When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 995 The Cornerstone of Black Serpent Bay's Prosperity
Edwin continued his narration, while the wheels rolled over the rough cobblestones.

Upon entering the inner city, the mud that had accumulated on the way into the city, carrying the pungent smell of the market and the stench of livestock, was shaken off.

The humidity in the air remained unchanged, but the aroma that had been a mixture of spices, sweat, and the crackling of whips gradually subsided.

Turning off the bustling main road near the spice trading post, the carriage entered a quieter, more desolate side street.

Although it's called a side street, it's actually the street leading to the Moonlight Palace.

Two rows of tall coconut trees were planted on both sides of the road, casting long shadows, but they could not hide the sweltering heat below.

That pervasive, cloying, and decadent smell seemed to have been replaced by another flavor.

It was a mixture of inferior ink, insufficiently washed linen, a strong smell of human sweat, and a faint musty, damp smell characteristic of low-rise wooden buildings.

Following this scent, the towering Moon Palace, or as it is now called, Moon Palace, could be seen in the distance.

Compared to the streets in front of Moonlight Palace four or five years ago, the low shacks have been replaced by stilted buildings, three- or four-story brick houses, and churches.

In front of the church, there are even white marble sculptures of angels.

The people of Black Snake Bay naturally wouldn't let this opportunity pass, and they took out purple paint to add the finishing touches to the angel's eyes and chest.

The streets were bustling with government officials and members of parliament, some carrying document bags and others wearing Black Snake Bay shirts.

In front of these brick and tile houses, you can even see soldiers and tax police standing guard, which is much more oppressive than the market.

"What are these two sides?" Horn asked Das, something Edwin clearly didn't know.

Das glanced around, thought for a moment, and then spoke: "This is Government Office Street. You see, that's the military police office, that's the city hall labor department, that's the courthouse, and that's the city hall tax office..."

This is different from Horn's side; these government offices are not concentrated in one building, but scattered in different buildings along a street.

Among these government buildings, you can also see restaurants, cafes, bakeries, stationery stores, and more.

Under the coconut trees and the eaves of brick houses, newsboys with crossbody bags slung over their shoulders stood.

Horn's gaze lingered on the children. He turned his head and asked, "These children are from the orphanage?"

The relief home was, in fact, a derivative institution of the Child Slavery Prohibition Act passed by Horn.

Currently, three county capitals exist in Black Snake Bay: Soláburg, Celestial Maiden City, and Long Beach City.

Their primary beneficiaries were human children who had been freed from slavery.

The "Prohibition of Child Slavery Act" and the "Prohibition of Hereditary Slavery Act" passed at the time essentially increased obstacles to the reproduction of slaves and the inheritance of slave status from father to son.

Banning child slave labor meant that plantation owners faced two choices.

Either the plantation owners signed labor contracts to turn them into free child laborers—they only stipulated the minimum age for slaves, not the minimum age for hired workers.

Either ignore him or throw him out of the plantation and let him fend for himself.

Of course, the latter situation is more common.

Many children born into slavery continue to work with their parents, but they are not actually slaves.

At this time, the almshouse would step in, find these free children, bring them to the almshouse to learn basic literacy and small skills, or assign them to workshops as contract apprentices.

The best among them may even get into Long Beach High School, and after graduation, they may even become military police.

In addition, they were also good candidates for military service, and many "sons of slaves" chose to join the army in order to avoid discrimination.

“Sigh—” Jeanne sighed beside her, “They’re all so young. If they lived in Thousand River Valley, they’d probably all be in school.”

"This is not bad. If they were in the Kingdom of Leia, they might even get eaten."

Jeanne didn't speak, but looked at the carriage in front of her with a complicated expression.

The current famine in the Empire is largely due to Catherine's manipulation of the food market.

However, it is undeniable that even if Catherine hadn't sabotaged Leia's food market, the Frans would have, or even the Leia themselves would have destroyed it.

At least when Catherine manipulated the Leia grain market, she was only exploiting grain merchants and didn't cause a serious famine.

But once the Francans and local Leia merchants took over, they were naturally ruthless. Now, Leia is suffering from famine from south to north, and they still refuse to allow the Royal Court and the Holy Alliance to import grain.

The Franco people were even more pleased to see the Leia people starve or flee, as this would weaken their strength for the next attack on Leia.

Jeanne reflected on what she had seen and heard along the way and couldn't help but sigh, "They used to say that the economic foundation of Black Snake Bay was built on the backs of slaves, and now I understand."

"We should let those monks who always criticize us for condoning the slave trade come and see for themselves if the slaves of Black Snake Bay are so easy to reform!" Das thought of the monks' comments in the newspaper and was furious.

Horn interrupted Das: "They are right to speak so sarcastically about me. We did not do a good enough job regarding the slaves in Black Snake Bay."

That's why we're heading south to investigate. Slavery isn't something that can be solved overnight; there's still a window of opportunity for change.

Otherwise, it will be impossible to change this situation without a major war later on.

There is considerable call within the Holy Alliance to abolish slavery.

Part of it was indeed due to the egalitarian demands of the Holy Way sect, while another part stemmed from the needs of the various workshop owners.

It's not that those workshop owners are really so kind and benevolent.

Their reason for requesting the abolition of slavery was simple—the Black Serpent Bay Federation had a large number of slaves who had no purchasing power.

To give a simple example, the owner of a clothing factory in Jeanne d'Arch would certainly dislike slavery.

Because his clothes were for sale, and it was clear that the slaves had the need to buy them but lacked the ability to do so.

As for the plantation owner, could he wear a thousand pieces of clothing?
The plantation owner naturally wanted to buy clothes, but he was buying high-end fabric clothing from Fran, which Thousand Rivers Valley couldn't produce.

This isn't just about occupying the latrine without using it; it's about plantation owners using other latrines while preventing their thousand slaves from doing so.

For plantation owners, maintaining slavery meant extremely low labor costs.

Slaves were both producers and owned assets, and their labor costs were implicitly absorbed by society (e.g., plantations only provided basic necessities for survival).

But hired workers are paid wages at market prices—they actually have to pay wages!

The pure white dinars were simply given to the slaves—what a tragedy!
Furthermore, machinery suffers from depreciation and wear, making it impossible to achieve the "zero marginal cost" exploitation of the slave era.

Therefore, Horn was 100% certain that once slavery was abolished, plantation owners would never be able to restore their current high profits.

Under normal circumstances, that would have been settled by a civil war.

However, the Black Serpent Bay Federation is currently in a development phase, and only the basins of a few tributaries of the Ibe River have been developed so far.

A hasty civil war could very well dampen enthusiasm for development, allowing the Francois to reap the benefits.

Deeper inland forests, for example, remain completely undeveloped.

In other words, Black Snake Bay has not yet reached the point of a zero-sum game.

The workshop owners within the Holy Alliance don't yet have a strong desire for the Black Snake Bay market, so things are currently going smoothly.

Although the abolition of slavery would lead to a decline in profits, this could be masked by the new profits generated by the expansion of plantations.

If left unattended now, and development reaches a point where it can no longer continue, the Holy Alliance will inevitably face a brutal civil war in the future.

As the saying goes, the best doctors can cure diseases before they occur, and top politicians can nip problems in the bud before they arise.

Horn doesn’t consider himself a top politician, but he knows it’s a major historical trend.

In another world, the same disease has already occurred once, and even a quack doctor knows the cause of the illness and can prescribe the right medicine in advance.

History will not give Black Snake Bay a second chance.

He wasn't sure if the Black Snake Bay people could actually be captured.

If they fail to capture them, Horn's warband will be among the first to prepare for the civil war.

The wheels stopped, and the freed slave who was in charge of driving the carriage knocked on the carriage: "Your Holiness, we have arrived at Moonlight Palace."

(End of this chapter)