Chapter 59 — Management Problems

She was carrying the entire camp's internal administration almost single-handedly, and standing there with that ethereal air about her, she still had not realized the problem of lacking a management team...

"Do you think you alone can bear the management of all internal affairs?" Gao Yang said lightly.

"It is tiring now, true, but this is only the beginning. Once the domain gets on track..."

"Even on track, you won't be able to manage it, because you people never had any 'management' to begin with," Gao Yang said, slanting a look at her. "Have you done a population census? A production census? An economic census? Have you done the inventory and sales records of past years and the development plans for the coming year? And never mind all that—have you even once grasped how many gold coins flow into the entire domain in a year, and how many flow out?"

Hedy's eyes went spiraling into little swirls. "...Huh?"

"Sending someone to glance into the granary at year's end to see how much grain is left, and tallying up at tax time how many tenants still owe rent—that hardly counts as internal administration," Gao Yang said with a chuckle. "I had you and Rebecca compile the names, ages, occupations, and family circumstances of those eight hundred people. Honestly, what did you think of those forms?"

Hedy was wholly convinced. "They really are very convenient to use. It was the first time I understood that such a simple method could tell me how many people of each trade live in the domain, and that when arranging production I could rely directly on the records in the forms instead of sending people out to inquire where each craftsman was..."

"One day, when the domain has eight thousand—or even eighty thousand—people, do you and Rebecca plan to count them all yourselves? One day, when the domain extends south of the Dark Mountains, do you plan to cross the ranges and knock on every door to ask about family circumstances?"

Hedy: "..."

"If you want this convenience to continue, there must be a 'management team,'" Gao Yang said, spreading his hands. "And to build such an organization, we must bring the people of the domain into it."

Hedy thought for a moment, then frowned again. "But most of the people in the domain cannot even write their own names. How can they..."

"Which is precisely my next plan," Gao Yang said. "Teach them to read."

Hedy: "..."

She had probably lost her tongue to astonishment more times today than in the whole of her former half-life.

Gao Yang gave Hetty some time to think and react, while he himself looked over at the nearby settlers, who were reporting their progress to the overseers.

Things could not be accomplished overnight.

Building an institution takes time; building a society upon that institution is harder still; and building a kingdom upon the latter... that would surely be a matter of many years hence.

The territory's population numbered only eight hundred even now, so Hetty alone could truly keep it all in hand—at most with the addition of that half-baked Rebecca throwing the occasional great fireball to liven things up... burning off some scrubland, and the like. But if there was to be long-term development, certain foundations had to be laid step by step, starting now.