Chapter 332

In the days before setting off to explore the ruins, Tilly's greatest interest was wandering slowly along the flat streets of Border Town, observing this remote territory that had undergone astonishing changes in the hands of Lord Roland.

This is a different town, she thought, and the more she looked at it, the stronger it became. It was completely different from any place she had been to... What impressed her the most was probably the incomparable vitality of this small town.

Even the emerging Sleeping Island cannot compare with it.

"Aren't these people afraid of freezing?" Andrea asked curiously, looking at the pedestrians coming and going on the street, "What kind of favor did your brother promise to make them willing to come out to work in winter?"

"It's still Zhongqiu now," Ashes spread his hands, "You can't even tell the seasons apart."

"But it's no different from winter. This is an analogy, and it often appears in "Her Dreams, His Country." Andrea brushed up her long hair gracefully, "Of course, barbarians won't understand .”

"What is your dream, my dream..."

"Look, vulgar people who haven't enjoyed dramas are hard to communicate with. Lady Tilly must have watched this famous drama from the Kingdom of Dawn."

"Stop arguing," Sylvie sighed, "I think the reason is probably very simple. Common people don't want to move around in winter because they consume a lot of energy, don't have enough to eat, and are prone to wind and cold, but these problems don't exist in small towns. The price of food here is not high, firewood is plentiful, and Miss Lily can cure the wind and cold, so they work hard against the cold wind and snowflakes to get an extra day's salary."

"I can understand that there is enough firewood. To the west is the Hidden Forest, and there are many surrounding woods. The price of food is not high... How is this possible?" Andrea wondered, "My family has also participated in the sale of food, like It is natural disasters that reduce production and harvest, and everyone will raise the price of food very high. With such bad weather, it is impossible for nobles and merchants not to sell at high prices?"

"Noble? Merchant?" Sylvie laughed dumbly, "There is only one person here who is allowed to buy and sell grain, and that is His Royal Highness Roland."

"The farmland by the river is all his property?" Tilly frowned.

"No, those are the serfs' own fields," she recounted what she saw and heard here, as well as the harvest scene, "He set two grain prices, one is the purchase price, and the other is the sale price. Both prices are fixed, and the latter is higher than the former.”

"Isn't this just buying and selling by force?" Ashes had the expected expression, "He can sell at a high price, why not allow others 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's normal for the price to rise."

"Miss Tilly is right. I only found out after I asked Teacher Scroll," Sylvie said with a smile, "She said that after collecting the extra expenses, they can be paid to the hired workers who handle the wheat. , you can build new granaries, you can expand the scale of production, all of which can provide new opportunities for the town..." She thought for a while, "jobs, that's right, that's what she said at the time. I heard that His Highness Roland is very concerned about this .”

"But he still buys and sells by force," Ashes emphasized. "Shouldn't trade be free?"

"Maybe, but the selling price set by His Highness is not so high that everyone can't afford it. If the price can be kept fixed, the public will feel more at ease."

"Sometimes not everything is free," Tilly said with emotion, and she had roughly understood the intention of Roland's actions. 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 it was in the royal capital, when such a rare autumn snow falls, the price of food will inevitably rise to more than five or six times the usual level, and more than half of the common people will go hungry because of insufficient food, and it will easily lead to riots after a long time. In the end, the palace has to announce Relief food or dispatch guards to suppress. In either case, it is a considerable burden on the treasury.

While this policy looks good, it doesn't work everywhere. Most of the people who controlled the grain trading were nobles and rich merchants. They owned a large number of serfs and fields. It was impossible for the royal family to forcefully buy the grain they produced and prohibit them from hoarding grain. However, in Border Town, apart from Roland Wimbledon himself, there are almost no noble families, and he alone has the final say.

After Tilly expressed her views, Ashes was still a little bit upset, "What about those serfs? When food prices rise, they may be able to earn more income, but in this way they are 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 in more wheat, but even the little they keep It is pressed to a very low price. When the harvest is bad, the part turned in is shaved, and it is still a question of whether the remaining part can survive the famine. In contrast, a fixed price is more reasonable. As long as more crops are produced, the income will also be higher. more."

"Here, they can choose not to do it." Sylvie's words stunned the three of them slightly. "His Highness said that after the output reaches a certain standard, serfs can be promoted to freemen. Whether to continue farming in the farmland or choose a new one." The work is up to their own wishes. But the freedmen only need to pay 20% of the food, and the salary is quite impressive based on the purchase price during this year’s harvest.”

"Promoted...promoted?"

"Well, His Highness also said in his speech that Border Town would not have a single serf in two or three years."

So it turned out that something touched Tilly's heart suddenly. This is why the town is full of vitality... When he formulates policies, he actually takes the people's thoughts into consideration, and adds an incentive system to encourage them to do better. More is better This is quite different from what any noble lord would do. Incentives are not only expressed in words, but actually give up some benefits for the people to obtain through hard work, instead of keeping these benefits deeply in the underground vault of the castle.

Only now did she truly understand the meaning of those red banners by the river.

However, Roland Wimbledon was not a generous person when he was in the palace... So, this is also the change brought about by those sudden memories? She was also fascinated by the elementary nature and mathematics taught in the evening.

Tilly originally thought that after reading all the books in the palace, it would be difficult to find anything to arouse her curiosity and interest, but now, she found that she still had a lot to learn.

A feeling suddenly surged in her heart, even if she did nothing, just staying in the castle of the town, flipping through the books that recorded magical knowledge, and watching the changes in the town at the same time, would be a pleasant thing.

Suddenly, a long bell rang from the direction of the city wall, which was an alarm for the attack of evil beasts.

Tilly pressed these thoughts to the bottom of her heart, but unfortunately, she is no longer the unfettered fifth princess, but the leader who shoulders the fate of the Sleeping Island witches, some things cannot be done according to her own preferences, "Let's go to the city wall Take a look, maybe you can help the guards."

"Of course," Andrea smiled slightly. "This is the purpose of our coming here. Let them see how witches fight.".

(To be continued.)

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