mouth twitched as he turned his head around and pretended to not see anything. “The fabric made from linen thread only a bit thicker than hair will be classified as Lower Grade fabric. The fabric made from linen thread that is as thick as hair and can let some light through will be classified as Middle Grade fabric and will cost at least a few silver coins.”

The people present were dumbfounded. Fabric made from linen thread that thin is only Middle Grade fabric? Then what about Upper Grade and Top Grade fabric?

“Young Master, isn’t there a problem with the requirements?” Anri asked.

“There’s no problem. Just set it to those requirements,” Liu Feng said, smiling lightly. “It’s not like linen thread is the only material that can be used to make clothes.

The people present froze as they couldn’t think of anything other than animal hides that could be used to make clothes. Animal hides, however, were too smelly, and anyone with some money to spare would choose to not buy clothes made from animal hides.

The reason that clothes made from animal hides stink was because the hides weren’t degreased properly. Animal hides had fat, and it was hard to degrease animal hides if alkaline wasn’t used. The summer was especially worse since the animal hide clothes would release rotten smells.

“Just set it according to those requirements, but don’t tell anyone these classifications yet. Wait for the other fabrics to be made before releasing the information,” Liu Feng said.

“Understood!” Anri was extremely tempted to ask what those fabrics were, but since it wasn’t the right place to do so, she held back her curiosity and didn’t say anything.

Liu Feng thought about the ancient people on Earth, and he really respected them for coming up with amazing things. He especially admired silk from the Tang Dynasty in China, which he planned to set as Top Grade fabric. There was also cotton, a natural fiber that didn’t need much processing, and he planned to set cotton fabric as Middle Grade and Upper Grade fabric.

Then there was wool, which can be used to make several grades of fabric. As long as the problem of degreasing was solved, they could use wool to make clothes. The thick outer layer of wool could be used to make blankets. The cashmere could then be used to make Middle Grade and Upper Grade fabric, which made fur clothes that were very warm.

Liu Feng could easily set the price of silk clothes and cashmere clothes to gold coins.

As for Supreme Grade fabric, well, those were fabric Liu Fen brought from Earth that had only been used by a few people in the City Lord’s Mansion.

The carpenters finished fixing the spinning jenny and loom in half an hour. The linen thread produced made Liu Feng slightly satisfied as the linen fabric made was about as good as the ones on the market, if not better.

“Very good!” Liu Feng said. “How many spinning jennies and looms can be produced in a day?”

“Lord Liu Feng, we can make four machines in a day,”¹ the carpenters said. They wouldn’t have dared to imagine being able to make so much before, but the carpentry tools made by the Military Institute gave them the confidence to do so.

“That’s too little. Call the other carpenters for help, I want at least ten machines produced every day,” Liu Feng said. He then turned his head to look at Niu Si. “Give them extra meals and assign people to start producing linen fabric. I will need to use them in two days.”

“Understood!”

“By the way, how much paper do we have in stock?” Liu Feng asked, thinking about the doctors that had been using sheepskin scrolls.

“There’s a lot of Bottom Grade paper,” Niu Si said. The Bottom Grade papers were slightly yellow, similar to the color of sheepskin, and weren’t very durable. They would break just by being folded, but they were still way better than sheepskin scrolls.

The City Lord Mansion produced both good and bad products. They would generally release the bad products first before slowly releasing the better products.

Liu Feng nodded and turned his head to speak to Anri. “Arrange for people to come and get the products and put them up for sale in two days.”

“Understood,” Anri said, writing it down. The store for selling paper had long been prepared.

“Come on, let’s go to Commercial Street,” Liu Feng said, satisfied as he left. Thanks to linen fabric, he had the foundation to start to shake up the market.

Liu Feng knew how scary the mass production industry was. Other people were still producing linen thread by hand, but he was already using machines. Sure, it may be semi-manual, but it was still a few dozen times more efficient than total manual production.

Mass production meant low-priced products, which meant that he can start dumping products.² Once more than half of the linen fabric on the market come from West Sun City, Liu Feng would make a ton of gold coins every day.

Author’s Notes:

(￣▽￣). Took me a long time to check the information. I can’t just make things up, I want everyone to get something out of reading.³

Translator’s Notes:

¹ Not sure if it means four of each of the two machines or four machines in total.

² Dumping (in marketing) is the act of selling products at a (much) lower price than the market price for similar products to outcompete other businesses. The price can even be so low that the price of the products is lower than the cost of production.

³ This is torture I’m fact-checking everything too and it takes forever😭.

Don’t feel well so I won’t be translating extras. (Used like a whole roll of toilet paper from yesterday to today🤧.) Might even have to skip translating if it gets worse. (I got better since yesterday though so that’s unlikely.)