“Miss Romaine, I don’t think you can call their actions a trade but a donation.” Sanford answered in the back.
“That’s obviously a trade. If you are buying hope with food isn’t that a transaction?” Romaine’s face went up a little higher as she tapped her chin with her finger thoughtfully.
“Using food to buy hope? What does that mean?” Amandina gave her a strange look.
Everyone felt the same way about Romaine’s replies. Brendel was the only exception as he wondered on how Romaine’s little mind functioned. She seemed to be always thinking of ideas that normal people could not.
“Amandina, how long do you need to make this place a self-sufficient economy if the region is governed by you?” He asked.
Amandina immediately sensed there was an additional meaning in his words. She turned her attention to him, wondering if the youth had his eyes set on this territory, or simply to test her out.
Regardless of what his intentions were, she took a long serious look at the filthy citizens whose clothes were patched up so many times that their former appearance was no longer there, before she answered with difficulty.
“The shortest amount of time would be a year, two if things do not go well. The citizens currently have no wealth, and the territory lacks the basic requirements to be converted into a commercial industry. Even if we did a tax reform and redistribute the land to build a proper city, we need more time to gather the resources to store up wealth…… I am confident that I can start a commercial district in two years, but it would require a great sum of money—“
“We just need to distribute the wealth so the citizens are wealthy enough, right? We can save time if we do that.” Romaine interrupted her and said it like it was matter-of-fact.
“Are you…… serious?” Amandina nearly choked on her indignance: “We would be no different from gamblers if we lend our money to the poor! Even if they pay the money back it’s still our own money— It’s more likely that we would lose everything!”
She looked at Romaine like the latter was a crazy merchant addicted to risky deals.
“Didn’t you already say that you’re ‘lending’ money to them? They won’t run away and bring back even more money for us. It’s going to be stated clearly on our promissory notes.” Romaine said.
“In the end we won’t get back anything because they will just spend everything away!”
Romaine wagged her finger to disagree with Amandina like she was a world-class banker, before pointing at the citizens in the city.
“You are not wrong if my idea is done in Bruglas. But these people here are desperate to get out of poverty right? Distributing our money to them is the same as buying them hope. We can teach them how to work in production lines and fulfill their wishes on being self-sufficient. They will be able to pay off what they owe in their promissory notes when they work for it, and I will gain many partners in the Game of Commerce. This is different from gambling. If you bury a gold coin in the ground here, you will be able to gain two the following year.”
She winked at Amandina mischievously.
“That…… It might work, but achieving it in reality is difficult……” Even though Amandina understood Romaine’s point of view, she was unable to accept this crazy logic.
“Indeed, there’s a certain difficulty…..” Brendel nodded, but he looked at Romaine with praising eyes. Romaine’s ideas were not really transactions, but a form of redistribution. If they direct both capital and production materials to a group of highly motivated citizens, they would be able to create high productivity. However, that idea will only work if the entire region’s wealth was under the territory’s lord. Still, it was remarkably ahead for its time in terms of economic policies.
While Brendel was capable in administering the financial management, he was not specialized enough to build the finer details on a commerce district’s infrastructure.
He was confident he could set the foundations for the policy and free it from any outside interference, though.
“Rather than say you’re buying hope, you can think it as buying labor. By having a driven workforce, there would be a difference in the speed on creating financial gains. If we execute this policy, then the most important aspect would be on to redistribute the wealth. Amandina, what are your specific thoughts?” Brendel said.
“Repair the roads.” Amandina promptly said.
Brendel nodded inwardly when her idea was the same as his own.
“…… My lord, are you planning to do something to this territory?” Amandina hesitated for a while before she finally gathered her courage and whispered to him.
She almost could not believe her own words when she spoke. It was the same as encouraging her lord to attack a legitimate lord. Usurping this land was the equivalent of betraying the kingdom. But the royal crown was weakening as the days went by, and she was greatly shaken in the kingdom’s future after witnessing the noble lords’ cruel and decadent behaviors.
Brendel first nodded, then shook his head and rubbed his forehead.
[I certainly have my eyes set on this place. That bastard Graudin isn’t some decent noble in the game or this world. Just look at the sight of this place. He’s also too close to my future territory. Even if he doesn’t invade us, there will certainly be extortion and unfair tradings that will happen in the future, and there wouldn’t be any profit to speak of. But there are two things that I’m lacking in to take him down. Men and timing.]
He estimated that he should wait at least one to two months, until the various lords in the kingdom announced their independence. Then no one would pay attention to the southern border where two lords fought for each other’s land. By then, he would be ready to deal with Baron Graudin.
[But this is a headache. This year’s Trentheim is certainly one of the poorest regions in Aouine. I was afraid Romaine might have trouble creating commerce in this area, but it seems like she already have ideas in place. Should I get Amandina to start working on a plan now? Money is the next concern. The first step in gaining our startup capital will be blackmailing money from the nobles who skimmed profits from Bruglas’ routes, then start working towards gaining access to the rich southern mines. Any other sources of revenue like overseas trading, can be left to Amandina to work on—]
A sharp snapping sound from a horse whip suddenly broke his thoughts. He and his men immediately turned to the source of the noise, and saw a group of riders entering the city. Even though their equipment were mixed all over in an ugly fashion, their emblems were clear.
The flags that they carried showed a pelican on top of checkered squares, clearly representing the emblem of Randner’s retainers. Brendel immediately knew these men belonged to Baron Graudin’s personal troops.
They dashed across through the uneven roads and raised their whips in order to drive the citizens on the street to the sides. The citizens scattered like they were a bunch of livestock, but this sight seemed to be highly humorous to the riders, and their harsh laughter echoed in the street.
A few of them even had to correct their riding postures.
Amandina instantly frowned. This was not an uncommon sight in Bruglas as the city’s guards did the same thing. Scarlett scoffed coldly after observing the riders.
“They seemed to be dragging something behind them.” Sanford suddenly pointed at the ground behind the riders.
“Dead bodies.” Brendel answered, but sighed as he finished as his words: “The nobles’ private soldiers went out to kill bandits.”
“Is there something wrong?” Amandina was puzzled over his reaction. Was it not a common thing for the soldiers to do?
But Brendel placed his palm up to stop her queries, then pointed at another direction. When she placed her focus in the area, she saw a group of women kneeling on the ground, weeping as they covered their faces.
“…… What’s going on?” She asked with a perplexed frown.
“Rather than calling them bandits, you can call them peasants who are forced to flee from the lord’s taxation. Many of them lived their lives out like the common folks who lived in the city and do not partake in thievery, but since they avoid taxes they are classified and judged as outlaws.” One of the Grey Wolves Mercenaries answered her question with visible emotions: “My father was also killed in this manner, these fucking nobles…..”
“Are men the only ones who do this?” Amandina took a deep breath and asked.
“Yes. It’s not exactly heaven to be living out in the open.” Brendel nodded.
At Brendel’s final comment, the city suddenly seemed to fall into an odd silence. Other than the private soldiers’ yells and curses, and the women’s quiet weepings, there was no one who uttered a sound when they saw this sight before them.
“Miss Romaine, I don’t think you can call their actions a trade but a donation.” Sanford answered in the back.
“That’s obviously a trade. If you are buying hope with food isn’t that a transaction?” Romaine’s face went up a little higher as she tapped her chin with her finger thoughtfully.
“Using food to buy hope? What does that mean?” Amandina gave her a strange look.
Everyone felt the same way about Romaine’s replies. Brendel was the only exception as he wondered on how Romaine’s little mind functioned. She seemed to be always thinking of ideas that normal people could not.
“Amandina, how long do you need to make this place a self-sufficient economy if the region is governed by you?” He asked.
Amandina immediately sensed there was an additional meaning in his words. She turned her attention to him, wondering if the youth had his eyes set on this territory, or simply to test her out.
Regardless of what his intentions were, she took a long serious look at the filthy citizens whose clothes were patched up so many times that their former appearance was no longer there, before she answered with difficulty.
“The shortest amount of time would be a year, two if things do not go well. The citizens currently have no wealth, and the territory lacks the basic requirements to be converted into a commercial industry. Even if we did a tax reform and redistribute the land to build a proper city, we need more time to gather the resources to store up wealth…… I am confident that I can start a commercial district in two years, but it would require a great sum of money—“
“We just need to distribute the wealth so the citizens are wealthy enough, right? We can save time if we do that.” Romaine interrupted her and said it like it was matter-of-fact.
“Are you…… serious?” Amandina nearly choked on her indignance: “We would be no different from gamblers if we lend our money to the poor! Even if they pay the money back it’s still our own money— It’s more likely that we would lose everything!”
She looked at Romaine like the latter was a crazy merchant addicted to risky deals.
“Didn’t you already say that you’re ‘lending’ money to them? They won’t run away and bring back even more money for us. It’s going to be stated clearly on our promissory notes.” Romaine said.
“In the end we won’t get back anything because they will just spend everything away!”
Romaine wagged her finger to disagree with Amandina like she was a world-class banker, before pointing at the citizens in the city.
“You are not wrong if my idea is done in Bruglas. But these people here are desperate to get out of poverty right? Distributing our money to them is the same as buying them hope. We can teach them how to work in production lines and fulfill their wishes on being self-sufficient. They will be able to pay off what they owe in their promissory notes when they work for it, and I will gain many partners in the Game of Commerce. This is different from gambling. If you bury a gold coin in the ground here, you will be able to gain two the following year.”
She winked at Amandina mischievously.
“That…… It might work, but achieving it in reality is difficult……” Even though Amandina understood Romaine’s point of view, she was unable to accept this crazy logic.
“Indeed, there’s a certain difficulty…..” Brendel nodded, but he looked at Romaine with praising eyes. Romaine’s ideas were not really transactions, but a form of redistribution. If they direct both capital and production materials to a group of highly motivated citizens, they would be able to create high productivity. However, that idea will only work if the entire region’s wealth was under the territory’s lord. Still, it was remarkably ahead for its time in terms of economic policies.
While Brendel was capable in administering the financial management, he was not specialized enough to build the finer details on a commerce district’s infrastructure.
He was confident he could set the foundations for the policy and free it from any outside interference, though.
“Rather than say you’re buying hope, you can think it as buying labor. By having a driven workforce, there would be a difference in the speed on creating financial gains. If we execute this policy, then the most important aspect would be on to redistribute the wealth. Amandina, what are your specific thoughts?” Brendel said.
“Repair the roads.” Amandina promptly said.
Brendel nodded inwardly when her idea was the same as his own.
“…… My lord, are you planning to do something to this territory?” Amandina hesitated for a while before she finally gathered her courage and whispered to him.
She almost could not believe her own words when she spoke. It was the same as encouraging her lord to attack a legitimate lord. Usurping this land was the equivalent of betraying the kingdom. But the royal crown was weakening as the days went by, and she was greatly shaken in the kingdom’s future after witnessing the noble lords’ cruel and decadent behaviors.
Brendel first nodded, then shook his head and rubbed his forehead.
[I certainly have my eyes set on this place. That bastard Graudin isn’t some decent noble in the game or this world. Just look at the sight of this place. He’s also too close to my future territory. Even if he doesn’t invade us, there will certainly be extortion and unfair tradings that will happen in the future, and there wouldn’t be any profit to speak of. But there are two things that I’m lacking in to take him down. Men and timing.]
He estimated that he should wait at least one to two months, until the various lords in the kingdom announced their independence. Then no one would pay attention to the southern border where two lords fought for each other’s land. By then, he would be ready to deal with Baron Graudin.
[But this is a headache. This year’s Trentheim is certainly one of the poorest regions in Aouine. I was afraid Romaine might have trouble creating commerce in this area, but it seems like she already have ideas in place. Should I get Amandina to start working on a plan now? Money is the next concern. The first step in gaining our startup capital will be blackmailing money from the nobles who skimmed profits from Bruglas’ routes, then start working towards gaining access to the rich southern mines. Any other sources of revenue like overseas trading, can be left to Amandina to work on—]
A sharp snapping sound from a horse whip suddenly broke his thoughts. He and his men immediately turned to the source of the noise, and saw a group of riders entering the city. Even though their equipment were mixed all over in an ugly fashion, their emblems were clear.
The flags that they carried showed a pelican on top of checkered squares, clearly representing the emblem of Randner’s retainers. Brendel immediately knew these men belonged to Baron Graudin’s personal troops.
They dashed across through the uneven roads and raised their whips in order to drive the citizens on the street to the sides. The citizens scattered like they were a bunch of livestock, but this sight seemed to be highly humorous to the riders, and their harsh laughter echoed in the street.
A few of them even had to correct their riding postures.
Amandina instantly frowned. This was not an uncommon sight in Bruglas as the city’s guards did the same thing. Scarlett scoffed coldly after observing the riders.
“They seemed to be dragging something behind them.” Sanford suddenly pointed at the ground behind the riders.
“Dead bodies.” Brendel answered, but sighed as he finished as his words: “The nobles’ private soldiers went out to kill bandits.”
“Is there something wrong?” Amandina was puzzled over his reaction. Was it not a common thing for the soldiers to do?
But Brendel placed his palm up to stop her queries, then pointed at another direction. When she placed her focus in the area, she saw a group of women kneeling on the ground, weeping as they covered their faces.
“…… What’s going on?” She asked with a perplexed frown.
“Rather than calling them bandits, you can call them peasants who are forced to flee from the lord’s taxation. Many of them lived their lives out like the common folks who lived in the city and do not partake in thievery, but since they avoid taxes they are classified and judged as outlaws.” One of the Grey Wolves Mercenaries answered her question with visible emotions: “My father was also killed in this manner, these fucking nobles…..”
“Are men the only ones who do this?” Amandina took a deep breath and asked.
“Yes. It’s not exactly heaven to be living out in the open.” Brendel nodded.
At Brendel’s final comment, the city suddenly seemed to fall into an odd silence. Other than the private soldiers’ yells and curses, and the women’s quiet weepings, there was no one who uttered a sound when they saw this sight before them.
