In the days leading up to her quest for the ruins, Tilly's greatest interest was to wander the flat streets of Frontier Town, observing the remote territory that had undergone astonishing changes at the hands of Lord Roland. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

It's a town like no other, she thought, and the more she observes, the stronger the feeling. It was very different from anywhere she had been...... Perhaps what impressed her the most was the unparalleled vibrancy of the town.

Even the emerging Sleepy Island can't be compared.

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

"It's still mid-autumn," Ash said, "you won't be able to tell the seasons apart." ”

"But it's no different from winter, it's an analogy, and it's often seen in Her Dreams, His Country," Andrea gracefully ruffled her long hair, "of course, the barbarians don't understand." ”

"What your dreams my dreams ......"

"See, vulgar people who haven't enjoyed drama are just hard to communicate. Mistress Tilly must have seen this famous play from the Kingdom of Dawn. ”

"Don't fight," Sylvie sighed, "I think the reason is probably very simple, the reluctance of civilians to move in winter is due to high consumption, lack of food, and easy to catch the cold, but these problems do not exist in small towns. The price of food is not high, the firewood is plentiful, and Miss Lily can cure the cold, which is why they work hard against the cold wind and snowflakes - one more day of work will pay them one more day. ”

"I can understand that there is plenty of firewood, and there is a hidden forest to the west, and there are many woods around, and the price of food is not high...... How is this possible?" wondered Andrea, "My family has also been involved in the sale of food, such as the poor harvest caused by natural disasters, and everyone would raise the price of food very high. It's impossible for nobles and merchants not to sell for a high price in bad weather like this, right?"

"Nobles, merchants?" Sylvie said with a dumb smile, "There is only one person here who is allowed to buy and sell grain, and that is His Highness Roland." ”

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

"No, it was the serfs' own fields," she recounted what she had seen and heard here, and the scene of the harvest, "and he set two prices for grain, one for purchase and one for sale, both of which were fixed, and the latter was higher than the former." ”

"Isn't this just a forced buying and selling?" Ash had an unsurprising expression, "He can sell for a high price, why don't you allow others to sell for a high price?"

"It's not the same," Tilly mused, "After the wheat is harvested, it needs to be threshed, grinded, and stored, and these are all costs, and it is normal for prices to rise. ”

"Mistress Tilly is right, I only found out later when I asked Teacher Scroll," Sylvie laughed, "and she said that the extra money could be paid to the wheat-handling workers, the new granaries could be built, the production could be expanded, and all of these would provide new ...... for the town," she thought for a moment, "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 buying and selling," Ash emphasized, "shouldn't trade be free?"

"Perhaps, but the price set by His Highness is not so high that no one can afford it. If this price can be kept fixed, the public will feel more at ease. ”

"Sometimes it's not always free," Tilly lamented, knowing roughly what Roland was trying to do. Forbidding other people in the territory to sell grain may seem overbearing and unfair, but in fact, it prevents hoarding and can effectively prevent food from skyrocketing when there is a shortage. If such a rare autumn snow falls in the royal capital, the price of grain will inevitably rise to more than five or six times that of normal days, and more than half of the civilians will be hungry because of insufficient food stocks, and it is easy to cause riots after a long time, and finally the palace will have to issue relief food or send guards to suppress it. In either case, it is a significant burden on the treasury.

While this kind of policy looks good, it doesn't work everywhere. Most of the people who controlled the grain trade were nobles and wealthy merchants, who owned a large number of serfs and fields, and it was impossible for the royal family to forcibly buy the grain they produced, and forbade them to hoard grain. However, in the border towns, apart from Roland Wimbledon himself, there were almost no aristocratic families, and he was completely in charge.

Tilly said her opinion, Ash was still a little resentful, "What about the serfs? they may have been able to earn more when food prices were high, but they were all exploited by fixed prices. ”

"Poof," Andrea scoffed, "as if in a free-trade city, these people could escape exploitation." When the wheat harvest is abundant, not only do they have to hand in more wheat, but even what they keep will be pushed down to a very low price, and when the harvest fails, it is still questionable whether the remaining part will survive the famine. In contrast, fixed prices are more reasonable, as long as the more crops are produced, the more income is generated. ”

"Here, they can choose not to do it," Sylvie's words made the three of them slightly stunned, "Your Highness said that after the production reaches a certain standard, serfs can be promoted to free people. Whether to continue working in the field or to choose a new job is up to them. However, the freedmen only had to pay 20 percent of the grain, and the wages were also considerable at the purchase price of this year's harvest. ”

"Jin ...... liters?"

"Well, when His Highness preached, he also said that there would be no more serfs in the border towns for two or three years. ”

I see, something suddenly touched Tilly's heart, which is why the town is full of energy...... He would take into account the ideas of the people when formulating his policies, and add incentives to them to encourage them to do more and better—unlike any noble lord. Incentives are not just words, but real benefits that are given up to the people through hard work, rather than being kept deep in the underground vaults of the castle.

It was only then that she truly understood the meaning of the red banners on the riverside.

However, Roland Wimbledon was not a generous man when he was at the palace...... So, this is also the sudden change of memory, and the elementary nature and mathematics content of the evening lecture are very fascinating to her.

Tilly thought it would be difficult to find anything to spark her curiosity and interest after reading through the palace collection, but now she finds that she has a lot more to learn.

A sudden feeling struck her that it would be a pleasure to stay in the castle of the town, to look through the books of magical knowledge, and to watch the town change, even if she did nothing.

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

Tilly pressed these thoughts into her heart, but unfortunately, now she is no longer the unrestrained Five Princesses, but the leader of the fate of the Sleeping Island Witch, and there are some things that cannot be done willfully according to her own preferences, "Let's go to the city walls and have a look, maybe we can help the guards." ”

"Of course," Andrea smiled slightly, "that's what we're here for." Let them see how witches fight. ”

. (To be continued.) )