20demayo #742 - Meliati's War Bonds
#742 - Meliati's War Bonds
"Still chasing? Still chasing!" A Norn mercenary, wearing ragged leather armor and exposing his bald head and beard, cursed in heavily accented Layan, "Chased for seven leagues, still chasing!"
But Old Raffer and the others behind him still didn't stop, still wielding their sabers and spears, chasing these routed bandits from the wasteland.
Soon, the Gravel Field mercenaries, whose will and stamina were far inferior to Old Raffer and his men, were blocked by a fallen dead tree and a muddy pond.
Left with no choice, these mercenaries had to turn around, raise their hands, and shout with anger and helplessness, "We surrender!"
However, the 'Holy League Infantry Drill' explicitly requires war priests to strictly control unarmed prisoners.
So Old Raffer and his men split into two groups, one group pointing spears at their vitals, and the other group stepping forward to disarm them.
Slightly raising his head, keeping his throat away from the spear tip, the leading Gravel Field mercenary could clearly feel the difference between the spearman and the soldier with the saber.
Years of battlefield experience allowed him to immediately recognize that the person in front of him was a genuine mercenary.
"A few dozen dinars a month, huh?" Spitting out a mouthful of blood-streaked phlegm, the mercenary panted, "Why are you risking your life so much?"
"A few dozen dinars? How much do you get?" The old mercenary said with considerable emotion, "We get paid in full."
In a state of war, Melia Tigh gives each mercenary 30 dinars in full silver coins at the beginning and middle of each month.
Many mercenaries who came from Norn cried; they had never seen such a generous patron in their lives.
You know, Prince Condé had to let the knights plunder everywhere for those thirty to fifty thousand gold pounds.
In the end, this led to the nobles' divided loyalties and the eventual defeat.
But after the Horne Hundred District system, the situation changed dramatically.
Under this system, a large number of nobles and knights left their fiefs, taking away the terrible feudal oppression.
Although the Megrati Merchant Guild ate the lion's share of the Windmill Land financial war, and the Holy See of Machinery ate the lion's share of the Black Serpent Bay war reparations,
both of them almost never saved money, either repaying bonds or using it to expand reproduction.
The specific method is to first use agricultural mutual aid, iron farm tools, and shared animal power in the hundred districts, and then free up a large number of people to engage in industry, commerce, and construction.
Either go to the priest towns to be construction workers, or build canals and roads, or go to the docks to be stevedores.
With these civil engineering projects and supporting industries, everyone had some money in their pockets.
Except for a few Père Grandet-like characters, everyone spent a little more or less.
As a result, the strong consumption brought about strong demand, giving rise to strong town trade and considerable market and customs duties.
The roads, small canals, houses, and other infrastructure that were built began to feed back into industry and commerce, reducing trade costs.
The original market was held every ten days, then every eight days, and even every five days. Now, many stalls are simply permanent.
This allowed many ordinary artisans and even laborers to make a fortune in this wave.
However, the general situation in the imperial market is that prices are soaring and precious metal currencies are depreciating.
In addition to the hot money brought by the Black Serpent Bay War and the Windmill Land Financial War, the Frankish Royal Thousand River Valley Trading Company has brought a stable cash flow.
White sugar, spices, clothing, alchemical potions, especially white paper and printing, are all the rage in Francia because of their low prices.
Many Frankish scholars, because publishing books in their own country is too expensive, specifically send manuscripts to the Thousand River Valley to help with publishing and printing.
As a result, prices in the Holy League are also rising due to the influx of large amounts of precious metal currency, and the money in hand is depreciating quickly.
People who make money have three options: first, spend it quickly; second, invest it in reproduction; and third, consider financial investment.
If you bury it in the backyard like before, the depreciation will eat it all away.
The large sums of money that Horne spent on infrastructure flowed back into his hands, turning into bonds, stocks, and boxes of goods.
So the people of the Thousand River Valley don't have much resistance to financial investment. The three major exchanges in Green Harbor City, Rapid Current City, and Joan of Arc Fortress are overcrowded.
Taking advantage of this east wind, Melia Tigh followed suit and began issuing war bonds, guaranteed by the Holy Maiden Bank.
Melia Tigh gave high-interest short-term two-year bonds at 7%, issuing 9,000 bonds, with a minimum amount of 5 gold pounds per bond.
This is roughly equivalent to three to five years of surplus for a small landlord family.
Anyway, this price is to accurately harvest the grassroots citizens and small landlord class.
There are nearly 20,000 citizen households in Hotham County alone, not to mention the nobles and knights forced to gather around Green Harbor City.
These nobles and knights even played their "old business," raising funds to engage in finance and establishing several small banks.
They would buy these war bonds in large quantities, and then use these war bonds to distribute 5% interest bonds of about 1 gold pound to rural landlords and yeoman farmers.
Then use the money raised to continue buying war bonds, and then continue to distribute small-denomination bonds.
In just one week, Melia Tigh sold nearly 4,000 war bonds, raising 20,000 gold pounds.
Prince Condé worked hard for a month, causing resentment from both gods and men, and was not as fast as Melia Tigh in a week.
Having tied up these wailing prisoners, Old Raffer and the other mercenaries escorted them, slowly heading towards Feldheim not far away.
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They first returned to the avenue along the wilderness, and then continued to return along the avenue.
And these so-called avenues are definitely not as good as a single hair of the Holy League roads, with a large number of potholes and large and small stones.
But the dirt road was still full of carriages swaying back and forth, splashing countless mud spots.
The wheels jumped back and forth between potholes and gravel, failing to slow down the coachmen.
Looking at the mud spots on their boots and calves, Old Raffer and the others were not annoyed.
Because they all knew that these were carriages transporting wool.
In order to boost confidence and raise more funds, Melia Tigh directly sent troops to occupy the town of Feldheim.
What Old Raffer and the others didn't know was that the 'Megrati Commercial News,' 'Cold Spring Weekly,' and 'Iris Flower News' all praised Melia Tigh's victory and the mountains of loot.
From Old Raffer's point of view, he didn't see mountains of loot, but he did see mountains of wool.
You know, in the Gravel Field dialect, the town and the tax farmer are synonymous.
And just after the twice-yearly shearing season (April and September), the Duke's warehouse in Feldheim was filled with wool sent by the shepherds.
Yesterday, when Old Raffer opened the warehouse, the dark black wool at the edges slept in the warehouse like unmelted snow in winter.
Many wool merchants from the mountainous counties rushed to the scene day and night, carrying the wool from the town's warehouse onto the carriages like moving cabbages.
With eyes red from not sleeping for several nights, they rushed to Radanburg to take a boat to High Fort City and then north to send the wool to the Ibe River waterway.
The Southern Mand County textile production association, which had been hungry for more than four months, devoured this batch of wool like a dog that hadn't eaten shit for a long time.
The creaking sound of spinning once again echoed in the night sky of Southern Mand County.
Along with the downstream industries, the previously sluggish Holy See of Machinery textile factory and the Joan of Arc Fortress garment factory were once again busy.
Now, even the previously critical 'Truth News' has gradually shifted its position towards neutrality.
These complex situations are all for the higher-ups to consider, and have nothing to do with ordinary soldiers like Old Raffer and the others.
There is only one thought in their minds now—when will they be able to eat.
When Old Raffer and the others rushed back to Feldheim, they arrived just in time for dinner.