Roland held the first high-level plenary meeting of Border Town in the castle's reception hall.
Compared to the initial situation where Barov and his dozen apprentices were the only support, the town hall has now developed into a huge group of nearly a hundred people—among them are fallen nobles, captured knights and squires, and aboriginals who have completed elementary education and obtained graduation certificates.
Thanks to the population growth, various departments have also taken shape one after another, so that the town hall finally has a bit of the appearance the prince expected. He no longer has to do everything himself as before. Now, for some simple policies and plans, as long as he explains them, this budding town hall can break down the tasks to be completed by various departments. This makes Roland feel very gratified.
The participants in the first high-level meeting were all the highest responsible persons of the departments, namely Seni Dali, Minister of Agriculture; Curl, Minister of Education; Kemo Strale (acting), Head of the Chemical Industry Department; Karl Vanbert, Minister of Construction; Iron Axe, Head of the Army; and Barov Mons, Chief of the Town Hall. The Industrial Department is still managed by Roland himself, after all, no one knows what industrialization is like except him.
Each person had a bucket of ice water beside them, emitting bursts of coolness—the ice cubes placed in the bucket were enchanted with candlelight, and could last at least a morning when soaked in water. Even though the sun outside was scorching, the castle hall still maintained a cool temperature.
"Then each department will report on the recent situation," Roland took a kettle from the bucket and poured himself a glass of ice water, "Let's start with the Ministry of Agriculture."
"Yes, Your Highness." Seni stood up and saluted, then spread out the prepared paper roll, "The grain turned in this time is about 17,000 Hu. This amount alone can meet the grain needs of all townspeople until the summer season next year. In addition, the Ministry of Agriculture purchased the remaining grain at market prices according to your requirements, but this amount is far less than the proportion turned in, currently only 4,500 Hu."
The so-called "Hu" is a commonly used wheat measuring container, a bamboo basket, so this number is just for listening. He doesn't know how to convert it into kilograms or liters—fortunately, these are not important, the key is that he knows that the collected grain is enough to feed the townspeople.
The key lies in the second point. If calculated according to the method of turning in 70% and keeping 30% for themselves, the purchased grain should be around 7,000 Hu. The portion reserved for grain and next year's seeds is not needed at all. In other words, some serfs did not sell the remaining 30% of the grain to the town hall, but chose to hoard it privately in wooden sheds.
Although he had foreseen this situation a long time ago, he still sighed softly when it actually happened. The purpose of hoarding grain is obvious, it is to speculate—if the town has insufficient food supply or a natural disaster*, their batch of grain can be sold at a price much higher than the market price, it is not impossible to double it by more than ten times.
This is also why Roland designated grain transactions as a town hall monopoly project, and purchasers must show their ID cards. The grain issue is related to the most basic stability of Border Town. In the early days when grain was not abundant, if it was sold xiànzhi openly, it would be easily purchased in large quantities by rendà and hoarded, eventually causing grain prices to rise. Real-name purchase of fixed-quantity grain, while prohibiting other sales channels, can maintain grain prices on a stable line.
"Your Highness, why don't you forcibly purchase the wheat in the hands of the serfs?" Seni asked doubtfully, "Anyway, the law does not allow them to sell it to others."
"Because it is their private property, and it is their ziyou to dispose of it," Roland replied, "I didn't stipulate that serfs are not allowed to keep grain for themselves. You can also understand that as long as it is not explicitly prohibited, it is allowed."
Seni looked a little confused, as if he didn't know how to understand this sentence. Not only him, most people frowned, only Barov showed a thoughtful expression.
"Is there anything else to report?" Roland took a sip of ice water. This concept of emphasizing rules and procedures in everything can only be understood by them slowly in the future, or rather, only by understanding this can they be considered qualified officials of the new era. Of course, this set is also easy to go to another extreme, leading to bureaucracy, but bureaucratization is better than chaos and disorder or arbitrary behavior.
"Uh... yes," Seni Dali shook his head
,"Now the fields have been harvested, I wonder how the fallow plan for next year should be arranged?"
"No, these lands will not be fallow, and wheat will continue to be planted next year," Roland waved his hand, "The manure piled up on the edge of the fields is prepared for fertilizing the land. Next, you guide the serfs to shovel them into the fields and mix them thoroughly with the soil. The empty space can continue to pile up new manure." The hot and humid weather in summer only takes two months to rot, while winter takes about four months. By the time spring comes next year, not only will the soil quality have been improved by the first batch of compost, but he will also have a new batch of compost that can be added as base fertilizer, so there is no need for fallow at all.
Not to mention high-end fertilizers, the use of human and animal manure in agricultural production is already a great improvement.
"Okay, if that's what you require." He scratched his head, "Also... Your Highness, I'm afraid so much wheat can't be ground with just one or two stone mills. I would like to apply for building a mill next to the Redwater River, preferably a steam-powered one."
"Yes," Roland nodded, this is another new breakthrough—besides himself, someone is finally starting to try to use this new power, "You first submit the plan to Barov, and then formulate a detailed plan with the Ministry of Construction after obtaining funding."
"Okay, Your Highness," Seni replied, "The last thing is ziyou people's promotion. A total of 516 people have obtained promotion qualifications this time. Because it was strictly divided on the spot according to the amount of wheat turned in, no one raised any objections. I have reported the list to Lord Barov." Then he stood up again and saluted, "That's the end of my report."
"Good job," Roland clapped his hands twice to encourage him. This young knight from the original Benlang family seems to have adapted to the town life now, and is doing a good job in the town hall. With a little packaging, he is an excellent propaganda model, which can play a significant role in recruiting fallen nobles and knights in the fortress in the future.
The second person to report was Curl. Her long hair was tied behind her head, and she was wearing a clean and tidy white shirt, matched with a pure black long skirt without any decoration or frills, which looked mature and capable. It's hard to imagine that half a year ago, she was still a liuwang witch who had to hide to avoid the church.
"Currently, there are two batches of people who have completed elementary education, a total of fifteen people, most of whom have studied at Mr. Karl's academy." Her ability is photographic memory, so she doesn't need to prepare any data when reporting, which Roland is very envious of, "Among them, 46 people chose to work in the town hall, 21 people decided to go to the bicycle factory, and 13 people applied to join the First Army," she paused when she said this, "and 5 people signed up for positions in the chemical laboratory."
Five people? Roland couldn't help but look at Kemo Strale, and the latter's face was obviously not very good-looking. It seems that the publicity effect of the knighting ceremony is far less than he expected. In this way, some of the three newly built laboratories may be idle for a while.
Fortunately, the employment rate is at least 100%, he comforted himself.(。)