I was certainly not delighted to hear that we weren't going to have any trade ing our way until the war was over. It meant that the rush to make the new salt greenhouses was not as useful as I hoped it would be. We did get a rger salt yield this year, and traded it for , but ultimately, that is signifitly less than I was hoping to get. The fact we only got dwarven also was quite unfortunate. The itself is pretty much useless if we 't trade for things with it.
Though, because we relied on others to actually do the trading rather than having our own trade ships it's also our fault. Given that is the case, we might want to accelerate our harbor timeline. Though trade with the dwarves is unlikely while they're going through a civil erhaps a human or elf try would be able to trade with us.
Though I personally want to improve our self-reliance even more now. We aren't depe on the tis for anything, but we do gain quite a bit of be from trade overall. The main issue for an isnd nation is our limited resources. While we've been blessed with many deposits of metal, and a det food supply, there exists some upper limit on the avaibility of resources for an isnd nation, which is why I was so keen on trading renewable resources like salt for perma resources like metal. However, the tis seem to be quite votile, and using trade as a shortcut to provide our dwarves and humans with clothing and spices from their homend is starting to show itself as a weakness. Now that they'll be uo get those goods because of the war, I think it's time to attempt to ie them further into our society.
I talked things over with Zeb and Zaka, and they agreed that we should focus on self-reliance more. At this point, Zeb has started to train up quite a few one shaping goblins, which means that sometime this year he'll have a few more stru teams avaible. I discussed it with him, and in a few months I'll be getting volunteers for a seinio join the first one.
This year, we'll pnt some of our imported fibrous pnts. These seeds were imported from the dwarves for the purpose of growier pnts for weaving cloth. If all goes well, we'll at least be able to make simple clothes of a quality simir to the dwarves. Most of our popution is wearing shoddy clothing made from the pnts that grow on the isnd or det quality leather. The dwarves and humans, however, are wearing imported clothing. They don't have an abundance of it, but it was meant to make their transition to our lifestyle easier.
Zeb and I agreed that it was time to expand the produ infrastructure in and around the city. We've had a few goblins who have worked as Karsh's assistants for years now, and it's about time to have them move to their own smithies, and give Karsh some new assistants. So, we'll be building two more smithy areas. There is a simir situation for carpentry and weaving. So for a few months, one of the stru teams is going to stop building new housing, and focus oing those new buildings built.
For a little while, I'll be busy making sure that everything is w in the hydroelectric facility, and teag ten goblins how to handle everything. The facility has signifitly more electrical capacity than it's currently using, so lenty of room to add more maes iure to that area.
After some discussion with Zaka, it's been decided that after I make sure everything is w as intended with the hydroelectric facility, I'm going to work on a few buildings iy. We were waiting on a good supply of metal in order to make a bank. Given our overall growth rate, it's been decided that we don't just need a bank, though it's where we'll start. After building a bank, we'll build a mint for making more of our money. It's beeermihat the mint will be built under our castle. There, we'll have a vault for st our valuables.
Initially, I wasn't pnning on doing something like that, but Zaka brought up a good point oter. As the popution has tio grow, there has been more and more crime of increasing severity. A decade ago, petty theft was about the highest extent of the criminal activity. We already have guards and a jail, but that hasn't stopped the occasional individual from engaging in more severe crimes. Retly, Zaka executed a hobgoblin for running aorti. Currently, I just hide the minting equipment up on the mountain along with spare .
Following Zaka's logic, as the popution tio grow, it wouldn't be impossible for a criminal element to decide to steal our minting equipment or , which is unguarded. If, instead, it was kept in the castle and guarded, at the very least it would be easier to iigate the crime, should it occur. Zaka's been doing a good job of keeping the number of guards up retive to the rest of the popution, though we're starting to run into a new issue as a result. Lack of leveling opportunities.
There still are some, but it's being more and more limited over time. Which, after some discussion, I've decided on a pn. We imported a signifit amount of roofing materials over the st few years. Initially, I inteheir use to be for more windmills. Instead, we'll be using it to make a detly rge boat which we use to travel to the isnd over. There, a group of guards be brought over for part of winter, where they hunt giant lizards and cut dowo gain levels. Which also means that once a few new stru teams are avaible, it's time to build the harbor, so we safely store our ships.
Our pns for the year basically went off without a hitbsp; There were a few hiccups with the hydroelectric facility, but they were pretty minor and easy to fix. By mid-spring it was ready to be left in the hands of the goblins. They were separatiite much faster than it was being mined, which was good. The enriched hematite was quite easy to process into good quality iron.
Which was good, because I needed plenty of iron to make the vaults for the bank and the mint. First, I worked on the bank, which sisted of a vault with 10,000 deposit boxes. Admittedly, there was no locks on the boxes, and some were rger than others, but any individual who wants a box get one in the bank. Each box is belled with a dwarven number, and we hired five clerks and ten guards for the bank. The clerks were given a basidown of dwarven number systems, and then also taught how to write names down.
From there, a ledger was kept of who had what box in the vault. For the time being, we're not keeping a running total, and anyone who wants to withdraw from the bank will have to wait for a clerk to physically check their banbsp; To prevent mistakes, they also have to have two oblins double check that the right deposit box was checked.
After the bank erational, Zeb was ready to designate new stru teams, so I joined in to get a seining team. Sihe new mining team was retively low prestige, I split the existing team in two, and the new group lit among those teams. Oeam will focus orag the upper yer of hematite and quartz, while the sed team will dig into the root of the vein to extract the sulfide ores.
After removing the new mining team from the pool, Zeb was left with three new stru teams. One of the senior teams was dedicated to building out the new smithies and other workshops, two of the eams were put ba terrace expansion, and one senior team and oeam came with me to the other side of the isnd. I brought along the human harbormaster to help us pn out the future port.
A el will be dug out into the bay, and for now a si dock area will be built with a loaintain water level even during low tide. Ultimately, ships e in during medium tide and above, and by using a dual lock, we make sure that the water level i doever falls below that level. I'd initially pnned for the o dock to handle our single ship, but the harbormaster made a good point about having it two wet docks instead. If we only make the ohen we'll be uo receive anyone who might arrive while our own ship is docked.
Iure, we'll add even more docks, but that was what they'd work on for the time being. After that, I spent a few more months designing the mint under our fort in the middle of the city. This vault was made more secure than the bank vault, with extra thick walls, and a bination lobsp; The actual inting area is in a higher level of the fort, but the equipment is stored down in the vault while not in use. After it was plete, we moved all the equipment and s that were stored on the mountain down into the vault.
By that point, it was mid-fall and enough of the port had been built that I could begin stru of our new ship. I had initially thought about having it be a sail powered boat, but those require signifitly more know-how to operate than a powered boat. Uhe barge, which uses a paddleboat design, I wao go with a propeller and rudder design for this ship. Ultimately, the pn is for it to hold 50 individuals, and a bunch of cargo.