Alexander’s daily production of thirty-five (35) tons of steel was both a blessing and a slight curse because he needed to, on paper, sell 100,000 ropals of it a day, which came to at least 36.5 million ropals annually.
This was equivalent to a Jamider’s (Earl) annual income or about one-tenth the earning of an average pasha.
And this amount would still be nowhere near his capacity.
“My lord, all these steel produced, what are were going to do with them? Currently, we do not need that many. Nor can we process so much,” Harun asked.
And he was right.
Normally, because iron was so expensive, it would strictly be used for weapons, but for Alexander even a week of current production would be enough for Alexander to equip not used the current six thousand (6,000), but about double that.
The greatest amount of iron went into armor production and considering Alexander planned to issue full-body chainmail to his soldiers, which covered the entire body, from head to toe, including the hands and feet, that weighed around 20kg.
So the total steel that would be needed to fully equip his soldiers- 120 tons.
In comparison to this, the weapons such as swords and spears used really small amounts of iron. Alexander estimated the total to be only around 10 tons for the 6,000 men.
So, less than four days of production was enough to fully equip, and some might argue overequip one entire legion.
And this was a bit of a problem for Alexander not only there was not so much demand, but there were also not so many blacksmiths to transform these steel ingots into steel products.
In this previous life, when such mass production techniques were first invented, the demand for high-quality steel had gone through the roof, primarily needed in construction, making railway lines, railcars, and steamships.
As a matter of fact, it could be argued that it was this demand for steel that necessitated the discovery of such techniques.
And thus, with Alexander having jumped the tech tree, he was finding himself that he might not really need this much steel.
Because to process such vast quantities of steel, he would need the steam engine, to run the massive machines such as rollers and forging hammers.
After all, there was only so far mere waterwheels can take you
“Hmmm, I might have made the steel foundry a little too big,” Alexander lampooned, as the daily production gave Zanzan city a per capita steel production of 60kg, whereas even in the Roman empire, this value was 15kg.
Alexander had taken office for less than two months and in the meantime, as he adjusted himself to the positon, one particular sector he was having trouble with was judging the required scale of his industries.
First, he had made his cement and brick industry too small, and then fearful of making the same mistake twice, he over-compensated and made the steel foundry too big.
‘Should I reduce production?’ Alexander considered, but found the idea distasteful.
There was an ecosystem to the whole production, from the mining to the grinding to the melting, and to change one, he would have to change everything else.
“We will replace everything of bronze with steel. And whenever possible, we will also switch from wood to steel,” Alexander answered the military leader, further adding, “This will be good for us. It will not only save the trees, but it will also be cheaper and faster as manufacturers will be able to just melt and cast the product, instead of the tedious process of slowly shaping the wood.”
Alexander said so with a smug look on his face as he then immediately instructed Harun, “Harun, you are to build more waterwheels downstream. They will be attached to forging hammers by flywheels and so we will be able to forge the raw ingots into products much more easily.”
“Yes, my lord.” Harun quickly replied, excited by the new possibilities.
“Ahem, my lord, if we do this, banning iron exports to our enemies will be pointless,” Heliptos cleverly pointed out, making Alexander take critical damage.
Alexander instantly understood what his finance minister was saying and it banged against his heart hard.
But not everyone was so quick on the uptake and so Heliptos helped them catch up, “If we replace bronze with iron and some of the wooden stuff with it too, and if the products are as cheap as Lady Cambyses suggested they be, then these products will be dirt cheap in Zanzan and absurdly expensive outside of it,” Heliptos did not forget to take a snipe at Cambyses as he pointed out the flaw, and then warned, .
“Then the result will be obvious. A black market will form the next day and we will never be able to stop it.”
‘Fuck!’ Alexander, along with everyone else cursed, knowing the finance minister had hit a bull’s eye with this one.
Even if they were to assume a 1-kilogram finished product like a sword would cost 50 ropals, and the smugglers would charge 100 ropals for it, the demand for them would still be virtually endless.
And the same went for the pots, pans, and everything else.
‘Fuck, I made the steel too good,’ Alexander had built this facility with the prime intention of making plate armor and thus making his army virtually invincible, able to simply shrug off stone throws, arrow fire, sword hacks, and spear thrusts, and only vulnerable to maces and hammers.
But now it seemed that he might have to scale down on production.
And this made Alexander squirm with pain, as at 10 ropals a kilogram, Alexander knew this steel would sell like hotcakes, earning him three hundred and fifty thousand ropals a day, which was the same as ten pre-drought days of tax revenue of Zanzan city.
And annually that came to more than one hundred million ropals, more specifically about 130 million, or one-third of a pasha’s annual income.
‘What glass! Just from this one iron foundry, I can launch fund all kinds of projects and all the military campaigns my men could ever handle.’ Alexander said to himself.
The cost of production was in actuality one-tenth of the price as so Alexander disregarded it, while this value also only considered raw steel ingots, and not iron products, which would multiply this number by magnitudes.
And hence, when presented with such a potential mountain of gold, one could forgive Alexander for being greedy and not wanting to slash production.
The upsides were just so much.
Which was also why in the event of a ban, the creation of a black market was guaranteed.
“Lord Heliptos might be right. This steel is too cheap. Maybe we would raise prices like he originally suggested,” Menicus, as a representative voice of the other council members spoke out, making Cambyses pull an ugly face.
‘Fuck you, geezer,’ Cambyses inaudibly muttered under her breath, though she was unable to find a good retort.
And even the usual Alexander supporter Grahtos said, “Forgive me pasha, but I personally doubt the efficacy of the export ban. Any iron products we might sell to third neutral parties, even those that we export to other countries might be resold to our enemies.”
“Lord Grahtos make an excellent point. It’s not like we will ever be able to monitor such transactions,” Menes was vehemently against his enemies from obtaining such high-grade steel.
“…….” Alexander was being torn apart in deciding whether to give up such large amounts of gold or to displease his retainers.
For the former case, he reasoned, ‘Just because someone can obtain the steel does not mean they will be able to make good steel armor from it. It’s similar to how the same ingredients will produce two vastly different quality dishes when given to a professional chef as opposed to an amateur.’
In steel production, how the steel is forged and shaped matters, as a structure’s property depends not only on its chemical composition but also its atomic arrangement.
A real-life example from Alexander’s previous life would be how cars changed from the 70s to the 2000s.
70s cars were much heavier than their 2000s counterpart, for the reason that much thicker steel had to be used to make them as thinner steel tended to crack during the shaping of the car.
But with advances in material science, and better steel and steel forging techniques, stronger, thinner steel was discovered, which resulted in much lighter cars.
And Alexander too planned to employ some of the new forging techniques to forge his armor and sword, the latter being comparable to the famous Damascus steel used by the Muslims during the first Crusade.
‘But even if their forging technique is lacking right now, it will still be adequate just based on the grade of steel. And besides, it’s not like they can’t learn over time,’ Alexander presented a counter-argument to himself.
And then finally decided on a solution.
“My lords, all of you have raised some very good points,” Alexander lightly smile, and this made all the lord grimace and swear, “Please don’t say but.’
There was no way they were going to allow such high-grade weapons steel to fall into the enemy’s hands.
Not when they would be the ones fighting against them.
“And so I decided to make some adjustments,” Alexander’s words, though did not completely reassure them, at least made them let out a small sigh of relief.
“What does my lord have in mind?” Then Menicus cautiously asked, interested to know what Alexander had in mind.