Temple manufactory labor force

I don't know if this has been covered before but rereading HFAF and LAMA I got to thinking on the various industrial reforms/expansions being implemented by Fultyn and Bryairs at St Kylmahn's (and elsewhere) and the labor force requirements for them. Fultyn and Bryairs are steering away from guild dominance of those industries.

Zion has been described several times as having an underclass of poor, supported by pasqualate and bedardist hospitals, soup kitchens and the like. My thought is, with the Jihad on and probable labor needs going through the roof, what is there to keep a joint team of vicar Allayn's and vicar Rhobair's minions from basically recruiting most of that underclass as (impressed) manufactory labor? I know the orders are being forced to provide labor but the industrial expansion seems to be a crash program.

Comments?

ErikM wrote:I don't know if this has been covered before but rereading HFAF and LAMA I got to thinking on the various industrial reforms/expansions being implemented by Fultyn and Bryairs at St Kylmahn's (and elsewhere) and the labor force requirements for them. Fultyn and Bryairs are steering away from guild dominance of those industries.

Zion has been described several times as having an underclass of poor, supported by pasqualate and bedardist hospitals, soup kitchens and the like. My thought is, with the Jihad on and probable labor needs going through the roof, what is there to keep a joint team of vicar Allayn's and vicar Rhobair's minions from basically recruiting most of that underclass as (impressed) manufactory labor? I know the orders are being forced to provide labor but the industrial expansion seems to be a crash program.

Comments?

As far as I can tell, Zion doesn't have any significant industry. And the climate makes it a pretty poor place to build industry. There is no surrounding village or farming infrastructure, either. It is in the middle of a big empty. It was never intended to become a city, and the people are poor because there are few ways to make a living there.

But if they did decide to import some manufacturing expertise and build some factories, it would make sense to use the poor as factory workers. Actually, that would be the only choice, because there isn't any other source of factory workers in or anywhere near the city. It's just not clear that it makes sense to try in the first place.

ErikM wrote:I don't know if this has been covered before but rereading HFAF and LAMA I got to thinking on the various industrial reforms/expansions being implemented by Fultyn and Bryairs at St Kylmahn's (and elsewhere) and the labor force requirements for them. Fultyn and Bryairs are steering away from guild dominance of those industries.

Zion has been described several times as having an underclass of poor, supported by pasqualate and bedardist hospitals, soup kitchens and the like. My thought is, with the Jihad on and probable labor needs going through the roof, what is there to keep a joint team of vicar Allayn's and vicar Rhobair's minions from basically recruiting most of that underclass as (impressed) manufactory labor? I know the orders are being forced to provide labor but the industrial expansion seems to be a crash program.

Comments?

I asked a similar question of why the Church hasn't been recruiting from Zion's poor for their Army, at least the adult male ones.

The only plausible answer IMO is that the Church officials never thought of the idea or kept it to themselves if they did. They've mentally pigeonholed the poor as being "useless", and thus don't even try to recruit them for useful jobs.

ErikM wrote:I don't know if this has been covered before but rereading HFAF and LAMA I got to thinking on the various industrial reforms/expansions being implemented by Fultyn and Bryairs at St Kylmahn's (and elsewhere) and the labor force requirements for them. Fultyn and Bryairs are steering away from guild dominance of those industries.

Zion has been described several times as having an underclass of poor, supported by pasqualate and bedardist hospitals, soup kitchens and the like. My thought is, with the Jihad on and probable labor needs going through the roof, what is there to keep a joint team of vicar Allayn's and vicar Rhobair's minions from basically recruiting most of that underclass as (impressed) manufactory labor? I know the orders are being forced to provide labor but the industrial expansion seems to be a crash program.

Comments?

I would imagine that some labor could be had from that source. But a huge percentage of most preindustrial underclasses are abandoned or orphaned children, elderly, widows, men incapacitated by war, accident or disease, people who for whatever reason are unable to cope.

Don

I would say that the reasons thay did NOT use the Zion's poors are quite simple (and some of them have been mentionned sooner):

- However numerous they are, they probably represent just a drop in the ocean of warm bodies that the Church needs;
- It is indeed most probable that people unfit for heavy labor and thus by extension for the army represent most of those poors;
- Zion is far from any productive center. If you need to move people to get them involved in you industrial basis (or what there is of it), you'll start to look first closer to your center (especially in a society that still use Wind or muscle for transportation).

The long-term homeless poor may not be the best candidates for the military. Most homeless have a verity of medical issues. And in Zion with the cold weather you can get chronic illness's like walking pneumonia, pneumonia, tuberculosis and influenza that a person can never truly get rid of. The AoG would have to recruit(read draft) these people then go through the expense of getting them well (if ever) then getting them physically fit and used to the harsh rigors of military life.