When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 627 Road and Bridge Bonds and Voluntary Road Construction

The so-called road and bridge bonds are the bonds set up by Her Excellency Catherine at this financial meeting.

In the Thousand Valley, where Horn had deprived them of their land use rights, the nobles were in desperate need of a new and stable source of income to maintain their dignity.

So they set their sights on the current bonds, which are issued by the state. Isn't the money spent still collected from their territories?

So buying bonds is equivalent to buying land for them. They are still aristocrats, just different from those peasants.

Many nobles comforted themselves in this way, and Hillvis also turned his attention to bonds.

What he is more interested in is the newly issued road and bridge bonds, which have an interest rate of 6%.

Although the interest rate is not as high as that of industrial bonds, the problem is that industry and commerce are unstable, and what Hillvis wants is an income that remains the same for decades.

It's not easy to survive in industry and commerce. How many century-old stores are there in recent years? How many are left after the great waves?
A fire can lead to huge losses. Only gamblers who value money over their lives buy industrial bonds.

Road and bridge bonds are secured by tariffs. No matter how well your workshop is run, it still needs business.

But what Hillvis was afraid of was that the Road and Bridge Bureau would also have to manage infrastructure construction, even in rural areas.

Those who understand know how deep the tricks are here!

The Silvis family once tried to build an aqueduct. He thought he was good enough to his subjects, not only providing them with food and lodging, but also giving them a subsidy of 3 dinars per week.

But this still couldn't stop the people from being lazy and escaping, and it took ten years to build just this one water diversion canal.

According to the information he received, the Road and Bridge Bureau seemed to be cooperating with the hundred-household districts at all levels to let the farmers build the roads themselves.

It has been repaired for ten years with a supervisor. What will happen if there is no supervisor?
Forget about building roads and bridges, after all, this will speed up the flow of goods, as explained in the Pravda newspaper.

But if all their money is given to farmers for nothing, without any supervisor, it will be a bottomless pit.

But Hillvis couldn't bear to give up the road and bridge bonds, so he couldn't find Herman to ask for information.

Although he was the county chief, he was still not as well-informed as Herman, who was always at the center.

This time Herman finally raised his head: "I thought you were looking for me to chat every day these days, so it's for this?"

Silvers touched his head and smiled awkwardly.

"Just buy it without worry, and keep quiet when you buy it." Herman turned to the second page and shook the newspaper, "This money will be used to build large-scale agricultural facilities, including small canals, rural roads, etc., to facilitate the transportation and sale of agricultural products.

As for the water conservancy facilities in the villages, at most we can buy them some tools and building materials and let them repair them themselves."

"Repair them themselves?" Silvers repeated. "You mean, they can bring their own food and repair the roads and irrigation canals themselves without any wages?"

Herman flicked the Pravda in his hand. "On the second page, there is an article about the impact of perpetual leases. Second paragraph."

Silvers quickly put down his teacup, picked up the Pravda and began to read.

Silvers quickly found this comment under the article "Thousands of miles away, His Majesty the Saint Sun shot Prince Condai's horse to death with a stone", but after reading it once, he still didn't understand it and could only look to Herman for help.

Herman had to stop reading the newspaper again and said helplessly: "With the perpetual lease, the more you plant, the more you harvest. With the 100-household district, you will have more free time to do side jobs.

If there are water channels, the fields will yield more harvests; if the roads are well built, more merchants will come to process the materials.

Maybe they don't have the money to hire people to do it, but they have some stored grain due to rent and tax reductions.

There is no one willing to pay, but there is a surprisingly large willingness to spend some time and effort to build water conservancy projects and roads. "Silvis suddenly realized, and while Herman was talking, he continued to strike while the iron was hot: "There is one last thing, that is, if we build the road and don't allow people to set up checkpoints to collect money, then wouldn't it be a waste of money?"

"Of course not." Herman explained succinctly, "The money for road construction is deducted from customs duties. The better the road, the more merchants there are, and the more customs duties there are. We will definitely be able to make back our investment."

"...Then I feel relieved." Hillvis finally let go of the worry that had been hanging in the balance for a month. He prepared 200 gold pounds and was ready to use up all his bullets to buy the road and bridge bonds.

Only then could he relax, open the newspaper and start reading.

Horn's movable type printing technology was not mature enough after all. Although it was much better than the early days, the printing quality was still too poor compared to those exquisite letterpress printings.

After reading the jokes about the Holy See City Church in the poetry joke section with great interest and grinning from ear to ear, Hillvis put down the newspaper.

"How is it?" Herman had finished reading it. He personally picked up the tin kettle and poured a cup of black tea for Silvers. "Do you think people can voluntarily become slaves?"

"what?"

"Don't just read the announcements and poems, at least take a look at the theological science and commentary pages." Looking at the cloudy eyes of Hillis, Herman said helplessly, "You have an important responsibility now, you can't help but learn more."

"The county's affairs are so busy that I don't have time to read." Hillis felt dizzy when he saw those densely packed small characters.

Read the error-free version at 69shuba! 6=9+shu_ba is the first to publish this novel.

Herman snorted disdainfully: "Do I want you to get a doctorate in theology? No matter how busy you are, can you be as busy as me?"

Coughing to cover up his embarrassment, he drank a sip of black tea to wake himself up, and then Hillvis began to carefully read the article that Herman reminded him to read.

The title was "On the Rebellion of the Mason Parish - Does the Holy Father Allow People to Be Voluntarily Slaved?", and the author was clearly written as "Two-wheeled Weirdo".

"Who would be called by that name?"

"This is a pen name. It should be an old theologian who has to use a wheelchair when he is old, so he would use this pen name to mock himself."

When he heard that it was written by the old theologian, Silvester remembered his experience of studying scriptures with the archbishop in a church school, and he was ready to fight before he even saw the opportunity.

"Don't sleep. Why do you want to sleep after drinking black tea? This article is written in simple terms. Even you can understand it."

Silvers had no choice but to open his eyes wide and read the article carefully.

I have to say that Herman is right. Although this article belongs to the theology section, it is written entirely in colloquial language, mostly short sentences, without a main-slave structure or allusions, and is easy to read.

The article begins with a first-person perspective description of a rebellion in the Meissen region, in which a group of farmers misunderstand the meaning of His Majesty the Saint and are unwilling to sign a perpetual lease that would grant them freedom.

The article then uses this as an introduction to explain to "dear readers" why the Holy Father gave man freedom, and this is because the Holy Father created man in his own image.

When God created human beings, he endowed them with reason and free will. This free will enables them to choose between good and evil and to know God through reason.

Therefore, humans are the most intelligent creatures in the world and should be distinguished from ordinary animals. Freedom is God's gift and the embodiment of his image.

After discussing the theological and practical significance of why people should have freedom, this "two-wheeled weirdo" asked all readers a small question:

In this case, can the Holy Father allow people to be voluntary slaves? Or, can people freely give up their freedom?

At the end of the article, the author invites everyone who sees this newspaper to write a letter if they have any opinions on it.

If the insights are useful or thought-provoking, they can be published in this Pravda.

Once published in the newspaper, you can get a reward of a full 1 gold pound!
(End of this chapter)