industrial lord

Chapter 507 Go to the village and have a look

Baron Turgot found an opportunity to ask the village chief how much a tractor cost. The answer he got made him dumbfounded. It was only 60% of the amount Count Volpe paid for the tractor, and it was a ten-year loan, also interest-free.

As he was coming up with an idea, two men walked into the village.

In the past few days, Weisen State Governor Ou Mite and only a secretary came to visit the villages captured in the lottery in private incognito to inspect the autumn harvest and planting work. Today, he happened to come to the Chickpea Village and came to the drying field to see this year's wheat harvest. Sometimes I heard someone from outside talking to the village chief.

Baron Turgot said to the village chief: "How about I give you money, 10% premium, and buy me a tractor."

He had long wanted to buy a tractor, but it was too expensive for him.

Unexpectedly, the village shook its head like a rattle and refused on the spot: "No, I don't have that much money to pay the fine, and I don't want to lose my job."

Baron Turgot asked curiously: "Why the fine?"

After hearing what they said, All Might came over and said, "Because their tractors cannot leave the Principality of Wesson."

He thought that Baron Turgot was a foreigner who came to do business, so he asked his secretary to talk to the village chief about the flour purchase business in the name of buying flour to get information, while he chatted with the foreigner himself.

Nowadays, every tractor exported will pay a tax to Wesson State. As the governor, Ogilvy naturally has to explain the policy clearly to the customers who come to send money.

Omet led Baron Turgot to the tractor driving the thresher, pointed to the front cover of the filter and said: "There are two types of tractors produced here. The only difference is that the screws on the front cover are arranged differently. One is that one is on the central axis, and the other is rotated a little, and the central axis is between the two screws.”

Baron Turgot saw that the screws on the front cover of this tractor belonged to the first type, and recalled that the tractor bought by Count Volpe did indeed belong to the second type.

He asked: "Why is this happening?"

Omet said with a smile: "The land here belongs to Grand Duke Wesson, and the tractor also belongs to Grand Duke Wesson. How much does it cost to put your own things in your own land?"

Baron Turgot thought it made sense when he heard it. He bought draft horses for the farms in his territory, but he didn't let his left pocket pay for the right pocket.

Ogilvy continued: "This tractor is sold to the village with an interest-free loan, just to let them understand that this machine is expensive and needs to be taken care of. In fact, it is equivalent to renting it to the village."

Baron Turgot thought it made sense again. He bought the draft horses and rented them to tenant farmers. Sometimes those people didn't care enough to use them until they died, and they weren't willing to feed them good food, so the fat would fall off.

All Might finally said: "So the machines that Grand Duke Wesson keeps in his own land are different from the machines sold to outsiders, and the prices are naturally different."

Baron Turgot felt that this was indeed the case. If a tenant farmer sold his draft horse, he would be hanged.

He immediately had another most important question: "But the farmers have to pay for it in the end. Can they afford it?"

All Might just smiled.

The core of Baron Turgot's "Wesson Collapse Theory" is that the economy of the Principality of Wesson does not conform to the characteristics of agricultural production. The specific details are that farmers are overwhelmed and will eventually flee from farming, leaving the fields deserted and uncultivated.

Now he saw an important factor supporting his theory. After farmers paid land rent, they had to pay an additional fee for using machines, so their lives must be difficult.

But he saw the people around him. Although their clothes were a bit old and some had pudding on them, they were still clean and didn't look tattered. Most importantly, they all fit well.

When All Might saw him looking at the farmer's clothes, he said, "Don't look at the rags they are wearing now. These are old clothes they only wear when working. They will change them when they go to watch a football match in a few days." Got new clothes."

Baron Turgot said incredulously: "They all have two sets of clothes?"

According to his experience, it is considered good if a farmer's family can have one set of clothes per person. Two sets of clothes are only available to at least small employees in the city. All Might said: "Clothes are cheap here."

"Come on, let's go into the village and have a look."

Baron Turgot thought the same thing. Clothes in the Duke of Wesson are notoriously cheap.

The two walked along the road next to the drying yard into the village. Most of the houses here were old stone houses, but the thatch on the roofs was basically replaced by tiles, and there was a covered drainage ditch on the roadside in front of the house.

The weather is nice today. Dozens of aunts and daughters-in-law moved out chairs and sat in groups in the central square of the village. Some were doing cross-stitch, and some were weaving straw hats, fans, pen holders, baskets and steamers out of wheat straw. Pad and so on.

Omet said to Baron Turgot: "In the past, harvesting required the whole family to work together. Now that we have machines, we don't need so many people. Women can make money by doing manual work."

"There is a girl in Pea Village who is very clever with her hands. She can make many animals out of wheat straw. I bought a fire dragon made out of wheat straw for my youngest son."

"There is someone in another village who is more skillful with his hands and can make corsages. They are very delicate and beautiful. They were sold out by the girls within ten minutes of setting up a stall in Oak City."

This was an eye-opener for Baron Turgot. He had never thought that wheat straw could be so profitable.

He thought of another question and asked, "Wouldn't it mean that the one with less skillful hands would have no work to do?"

Omet pointed to the other side of the village and said, "Just go over there and take a look."

On the other side of the village are side fields for growing vegetables, and the workshops here are also busy.

Just then, an aunt came over carrying a basket of freshly picked red eggplants. She handed them to the eldest sister working at the door of the workshop. After weighing them, she paid them on the spot.

"This is a workshop for making red ketchup, and it is the collective industry of the village." Omet said, "Most of the workers are women. I heard that the red ketchup they make is sold to the Kingdom of Danma in the north."

He pointed to several workshops nearby and continued: "There are also workshops for pickling sauerkraut, making bean cheese, cheese and butter. Most of them are worked by women, and the things they make can be taken to the city. Selling, the income is not low.”

After finishing speaking, Ogilvy went to the red ketchup workshop, pretending to be a buyer in the factory canteen, and asked the aunt in charge about the price and output.

Then he went to other workshops, and in a few moments he found out about the variety of vegetables in the village, their output, and how many unmarried girls there were.

"Bring some young men over next time!" The aunt of the cheese workshop specially reminded Ogilvy when she said goodbye. She had a daughter who was old and wanted to marry a factory worker.

Baron Turgot was a little hard to understand. Such workshops were usually in the city or next to the lord's residence. Why was this place built in a village?
The two came to the vegetable field, where greenhouses were built on 30% of the land. The weather is still hot, and the greenhouse films have been lifted up.

The vegetable field was more lively than Baron Turgot imagined. He suddenly thought that he had not seen any children in the village just now, and now almost all of them were working here.

There is a fence next to the vegetable field. Children under the age of six are placed inside. There are a few old people watching. It is regarded as a kindergarten in the village. The older ones have already started working in the field.

Now is the summer vacation and the season when plants grow rapidly. The wind and bird droppings bring weed seeds, and children as young as six or seven start squatting on the ground to weed, and some remove pests from the leaves.

Omet walked to the field and saw vegetables ready to be harvested, so he went over to ask about the price and yield.

Baron Turgot vaguely sensed something important from All Might's actions, but he couldn't put it into words at the moment.

(End of this chapter)