Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 117 After realizing the spirit of the mountain village in the 12th century...

The northern territory of Transjordan, as shown on later maps, covers an area of ​​approximately 12 square kilometers and was inhabited by approximately people in the th century.

The population density is approximately 13 to 15 people per square kilometer, which is lower than the overall average of the Kingdom of Jerusalem but higher than the overall average of the Transjordan Territory.

Many people may not have any idea when they hear this number alone, but you should know that the population density of the Southern Song Dynasty at the same time was about 67 people per square kilometer. Specifically in the Liangzhe area, the population density was as high as 114 people per square kilometer.

With the local population so sparsely populated, it can be said that the bureaucratic administrative system of the Celestial Empire is completely unapplicable.

It can even be said that the traditional Frankish manor feudal system could only be implemented partially...

Such a barren land cannot support a decent centralized government.

It is no wonder that successive Crusader lords chose to employ tax farmers who remained from the Seljuk Empire and the Fatimid Dynasty.

But, that doesn’t mean this piece of land is completely useless.

Although the population here is small, it is close to the trade route and is the only way for many Muslims to go to Jerusalem for the Hajj.

Therefore, there is no shortage of precious metal currencies, and the goods that can be purchased are relatively abundant.

After all, whether it is from Cairo in Egypt to Damascus in Syria, or from the Italian city-states to the holy city of Mecca, there is an endless stream of caravans passing by.

Compared with Western Europe of the same period, it can even be said that the commodity economy was developed.

Based on this situation, it is not difficult for Gairis to come up with an answer. As far as the current Transjordanian territory is concerned, centralization? Centralization of power? There is no manpower for him to centralize power.

From a long-term perspective, the right approach is to reduce taxes and levies, encourage childbirth, improve water conservancy, and open up arable land so that the population here can grow as quickly as possible.

From a short-term perspective, it is better to rely on the money here rather than the people. If you want to make money in the Middle Ages, there is no future in staring at the peasants every day.

As the saying goes, live by the mountain, eat by the mountain; live by the water, eat by the water; live by the trade routes, eat by the caravans.

In this regard, Reynald showed his unique vision. He used physical means to help himself collect passing commercial taxes efficiently, and used a sustainable model of draining the pond to catch all the fish, to support an elite army that was second to none in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Of course, Gellis could not learn from Leonard, so at the meeting in Skar Village, he summarized the future development ideas based on past investigation results and made an important speech.

This is roughly what Gellis said at the meeting, translated into the language of the 21st century Internet.

[Instead of exploiting farmers, it is better to develop local handicrafts. It is necessary to build a small handicraft production network and promote the establishment of craftsmen. It is also necessary to create a good business environment, encourage merchants to stay and consume, and convert mobile merchants into private domain traffic. ]

[The trade route is the advantage of the Transjordanian territory track. We must use services and handicrafts to achieve a combination of punches, target the pain points of merchants, focus on vertical fields, and open up the last link of the consumer end. ]

[In short, the three key points are: reducing taxes and levies, developing handicrafts, and revitalizing commerce. ]

Representatives from nearby villages and towns highly agreed with the spirit of Garys' speech, and unanimously stated that under the wise leadership of the "Prophet", the development of the territory is bound to win again and again.

But as for the land outside the villages and towns near Skarl, Gailis was actually out of reach in the short term.

It can only be said that after the transaction with Leonard, those territories have been designated as Garys' sphere of influence, and Leonard and his men will not interfere with changes within Garys' territory.

However, if you want to convert those spheres of influence into real territories, it will take quite some time.

First of all, it was still about investigation and evidence collection, but this time, Garys did not appear in person. Instead, he let the experienced Simon lead the team and let him form an investigation and inspection team with the imam of the mosque in Alhadi Town.

Under the pretext of a new lord taking office, he visited and investigated every village and town in the territory, verified the tax collection situation in each village, and focused on investigating the blood debts committed by the tax farmers.

Since it has been made clear that the future development direction of the territory is [light taxation, development of handicrafts, and revitalization of commerce].

Then the original heavy agricultural tax is actually not that important, and the group of tax farmers who specialize in exploiting farmers can be said to have become completely redundant.

Once the investigation team has finished collecting evidence of the tax farmer's blood debt, Garys will be able to immediately let those people know what Garys' mission is on this earth.

After the tax farmers disappeared, the agricultural tax was not abolished directly, but was simplified into the "royal eleven taxes".

Regarding the collection of the reserved tax of "Crown Tithes", reference was made to the contemporary British experience, which transformed each council village into a transaction tax unit, allowing the local council to declare and pay taxes on their own.

During this process, Garys, as the general manager, was mainly responsible for supervising whether the operation of the local council was standardized and sending auditors to check whether the tax declarations of the local council villages were true every year. Since the tax amount was not high, the people's willingness to evade taxes would not be very strong in the short term. In addition, most people in this era were terrible at falsifying accounts. It was actually quite simple for Garys to check the details of the tax items to distinguish the authenticity of the accounts.

As long as strict audits are carried out to increase the probability of tax evasion being discovered, and efficient law enforcement and quick response are achieved, this is enough in the Middle Ages.

As for commerce and handicrafts, they rely on Garys's mind from the future to help the Skar village improve various production processes.

For example, after several months of development, Garys has already mastered the crucible steel technology, and because of the knowledge and experience of later generations, Garys can make the cost-effectiveness of crucible steel the best in this era.

Strictly speaking, crucible steel technology is not ahead of its time, as India, Syria and Iran of the same period all have a long tradition of using it.

Compared to open-hearth steelmaking, a foreign product that was not invented until the 19th century, the history of crucible steel may even be traced back to BC.

In particular, the Damascus steel from Syria is the best among them and enjoys a very high reputation around the Mediterranean.

But there is nothing wrong with this. After Garys secretly told some caravans that he could produce inferior "Damascus steel" weapons and was willing to sell them at a discount, those merchants showed great interest.

Indeed, Damascus steel is a good thing. It combines high strength with good toughness and has a certain degree of corrosion resistance. It is top-notch material in the world, but it has one flaw - "expensive".

A high-quality Damascus steel sword can even sell for hundreds of gold dinars. An ordinary Damascus steel sword starts at several times the price of the same style of weapon, and can sometimes cost more than ten times as much.

Since Garys was willing to solve the "expensive" defect of "Damascus Steel", the passing caravans would naturally be able to tolerate the small problem that "Damascus Steel" was not produced in Damascus.

They may not even care about minor flaws in the quality of "Damascus steel".

After commissioning a passing caravan to purchase raw materials such as graphite, clay, and silica, and after Garys's painstaking research, combined with the experience given by John's group of blacksmith knights.

The village of Skarr has been able to produce high-quality graphite crucibles. These crucibles are not large in diameter, but are large enough to melt liquid iron.

By adjusting the carbon content in the crucible, high-carbon steel can be stably produced. It can be said that the steelmaking technology that was as difficult as climbing to heaven for many blacksmiths in ancient times is no secret in the eyes of Garys.

And due to the development of hydraulic technology, the labor cost of forging steel in Skar Village is significantly lower than that in surrounding areas.

In addition, the trade route for purchasing raw materials for Damascus steel is right at the doorstep of Transjordan. Garys can even get the goods earlier than the genuine Damascus steel producers.

This is quite outrageous, and taking all of the above factors into account, Gellis was able to successfully produce cheap knockoffs in the 12th century.

Of course, genuine Damascus steel involves many technologies, which Garys has not yet fully mastered, so the quality of his steel is still a bit poor, but the "Damascus steel" he produces is cheap!

Of course, the pattern of the "Damascus steel" produced in Skar Village is not unique enough, but it is cheap!
Of course, Garris's "Damascus Steel" is not produced in Damascus, but it is cheap!

Of course, this cheapness is only relative, compared to genuine Damascus steel. It does not really suppress the price of high-quality steel or high-quality steel weapons.

The copycat production capacity here in Garys is limited, not enough to affect the overall market price.

Those merchants who resell Damascus steel weapons do not mind recommending some less expensive but slightly lower quality "Damascus steel" weapons to financially strapped customers while selling genuine Damascus steel weapons.

Today, the entire Middle East is in chaos, and the arms business has no worries about sales.

In addition to producing "Damascus Steel" which is not produced in Damascus, Guerris is also developing and preparing to produce "Aleppo Soap" which is not produced in Aleppo, Syria.

Presumably, in the future, merchants passing by will also be interested in purchasing them.

After a period of investigation by a team led by Simon and Khalid, Garys had already obtained a lot of dirty information about the tax farmers.

But there was one tax farmer among them who caught Gellis's attention.

Unlike other tax farmers, this guy seemed to be quite proactive in getting closer to Lord Isabel, and for some reasons, this tax farmer had no blood on his hands.

This means that he is an object that can be won over, which will help Gairis to communicate with Muslim groups in the territory in the future.

"Then arrange a meeting between him and me." Gailis ordered.

(End of this chapter)