Chapter 224 Selling Food
August is the season of autumn harvest. Although there was a war this year, the Haland Territory was not affected by the war, and neither the spring ploughing nor the autumn harvest was affected.
This year is an average year, and the per-acre yield of grain has reached a normal level.
This year, the Haland Territory has restored the cultivation of arable land in the Dirham Barony, and has also reclaimed a large amount of wasteland.
The grain stored in the summer and autumn grains, plus the tax grain paid by the free people, exceeds 80,000 tons.
Including the veterans who participated in the war and the families of the wounded and killed soldiers, there are now about 30,000 free people in the Haland Territory.
A free person is divided into five acres of land, one acre of paddy field and four acres of dry land. According to the tax rate of 30%, he needs to pay 270 kilograms of grain every year.
Converted into silver coins, it is about three silver coins of tax.
For 30,000 free people, this year's field tax collected about 7,500 gold coins.
However, many free people are short of money and can only choose to pay public grain. The public grain collected is about 3,000 tons.
These 30,000 free people no longer need Richard to feed them, and the remaining indentured slaves are about 116,000 people.
Now the Harland territory can already provide some meat and fruit. The elderly and children among the indentured slaves will also dig wild vegetables during the slack season, and on average, they can get half full, and each person needs to consume 400 kilograms of grain per year.
In the past few years, in order to buy more people, Richard left only 350 kilograms of grain per person per year on average for the indentured slaves.
With an average of 350 kilograms of grain and less meat, the indentured slaves can only be in a semi-starved state.
In autumn and summer, the elderly and children have to dig wild vegetables in the forest and collect mountain products such as fungus and mushrooms. When male indentured slaves have free time, they have to set traps and hunt to make themselves full.
The situation has improved slightly in the past two years. On average, each indentured slave is supplied with 400 kilograms of grain, plus some fruits, wild vegetables, and a small amount of meat. The territory has discovered coal mines and produced a large amount of woolen cloth. The living standard has increased a lot, and they can barely get enough food and clothing.
The reserved grain and rations for next year will require about 33,000 tons. In addition, the territory's unexpected reserve grain must also be left with 15,000 tons. Because the liquor market has lost a lot, the scale of brewing has been reduced a lot, and only 2,000 tons of grain are needed.
80,000 tons of grain can be sold this year, 30,000 tons.
Although there was a war this year, because there were no natural disasters, the areas affected by the war and affected spring farming were relatively few. In addition, more than 100,000 people were looted by the orcs in Gascoigne Province, and the demand in the grain market was also reduced. The grain price was relatively stable, still two gold coins per ton of grain.
Harland Territory is about 100 kilometers away from Black River Fort. If there is no river, it is very difficult to transport 30,000 tons of grain to Black River Fort, which requires a lot of manpower and material resources. It is also necessary to build roads and set up grain storage points along the way. With the transportation capacity of Harland Territory, it is simply not possible.
With water transportation, although 30,000 tons of grain is a lot, it is not difficult to transport it. There are only more than 200 grain transport ships in total.
Grain transport ships go down the river from Fort William and can reach Black River Fort in two days. The transport fleet of Harland Territory is not small, with more than 30 transport ships. Six or seven times of transport can transport grain to Black River Fort.
The transportation of grain lasted for more than 20 days. Richard transported 30,000 tons of grain to Black River Fort. There were no big buyers in the grain market of Black River Fort this year, and these 30,000 tons of grain could only be sold to the citizens of Black River Fort.
More than half of the residents of Black River Fort are family members of soldiers of the Northern Legion, and this part of the population is about 100,000.
The soldiers of the Northern Legion have high salaries, which can allow their families to live a rich life. Most of their family members do not farm. The grain consumed by this part of the population is about 20,000 tons per year.
In addition, there are a large number of craftsmen, merchants, and grassroots bureaucrats in Black River Fort. The grain consumed by the local market exceeds 30,000 tons per year, and the market size is already considerable.
However, the land of Black River County is fertile. Relying on the irrigation of the Black River Basin, it is a relatively important grain-producing area in the three northern provinces, and the grain output is more than that of rich places such as the Laber Basin and Wright County.
The surplus grain produced in Black River County exceeds 40,000 tons every year, and the surplus grain of Roman County and Wright County must also be sold to Black River Castle. The grain market has always been in a situation of oversupply.
Every autumn harvest season, the Dukedom of Edward, the Dukedom of Fox, the Dukedom of Guise and other food-deficient areas will buy grain from Black River County. Sometimes the Grand Duchy of Stannic will also come to Black River County to buy grain through the channels of the Church of Wealth.
This year, the Dukedom of Edward had a good harvest and lost a big buyer, and the oversupply in the grain market became more serious. It’s just that the sellers of grain are hereditary nobles. They can bear it and not bargain, so the grain will not fall.
Anyway, the nobles have granaries with good conditions, which can store grain for several years.
The Harland family has a large number of shops in Black River Castle, including two grain stores, a bakery, and a restaurant.
Normally, these businesses can digest more than 2,000 tons of grain a year. This year, 30,000 tons of grain are unsalable, and it is very difficult to rely on these shops to sell.
The sale of loose grain takes a long time, and the collection time is also relatively long.
But the market is like this. The disaster in Duke Edward's territory two years ago caused the grain price to increase by 20%, which is a low probability event.
The grain price in Heihe County has been stable for decades.
When the disaster occurred last year, the grain merchants wanted to raise the price, and the Noble Council immediately came forward to negotiate with the nobles of Heihe County.
The nobles of Heihe County could not withstand the pressure of Duke Edward, and the grain price did not rise even in the disaster year.
Just when Richard was worried about selling grain, in September, it was his father William who helped him solve this problem.
William found Tarak, the logistics minister of the Northern Army, and sold 10,000 tons of grain to the Northern Army as military rations, which reduced the pressure of selling grain.
Because of the large amount of training, the soldiers of the army need to be supplied with three kilograms of grain every day, and they need to consume 1,100 kilograms of grain in a year, which is equivalent to the consumption of two strong men.
The Northern Army has 24,000 soldiers, and the annual consumption of grain exceeds 13,000 tons.
William was able to win the purchase contract of 10,000 tons, and the Harland family owed Tarak a big favor.
After winning the grain contract of the Northern Army, William found Zachley of the Redeemer Army.
Although the Harland family and Zachley fell out last year, the most important relationship between nobles is not face, but interests. Zachley is William's old superior anyway, and they can talk to each other.
Richard can send grain to Iron Lion Castle and Pratos Castle, which also saves money for the nobles behind the Redeemer Army.
He became the military ration supplier for the two armies, sold 14,000 tons of grain, and exchanged for 28,000 gold coins. The remaining 16,000 tons of grain could only be sold to ordinary citizens and slowly exchanged for money.
In order to sell more grain, Richard converted part of Mrs. Ola's store into a grain station and expanded it into a chain of grain stores.
The price of grain also dropped slightly. Ordinary citizens are very sensitive to prices. Richard reduced the price by one tenth, which immediately caused a rush among citizens. Before other grain merchants could react, the surplus grain of the Harland family was basically sold out.
After negotiating the sale of grain, Richard went directly to the Harland Mage Association.
Recently, the Harland Territory Mage Association is manufacturing magic alchemy furnaces.
Both Heath and Butler are from the large magic organization Death Tower.
Although the Death Tower is an evil undead mage organization, the magic knowledge mastered by the Death Tower is very comprehensive.
Heath has seen magic alchemy furnaces many times and has studied alchemy runes for a period of time.
Butler is a low-level wizard who is responsible for managing the alchemy furnace. He knows the operation of the alchemy furnace very well and can even repair the magic alchemy furnace.
After driving away the necromancer and seizing the wizard tower.
Richard focuses on the necromancer's research on blood and soul.
Since last year, the hospital in the Harland territory has made great progress in mastering medical knowledge.
Although the magic research plan was interrupted by the invasion of orcs this year, Sofia still has new magic achievements. She improved and simplified the second-ring magic requiem and created a new zero-ring spell soul soothing.
Although the effect of soul soothing is not as good as requiem, the requirements for casting are much lower. It is still a good spell for low-level magicians.
Especially in the Harland Wizard Association, there are many magic apprentices who can learn this spell.
Soul soothing is a magic that soothes the soul, which is considered a healing spell.
Because several magic apprentices learned this spell, Richard established a psychiatric department in the hospital, selected several young doctors with good foundation, and met with young magicians of soul comfort, and began to use magic to treat mental illness.
Harland Territory now has a population of more than 100,000. Because of the harsh environment in the northern border, there are about one or two thousand patients with various mental illnesses.
These mental patients are all in serious condition. According to the conditions of Harland Territory, mild mental patients will not see a doctor.
Severe mental illness makes these people lose their ability to work. If these people can be cured, the territory can increase a lot of labor, which is very beneficial to development.
With the establishment of the hospital's psychiatric department, these mental patients also have doctors to treat them, although there are still few means of treating mental illness, and they mainly rely on soul comfort.
Soul comfort is effective in treating mental illness, and the power of magic in the treatment of mental illness far exceeds Richard's expectations.
After the invention of soul comfort and the establishment of the psychiatric department, the development of the territory hospital has accelerated a little bit.
After the war ended this year, Butler submitted an application, hoping to apply for a magic core and build an experimental magic alchemy furnace.
From the Tower of Death, the Harland Territory obtained some alchemical information, which also involved the alchemical furnace.
The magic alchemical furnace uses magic cores as energy and mobilizes the mysterious power of magic runes, which can provide higher temperatures and melt metals with melting points exceeding 3,000 degrees.
The materials used to build the magic alchemical furnace are also extraordinary. It is necessary to use graphite powder, mix it with mithril powder, and burn magic bricks first.
Special magic runes must be engraved on the magic bricks.
If Butler had not provided the magic brick formula and refining technology, the magicians of the Harland Territory would not understand the doorway at all.
Even if you want to build a magic alchemical furnace, it will take a long time to refine magic bricks.
Because of the use of mithril powder, the manufacturing cost of magic bricks is very high.
Just installing a magic alchemical furnace, magic bricks alone consume 4,000 gold coins.
In addition to magic bricks, the alchemical furnace also consumes the energy of magic crystals.
The price of magic crystals is very high, and the cost of using an alchemical furnace is not low.
By September, under Butler's guidance, the Harland Territory successfully built a magic alchemy furnace.
This magic alchemy furnace looks very bulky, about two meters high. There is an ore feeding port on the top of the alchemy furnace and a discharge port at the bottom.
In the middle of the magic alchemy furnace, three rows of runes are engraved.
These runes need to be engraved on obsidian, and then the obsidian is carefully polished and inlaid on the furnace body.
Richard studied the newly built alchemy furnace and found that the three rows of runes are a fire element gathering array. By providing energy through magic crystals, the power of the fire element gathering array can be stimulated to increase the temperature of the magic alchemy furnace.
The working principle of the alchemy furnace is actually very simple. The only difficulty is actually the manufacturing process technology of magic bricks.
Magic bricks with added mithril and engraved magic runes are a super refractory material. If it were not for the extremely expensive price, Richard would have wanted to use these magic bricks in ordinary crafts.
After the magic alchemy furnace was successfully built, Richard tried to smelt a furnace of blood steel.
The melting point of blood steel is more than 100 degrees higher than that of ordinary steel. It was very difficult to smelt blood steel in the Harland territory in the past.
The production of alchemical bombs is very low, and the difficulty of smelting blood steel is also a factor.
Now using the magic alchemical furnace to smelt blood steel has become much easier. Although the cost of using magic crystals as energy has increased a lot, it has greatly increased the speed of smelting blood steel.
If it comes to an emergency, you can use the magic alchemical furnace to speed up the production of alchemical bombs.
After successfully building the magic alchemical furnace, you can also explore and study the alloy process. If you can produce some high-quality alloys, it will be very beneficial to the advancement of the process.
"Butler, according to your experience, how many times a day can this magic alchemy furnace be opened?"
"Master Richard, the effect of the fire element gathering magic array is very good. It can refine a furnace of metal in one and a half hours. Each furnace can refine 50 kilograms of blood steel, but after three hours of continuous use, it takes ten hours to cool down the magic runes engraved on the obsidian. Otherwise, if the alchemy furnace is used for a long time, the magic runes on the obsidian will burn and crack. The fire element gathering array engraved on the obsidian is the core of the magic alchemy furnace. Once it is damaged, you need to buy new obsidian and engrave magic runes to repair it."
Listening to Butler's story, Richard thought to himself: "If you use a magic alchemy furnace to make steel, you can make about four furnaces a day, about 200 kilograms. The magic alchemy furnace will consume a first-level magic core every three days, about 20 gold coins.
Calculated in this way, the cost of making steel with a magic alchemy furnace is about 12 copper coins per kilogram. Add to that the price of raw materials such as iron ore. The original high price of steel is due to this reason. The nobles with magic heritage are estimated to use magic alchemy furnaces to make steel."
The cost of steel made in Harland Territory has been reduced a lot. Richard calculated this year that the cost price of one kilogram of steel has been reduced to four copper coins. This also includes the wages of steel mill workers, the material cost of building a steel mill, the fuel cost of purchasing coal, the transportation cost of coal, ore and steel, and other messy expenses.
It seems that using a magic alchemy furnace to make steel is not as competitive as a blast furnace.