Despite the clustering of houses forming the town of Algatolla, there is very little manufacturing. Only a small parcel of the population are craftsmen, working out of their own houses and producing low-quality goods mostly for local usage. The vast majority of the people are farmers, all serfs tied to the land and belonging to me. There are also many fishermen who bring in a variety of fish local to this area.

Commerce is based around agricultural goods, the farmers grow wheat, which we sell to passing merchant ships in exchange for some money and commodities like wine, which is apparently mostly consumed by yours truly. We also produce other crops in small quantities, like a variety of beans, turnips, radishes and so on, these are used by the peasants in their own nutrition, I imagine to make pottage. They also grow some flax to be hand spun into rudimentary clothing, again for their own use.

Maybe I should buy some clothes from them. Peasant clothes ought to be practical and actually breathable, unlike this shit I’m wearing.

The most productive industry right now is hunting, some of the peasants apparently possess rudimentary bows and clubs and hunt small game in the forested hills further inland as permitted by me, the lord of the realm - Or, to say more accurately – as permitted by Lugh in my stead. In exchange for hunting rights, they provide me with the pelts of hunted animals, which are very valuable compared to the rest of our production.

Weirdly enough, one of the most important pieces of data in the documents, given its prominence, is that the island of Lull has no shrines and at the moment no resident gods. The god thing comes up again, like when Evie talked about that god of wine, seems this place has a polytheistic belief system, though I’m not sure what they mean by resident gods, Eriu’s memory doesn’t help very much.

Finally finished with all the documents in front of me, I sigh and stretch my arms. The state of the island’s economy isn't great. Foodstuffs are good for their obvious utility in feeding our people and the reliability of their price - people will always need to eat - but unprocessed they have very little value.

Our most profitable industry can’t be expanded too much either. Hunting is not a sustainable practice if done extensively. It should be fine at this informal level of a few peasants bringing in game when they have no other work to do, but if we expand it too much we might deplete game and destroy the island’s ecosystem. Not to mention the trouble of training people to shoot bows or lay traps, neither of which I know how to do.

According to Lugh, in the south side of the island, opposite to Algatolla in the north, there is a mine near the village of Sarda, which produces some amount of iron. We have yet to find the relevant data but it sounds like a very small operation.

Ores, of course, would be the backbone of any serious industrial development but given the amount necessary to start building machines even if I try to expand the mine as much as I can I will probably have to import minerals from the mainland eventually, with money I scarcely have.

Given that, my priority, for now, should be to both expand the mine and look for ways to boost the economy and generate more income to buy the resources needed for industry.

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“Why do we only practice subsistence agriculture?” I ask Lugh, who is startled at my question. He seemed pretty surprised that I actually stuck around all this time too.

“Subsistence agriculture?” He asks somewhat puzzled, I suppose they don't categorize things the same way we do in modernity.

“Crops that are meant for feeding the farmers and their families. Wheat has low market value and selling it isn't profitable compared to selling crops such as grapes for wine or olives for oil.”

“The serfs are mostly left to their own devices and grow what they want, although part of their production is yours by right. Since they have to feed their own families they obviously would grow crops that can feed them. The kind of crops you are talking about is normally farmed in plantations where the serfs are paid in food and shelter”

“Hmm, I see” our current circumstance does make sense given the feudal mode of production, but it is too inefficient, I will need to look into the situation of serfs sooner or later. “What if I told some of the serfs to grow those high-value crops, and then gave them part of my income in grain the other serfs farmed?“

“That’s quite unorthodox, your majesty. If you would like we can ask the next merchant ship to bring seeds for the next time they come around and pick out some serfs to use the plantation method, or we could ask the serfs to grow some of those crops in their land as part of their tax and let them keep the grain.”

The first method is abhorrent; I don't like the idea of serfs already and making them completely dependent on me would be a step backwards, I want to set them free as soon as feasibly possible. However, the second method made me realize something very simple.

“Do you know what four-field rotation is?” he looks at me strangely once again, and shakes his head, “Four fields? The farmland in Algatolla is separated in two, your majesty.”

That makes sense. Since we produce mostly just wheat, given the Mediterranean weather we can probably plant it all year round, and leave the other field fallow to recover nutrients, then we switch the fields every year. And of course allow the serfs their own small gardens to plant their flax, cabbages, onions and so on.

At least, I think so? This would all be in line with what historical documentation we had in Earth, but it’s tricky to study organic matter that would naturally decompose, and contemporary first-hand sources were wholly unconcerned with serfs and what they farmed. Historians were a lot more interested in talking about all the wars going on rather than the daily life and goings of the people.

A lot of what we know about medieval farming is nothing more than speculation, sadly. Thankfully I have the opportunity to talk to the farmers first-hand now and find out exactly what they do.

Hehe.

Although this might sound stupid, as a historian this is the most exciting thing about being reincarnated in a medieval land so far. It makes me unreasonably giddy, it would be great if after this I could write a book about medieval farming then somehow send it back to earth. I’d become one of the greatest historians of all time, I think.

…Either way, if I’m right, If I introduce four-field rotation I would be able to immediately increase food production, which would both give us more money and also free people from having to work the fields, so they can do other useful things.

It would be better to introduce modern farming with nitrate fertilizers, but we can’t make modern fertilizers as is, and I know nothing about modern farming and machinery.

Of course, with four fields that will mean introducing more crop types at a large scale, and for that, we will need to inform the next ship of our need, then wait until they come back again with the seeds we request. We could get lucky and they can simply have the seeds we need already on board too, though there might be other ways to procure crops, too.

“Lugh, tomorrow I'd like you to accompany me to inspect the fields, furthermore, I'd like to talk with some of the hunters to prepare an ecological survey of Lull.”