At noon half a month later.

Crescent Castle, back room.

The Rosen family is enjoying lunch.

The main course was a turtle stew.

A turtle weighing more than 30 kilograms was cut open, and the thickest and tenderest parts of the meat were removed. The meat was then mixed with ham, potatoes, vegetables, and various spices to make a pot of soup as thick as milk.

Of course, the rest of the turtle was not wasted and was given to the servants as rewards.

Anna sipped the delicious soup and said, "I received a reply from my brother today. He said he contacted the earls of the Northern County and they all agreed with my proposal."

"It is estimated that more than 50,000 mountain people will be transported to the islands one after another, and the average price for each one will range from 10 to 25 Oggs."

Rosen made a brief estimate and said, "This is really a huge expense. Fortunately, it can be paid with magic tools."

If we had to pay in cash, all the cash on the island combined would probably not be enough to pay.

After a pause, he felt fortunate: "It's a good thing we reached a deal with the Deep Sea Banshee, otherwise there wouldn't be enough food on the island."

Although the trade with the deep-sea banshees has just begun, those banshees are very enthusiastic about the trade.

They need more than just sun warriors and clay knives; they are interested in everything on land.

In just ten days, at least 200 tons of various seafood products were brought to the island.

But Rosen still felt that the trade volume was too small.

If he were allowed to control this triangular sea area, he would immediately start various types of marine aquaculture, which would not only ensure food for the entire island, but could even export large quantities.

Of course, this is just his idea for now.

Anna then talked about the second piece of news.

"I have also received responses to the letters I wrote to various magic schools and famous magicians."

"Among them, Northern College responded very positively, saying that they would add the option of Sturgeon Island to their students' graduation recommendation books, and most of them would add it on the first page."

Rosen and Serena raised their glasses to celebrate and said with a smile, "This is a great thing."

Anna spread her hands and said, "That's true. It shows that the White Pelican Island has become famous in the north."

She changed the subject: "But there weren't many responses from the South. They were even reluctant to pay attention to me. Even if they did pay attention, they would just politely refuse."

"I summarized the reasons and found that there are many aspects."

Upon hearing this, Rosen said, “Is it mainly political or economic?”

"Half and half."

"The South is full of continentalists, and we have offended Aaron."

"The South is wealthy, and there are many career options for mages after graduation, with high salaries. At the same time, they look down on us in the North."

“But to be honest, even if the Southern masters are willing to come, I’m afraid we can’t afford their salaries.”

Rosen and Serena both nodded in agreement.

The Southern County is much richer than the Northern County, and the salary level of formal mages is more than twice as high. It is like going from a small western town to Shanghai to work on Earth, the gap is huge.

But Rosen was unwilling to miss any opportunity to expand his power.

"Perhaps some of the informal mages from the southern folk will come over."

The salary of informal mages is only one-fifth or even one-tenth of that of formal mages. These people are severely exploited.

It’s about the same as 3,000 for a college student.

Anna smiled slightly: "Of course I know what you are thinking, so I also asked someone to ask about the situation of the informal mage."

“The situation is, and it’s difficult.”

"Because most of them look down on the island and feel that there is no hope for the future. Even if most people work hard to make a career in the big cities in the south, they are not willing to take the risk of coming to the island."

Mrs. Saxon spread her hands when she heard this.

"It's the same idea as when I was young. I wanted to stay in the prosperous Xialin City forever. When Ted took me back to the island, I was reluctant."

In other words, even with the princess's halo, the influence of the White Sturgeon Island is still far from enough to cause a siphon effect on ordinary mages in the south.

In order to reverse this impression, the White Sturgeon Island must do something big to prove its strength.

Of course, it’s still early and the White Sturgeon Island is not ready yet.

But there are a few things that must be done right now.

Rosen swallowed a mouthful of fresh turtle meat and said, "More and more people have come to the island recently. Some are here to seek opportunities, and some are here to make money."

"With the nearly 80,000 residents on the main island, the permanent population is almost 90,000. The island market has begun to take shape."

Because of Lawson's strong intervention, the island is rapidly shifting from a natural economic model based on barter to a commodity economic model.

The scale of the private free market is expanding rapidly.

As the market grows, ordinary people pay more and more attention to money, because there are more and more things that money can buy.

The good news is that with a developed market, the flow of goods is getting faster and faster, which can greatly stimulate the development of island productivity.

The bad news is that the island market is still too small.

If a company is small, it will be fragile and have poor risk resistance. If a large amount of materials and money enter or withdraw from the market, the market will experience huge turbulence.

This will make the lives of island citizens as exciting as a roller coaster. Today, one gram can buy 5 kilograms of flour, tomorrow it may only buy 1 kilogram, and the day after tomorrow it may buy 10 kilograms.

That would be fine, but the only worry is that we might run into bad-intentioned foreign businessmen who secretly manipulate the market and plunder the wealth from the pockets of the people.

Then we won’t be able to live like this.

As a lord, if you want to maintain the foundation of your rule, you must help your subjects keep a tight grip on their purses and not let outsiders easily empty their pockets.

"So what are you going to do?" Selena asked.

Rosen snapped his fingers: "Two things."

“First, set up an island price balance bureau.”

Selena didn't quite understand: "Huh?"

Rosen began to explain in detail.

"Through this policy, the prices of various essential commodities on the island, especially food, will be kept relatively stable and will not fluctuate drastically."

“I will declare private stockpiling of critical supplies illegal, and only legal stockpiling can be done by official island warehouses.”

The market cannot be completely free, especially food, otherwise an oligopoly will quickly form.

This will greatly weaken the lord's control over the territory.

Therefore, the only legitimate oligarchy can only be the lord.

Rosen went on to describe the operation of the balancing bureau.

"On the contrary, when grain prices are low, it means there is a lot of surplus grain in the market, so the grain depots will buy grain at a slightly higher price than the market price to protect those grain suppliers from going bankrupt."

Anna listened carefully for a while and said, "It can also prevent someone from maliciously interfering with the market price of grain and causing chaos on the island."

"That's right."

"At present, the island is small, there are not many people, and it is surrounded by the sea. There will not be rapid input and output of goods, so this price balance bureau can do a good job without many people."

"But when the scale is large in the future, this balance will be very important, and even the key to maintaining the lifeblood of the country."

Selena and Anna naturally understood the word "large-scale".

Rosen continued, “Second, the Island Citizens Bank should also be officially established.”

The price balance bureau regulates the supply side of materials.

The purpose of establishing a bank is to control the amount of money circulating in the market.

This is also very important.

If this matter is not handled properly, not only the ordinary people, but also the lord will be robbed.

In the future, Rosen will need a group of professional banking talents to fight currency wars with enemy countries.

Anna frowned and reminded him seriously: "Rosen, local lords cannot open banks freely. They must have the Duke's approval."

The Duke would usually agree, because local governments had to pay him management fees if they opened a bank.

However, in order to prevent local lords from messing around, auditors from the Adrian royal family will be sent to conduct strict supervision.

These auditors were members of the side branch of Adrian's family. Except for himself, the rest of his family was in Dawn City, so it was extremely difficult to bribe them.

The issue of banks can be big or small. To put it in a small way, it is a matter of money. To put it in a big way, it is an issue of the right to mint coins, which involves the foundation of the Duke's rule.

If you go too far, the Duke will definitely declare you a traitor and send troops to suppress you.

Rosen was prepared.

He smiled slightly: "Other lords can't do it, but we can, and the Duke can't interfere even if he wants to."

As he said this, he turned to look at Serena.

Selena was stunned and didn't react for a moment.

Rosen reminded softly: "My dear lady, as a direct member of the Adrian royal family, have you forgotten the legitimate rights you should enjoy?"

Selena finally remembered: "Oh~~ I remember, I do have the right to open a bank, and Ryder really can't control me."

"Um?"

Anna still didn't understand.

Selena smiled and said, "According to Article 7 of the Weilan Royal Family Law, members of the Aidri family have the right to open a private bank affiliated with the Dawn Bank."

"If you are a direct member, as long as you ensure that the bank's capital is less than 1 million Oggs, you can operate independently without being supervised by the Duke."

"To put it simply, this is to lend money to clan members to earn pocket money."

"The author of this royal decree was the first Duchess, Saint Veran."

"Ryder couldn't find any reason to repeal this decree, as many members of the royal family were running private banks."

"Of course, because they are a collateral branch, the size of their fund cannot exceed 200,000 Oggs."

But even if the direct fund scale is 1 million Oger, it is just a small bank in a capital of Weilan like Dawn City, but it is more than enough for the current White Sturgeon Island.

Rosen smiled and said, "I suggest calling this bank 'Princess Dawn Bank'. Once people hear it, they will know it is opened by Princess Selena, and its credit will be established immediately."

"Okay, let's call it this."

Now that both the supply side and the monetary side have professional guardians, there shouldn’t be any major problems in the island market.

As for the Duke's seigniorage, there is no need to worry too much.

Because credit currency is not yet popular, the coins circulating in the market are basically full-value gold and silver coins, and the seigniorage is not much.

Moreover, even if the Duke wanted to mix gold coins with other substances to collect more seigniorage, he still had to ask the earls of each county whether they agreed.

So, two major events were decided at the dining table.

There will certainly be many bumps in the road during the specific implementation, but it doesn't matter. The island is small in size and there is the sea as a natural barrier. Nothing serious will happen, so just treat it as a training exercise.

After lunch, Rosen went to the underground magic laboratory to study magic.

After a while, Anna joined in.

She was very interested in the laboratory's lightning assembly line.

It just so happened that Rosen was also in need of a helper in the magic factory, and Anna had been staying in the castle, feeling bored every day.

So, Rosen carefully imparted the relevant knowledge.

As for government affairs, there are puppets in charge.

He thought nothing serious would happen this afternoon, but soon, his chief intelligence officer, Stonard, arrived.

"My Lord, there is a 'Sun Warrior' named Frodo who kidnapped a witch wife from the sea."

"The other party voluntarily went ashore with him and refused to go back to the sea.

Rosen was very happy: "Ahaha~~ There is a defector so quickly."

Now we have a complete understanding of the deep sea situation, right?

Then why isn't he worried about being discovered by the other party?

Because he could see at a glance that the islands and land had a high civilization advantage over the deep-sea banshees. If the other party could touch them at will and figure them out, they would instead yearn for the islands rather than the sea.

Of course, Frodo alone is not enough, and the "Sun Warrior Project" must continue to work hard to bring as many banshees as possible ashore.

After delivering this order to Stonard, he asked, "Any other news?"

Stonard nodded.

"Because of the blocked trade routes, our smuggling trade with the Northern County has encountered obstacles. The smuggling efficiency has dropped significantly compared to the past, and some of it has even been stopped by the Earl of Shire County."

Rosen knew that Earl Robert's interception was just a show for the people in the Shire County Government Department.

After all, whether to stop or not is a matter of attitude, and how much to stop is a matter of ability. The former is much more serious than the latter.

But this incident also reminded him to find a new route as soon as possible.

Fortunately, Rosen never puts all his eggs in one basket.

He had been preparing for this since he started trading with the smuggler Aji, or even earlier.

Recently, these preparations should have come to fruition.

(End of this chapter)