Starting from Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 589: Chapter 1: Change (Part 2)

When returning to the island, other shepherds would take care of the flock in their absence.

Leaving familiar friends to graze on the Archipelago and being unable to purchase supplies on the Big Island was naturally painful, but compared to the doubled income, it was all worth it.

The emergence of currency gave the islanders a clear benchmark for how much wealth they possessed. Watching the shimmering Silver Coins gradually accumulate, everyone felt a unique sense of happiness and security.

To build larger and more luxurious houses; to eat more delicious meals;

For their wives’ clothes and their children’s education, the islanders were willing to put in more effort to earn substantial rewards.

...

After establishing bridges of communication with the outside world, the island’s crops and livestock also saw a leap in growth.

The pigs and chickens, ducks, and geese Chen Zhou longed for, along with some common crop seeds, were all brought to the island by Kilian, greatly improving the quality of life for all islanders.

Even female islanders who stayed home to focus on caring for their children found a new source of income—

By raising pigs and poultry and selling pork, eggs, and poultry meat, they could earn some money to supplement their household while not neglecting their childcare duties.

Since these livestock were newly introduced to the island, the island’s "wealthy" who had never seen them created a frenzy for buying eggs, and in the craziest times, a single egg could sell for the price of 50 Silver Coins.

Those who joined the island earliest had already accumulated a lot of wealth by riding the wave of the island’s development; some even set up their own workshops or shops, allowing them to make money from money.

To them, no matter how expensive the eggs were, they could afford them, and to satisfy their vanity, making themselves look like genuine "upper-class people," they could spend money freely without blinking.

...

Chen Zhou naturally noticed the frenzy of high prices brought by the livestock and poultry, but this time he did not deliberately interfere with the market.

When distributing the poultry, he specifically instructed Saturday to ensure that these poultry were given to poor families, having foreseen that such things would happen.

The phenomenon of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer is common in any era and is hard to solve.

Once capital completes its primitive accumulation, the speed at which it snowballs only accelerates.

Even though no banks had appeared on the island to assist capitalists in completing their money games, simply by doing business, hiring workers to produce goods, and earning profits, some of the more seasoned among them could acquire considerable wealth.

Since they were earning money reasonably and legally by using their brains, Chen Zhou couldn’t interfere and could only use this unique "welfare" to transfer money from the rich to the poor.

Once the sky-high egg event due to "scarcity increases value" was over and merchants ready to take advantage began buying hens to make money from eggs themselves, Chen Zhou would then use his "visible hand" to regulate the market, setting a reasonable price for the eggs, preventing those cunning seasoned ones from exploiting the lower-class islanders.

...

While controlling prices with his authority, the island’s infrastructure development was also not delayed.

To load and unload more cargo and to build larger steamships, the port became a key project of the island’s construction efforts—

The solid port built of bricks and stones, the newly built shipyard, the planning and renovation of the residential area near the port, and the different construction styles adopted by fisheries and transportation industries based on different regions...

The roads leading from the port to the mountains, to the factories, and into the island’s interior were all forming little by little under the hardworking efforts of the islanders.

Every time Kilian arrived on the island with cargo, he would be amazed at the massive changes.

From a piece of backward land to its rapidly growing state now comparable to Spanish city ports, he was both impressed by the diligence and cohesion of the islanders and astounded by the wisdom of the island ruler.

Throughout history, rulers who focused on their own enjoyment were numerous, while those who cared about the lives of the people were extremely rare.

Chen Zhou was the first person Kilian had seen willing to spend his energy on ordinary people, which made Kilian, a "crafty merchant" who had spent a lifetime scheming against others, sincerely feel admiration.

He admired the ruler’s wisdom even more, admired the ruler’s character, and admired his selfless spirit.

After interacting with the ruler for a long time, witnessing the island’s changes, and understanding the ruler’s character, every time Kilian returned to Europe and heard those nobles praise his talent and aptitude, he couldn’t accept it with a clear conscience, even feeling guilty.

Kilian had always been a person with low morals; the bad things he had done in his life far exceeded the good. The lives he had taken were countless alone.

But even someone like him felt like he was a charlatan pretending to be a virtuous person in contrast to Chen Zhou’s actions.

Of course, feeling guilty was one thing; taking actual action was another.

To keep the secret of Paradise Island, Kilian simultaneously used money to silence the sailors and a knife to close the mouths of those who spoke carelessly.

Before achieving the wealth that would satisfy him and retiring successfully, he would never share this endless treasure with anyone else.

Before the loss of reputation stopped bringing him profits, he wouldn’t reveal the true designers of those machines to the outside world.

The psychological guilt was ultimately not as tangible as real gold and silver; after a lifetime in business, no matter what, Kilian would never make a losing deal—