In the days before setting out to explore the ruins, Tilly's greatest interest was to stroll slowly along the flat streets of Border Town, observing this remote territory that had undergone amazing changes in the hands of Lord Roland.
This is a different town, she thought, and the more she observed it, the stronger it felt. It's so different from anywhere she's ever been... Perhaps what impressed her most was the unparalleled vitality that this town radiated.
Even the emerging Sleepy Island can't compare.
"Aren't these people afraid of freezing?" Looking at the pedestrians coming and going on the street, Andrea asked curiously, "What benefits did your brother promise to make them willing to work in the winter?"
"It's still mid-autumn," Ashes spread her hands, "You can't even tell the seasons clearly, right?"
"But it's no different from winter. It's an analogy. It's often seen in 'Her Dreams, His Country'," Andrea raised her long hair gracefully, "Of course, savages won't understand. ."
"What your dream my dream..."
"Look, vulgar people who haven't watched dramas are difficult to communicate. Lord Tilly must have watched this famous drama from the Kingdom of Dawn."
"Don't fight," Sylvie sighed, "I think the reason is probably very simple. In winter, civilians are reluctant to exercise because they consume a lot of food, they are not full, and they are easily infected with wind and cold, but these problems do not exist in small towns. The price of food here is not high, firewood is abundant, and Miss Lily can cure the cold, so they will work hard for an extra day in the cold wind and snowflakes to get an extra day's salary. "
"I can understand that there is enough firewood. There is a hidden forest in the west, and there are many surrounding woods. The price of food is not high... How is this possible?" Andrea asked in confusion, "My family has also participated in the sale of food, such as Everyone will raise the price of food very high due to the reduction in production and harvest caused by natural disasters. It is impossible for nobles and merchants not to sell high prices in such bad weather?"
"Noble? Merchant?" Sylvie laughed dumbly, "There is only one person here who is allowed to buy and sell food, and that is His Royal Highness Roland."
"The farmland by the river is all his property?" Tilly frowned.
"No, it's all the serfs' own fields," she recounted what she saw and heard here, as well as the scene of the harvest, "He set two grain prices, one for the purchase price and one for the sale. Both prices are fixed, and the latter is higher than the former.”
"Isn't this just buying and selling by force?" Ash's expression was as expected, "He can sell at a high price, why can't others be allowed to sell at a high price?"
"It's not the same," Tilly pondered. "After the wheat is harvested, it needs to be threshed, ground, and stored. These are all costs, and it is normal for the price to rise."
"Mr. Tilly is right, I only found out after I asked Teacher Scroll," Sylvie laughed, "She said that after the extra fee is collected, it can be paid as salary to the employees who handle the wheat. , you can build new granaries, expand the scale of production, these can provide new towns..." She thought for a while, "jobs, yes, that's what she said at the time. I heard that His Royal Highness Roland is very concerned about this. "
"But he's still a buy and sell," Ashes emphasized. "Shouldn't trade be free?"
"Perhaps so, but the price set by His Royal Highness is not so high that no one can afford it. If this price can be kept fixed, the people will feel more at ease."
"Sometimes it's not always the best to be free," Tilly said with emotion, she already had a general idea of what Roland was doing. Prohibiting other people in the territory from selling food may seem overbearing and unfair, but it actually prevents hoarding and can effectively prevent food from skyrocketing when there is a shortage. If such a rare autumn snow falls in the capital, the price of food will inevitably rise more than five or six times as much as usual, and more than half of the civilians will go hungry because they don’t have enough food. After a long time, it is easy to cause riots. In the end, it had to be released by the palace. Relief food or dispatch the guards to suppress. In either case, it is a huge burden on the national treasury.
While this policy looks good, it doesn't work everywhere. Most of the people who control the grain trade are nobles and wealthy businessmen. They have a large number of serfs and fields. It is impossible for the royal family to forcefully purchase the grain they produce and prohibit them from hoarding grain. However, in Border Town, apart from Roland Wimbledon himself, there were almost no noble families, and he alone had the final say.
After Tilly expressed her opinion, Ashes was still a little resentful, "What about those serfs? When the food price was high, they might get more income, but they were all exploited by the fixed price."
"Pfft," Andrea sneered, "it's as if in a free-trade city, these people can escape exploitation. When the wheat harvest is good, they not only have to turn over more wheat, but even what they have. Being pressed to a very low price, when the harvest is poor, the part that is turned over is removed, and whether the remaining point can survive the famine is still a problem. In contrast, a fixed price is more reasonable, as long as the more crops are produced, the income will also increase. more."
"Here, they can choose not to do it," Sylvie's words made the three of them slightly startled, "His Royal Highness said that once the output reaches a certain standard, all serfs can be promoted to free people. Whether to continue farming in the farmland or choose a new The work of the people is up to their own will. However, the free people only need to pay 20% of the grain, and at the purchase price of this year’s bumper harvest, the salary is also very impressive.”
"Jin... promoted?"
"Well, when His Highness preached, he said that Border Town would have no serfs in two or three years."
It turns out that something suddenly touched Tilly's heart, which is why the town is full of vitality... When he formulates policies, he actually considers the people's ideas, and adds an incentive system to them to encourage them to do better More is better. This is completely different from what any noble lord does. Incentives are not just rhetorical, but they actually give away some benefits and let the people get them through hard work, instead of hiding these benefits in the underground vault of the castle.
Only at this time did she really understand the meaning of the red banners by the river.
However, Roland Wimbledon was not a generous person when he was in the palace... So, is this also the change brought about by that part of the sudden memory? She was also very fascinated by the elementary nature and mathematics content taught in the evening.
Tilly thought that after reading all the books in the palace, it would be difficult to find anything to stimulate her curiosity and interest, but now, she found that she still needed to learn a lot.
There was a sudden feeling in her heart that even if she didn't do anything, she just stayed in the small town castle, flipping through the books that recorded magical knowledge, and watching the changes in the town at the same time was a pleasant thing.
Suddenly, a long bell sounded from the direction of the city wall, which was an alarm for the attack of the evil beasts.
Tilly pressed these thoughts into her heart, but unfortunately, now she is no longer an unrestrained five princesses, but the leader who shoulders the fate of the witch of the Sleeping Island. Take a look, maybe you can help the guards."
"Of course," Andrea smiled slightly, "that's what we're here for. Let them see how witches fight.".
(.)
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