Balusa asked a little puzzled, "What do you mean by that?"

"Have you seen how the craftsmen of Waterdeep produce items, and are there mages in between?"

Balusa let out a snort, "Of course they don't have the help of a mage, but their craftsmanship is quite good, the silverware they make is quite beautiful, and the water clock from Neverwinter is also quite good. ”

Before Balusa could continue to boast about Waterdeep's many goods, Link interrupted her, "Then you've seen the artisans of Netherworld produce items, right?"

Balusa fell silent, the magic education in the Ghost City is very advanced, citizens have to undergo the magic qualification test at the age of thirteen, join the general school to study, and in the process will also learn arcane knowledge, if the level is outstanding, they will be promoted to a special arcane master school at the age of eighteen, so in the Shadow City, even ordinary craftsmen have many people who have mastered level zero arcane, and they can help themselves with small spells such as mage's hand and repair.

"Do you mean that craftsmen use spells? It seems that the Ser Empire and the Kingdom of Harua are no worse than the Shade People in terms of magical education. Balusa thought for a moment and said.

"Not exactly, I'm referring to the help that the results of the shadow mage's work have helped the Yin Soul craftsmen, like you mentioned that a certain Yin Soul mage invented a jacquard machine while trying to study the distribution of the warp and weft of the cloth and invented a jacquard machine, and a research institute that invented a new recipe for building gravel roads when it was researching how to optimize the spell of turning mud into stone, and how the Yin Soul Man used the Shadow Sky to draw energy from the Shadow Realm for plants to grow, and street lamps that automatically absorb the energy of the Shadow Realm, and so on. ”

"You mean applying arcane theories or results to civilians, right?" said Balusawa thoughtfully.

"Now only the Netherworld has this tendency, the Serre Empire is just collecting a large number of apprentices and squeezing apprentices to make magic items for profit, Harua is just studying magic for the sake of studying magic, and it is just a peaceful agricultural country. Link agreed.

"I feel that the mage class of Faeron is completely out of touch with the civilian class, and what kind of research the mage achieves has nothing to do with the common people, and the lives of the common people have not made any progress in the past thousand years. ”

Balusa Hua just wanted to refute that the mage's research had nothing to do with civilians, but thinking of the current situation in Ghost City, he couldn't help but keep his mouth shut.

Link looked at Balusava, who had nothing to say, and said: "In fact, the best result is to use non-magical methods to change the lives of civilians through the research of mages, followed by using a small amount of magical power with a large amount of non-magical power, and the worst is to use a large amount of magical power like the arcane steam machinery of the gnomes, resulting in too high cost and no popularization at all." ”

"Just like you do now? change the lives of civilians in non-magical ways. Balusawa said through the dark void of the white porcelain mask as she stared at the dwarf who was busy frying steel not far away.

"That's right, I believe that neither the former Nessera nor other ancient countries will be like the current countries of Faeron, which only focus one-sidedly on magical power, not on the power of civilians, and simply develop magical power, which can only achieve strong individuals, but not powerful countries. Link affirmed.

"And, do you think the mage of Faeron is rich?" Link then asked.

"Of course you have money, but how can you learn magic without money!" said Balusawa without thinking. A zero-level magic scroll has a market price of twelve gold coins, this price can be exchanged for a cow and two castrated goats in the countryside of Waterdeep City, and the magic materials cost to copy a page of spells are about one hundred gold coins, and the famous Silvermoon City University of Magic, the tuition fee plus room and board for a year is two thousand gold coins, which is equivalent to two hundred cows, but this price can only buy the most ordinary + in the magic shop1 Protective Ring, taking Niata, a fifth-level mage, as an example, if it weren't for the teacher's legacy and her own talent, she would have spent almost 10,000 gold coins to grow to this day.

"And where do they get their money?"

After hesitating for a moment, Balusa said, "My own money is either borrowed loans, or I spend my life force to make magic items to make money. ”

Nodding, Link said: "The reason why all kinds of magic items are so high now is that on the one hand, mages need to consume life force to make magic items, and the production of various magic materials is scarce, resulting in the scarcity of magic items, resulting in high prices, on the other hand, I think I am afraid that the pricing power of magic items is set by the magnates of the whole Faerun, the great nobles of various countries, legendary powerhouses, religious leaders, I am afraid that the Church of the Goddess of Magic is also involved." ”

Through the white porcelain mask, it could be seen that Balusa Hua made a very surprised expression: "You can even see this, yes, do you know why the red-robed mage has a bad reputation in the Faren Continent?" Because they sold magic items according to the standard bargaining ninety percent, they were going to be besieged by the forces of the whole continent, and the red-robed mage made a concession system, selling magic items in the concessions established in various regions, paying taxes to the local government in proportion, and at the same time giving bribes to various people in power, the big men got more money than before, and the red robes were not besieged by the whole continent. ”

Link let out a sigh of emotion, "This is really big business." "Now in Faerun, the most profitable industry is the magic item business and the magic material business that have been divided between various forces.

Not only mages, as long as they are strong people with professional levels, they all need magic weapons and magic armor made by mages, magic curiosities and magic potions are indispensable, magic scrolls and healing potions made by priests still need all kinds of magic materials needed to make scrolls and potions, merchants build plantations to grow magic plants, hire miners to dig gems and rare magic mines, send adventurer teams to hunt powerful magical beasts, obtain all kinds of biological materials, and even such as small devil eyeballs, angel feathers, bottomless abyss blood pattern steel These heterotopic materials merchants can also obtain。

Behind these big businessmen are the shadows of governments or powerful organizations, and even the shadows of many legendary mages and gods, these truly powerful people have gained a lot of wealth through the magic trade, and invested their wealth in magic research to make themselves stronger.

In addition to the magic trade, these big merchants are invested in the most profitable overseas trade, trade with the Aztec continent and the Karatu continent, and the Aztec continent is actually not called trade, the merchants of the Ann Empire unilaterally plundered gold and gems from the Aztec continent, as well as coffee and vanilla and other cash crops, and the Karatu continent is from the Xianglong Empire to transport silk, spices, porcelain, and all kinds of wonderful goods, the Feron continent exports all kinds of spices and exotic exquisite crafts, and the Feron continent does not export any industrial products。

The second-rate merchants were the cash crop business of the various plantations in the southern part of the continent, the unique spice business exported from the Chult Peninsula, while the light and heavy industries of smelting, weaving, logging, and tool-making were controlled by the third-rate merchants, and the agriculture of general crops was controlled by quite low-class merchants.

"You can't develop capitalist agriculture, and you can never think about the industrial revolution. Link muttered quietly.