I Became the illegitimate son of a duke

85 – Bourgeois (1)

“Where…”

It’s hot.

I dipped the brown powder brought by the attendant and tasted it. It has a bitter taste, but it’s so sweet and delicious that I don’t mind eating sugar for the first time in 20 years.

“Excellent, I’ll have to reward the artisan who made this.”

“I will, Your Majesty.”

Cultivation of sugar beets has been successful. Growing a crop I’ve never seen before is not an easy task, but I’ve been pretty lucky.

The sugar beets grown in this way were shredded, boiled, boiled, and sieved repeatedly, until finally sugar crystals were obtained through centrifugation. Oh, centrifugation is just a centrifuge, but it’s just putting processed sugar beet products into a box, sealing it, tying it with a string, and spinning it around.

The sugar made in this way also had a lot of impurities, so I felt a lot of bitter taste as well as sweetness.

Even I, who have memories of my previous life, is like this, and other people who have never eaten sugar will add.

“And tell the artisans to study to make the centrifugation process faster and more pure. When applying the sugar manufacturing process to the factory, ask them to give an estimate on how to divide the parts.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

If the efficiency of the centrifugal separation process is increased, the purity of the sugar can be further increased.

With pre-modern technology, no matter how hard we try, there will be limits, but they taught us how to spin spinners, and they also have magic, so you can do it on your own, right? Of course, it will be very difficult, but it’s nothing for me to worry about.

After receiving my order, the attendant bows politely and then walks backwards out of the room.

“…How to do this.”

As I look at the attendant like that, I think about the treatment of the sugar he brought.

You wouldn’t be able to make or experiment with a cup of sugar.

Hmm… I’m going to give it to Chloe and Ines as a present. It’s delicious, but I can’t enjoy this alone, and above all, the two of them are pregnant, so they’ll need a lot of nutrition.

‘And Ines must have been very hurt.’

Leclerc said that Ines was not Laurel’s spy, but was simply very inexperienced in her work. Of course, whatever the intention, the result was not good, and in the end, all authority was taken away forcibly.

Whether it was because of my inexperienced work or my harsh judgment, Ines must have been very upset about this anyway. If that’s the case, you should at least lighten your mood with something sweet.

…………

“Oh, long time no see. Is this pickled cabbage again?”

“Yes. A full cart please.”

A vendor who mainly sells groceries in a market in Dijon sees a familiar face, greets him warmly, and the familiar face speaks in an awkward rotary language and pulls his cart to the side of the store as usual.

“Is the war still the same? Hey, load the cabbage.”

“Yes, since there is nothing to eat, isn’t it that I only buy pickles? Whether it’s the imperial army or the rebels, they burn all the farmland because they can’t give food to the enemy. Whoops.”

“Tsk tsk tsk… The war will be between the superiors.”

“Who said no?”

The merchant from the empire sits down on a chair in the shop, and the merchant from Dijon orders his servants to load cabbage and sits beside him.

“Didn’t you manage to not be looted while the farmland was being burned that far?”

“Ah… Yes, you can avoid the eyes of the two camps by moving carefully on the back roads. Of course, the road conditions are pretty poor, so you can’t carry too many.”

“For some reason, they always brought a small wagon and carried less than food, so that was the reason.”

“hahahaha, don’t you come here often for a merchant who crosses borders instead?”

“Hmm… It’s nice to see you’ve worked hard, but it’s going to be quite difficult from now on. A friend of mine who works as a soldier at the gate told me that the gate pass rate may increase.”

Without information, no matter how much capital you have, you cannot use all of it, so you need to know a lot of things, even if they are trivial.

In addition, small talk can relieve some stress, so merchants must have a good sense of humor. A shy trader would not exist in the future, but there is no such thing now.

“Really?

“Citizens complained that Dijon was too crowded and complicated these days. It wasn’t appropriate, but there were too many of them.”

Dijon is enjoying a boom these days. Due to the bloody civil war, the imperial people often bought daily necessities from neighboring countries, because merchants from all kinds of empires flocked to Dijon, a typical neighboring country and the capital of that neighboring country. Dijon, where many products were concentrated, became attractive to other merchants in itself, and eventually, merchants from Carolingian and Albion across the sea flocked to it.

In addition, it is unlikely that the merchants gathered there will go back to buy only those items, no matter how much they came for other items. Although the various items produced by the factory were not so high-end, they were able to supply sufficient quantities to many merchants as the quantity was very large, which led to development in various fields.

Typically, as many merchants stayed in Dijon, inns and restaurants enjoyed an unprecedented boom, an inflow of foreign luxury goods, and an increase in the amount of currency.

Of course, there were not only advantages. Dijon, where people flocked to that extent, was so noisy day and night that citizens living in it shouted that they were uncomfortable.

As a result, the officials started looking for several solutions, and one of them was to solve the overcrowded population by increasing the pass tax at the gate, as the merchant said earlier.

“There are even plans to expand the city with more walls or just no walls… But nothing seems to change.”

“I see, next time I should bring a big cart…”

The two merchants mention various possibilities, but soon shake their heads and give up.

Even if the walls are expanded further, tolls will not change until the construction is completed, and a city without walls is unimaginable to people of this era. As it is an era where wars frequently occur, if there are no walls, it is defenselessly exposed to foreign raids, and it is also impossible to isolate the city from the outcasts.

“Ah, everything is loaded. The price is three imperial silver coins for one imperial gold coin.”

“Huh? It’s the same wagon you brought before, but it’s cheaper?”

“Ahahahaha… There are so many things in Dijon these days.”

“Hey, I’m envious of this.”

“Why don’t you sit here like me? Where is the motherland to the merchant?”

“I’d like to do that too, but I signed a contract with a noble. I’ll have to think about it after the contract ends.”

After saying that, the merchant of the Empire paid the price without bargaining and got on the cart, while the merchant of Dijon saw him off briefly and resumed the solicitation to sell his goods.

The wagon led by the merchant of the empire is instantly buried in the crowd and can’t be seen.

…………

“Raising the toll on carts… Hmm.”

I don’t think that’s a good idea.

Taking care of taxes and solving the problem of overcrowded Dijon kills two birds with one stone.

It looks like garbage to secure tax revenue by increasing the cost of toll gates just because the population moves a lot on New Year’s Day.

After reading the report posted by the officials, Claude agonizes as he taps the desk with his finger.

‘Hmm… Come to think of it, raising tolls alone won’t solve the problems caused by overcrowding.’

Wagon tolls may discourage merchants as much as they fluctuate in the amount and value of the goods loaded on the carts, but that alone will not deter them from coming to Dijon.

This is because Dijon now has a lot of things that can afford such expenses. Merchants who move individually may be a little reluctant, but they are too similar to block the guild that moves together.

‘I’d rather take some commercial facilities for foreign merchants out of the city walls.’

From nob le mtl dot com

Most of the problems that occur in Dijon today are caused by foreign merchants, such as unstable security, environmental pollution, and overcrowded population.

Then, these problems can be solved by expelling the foreign merchants and the various facilities they will use out of the city walls.

Of course, the wagon toll will be completely out of stock, and there will be chaos outside the walls, but it will be solved by changing the toll into a purchase tax and hiring more soldiers to be in charge of security.

‘No, not only the wholesale market for foreign merchants, but also the facilities they will use and the lower-class dwellings will be pushed out of the city wall a bit? Yes, this is better.’

Facilities or buildings built outside the city walls will be vulnerable to attack if an enemy approaches, but it is impossible to expand the city walls as the walls of Dijon have already reached their limits. Above all, since urban expansion beyond the city walls is an inevitable and unstoppable future, there is little need for that.

It is better to raise an army so large that foreign enemies cannot come close to the city. No, if you look at the history on Earth, it’s not just better, it’s a cheat sheet.

From nob le mtl dot com

Maedo I like to fit in advance. I need to design a city outside the walls. Of course, a simple wooden fence to separate the city from the outside will be put up, and small fortresses will be built here and there.