When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist-Chapter 760 - 715: The Year 1447 Flew By

After finishing the first spring lesson for the children of the Loyal Successor Army, Horn hurriedly practiced breathing techniques for half an hour before having to take a carriage to the Holy Seat Mansion.

In his Stag Chamber, the two prominent ministers Qianqian and Madlan had long been waiting.

"Good morning, Your Eminence."

"Good morning, how was your New Year Festival?" Shedding his sleeved robe, Horn first shook hands and embraced with Madlan, "It's your first New Year Festival with your new wife."

"Hahaha, everything's fine." Madlan grinned, "Just yesterday she told me she despaired of ever catching up with my culinary skills."

Unlike many other high-ranking soldiers, Madlan married the daughter of a carriage business owner in Mande County.

Of course, compared to noblewomen, Madlan got along better with the daughter of a small businessman.

"Qianqian, you're not getting any younger, how about finding someone to settle down with?" Horn joked while shaking hands and embracing Qianqian, "I think Boned is a good match."

Boned, who had been sitting by the door copying documents, immediately let out a violent cough.

After the intense wars, as the situation gradually stabilized, the new nobility of Langsande County began to marry and settle down without prior consultation.

For now, many of those who originally followed Horn are now married.

The couple Grampwen and the couple Jeska are self-evident, Chervis found a landlord widow with children, Busak remarried to a scholar's daughter.

Petier married his hometown fiancée, Bernardo married Dass's sister, and Dass himself was recently involved with a secular nun-turned teacher.

Making Horn sigh, spring is indeed arriving quickly.

"Hahaha, how could I marry before you? Speaking of which, you're not young either, when will you marry? At least let us rest assured." Qianqian responded with a laugh.

This time it was Horn's turn to cough violently. He pretended to drink water to divert: "Well, with the devil not yet extinguished, how could we have a home? Speaking of home, Qianqian, I heard you went back home for the New Year Festival?"

"Yes, I went to tidy up the house in Black Snake Bay, moved some furniture and luggage to the Holy Machinery Court."

"That's good, if you still have relatives and friends, they can also come to live here, the Holy Machinery Court is big." At this point, Horn paused, "How are the prices in the Holy Machinery Court at the moment?"

"Currently, the market prices are about 1 dinar for 10 to 12 pounds of wheat, rice is cheaper, about 16 pounds for the same amount.

Vegetables are about 0.5 to 2 dinars per pound, fresh meat remains expensive between 2-3 dinars per pound.

But eggs are relatively cheap, 12 eggs for half a dinar, half a dinar can also buy half a dozen sausages or two pounds of cheese."

Horn quickly calculated in his mind, a family of three consumes 3-4 pounds of grain daily, with 1-2 eggs or sausages, plus some vegetables and cheese, the total monthly food expenditure would be around 10 to 13 dinars.

According to the City Hall regulation, the minimum wage in the Holy Machinery Court is 25 dinars per month, even those earning a minimum wage will spend only about 50% of their total income on food monthly.

In other words, they are just barely struggling on the line of moderate prosperity.

Of course, all of this relies on the subsidies and tax cuts on basic livelihood materials by the City Hall.

And the City Hall of Holy Machinery Court can afford such subsidies because of the booming economic profits from the Pope's Palace's state-owned factories and Alchemy Workshops.

The economic success of the state-owned factories has two main sources.

One part comes from the dividends seized by Horn through wars, dumping, and financial battles from wealthy people both inside and outside, Horn even allows these factories to operate at a loss initially.

The other part comes from the substantial exploitation of rural-urban product exchange due to the farmers' information gap.

Horn knew this well and never shied away from acknowledging this fact.

For example, the mountain people of South Mande County engage in heavy spinning work, and the North County mountain people toil hard curing meat.

Although more profitable than before, it's due to the overflow effect of a large amount of hot money inflowing into the market, they should have received more income.

But in reality, the considerable profits were taken by Horn to build factories, fortresses, manufacture weapons, and construct infrastructure.

So, when industry develops later, the economy grows, farmers must be subsidized.

The farmers do not owe Horn a favor, it's Horn who owes the farmers a favor.

"Your Eminence, I must say something." Madlan stepped forward, "Such subsidies are unsustainable because such high wages and living standards are bound to attract a large population.

When the population increases, it's inevitable that prices will rise, and subsidies won't cover much."

"I know, so the City Hall is promoting worm soil and the farms outside the city, we have no choice but to get the grain from Joan of Arc Castle."

Worm soil is using worm soil to raise poultry in rural areas at the edges of the city, while the farms on Autumn Dusk Island raise livestock such as cattle, horses, pigs, and sheep.

Because the soil on Autumn Dusk Island is not very good, neither barley nor oats have high grain yields.

So, they straightforwardly planted forage radish and directly raised livestock.

As for grain, the downstream Langsande County is a grain-producing area, and we can transport from Joan of Arc Castle.

But strategically, if the enemy occupies Joan of Arc Castle, this industrial center of Holy Machinery Court will be cut off from food.

Everything can't be perfect, sighing to himself, Horn walked around and sat behind the table: "Have the tax statistics for the Hundred Households District been compiled?"

"On the table."

By the end of 1447, the Thousand River Valley had roughly completed the Hundred Households District formation.

Of course, this Hundred Households District is almost incomparable with Langsande County's, a large number of manor stewards and small landlords held the position of Hundred Households Captain.

But regardless of who the Hundred Households Captain is, the rules and efficiency improvement of the Hundred Households District are established.

The agricultural mutual assistance model brought efficiency improvement, the new crop rotation method increased yield per acre, freeing up time and resources for farmers to generate income and improve.

Meanwhile, the Hundred Households Captains are eager to complete the continuously assigned indicators and earn the Monastic Leader's commendation to be nominated into the Advisory Council.

With the help of Wandering Cultivators and Holy Path monks who voluntarily preached, tax and public order efficiency significantly improved.

Coupled with the North Mande County steel consortium, South Mande County's various textile guilds, the North County curing workshop, and the prosperity brought by lifting commercial and industrial restrictions.

"...The Hundred Households District also spontaneously constructed 682 drainage and irrigation channels, 74 small dams, and independently reclaimed and renovated 1800 hectares of wasteland..."

"...Though the tumult and changes brought by the promotion of the Hundred Households District caused many farmers to miss planting seeds on time, for those unaffected, the average yield increased by about 5%..."

The political tournament system Horn devised already shows signs of its grim workings, layer by layer of indicators, layer by layer of downward pressure, forcing civil servants of all levels to achieve political performance.

In the year 1447, the political performance was local agricultural taxation and infrastructure construction.

In the past year, excluding Langsande County, the combined fiscal income of the other eight counties in their tumultuous and recovery phases exceeded 100,000 gold pounds.

If Langsande County is included, the total fiscal income of the Thousand River Valley was close to 150,000 gold pounds.

With the rise of trade in Langsande County and Black Snake Bay, the economic center of the Thousand River Valley has quietly shifted southward.