Chapter 92: Ninety-two Beans

In late December, the entire northern wilderness was covered in heavy snow, which seemed to never stop falling and was determined to fill up the ravines and mountains.

The city of Einwidden was also covered in snow, and the main roads in the city were covered with thick snow.

The market area at the city gate is the first fork street next to the main road into the city, and it is called Oatmeal Street.

For shops that want to open for business, the first thing the guys do when they get to work is to shovel snow on the streets to prevent customers from coming to the store.

People also came out to shovel snow from shops on the adjacent Rye Street, Wheat Street, Lentil Street, and Soybean Street.

The streets in the market area were officially named just before the autumn harvest this year, so all the streets planned for development are named after food.

The entire market area occupies about 400 acres in the city, with a total of 30 streets planned.

The names of the streets are all selected from grains, plants, vegetables, flowers, and plants. The developed blocks closest to the city gate are all named after grains.

There are six streets named after grains, and all of them have been developed.

Roads and ditches were dug, and land was rented or sold acre by acre.

The remaining 24 streets are still under development. The current progress of the Urban Construction Bureau is to complete a street that is 250 meters long and 6 meters wide in about two months, which is considered a very fast progress.

In the days after the establishment of the Nine Departments, most of the official duties were shared among the staff of each department, and a group of people helped share the work in the offices of each department in the fortress.

The ground has been frozen recently and the land cannot be developed, so the Land Affairs Department does not have much work to do.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Olivia brought two maids to the market area, ready to take a stroll and learn about the lives of the lowest-class residents.

She has been busy for the past half month since she came here, and her activity radius has been only between the fortress and the church. She has not yet visited her own town.

The carriage headed towards the busiest Oatmeal Street.

Olivia and her maids were all wearing furs and sitting in the car. She looked out the window curiously. The snow on the road was very thick, reaching above her ankles, like soft tofu.

The people cleaned up some of the snow on their own initiative, and the soldiers from the garrison camp also came out to clear some of the snow. All the snow was piled up in the ditches and on the curbs beside the road.

Fortunately, the eight-meter-wide avenue and the sewage ditch can accommodate these snow piles, and can still accommodate three carriages running side by side at the same time.

This ditch was initially compacted and then paved with stones, with a gravel base. Later, the workshop made artificial cement and glued it with a layer of cement. Until now, it has not cracked due to freezing.

Although Olivia had never been out and about, she was very familiar with the city's layout and remembered which merchant used the land on each street.

The streets in this market area are one level lower than the avenues.

The roads are all five meters wide, and six meters with ditches. They are much narrower than a highway, but wide enough for two cars to pass in both directions.

The plot of land gridded between the two streets was the part she had traded with the merchant.

One unit is 25 meters wide and 27 meters long, which is exactly one acre.

A plot is the minimum area that a baronial residence can rent out or transfer.

A plot of land like this would be too big to just build a temporary shop.

After acquiring the land, many businessmen will build two rows of houses back to back, with the front and back rows of houses facing two streets.

The carriage stopped outside Oatmeal Street, and the three people got off the carriage and walked along the street into the fork in the road.

Olivia walked in front. Most of the buildings on the street were made of wood, a mixture of earth bricks and stone bricks. Most of them had only two floors with an attic.

She remembered that the first plot of land on Oat Street to be rented out was to a grain merchant.

Olivia walked closer and found that this first plot had indeed been converted into two rows back to back.

On this side facing Oatmeal Street, there are exactly three shops, one of which is a grain store, and the other two are a tavern and a grocery store.

It seems that this grain merchant only kept one shop for himself, and built other places to collect rent.

Each shop is about eight meters wide and ten meters deep.

There is a two-meter-wide alley between the two rows of buildings back to back. The alley also extends out and connects to the main street, which can be used to load goods into the warehouse.

There is a sign at the door of each store with the house number on it.

If it is number 1 on the left side of Oatmeal Street, then besides the small words "Oatmeal Street" on the house number, it will be "A1"

The first house on the right is "B1"

Every house built must be registered before it can be operated or lived in. Without a house number, the street’s exclusive wells and rainwater storage tanks cannot be used.

The water well management fee is charged by the administrator per building, which is four sori per building per month, which is quite cheap.

Olivia walked around the place slowly and observed it. After noticing any fire hazards, she took her two maids into the open grocery store.

This grain store covers an area of ​​about 100 square meters. It is not a big place, but it has everything you need. The inner hall is filled with wooden boxes filled with various grains.

The clerk inside didn't know who she was, perhaps because she never went to church to pray.

But by looking at her clothes, the clerk knew that the lady in front of him was someone important, so he tried his best to sell her clothes and answered every question.

So Olivia asked about the prices of several staple foods, such as wheat, oats, and rye.

He also asked about the origin of these grains.

The clerk saw that she didn't seem to want to buy anything, but after asking carefully, he replied doubtfully:

"Our boss gets all his grain from Desiso County. The wheat harvest there is pretty good this year. We only need 21 grams of unhulled wheat for 100 pounds.

After the shelling, it costs thirty-two grams per hundred pounds.

We have wheat flour here, thirty-five grams for a hundred pounds."

Olivia took some notes and asked him if he knew where to buy potatoes.

"Potatoes? I've heard of them. I think they were sold at the grain store in Lavossen last year. My boss went out looking for them but couldn't find any. They must be imported from overseas, right?"

The clerk, wearing a sheepskin coat, put his hands in his pockets and said:

"It's normal for things like these from overseas to appear and disappear."

"What about soybeans?"

Olivia continued to ask.

"We do have soybeans." The clerk opened a bucket in the corner, which was filled with soybeans.

"This is a recently available bean variety. My boss harvested it together with the wheat from La Vossen, but it doesn't look very good. It's wrinkled.

In our shop, they are the same price as lentils, twenty-six grams per hundred pounds."

Olivia never sold the soybeans she grew on the estate. She kept some for herself and used the rest as seeds for farmland.

When the system gave rewards, many manors in Lavosen had some soybean seeds.

She took a closer look and saw that the soybeans grown by other people were very small, with many shriveled beans, and the yield was definitely mediocre.

After questioning the food, Olivia began to question the store clerk.

"What's your name?"

The clerk scratched his head and replied, confused, "My name is Hank."

Olivia nodded. "Well, how much does your boss pay you for working here? Where do you usually live?"

Hank, the clerk, was even more confused. He looked blankly at the other two ladies who were dressed richly. Seeing that they both looked serious, he couldn't help but tighten his scalp.

Could it be that the boss has offended someone and is here to cause trouble?

But looking at this lady who kept asking questions, she had neat teeth and probably had never eaten a bite of coarse grains. She was tall, had long hair, and a rosy and bright face. She wore a mink cloak, suede gloves, and carried a copper stove to warm her hands. When she walked into the store, the store was filled with a faint smell of silver charcoal.

Even if he was stupid, he knew that this man might be a nobleman. Even his boss didn't dare to mess with such a person.

So he said honestly:

"My monthly salary is 120 suries. I eat in the shop and sleep in the attic."

“How many employees are there in this store?”

“There are six of us, two to look after the store, one to be the manager, and the other three to deliver and receive grain outside.

The big boss is from Lavossen and has a warehouse in Lavossen.

He has branches in La Vossen, Caron and Dop Jones, and each month, the stores sell more than 20,000 pounds of food."

The clerk named Hank didn't dare to hide anything and said whatever he wanted to say.

Olivia learned everything about the grain store and asked the maid beside her to give him some tips.

The maid grabbed a few coins from her coin purse and handed them to Hank, telling him to do what he needed to do.

Olivia went out to look around, subconsciously calculating the cost of the grocery store.

They then spent another hour browsing the shops on the nearby street.

After an inspection, I found that most of the shops were of similar size to that grain store.

Later, we walked to Broad Bean Street, where there were various leather shops, fabric shops, fur shops, and also the Letilen family's fur shop.

Because of Letilen's store, his products are of medium quality, reasonably priced and in stable supply.

Therefore, other leather shops that only sell fabrics are no longer competitive.

But the merchants were not there to sit back and do nothing. They improved their technology and started to open leather bag stores, leather shoe stores, and saddle stores instead of just selling crude leather.

The Letilen family's shop was ordered to continue to only deal in raw materials, which greatly affected the market prices.

Olivia walked into a shop that specialized in leather accessories. It looked very powerful.

The store is very large, with several clerks inside and a manager doing the accounting at the counter. The counter is also decorated very exquisitely, with various leather bags on display.

There are those for immediate use, as well as boxes, hand-held, cross-body, patchwork leather, specially designed to carry various items.

The store hired a master craftsman to make leather bags on the spot in the operation room behind the counter.

The manager saw Olivia and her group, took a quick glance at them, and then came to sell with a gleam in his eyes.

"Ladies, what would you like to buy? The handbags in this shop are of good quality, made of all kinds of leather."

"Just take a look."

Olivia stood by the counter in the store, glanced around, and said to the maid behind her:

"Is there anything you like? It's my treat, take your pick."

The two maids only wanted to protect the lady's safety and didn't care whether the bag looked good or not. However, since the lady had spoken, the two of them also looked around.

Olivia looked around the store and saw that everything was very exquisitely made.

The master craftsman inside was holding a carefully cut leather bag in his hand and rubbing wax on it.

She narrowed her eyes slowly. Who was this? Ai Moushi?

The silver alloy accessories are matched with black sheepskin and black suede. They are already made and the shapes are roughly the same.

After a while, she regained her composure and began to question the store manager as usual, asking how the store paid taxes and when the soldiers came to collect them.

Not only was the manager wary at first, Olivia had no choice but to say that she was also a businessman, working in furs, and wanted to open a shop in Eindhoven, so she came to ask in advance.

After hearing this, the store manager said, "Oh!"

"Then you have to submit a letter to the fortress to apply for a business license. Once you have a number, you can start doing business. At the end of each month, someone will come to collect taxes."

The steward scratched his head and added, "However, there seems to be a new rule in the fortress these days. I remember someone mentioned it.

In the future, when applying for a business license, you must write on the envelope sent to the fortress that it is addressed to the Commerce Office of the Financial Secretary and note the shop consultation.

In the first letter, first talk about your business scope and then ask for the necessary documents.

In less than two days, Fortress will return the letter according to your address, so you must hang a mailbox at the door of your store.

Tell you what documents you need, such as rental agreement, employment contract, purchase order, etc.

Once you submit these certificates, the temporary business license will be mailed out within one or two days.

The temporary business license is valid for seven days, and half of the tax is payable during these seven days.

However, one week after the temporary business license is issued, the Commerce Office will send someone to conduct an on-site inspection. Only when the business scope and situation are consistent with the application can the annual license be issued.

Once you have the annual certificate, you should start determining the tax amount with the tax commissioner.

All taxes paid by stores are business taxes. There are three levels of business taxes. The wider the business scope, the higher the level.

If you only sell furs, you may only need to pay 10% of the amount above 20 gold coins.

Don't even think about operating without a license or falsifying accounts to evade taxes.

Not to mention the high late payment fees, there are fewer stores in the city these days, and people come to check your store's license every week, so there's no way to escape.

Besides, if your store's turnover does not meet the tax standards for three consecutive months, or is lower than the average of similar stores, you will not be able to obtain tax-free tickets for goods entering the city or passing through the port.

If you want to bring goods into the city, you still have to pay a lot of tolls at the city gate, which is no less than the business tax. Why bother?

“Besides, when Lord Letilen takes a merchant ship out to sea, any merchant with a business license and tax bill in the city, regardless of the size of their business, can board the ship free of charge.

My boss is on board this ship to visit the Kingdom of Galamu. If he doesn't buy any goods, he doesn't even have to pay the port tax. He's just traveling with us."

The steward spoke for a while, and Olivia listened carefully, nodding seriously.

"I see."

The manager sighed, as if inspired, and started selling news again.

“Although the rules here are a bit troublesome, they have been worked out.

At least there are rules, and rules mean there are laws.

If you follow the instructions, you won't have any trouble. It's much better than those small towns.

Madam, I see that your family seems to be wealthy. Why don’t you buy some land now? It will definitely be more valuable in the future.

If my boss can return safely with the ship this time, you won’t be able to choose the land in this city.”

All of this was implemented bit by bit according to the framework she originally designed.

Olivia nodded seriously: "Yes, you are right."

Afterwards, she forced the maids to pick out a few things each, and she also picked out a few things. After paying the bill, she slowly took the carriage back to the fortress.

In the carriage, the two maids finally couldn't help but mutter.

"Madam, it seems that the several departments have done a good job. Now you can rest assured and rest."

"I made them work, not to be lazy," Olivia defended herself.

One of the younger maids blinked and said:

"The maid in the laundry room said that the laundry has been delayed for a long time and it seems that the lady is pregnant... I'm afraid she will have to rest even if she doesn't want to."

Olivia paused, went on board and looked at the number of days. Well, it was already the day when her personal servant could find out, and it was time for her to reveal the news to the outside world.

Another older maid said, "We don't have much experience in this matter. Let's wait a few days and ask someone with experience to take a look."

The lady's first child, and later the legal heir to two baronies.

They didn't dare to make a conclusion easily and had to be cautious.

Olivia also looked like she had just realized something and nodded in agreement.

A few days later, the maids called a nun with experience in midwifery over, who examined her through her petticoat and confirmed her suspicion.

Only then did the news spread among the servants and reached everyone in the fortress.

…