Chapter 224 Selling Grain
August is the autumn harvest season. Although there is a war this year, the Harland territory has not been affected by the war, and the spring plowing and autumn harvest have not been affected.
This year is considered a normal year, and the grain yield per mu has reached normal levels.
This year, the Harland Territory resumed cultivation of the cultivated land in the Barony of Dirham, and also reclaimed a large amount of wasteland.
The sum of summer grain, autumn grain, and the grain taxes paid by the free people exceeded 80,000 tons.
Counting the veterans who have participated in the war and made meritorious service in the territory, as well as the families of injured and killed soldiers, there are currently about 30,000 free people in the Harland Territory.
A free citizen is allocated five acres of land, one acres of paddy field and four acres of dry land. According to the tax rate of 30%, he needs to pay 270 kilograms of grain every year.
The tax in exchange for silver coins was about three silver coins.
Thirty thousand freemen, this year's land tax collected about 7,500 gold coins.
However, many free people were short of money and had no choice but to hand over public grain. The public grain collected was about 3,000 tons.
These 30,000 free people no longer needed Richard to support them, and there were about 116,000 indentured servants left.
Nowadays, the Harland territory can already provide some meat and fruits. The elderly and children among the indentured slaves will also dig wild vegetables during the slack season. On average, they are half full, and each person needs to consume 400 kilograms of food per year.
In the past few years, in order to buy more people, Richard left his indentured servants with an average of only 350 kilograms of food per person per year.
With an average of 350 kilograms of grain and relatively little meat, the indentured slaves could only be in a state of semi-starvation.
In autumn and summer, the elderly and children have to dig wild vegetables in the forest and collect mountain products such as fungus mushrooms. When male indentured servants have free time, they have to hunt in traps so that they can eat enough.
The situation has gotten a little better in the past two years. On average, each indentured slave is provided with four hundred kilograms of grain, plus some fruits, wild vegetables, and a small amount of meat. Coal mines have been discovered in the territory, and a large amount of woolen cloth has been produced. The standard of living has increased a lot, and it is barely enough. Just enough for food and clothing.
The reserved grain and rations for next year will require about 33,000 tons. In addition, 15,000 tons of unexpected grain reserves in the territory will be left behind. Because the liquor market has been lost a lot, the scale of winemaking has been reduced a lot, and only 2,000 tons of grain are needed.
Of the 80,000 tons of grain, 30,000 tons can be sold this year.
Although there was a war this year, because there were no natural disasters, there were relatively few areas affected by the war for spring plowing. In addition, more than 100,000 people were plundered by orcs in Gascoyne Province, and the demand for food in the market was also reduced, so the price of food was on the contrary. It's relatively stable, still two gold coins per meal.
The Harland territory is about one hundred kilometers away from Heihe Fort. Without a river, it would be very difficult to transport 30,000 tons of grain to Heihe Fort, which would require a lot of manpower and material resources. Roads also need to be built and grain storage points established along the way, which cannot be afforded by the transportation capacity of Harland territory.
With water transportation, although 30,000 tons of grain is a lot, it is not difficult to transport it. In total, there are only more than 200 grain transport ships.
The grain ship sailed down the river from Fort William and could reach Black River Fort in two days. The transport fleet in Harland's territory is not small. It has more than thirty transport ships, and it can transport food to Heihe Fort six or seven times.
The transportation of grain lasted for more than twenty days. Richard transported 30,000 tons of grain to Heihe Fort. This year, there were no big buyers in the Heihe Fort grain market. The 30,000 tons of grain could only be sold to the citizens of Heihe Fort.
More than half of the residents of Black River Fort are the families of Northern Legion soldiers, and this population numbers about 100,000.
Northern Legionnaires' salaries are very high, allowing their families to live a prosperous life, and most of their family members do not farm. The food consumed by this part of the population is approximately more than 20,000 tons per year.
In addition, there are a large number of craftsmen, businessmen, and grassroots bureaucrats in Heihe Fort. The local market consumes more than 30,000 tons of food every year, and the market size is already considerable.
However, the land in Heihe County is fertile. Relying on the irrigation of the Heihe River Basin, it is an important grain-producing area in the three northern provinces. The grain output is higher than that of wealthy places like the Rab Basin and Wright County.
The surplus grain produced by Heihe County every year exceeds 40,000 tons. Moreover, the surplus grain from Lomon County and Wright County must also be sold to Heihe Fort. The grain market has always been oversupplied.
Every year during the autumn grain harvest season, areas with food shortages such as the Dukedom of Edward, the Dukedom of Fox, and the Dukedom of Guise will purchase grain from Heihe County. Sometimes the Grand Duchy of Stanek will also come to Heihe County to purchase grain through the Wealth Church. .
The Duchy of Edward had a bumper harvest this year and lost a big buyer, making the grain market oversupplied even more serious. It's just that those who sell grain are hereditary nobles. If they can afford it without bargaining, the grain will not fall.
Anyway, the big nobles all have very good granaries that can store grain for several years.
The Harland family has a large number of shops in Black River Fort, including two grain stores, a bakery, and a restaurant.
Normally, these businesses can digest more than 2,000 tons of grain a year. This year, 30,000 tons of grain are unsaleable. It is very difficult to rely on these few stores to sell.
The purchase and sale of bulk grain takes a long time, and the payment time is also relatively long.
But the market situation is like this. The disaster in Duke Edward two years ago increased the price of food by 20%, which is actually a small probability.
Grain prices in Heihe County have been stable for decades.
During the disaster last year, when grain merchants wanted to raise prices, the noble council immediately came forward to negotiate with the nobles of Heihe County.
The nobles of Heihe County could not withstand the pressure of Duke Edward, and food prices did not rise even in disaster years.
Just when Richard was worried about selling grain, in September, it was his father William who helped him solve this problem.
William found Tarak, the logistics minister of the Northern Army, and sold 10,000 tons of grain to the Northern Army as military rations. The pressure of selling food was relieved a lot.
Because of the heavy training, army soldiers need to be supplied with three kilograms of grain every day. In a year, they need to consume 1,100 kilograms of grain, which is equivalent to the consumption of two mature men.
The Northern Army has 24,000 soldiers and consumes more than 13,000 tons of food a year.
William was able to win a 10,000-ton purchase contract, and the Haaland family owed a large debt to Tarak.
After winning the food contract of the Northern Army, William approached Zachary of the Redeemer Army.
Although the Harland family fell out with Zachary last year, the most important thing in the relationship between nobles is not face, but interests. Zachary was William's old superior after all, and they could talk to each other.
Richard can send food to Iron Lion Castle and Platos Castle, which also saves a lot of money for the nobles behind the Atonement Legion.
He became a food supplier for the two armies, selling 14,000 tons of food in exchange for 28,000 gold coins. The remaining 16,000 tons of grain can only be sold to ordinary citizens and slowly exchanged for money.
In order to sell more grain, Richard converted part of Mrs. Ola's store into a grain station and expanded it into a chain of grain stores.
The selling price of food has also dropped slightly, and ordinary citizens are very price sensitive. Richard cut the price by one-tenth, which immediately caused a rush among citizens. Before other grain merchants could react, the Harland family's remaining grain was basically sold out.
After negotiating the sale of grain, Richard went directly to the Harland Master Association.
Recently, the Harland Territory Mage Association is building a magic alchemy furnace.
Both magicians Heath and Butler came from the Tower of Death, a large magic organization. Although the Tower of Death is an evil necromancer organization, the knowledge of magic mastered by the Tower of Death is very comprehensive.
Heath has seen magic alchemy furnaces many times, and has also been studying alchemy runes for a while.
Butler is a low-level mage responsible for managing the alchemy furnace. He is very familiar with the operation of the alchemy furnace. He can even repair the magic alchemy furnace.
After driving away the Necromancer and capturing the Mage Tower.
Richard focused on the necromancer's research on blood and soul.
Since last year, the hospitals in Haaland Territory have made great progress in mastering medical knowledge than before.
Although this year's magic research plan was interrupted by the invasion of orcs, Sophia still made new magic achievements. She improved and simplified the two-ring magic requiem and created a new zero-ring magic soul soothing spell.
Although Soul Soothing is not as effective as Requiem, the requirements for casting the spell are much lower. It is still a good spell for low-level magicians.
Especially the Harland Mage Association, there are many magic apprentices who can learn this spell.
Soul Soothing is a magic that soothes the soul and can be regarded as a healing spell.
Because several magic apprentices learned this spell, Richard established a psychiatric department in the hospital and selected several young doctors with good foundations. Together with the young magicians who had learned how to soothe souls, Richard began to use magic to treat mental illnesses.
The Haaland Territory now has a population of hundreds of thousands. Due to the harsh environment in northern Xinjiang, there are about one to two thousand people suffering from various mental illnesses.
The conditions of these mental patients are relatively serious. According to the conditions in Haaland's territory, mild mental patients will not see a doctor.
Severe mental illness makes these people unable to work. If these people can be cured, the territory can increase its labor force, which is very beneficial to development.
With the establishment of the hospital's psychiatric department, these mental patients have also been treated by doctors. Although there are still few methods to treat mental illness, they mainly rely on soul comfort.
Soul appeasement is effective in treating mental illness, and the power of magic in treating mental illness far exceeds Richard's expectations.
After the invention of soul soothing and the establishment of the psychiatric department, the development of the territorial hospital accelerated a small step.
After the war ended this year, Butler submitted an application, hoping to apply for a magic core and build an experimental magic alchemy furnace.
From the Tower of Death, Harland Territory obtained some alchemy information, which also involved the alchemy furnace.
The magic alchemy furnace uses magic core as energy source and mobilizes the power of mysterious magic runes to provide higher temperatures and smelt metals with melting points exceeding three thousand degrees.
To build a magic alchemy furnace, the materials used are also extraordinary. Graphite powder needs to be mixed with mithril powder and the magic bricks must be fired first.
Special magic runes must be engraved on the magic bricks.
If Butler hadn't provided the magic brick formula and refining technology, the magicians in Harland's territory wouldn't have known the secrets inside.
Even if you want to build a magic alchemy furnace, it will take a long time to refine the magic bricks.
Because of the use of mithril powder, the manufacturing cost of magic bricks is very high.
Just installing a magic alchemy furnace and light magic brick consumes four thousand gold coins.
In addition to magic bricks, alchemy furnaces also consume the energy of magic crystals.
Magic crystals are very expensive, and the cost of using an alchemy furnace is not low.
By September, under Butler's guidance, a magic alchemy furnace was successfully built in Harland Territory.
This magic alchemy furnace looks very bulky, about two meters high. There is an ore feeding port on the top of the alchemy furnace and an outlet on the bottom.
There are three rows of runes engraved in the middle of the magic alchemy furnace.
These runes need to be engraved on obsidian, and then the obsidian is carefully polished and embedded in the furnace body.
Richard studied the newly built alchemy furnace and found that the three rows of runes were a fire element gathering array. The energy provided by the magic crystal could stimulate the power of the fire element gathering array and increase the temperature of the magic alchemy furnace.
The working principle of the alchemy furnace is actually very simple. The only difficulty is actually the manufacturing technology of the magic brick.
Magic bricks with added mithril and engraved with magic runes are a super refractory material. If it were not extremely expensive, Richard would have wanted to use these magic bricks for ordinary crafts.
After the magic alchemy furnace was successfully built, Richard tried to smelt a furnace of blood molten steel.
The melting point of blood steel is more than a hundred degrees higher than ordinary steel. In the past, it was very difficult to smelt blood steel in Harland territory.
The yield of alchemy bombs is very low, and the difficulty of smelting blood steel is also a factor.
Now using the magic alchemy furnace to smelt blood steel immediately became much easier. Although the cost of using magic crystal as energy increased a lot, it greatly increased the speed of smelting blood steel.
If there is an emergency, you can use the magic alchemy furnace to speed up the production of alchemy bombs.
After successfully building the magic alchemy furnace, you can also explore and study alloy technology. If you can produce some high-quality alloys, it will be very beneficial to the advancement of technology.
"Butler, according to your experience, how many times can this magic alchemy furnace be turned on every day?"
"Master Richard, the effect of the fire element gathering magic array is very good. It can produce a furnace of metal in one and a half hours. One furnace can refine fifty kilograms of blood steel, but after three hours of continuous use, it takes ten hours to cool down the magic runes engraved on the obsidian. Otherwise, if the alchemy furnace is used for a long time, the magic runes on the obsidian will It will burn and crack. The fire element gathering array engraved on the obsidian is the core of the magic alchemy furnace. Once it is damaged, you need to buy a new obsidian and inscribe magic runes to repair it." Listening to Butler's story, Richard secretly
felt Thinking: "If you use a magic alchemy furnace to make steel, you can make about four furnaces a day, which is about 200 kilograms. The magic alchemy furnace will consume a first-level magic core in three days, which is about 20 gold coins. Calculated in this way
, The cost of refining steel in a magic alchemy furnace is about twelve copper coins per kilogram. Coupled with the price of raw materials such as iron ore, it turns out that the price of steel remains high because of this reason. It is estimated that the great nobles with magic heritage will not make steel. Magical alchemy furnaces are used to make steel."
Nowadays, the cost of steel refined in Harland's territory has been reduced a lot. Richard calculated this year and found that the cost of a pound of steel has been reduced to four copper coins. This also includes the wages of steel plant workers, the cost of materials to build the steel plant, the fuel costs of purchasing coal, the transportation costs of coal, ore and steel, and other miscellaneous expenses.
It seems that the magic alchemy furnace used to make steel cannot compete with the earthen blast furnace.
(End of chapter)