Chapter 7 Chapter 7 Tax Reduction and People's Welfare
In the cellar, Lucy and her brother Adam were mixing mud, filling the mud with hay, and covering up the holes dug by mice in the corners of the wall.
The grain barrels were too heavy for them to move very far, so they could only push them slightly and squeeze into the gaps to do this delicate work.
When Olivia arrived at the tower, Lucy was climbing up carrying a basket full of mud. She was a little hurried. She turned back and told Adam to be careful, then turned back and took a dusty box from Adam's hand.
Turning her head, Lucy saw the hem of her lady's skirt. She immediately took the box to Olivia and said doubtfully:
"Ma'am, we found this box behind the third barrel in the cellar. We don't know what's inside, but the carvings on it are quite beautiful."
Lucy brushed off the dust.
"This might be something from when the old knight was still alive. Madam, please keep it quickly. I'm afraid there's something precious inside."
Olivia took the box and looked at it, her eyes suddenly froze. This was not a pattern, but the game APP icon on the box.
"Give it to me, and you guys continue with your work."
"OK."
Lucy didn't take it seriously. There was too much clutter in the cellar and she had to continue sorting it out.
As she spoke, she took the wooden box back to the bedroom and turned on the system in the ring.
Here's the thing.
About five minutes ago, Olivia became concerned about the carpenter's daily work, asking him how much food he could earn in a month, how many people were in his family, and what his living conditions were like.
The carpenter was terrified when he heard this and told his wife everything. He had a family of four, a wife, and two children, a son and a daughter. His daughter was sixteen years old and his son was ten years old. He worked as a carpenter only as a part-time job. He mainly farmed the land and made about ten ri per month by helping people in his village and the neighboring village repair tables, chairs and houses as a carpenter.
Ten kolis, or one silver coin, could barely buy two chickens, and his family only had two chickens.
The carpenter said that although it was the coldest time of the year, the two chickens he raised had started laying eggs every day these past two days.
At the end, the carpenter also said that his daughter was engaged to a boy from the village.
So Olivia asked when they would get married.
From then on, the carpenter began to hesitate, saying that the boy's family was a tenant farmer and had not yet collected enough money for the marriage tax. They thought that in two months, by spring, when the most difficult times had passed, they would probably have collected enough money.
Only then did Olivia understand that the tenant farmers in the fiefdom had to pay taxes when they got married, and they had to pay a full silver coin before they could get married.
She immediately called the butler and asked about this matter. The butler said that there was such an unwritten rule. After all, the tenants were the lord's private property.
Tenant farmers had to pay taxes when they got married, and they were not allowed to marry secretly, otherwise they would be imprisoned if they were discovered.
She thought this rule was a bit absurd, but the steward explained that this was done because there was not much arable land in their fiefdom.
When a tenant farmer got married and opened a separate household, he had to rent out a piece of land. When the old knight was alive, he kept the most fertile land for himself, using it to grow his own wheat for brewing wine, which occupied most of the arable land in the village. He didn't want to rent this land to tenant farmers, so he simply created this tax to restrict them from getting married.
However, a young man would only need to save up a few months to pay the tax of one silver coin.
Usually, the housekeeper would ask the young man to cultivate wasteland where nothing could be grown.
The small lord has absolute autonomy in his own fiefdom and concentrates all power in one person. No one dares to oppose the old knight's decrees, and no one from the king to the baron can control him.
So Olivia immediately asked the butler to abolish this tax and set aside one-third of the fertile private land in the estate, which would be used to distribute to the tenant farmers to grow food, since one-third would have to be collected anyway.
As a lord, if you still have a small peasant mentality and hold on to a piece of fertile land, how can you achieve great things?
Olivia believes that population is the key. If people are not allowed to get married, how can there be population growth? Without population, how can she lead people to do other things in the future?
Olivia found that she had completely understood the mentality of being a local lord.
However, it is likely that due to low productivity, the land could not support many tenant farmers.
Olivia thought that others might not be able to support themselves, but she should be able to.
In short, with just one sentence, she abolished a harsh tax hanging over the heads of tenant farmers, and the system in her hand immediately responded, unlocking the first achievement.
"Tax cuts to help the people"
Olivia opened the box in her room and immediately received ten experience points.
Then the box disappeared, and nothing was left.
So far, Olivia has accumulated twenty experience points. She looked at the progress bar and saw that there were only eighty experience points left to reach one hundred. It seemed that the progress was faster than she had imagined.
What is the mysterious crop that is rewarded with 100 experience points?
After this little episode, Olivia had her lunch time.
For lunch, when Caesar was away from home, his entourage would bring him white bread, bacon and wine to fill his stomach.
For Olivia, these are the only things she eats. Today, the cook made onion pie, carrot soup, and sausages.
"The pickled pork has been hung up for smoking. By the way, ma'am, you'll never believe it, but the chickens in the backyard laid seven eggs today. I don't know what's been going on these past two days."
While setting the table, Lucy told Olivia about something unusual happening in the chicken coop.
"That's a good thing. Let's save some eggs and have the hens hatch them. From today on, the kitchen won't need any eggs. Wait until each hen hatches seven or eight eggs."
The survival rate of eggs is not high. In a nest of seven or eight eggs, only three or four can hatch at most. The survival rate of the hatched chicks is also pitifully low. If you want to have a flock of chickens, you can only rely on piling up the number like this.
However, this would temporarily deprive Olivia of the best way to consume protein, and she would have to wait until spring.
She thought about it and decided to endure it so that she could kill a chicken and make spicy chicken in the future. At most, she would have to eat more pork.
In the afternoon, after the carpenter finished sawing the wood, he began to repair and replace the window sashes in Olivia's bedroom. Olivia had nothing to do in the afternoon, so she and Lucy took a yard of fine linen by the fireplace, cut off a long piece, and planned to sew a curtain to block the draft from the window.
To be honest, Lucy is a girl who is both talented in literature and martial arts. She is big in stature and can do any kind of work in the manor. Even needlework is something she can do with ease, and her stitches are much smoother than hers.
However, poor Olivia has not yet unlocked the function of viewing character attributes. She does not know what talents the people in front of her focus on, and it is not easy for her to blindly guide their development.
Lucy and her husband George had known each other since childhood. They had been married for only half a year, but their relationship was pretty good. George was considered the most promising self-employed farmer in the village. Because of his strong physique and tough character, he was taken in as a squire by an old knight and learned horse riding and archery. Their childhood sweetheart relationship made Lucy lively whenever she mentioned George.
Olivia was threading the needle and was moved by the feelings between them. When she first came here, she treated them as NPCs, but only a few days had passed.
She glanced at Lucy's dull hair and knew that she must have only eaten oats and rye, with little oil.
As a capable man in the manor, how can I lack nutrition?
Olivia thought about it and said that when the first batch of chicks hatched, she would be given two to raise herself. She could sell the eggs or eat them. Chickens have endless offspring and can be found everywhere. They are also very nutritious and are truly a treasure for mankind.
Lucy's smile was surprised when she heard this, this was the first time she had her own property, and for a moment she even forgot to thank him for the reward, and she kept promising that she would take good care of all the chicks.
Afterwards, Olivia had the carpenter add a simple curtain rod to the window. Making curtains was also easy. She and Lucy worked together to edge the curtains with twine. When the window was installed, they put up the curtains.
The linen curtains covered the already tight and opaque wooden windows, making the room dark, but also very windproof. Coupled with the warmth from the fireplace, it seemed to immediately provide better protection for people's bodies.
Olivia looked at the bedroom, which had been transformed bit by bit by her additions, from leaky to complete, and she felt a little relieved for some reason.
At this moment, the carpenter has finished replacing the last window sash board next door and is preparing to replace the floor.
The stonemason also went up to the roof in the light snow to replace the tiles. The housekeeper and the stonemason could be heard talking faintly on the roof. It seemed that the work would be completed if they worked another morning tomorrow.
Olivia was tidying up the house herself, planning that if she could make a lot of money next year, she would connect the three rooms on the south side of the second floor to make a suite, save some wool or something, make a cushioned chair, and create a comfortable living room.
Next year, after the walls are plastered, I'll hang some felt decorations. Since I can't paint, I'll embroider them.
Olivia pointed to the still empty wall and spoke. Lucy listened from the side, nodding from time to time, and then asked suspiciously why she didn't plan to set up a baby room.
Hearing this, Olivia choked as she looked at the naive Lucy. Did she want her to tell the truth? In the game settings, unlocking the heir function requires a very high level of experience. Before that, no matter how hard Caesar tried, it would be of no use except to make her feel good.
However, she still managed to deal with Lucy by laughing it off.
Before evening, the man sent by the housekeeper to the next village to exchange linen for wool yarn was fast. He carried several rolls of linen to Stewart Manor and came back with a large basket of twisted wool yarn for Olivia. Olivia rewarded the errand boy with a bag of oats to take home.
It seems that Mrs. Stewart was a generous person. The threads she gave her were fine and firm, and the quantity was large. They must be more valuable than her pile of cloth. Wool thread can be used to weave sweaters and also to sew things.
Olivia thought that Mrs. Stewart was a very pleasant person.
She untied the ball of yarn and pulled it, and asked Lucy to trim two slender branches for her tomorrow to make knitting needles. The yarn was enough to knit several thick sweaters.
She only knew the simplest knitting method, so she made some plans and decided to make a long sweater for herself and one for Caesar.
As she was planning, it gradually grew dark, and in the blink of an eye it was dinner time. The sound of horse hooves came from the yard, and she walked slowly downstairs, wanting to see how Caesar would react to the changes in his residence.
The author has something to say:
----------------------
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
