living in 16th century england

Chapter 2 The Merchant King
The stairs creaked.Under the leadership of the mother, the elder sister and younger brother have been waiting for a while.

This is not an old building, but a new house.Just built in spring.

The only building materials are wood, brick, mud and thatch, and whitewashed lime.

Yes, this is a big thatched cottage.

For safety's sake, the storey height is just over two meters.When you look up, you can see neat beams and floors.

But after all, it is my own home, and the walls are still very thick, with a hollow in the middle, which communicates with the fireplace.Here's a small improvement from Matthew.

To the average Englishman in this day and age, that was mansions.

This time is also not noon, because most humans in this era eat only two meals a day.The second meal is at tea time.That's right, what some people think of as high-end gadgets is actually a remnant of the era of scarcity.

The area is not big, just enough to sit, and people can walk around a little bit.

Don't think that the average British house in this day and age has a dedicated restaurant.The functional division of this house is entirely due to Matthew's insistence.

The food was plentiful: not too hard bread, vegetables, boiled peas, some fish, bacon, and oatcakes.

Food like bread is fairly common in this era.But there are also many kinds of bread, which vary greatly.

The bread eaten by the rich and the aristocracy was made with fine wheat flour and fresh brewer's yeast.The poor eat black bread, which is made of barley, oat, rye and wheat mixed with bran and leavened dough, which is very hard.Some bread merchants mix sawdust and other sundries in the black bread they sell for profit, which can be said to be as hard as iron.

No one prayed.Andrew picked up a piece of bread, and motioned for everyone to sit down.Everyone took action one after another, and the sound of dragging chairs came and went.

A family of five, the parents and Matthew sat alone, and Danny and his sister Anna sat on the other side.

Danny: "Can I talk?"

Andrew didn't even look at him: "At the dinner table, women and children are not allowed to talk."

Danny lowered his head immediately, and Andrew grabbed a piece of bacon and threw it into his mouth: "But you are not young anymore, what do you want to say?"

Matthew glanced at his brother.

Danny: "I heard it all...Give it to Matthew, I want to go out for a while. William's family bought a boat, I think..."

Andrew's face twitched, and his face sank: "What did you say?"

Danny musters up his courage: "I stay at home, William will laugh at me...and our family."

Andrew stared at him and chewed for a while, picked up a knife and picked up some salt: "Don't care about William...I haven't agreed to your brother's proposal."

Then he said without doubt: "During meals, women and children are not allowed to talk. They can only talk about pleasant topics."

Matthew immediately said: "Today's fish is good, and the amount of ginger is just right...Mom, your craftsmanship is getting better and better."

His mother smiled, but Andrew glared at him: "Don't say that the food is delicious...that will let you enjoy yourself."

Matthew said helplessly: "Okay, let's change the good news...Well, it is estimated that this year, our family's income will double compared to last year."

Andrew said happily: "There are so many?"

Everyone looked at Matthew, and the joy was beyond words.

Matthew said: "Anna, trust me, you will have a rich dowry."

Anna glanced at Andrew, hesitated to speak.

Andrew: "What do you want to say? Don't open your mouth if you repeat the same old tune."

Anna nodded subconsciously: "Can I learn accounting from you?"

Matthew smiled: "Of course."

Andrew was a little dissatisfied: "...you still want to go out and work."

Danny also said: "That would embarrass our family."

Anna defended: "I heard that women in big cities can go to work."

Andrew pointed at her with a knife: "But you are not a girl from the city." After speaking, he picked some salt.

Mother finally couldn't help it: "Our family didn't have so many rules before."

Andrew said: "It's different now..."

The mother's voice became higher: "Andrew, you should still ask me to stand and wait for you to eat, Danny can only beg for food from you, and the whole family should wait for you to finish eating before sitting down."

Danny: "...I'm not young anymore."

Mother shouted: "You shut up."

Andrew's face turned black and then red, and he said after a while, "...Daisy, I just want them to learn how nobles live."

Daisy was merciless, pointing the knife straight in her hand: "We are not aristocrats, we are just nouveau riche...everyone knows the Plymouth nouveau riche."

Matthew sighed inwardly, and smoothed things over: "Mom, I want to go to London, just to get a... title of nobility. Hmm... Baron Matthew Hawkins... What do you think?"

The whole family looked at each other, and suddenly burst out laughing. The atmosphere created by Andrew was gone, and everyone seemed to be back in the past.

Andrew smiled and said, "Matthew, how dare you say it."

Matthew also smiled and said: "Maybe we will be richer than those nobles in the future. If you have money, you can buy everything."

Everyone's laughter gradually stopped, and there was only the sound of eating in the restaurant.Everyone is thinking about it.

After a while, Andrew looked up: "Don't talk nonsense outside."

There are many people who talk big, but few people feel credible, and Matthew is undoubtedly one of them.

This is not blind trust, but everyone understands that the reason why the Hawkins family became an upstart is largely due to Matthew.

However, it is not so easy to become a nobleman.

Andrew: "Don't even think about the nobles, you have to make meritorious deeds. I heard that their ancestors were all the king's confidantes and soldiers."

Matthew smiled slightly: "The old king likes to support the merchants and the burghers, and those military nobles are constantly being weakened. Too many old nobles died in the war that year, and the royal family's territory has also greatly increased."

What Matthew was talking about was the famous Red and White Rose War.The ending is also very magical. The two rival families, the Red Rose and the White Rose, are married.The result was a great increase in kingship.The local lords were unable to resist because of their greatly reduced strength due to participation in the war.Later, even the private armed forces were forcibly disbanded, and even the number of followers was limited.It can be described as a miserable word.

The period of Henry and his son was the start of the small country of England. Without the foundation laid by the painstaking efforts of the two generations of grandfathers, how could the golden age of Elizabeth I come about?

"Anna, do you know why I suggested to my father to start the wool business?"

Anna: "Is it because you can be named a nobleman?"

Matthew: "First, you can make money, and second, the king supports you."

Daisy: "Why does the king care about this?"

Matthew said with a smile: "The king also wants to make money. With trade, he can receive more taxes."

make money?Danny and Daisy couldn't believe it, it was beyond their royal knowledge.

But the fact is that Henry VII is known as the merchant king. When he died, he left his son a wealth of more than 200 million pounds, which was equivalent to 15 years of British fiscal revenue at that time, and the country had also entered the stage of economic take-off.

Andrew: "But the old king is dead, and the new king is too young. Who knows what will happen in the future."

Matthew said with a smile: "Most of the royal family's supporters are businessmen and various owners who have no ability to threaten the royal power. If the new king wants to secure the throne, the general direction will not change."

Danny asked, "Then you still want to be a nobleman?"

Matthew: "Wealth must have power to be properly protected. We and the king are interdependent and check and balance each other. So next spring, I must go to London."

Andrew: "...where did you learn so many tricks?"

Danny couldn't help asking: "Why would the new king confer you?"

Matthew smiled and said, "It takes a few steps."

Anna stretched her neck: "What's the first step?"

Matthew picked up his glass and took a sip of water: "Of course I asked him to borrow money first."

Andrew even forgot to chew: "Look for... the king... to borrow money? Are you that green onion?"

(End of this chapter)