How to Survive in the Roanoke Colony

"Why do you do such work?"

"...Doesn't the community need my hands?"

Especially if that "greater value" is a socially encouraged value.

Now it's the early 17th century, still an era dominated by religion.

Whether Europeans who have lived their entire lives in the Christian world or Americans who have been accepting Christianity for over 10 years now, the image of dedicating oneself to Christian values and the community naturally appeared quite positive.

In other words, their actions looked sufficiently "honorable."

And that was what the people of this community so desperately craved.

For Americans, it's familiar for the "wealthy" to deliberately bestow benefits around them to gain power and prestige.

And particularly the Europeans in this land are those who came with aspirations to become "high persons" like the gentlemen of their home countries. When such people were given wealth, what remained was... obvious.

'My name is Jeffrey Cage. I now wish to dedicate everything to the Lord and this community, and I heard this monastic order performs work suitable for that purpose. Could I possibly join...'

A wave of countless membership applications spread.

In an instant, the number of members in the so-called "Tractor Monastic Order" rapidly increased to three digits, and the factory had to scramble to create jobs for the "monks" who were flooding in.

However, no matter how many tractors were needed, they weren't needed infinitely. Soon the Tractor Monastic Order restricted membership, and the countless applicants who had gathered lost their way.

In response to such demand, similar derivative monastic orders were formed in several fields, only to fizzle out repeatedly. The reason these monastic orders disappeared was clear.

Because there was no "honor."

Everyone wanted to do proper work, not gather among themselves to do woodworking, gardening, or embroidery that wasn't of much help.

Of course.

"...Wait a minute."

"What's wrong, dear?"

"No, labor is flocking to the monastic order? Then we too...!"

Those earning money in shopping complexes and elsewhere didn't just stand by and watch.

Irish carpenter Tarren had his long-awaited dream of business expansion grounded for several years. He seemed to have finally found a way forward.

"Dear, do knights have separate scarves?"

"No, there was no such thing..."

"Then they'll need them now! Want to try it?"

What Tarren had in mind was nothing special. In this era, there was no systematic uniform, so it was common to wear scarves of specific colors for identifying friend from foe.

He just thought that knights would soon go to war, so they would need scarves of specific colors.

But how things actually unfolded was a bit different.

The government decided, following "His" suggestion, to now dress knights in certain shoes, coats, vests, pants, etc., according to their rank.

It was a jackpot.

Tarren immediately gathered friendly shoemakers and built a shoe factory. And then, he waited for a "Shoe Monastic Order" to open and people to gather to work.

And soon they swarmed in.

Tarren happily employed them and set them to work. Soon everything would be good...

"...Didn't about 50 people gather recently? Why are there only 10?"

The factory was empty. When he asked a nearby shoemaker in confusion, the answer was a masterpiece.

"About two-thirds haven't shown up since the third day, saying they don't seem to have manual dexterity."

"What about the remaining third?"

"They said the work was too fun for meditation."

"..."

Only then did Tarren realize the problem. The reason was so obvious yet so absurd.

They didn't come to be employed for compensation or rewards.

They came for "labor" itself.

Tarren's mistake was "providing" complex and interesting work to such people.

Labor had to be simple.

So that even people without manual dexterity could work.

So that everyone could participate in the "monastic activity."

Labor had to be monotonous to that extent.

So that one could meditate sufficiently while working.

So that tedious tasks would continue like a waterwheel, turning and turning.

Monastic orders formed everywhere eagerly broke down work processes again and again. In the process, if difficult tasks remained, they tried employing simple machines.

The work of cutting soles, treating leather, sewing, and polishing was all separated from Tarren's shoe factory.

Similarly, nail factories, scarf factories, and pin factories established throughout the community became like that.

Places that "provided" labor and experiences in the most simple and standardized ways possible, so that even those without manual dexterity could participate, so that as many people as possible could participate.

Like

If Adam Smith, who would be born about 100 years later, had seen it, he might have thought, "Uh... is this right?" But anyway, that's how it rolled.

As a result of nearly 10,000 "monks" working diligently like that...

"Aren't there too many logistics supplies? I wonder how many pairs of leather boots alone..."

"We'll send the excess items to Florida."

Naturally, overproduction occurred. In a society of only 100,000 people, how much could possibly be needed?

And fortunately, thousands and tens of thousands of people in the south needed their help.

Various supplies were neatly loaded onto the community's newly built ships. Shoes, pins, underwear, scarves, wooden nails, hats, and so on...

Now that preparations to depart were complete, all that remained was to launch the ships to finalize war preparations.

And.

The Virginia Community Government's Council of Six, or the Six for short, loaded one more item onto that ship.

That item was a miraculous totem that would greatly boost the morale of soldiers while preemptively blocking any dissatisfaction that might arise during military life in a foreign land.

At the same time, if captured by the enemy, it could be a seed of destruction that would instantly turn the community into chaos and destroy it without a single foundation stone remaining.

That item was the "angel."

From the beginning, if the community lost this war, it was over. From the Spanish perspective, Virginia had overturned a colony.

From the moment Florida was overturned and the community decided to support it, the community became a greater threat to Spain than England. Isn't Spain's money line in the New World?

Therefore, Spain wouldn't leave Virginia alone.

This was a war that had to be won.

And in a war that had to be won, he needed to be there.

So he, the nameless angel Kin Issei, departed.

To San Agustin, Florida.

This was around early February 1611.