Crowned With Crime

Optimising yields

Being a boss is a bit like being the city's fireplace. Sometimes, you have to know how to throw employees into the furnace to fuel the fire, but ultimately, it's thanks to us that everyone stays warm.

I believe it was around 1416. Grandpa was already getting old at that time. After all, at thirty years old, he was already what one could call an old man, but he still had a long way to go before becoming the most powerful boss.

Do you remember his first son, Henry? Grandpa was afraid he would grow up to be a complete fool. Times were tough back then and there wasn't much money, so choices had to be made. Either they bought iron stocks for the forge or they sent their son to school... Well, that's also why they had two children.

That said, even though he didn't go to school, my father, Henry, wasn't a good-for-nothing. It was decided to send him to an artisans' guild to learn how to forge weapons.

The pen is mightier than the sword. Maybe, but in the meantime, the sword can cut off the hand of the one holding the pen.

And they were going to need a lot of swords to repay our debts. Times were hard and we were heavily in debt, and to make matters worse, grandpa's wife, Sabrina, gave birth to another child, another boy.

Oh, I mean, grandpa was from another era, another time. If we had been in the blessed time of the Crusades, he would have rejoiced with joy, can you imagine? Three brave young men to offer as sacrifices to our lord.

He would have been the most respected man in the city. But alas, those days are over, we are in the Renaissance, and now we need girls to marry off to rich gentlemen.

Out of frustration for not having a little girl, he decided to call him Catherine. He thought that maybe if he put him in a pretty dress and married him off to an old, nearsighted man, maybe... Ah, no...

Finances were gradually improving over the summer of 1430, and grandpa decided to hire a bodyguard. He felt a danger lurking around the family, and with two lucrative businesses, he feared attracting the wrath of rival families.

Moreover, he had the advantage of arming his guards with the best weapons and armor straight from his forge.

He also began investing in the purchase of new carts, this time drawn by horses, faster, stronger, and more efficient than humans.

You know, to reach the top, you have to be willing to take risks. Even though the last loan had brought him to the brink of bankruptcy, he decided to take out another loan to obtain a title from the town hall, all for a total of 2,000 gold coins.

Well done, we had to pay the state crooks just to change a line on a piece of paper.

But Grandpa used to say that these corrupt government officials would pay soon because one day they would lead a revolution. Well, it wouldn't really be them leading the revolution, it would be the peasants, but they would make them believe the idea came from them... but no, that will never happen.

In any case, thanks to his new title, he was finally able to open a third business, which he decided to entrust to his wife.

Oh no, but wait, Grandpa was a progressive at heart. He was all for women's work, especially when he didn't have to pay them.

He thus had a farm built at the northern exit of the city. Sure, it wasn't the best location, but all the others were taken. He mainly produced barley and wheat there, but the real goal was, ultimately, to be able to produce leather.

Leather is dreadfully scarce these days, and the production of his tailor shop and forge was slowed down by the lack of raw materials.

That's the rule of all suppliers: when your supplier is failing, buy them out and fire them; but if your supplier is efficient, buy them out and fire them.