Chapter 89: Each One Takes Care of Their Own Business
There are more than a dozen seats in the side hall, which are not arranged tightly or horizontally, but in a slightly oval shape. There is a coffee table between the seats, and there is fruit tea on the table to quench your thirst, which makes people feel less depressed.
The first person sitting on the left is Jock, the first person sitting on the right is Graya, then the workshop manager, and then George, Jaguar and others.
At first, Olivia saw them being polite to each other and asked them to sit according to their seniority and age.
The purpose of this meeting was mainly to estimate the expenses and goals for next year. George and Tani were enough to take care of the military expenses, so the two knights were patrolling the camp today, and no one present had a title.
When no one has a title, it is clearer to arrange seating according to seniority and age.
So, in order, Jock first picked up his documents and summarized his work as butler this year.
Since the Earl granted him the fiefdom, Jock has been in charge of the distribution of supplies.
Olivia saw him as a jack-of-all-trades nanny, traveling back and forth between the new town and the manor. No matter who was short of something, they would ask him for it first.
Jock reviewed the needs himself before purchasing or reporting them. For example, the mules that Jagbu used to plow the land were also purchased by him with the invoice and money.
Generally speaking, the logistical work related to farming, ranching, forestry, docks, manors or fortresses is done by the steward.
Jock first reported on the projects he had assisted in this year and then summarized the expenses.
Let Olivia say that if Gauss, Jagobu and others are the backbone of the work, then the butler is doing the work of the marrow. Although it cannot be seen from the outside, he must keep up at all.
There are many things to deal with, and they are complicated, and there are many people to contact, from planning the Einweiten forest to arranging logging areas to providing timber needs in various places.
Even down to small things like buying two more small wooden boats and a few mules for the dock, hiring workers, and ensuring transportation details.
In the past, he was in charge of a knight's manor and looked after a new city under construction, and he could barely handle it all by himself.
But now the new city is almost completed, and with the population increasing, affairs will only become busier and larger in scale in the future.
By that time, Jock would no longer be able to arrange these things alone.
Normally, everyone just concentrates on their own work and doesn't notice it.
After listening to the housekeeper's summary, I clearly realized how much chores he had done throughout the year, and I was filled with admiration.
After Jock finished his report, Graya also handed over her own accounts. She was mainly concerned with the personnel expansion within the manor and the fortress, as well as the recruitment plan for next year. The specific expenses within the fortress were kept confidential.
Following closely behind her were several older managers.
There was Mr. Declan, the former miller who now ran the rice shop, the manager of the shipyard, and the managers of several large workshops.
After they had made things clear, it was George's turn.
Although he is a baron's attendant, he currently has a lot of things on his plate.
He had to handle official business and correspondence for Caesar, supervise taxation and city security, manage the soldiers' logistics, and manage military supplies and material distribution.
George decided what each soldier could eat every day.
George's plan is to train three successors to take over his job before joining the Knights next year to get his resume.
These pitiful words make people feel distressed.
The same is true for Sheriff Tani. Just judging the civil justice and executing penalties in the city is enough to make him suffer.
They were also responsible for collecting taxes, maintaining public security, managing the city's infrastructure, inspecting watchtowers and wells, rainwater storage tanks, and road quality once a week, and recruiting soldiers within the city.
Tani said that he expected to recruit 500 conscripts next year, at least enough to meet the needs of ten fiefdom knights.
Land was distributed to recruits from outside, with each household allocated 15 mu of land, so that they could open up wasteland in the mountainous area of Einweiden and form a military settlement.
The people in the military camp were trained to fight on horseback and to plow the fields on foot. They had regular training five days a week in the military camp and were under the unified management of the knights.
When he first acquired the territory, Caesar did not want to continue the tradition of one knight being in charge of all affairs of an estate.
Although in this way, the lord only needs to collect taxes and does not have to worry about anything else, leaving the knights to fend for themselves, which is not a problem for the lord.
But the disadvantages are also obvious. Not only will it lead to a wealth gap among knights due to territory and lack of unity, but it will also affect the quantity and quality of soldiers.
In Lavosen, many knights only began to recruit and train soldiers in the manor when the war was about to begin.
They usually only use three or four people on patrol to save money and avoid providing weapons and rations.
Soldiers who were forced into battle like this had limited combat capabilities and weak willpower, which was obviously something Caesar could not tolerate.
So he took the initiative to propose separating the knights' work and fiefdom.
It was decided to use 60% of the profits from the taxes collected from the self-cultivating farmers in a military estate and the annual rewards from the tournament as a knight's fief.
The knight's job was simply to train soldiers in the various camps and prepare for the two annual tournaments between the camps.
The knight no longer had to worry about farming and production on the manor.
According to the plan, the only people living in these military settlements are soldiers and their families, all of whom are registered as self-cultivating farmers.
Each soldier's private land can be used to grow any crops without any restrictions.
However, no matter what is planted, one-fifth of the crops must be paid as tax in kind every year.
After the one-fifth of the physical goods were discounted, 40% went to the Baron's Mansion and 60% to the Knight.
The knights no longer had private land and tenants, but instead enjoyed fiefs and had their own official residences in the city.
My wife and children all live in the city, so I only need to go to the barracks under my jurisdiction for training on time.
If we can really recruit 500 recruits next year, that would be enough to form groups of 50 people into ten military camps.
If each of the fifty recruits could bring his family and cultivate fifteen mu of land of his own, then a military settlement would have seven hundred and fifty mu of arable land.
Calculated proportionally, the fief a knight could obtain was still around thirty gold coins per year.
Caesar had asked Galt and Lannis a month ago, asking them if they were willing to do this and what suggestions they had.
Instead of giving any advice, these two people were amused.
The annual salary of a knight without a fief in the Knights Templar was about twenty gold coins.
In the north, most knights who owned manors could only get thirty or forty gold coins after working hard all year round and paying taxes.
If I were to manage the expenses of another estate, I wouldn't be able to save this little money.
Before the two of them came, they thought that this was the best they could get.
Unexpectedly, the Baron actually wanted to introduce new rules in this way. This is actually a good thing for the two knights.
First, the family can live in the city, which is safer than living in a manor. Second, the work content is vertical, so there is no need to worry about messy things and there is no need to keep a lot of servants.
Although he had no tenants or land, the proportion of his fief was not small, and he also received subsidies. All in all, it was almost the same as a knight with a manor.
The two also understood that the power and status of a knight who commanded fifty soldiers in a military camp and a knight who lived in a manor and commanded four or five soldiers were completely different.
I agreed without thinking.
For this matter, Caesar specially returned to Lavosen to discuss with Olivia, explaining that the purpose of his doing so was to have high-quality soldiers.
She was more satisfied with Caesar's understanding, which was considered a transition from a slave society to a feudal society.
After discussing the conscription plan for next year, it was the turn of Jacob and Lucy, who were sitting on Olivia's side.
They only need to take care of the arable land and pastures in their territory and focus on farming and raising cattle.
However, their duties are the foundation for the operation of the territory.
Food, animal fats, and proteins are really too precious in this era.
They also summarize their work and report the total output this year.
After Lucy finished her brief report, Jacob stood up, holding his documents, smiled and said:
“My work here is simple, just clearing land and farming.
This year the total cultivated area is 1,800 acres, and the grain output is 420,000 pounds.
By next spring, approximately 2,400 to 2,600 acres of arable land will be developed.
The tentative target for autumn production is 500,000 pounds of grain, 20,000 pounds of various hemp varieties, and the construction of four orchards.
However, if we add another twenty or thirty mules, we can plow the land better."
Jacopo finished speaking and sat down.
Next came the three of Gauss who were sitting at the rear, and Letilen who was sitting opposite them.
These people will focus on shipping next year. Gaussley still promised to design a ship with a carrying capacity of over 500,000 pounds next year. He also reported on the loading progress of the first ship in the port. In three or four days, the ship will be able to depart.
Letilen is the person in charge of this voyage. He will take the ship abroad and is expected to return before the spring plowing in March.
According to the current shipbuilding progress of the shipyard, when it goes out to sea again in April, Letilen will be able to take two ships out to sea at a time.
This time the ship was not empty. Letilen loaded it with the porcelain, cloth and furs he had sold.
He also organized several big merchants from Einweiden, and took their people and goods on board to go out to sea, forming a caravan.
A shipload of goods could cost as much as twenty or thirty thousand gold coins.
The terms of the team formation that Letilen negotiated with them were to take 10% of the profits as shipping fees.
After the merchants calculated the accounts, they all agreed to give a 10% profit.
Therefore, just from the outbound journey, porcelain and commission, one can earn more than 5,000 gold coins.
As he was talking, Letilen mentioned someone.
"Have you heard of Moni Anwadi from Anke City? He has a large business in Anke City, and this time he even brought his family to Eindhoven.
He wrote me a letter before he came. This time, Anwadi is going to sea with me. He plans to go to Garamu to buy goods.
When this person was mentioned, Caesar remembered that when he was still a servant in Anko, he often bought things in Anwadi's shop.
The food in his shop is of very good quality, and even the cheapest bread does not contain much sand or bran.
"Why did he come to us?"
Caesar pondered this thought, and Letilun replied:
"Anwadi said that he sold his property in Anko to the Clover family and now wants to focus on maritime trade."
After hearing this, Caesar realized what was going on. He thought that the Countess's uncle was probably causing trouble again.
After these people had reported their own affairs, Olivia proposed her plan.
A new official rank system.
This new system cannot be rolled out all at once; we need to experiment with a few parts first to see if it works.
She named the housekeeper, George, and Tani, and said she would start with them.
Whether it is the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers or the Three Provinces and Six Ministries, as well as the various ministries and commissions that came later, and even the cabinet and ministers of affairs.
These official ranks are based on a vast territory and a population of tens of thousands, and a small barony is obviously not necessary.
Therefore, Olivia omitted the three provinces and centralized power directly between her and Caesar.
He also borrowed the official ranks of the Six Ministries, deleted and modified them according to local conditions, and proposed the concept of Nine Departments to these three people.
Officials, households, finance, labor, punishment, labor, grain, taxes, and land.
They correspond respectively to the Performance Evaluation Department, Household Registration Department, Finance Department, City Defense Department, Court, Urban Construction Department, Grain Affairs Department, Taxation Department, and Land Affairs Department.
“This is just a concept. Listen, if you have any suggestions, you can add to it, or delete or modify it.
In the next two months, I will discuss the details with you individually, nominate directors and staff, and there will also be an opportunity to discuss the framework.
It will be implemented after next year's spring plowing season, and it can't be changed by then."
When everyone heard this, they immediately realized that this was a serious matter. If this happened, Einweiden might completely separate the military and politics.
The military affairs system is managed by the baron himself, and military supplies and logistics are separated.
Government affairs were also divided into nine departments, each responsible for its own area, and no one would hold multiple positions.
…
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