Rose Empire

"Tsk, only six or seven times. I thought it would at least increase ten times..." Charlotte said as she looked at the price list.

"If you consider that the price of dill is also rising, then the price of barley has indeed risen ten times compared to last year." Cecilia paused and solemnly reminded, "You spent too much money to buy food from the Kingdom of Lesare, and the treasury is about to collapse."

Charlotte couldn't help but frown when she heard this. Balotelli did help her borrow a lot of money, but that was all Dier. Buying food from the Kingdom of Lesare would require a lot of As and Fuso: "Madam Winona agreed to help us buy the food exported by the Kingdom of Lesare, right?"

After considering it for a few days, Mrs. Winona finally figured it out and decided to join Charlotte's big business.

"Yes, but the normal operation of our territory also requires a lot of financial support." Cecilia smiled helplessly, "If this continues, we won't be able to pay the salaries of civil servants, let alone your knights."

Obviously, the finances of Viscount Lanwan were on the verge of exhaustion, but Dier had not yet reached the critical point that Charlotte had expected, where he could be killed with one strike. The competition was like two strong men tug-of-war. As long as one of them with ulterior motives gave up, the other one who was concentrating on tug-of-war would inevitably fall flat on his face. Charlotte was the one who wanted to give up. Before giving up, the opponent exerted enough strength, and after giving up, the opponent would fall even harder.

At the moment, Charlotte feels that her opponent is not exerting enough strength, so she needs to hold on for a while longer.

Just as Charlotte frowned and wondered how to alleviate her financial crisis, Renee came into the study with a secret letter sealed in a thin bamboo tube and handed it to Charlotte.

Charlotte unfolded the secret letter and glanced at it. The corners of her mouth couldn't help but curl up. She handed the secret letter to Cecilia, slapped the table and decided: "The salary of all knights and civil servants will be suspended for one month, and they will be paid double next month! No, triple!"

Cecilia was curious about why Charlotte's mood suddenly became so high. She took the secret letter and read it with confusion. There was only one line of words written on it: "Since the money shortage problem in many city-states of the Aiye Alliance has not been alleviated, the Feidi Elders' Council has decided to issue another 40 million new dire coins."

PS: Thank you all for your monthly tickets and blade recommendation tickets! Thank you very much!!

PS2: Thank you qy8y for your correction, the previous error has been corrected.

Volume 158: Chapter 145 Chapter War without Gunsmoke (VII)

As expected, the suspension of one month's salary caused unrest and commotion within Viscount Lanwan's camp, but Charlotte forcefully suppressed all opposition voices.

Today, the backbones of the military and civil service systems under Viscount Lanwan were all promoted and even trained by Charlotte. A few doubts cannot shake the foundation of Charlotte's rule at all.

Long before Charlotte issued the order to stop paying salaries, the decree for the second round of additional payroll payments in Philippine had already been implemented.

In fact, what the Grey Knights did not find out for Charlotte was that in addition to the second round of issuance, the Philippine Elders' Council also finalized the third round of issuance at the same meeting - because the allied city-states kept writing letters complaining about the shortage of dir, and even after the first round of issuance, such letters did not decrease. The Philippine elders were fed up with it, so they simply agreed at once - if the dir shortage was still not resolved after the second round of 40 million dir issuance, then they would start issuing a third round of 30 million dir, so as to avoid holding another meeting.

After all, the elders are very busy now, and it is a waste of time to always call them here and there for trivial matters.

From a certain perspective, the decision of the Fidei Elders Council was not without reason, because after the second round of additional issuance began, the money shortage on the Sokya Peninsula not only did not ease, but even showed signs of getting worse. The new coins that continued to flow out of the coin mints in various places, whether legal or illegal, seemed like sand sprinkled into the sea, without even a ripple.

Seeing the market becoming more and more depressed day by day, the Sokyan people became more and more financially strapped and even began to doubt whether Feidi had really issued more dir?

Only Balotelli, who walked between the city-states, truly believed that the dir on the Sokya Peninsula was growing rapidly, because it was becoming easier and easier for him to borrow money. In the Sassini city-state and in Lemos, Balotelli easily borrowed a large amount of dir. Even when Balotelli returned from Lemos, the dignitaries of Badan and Carmela wanted to contact Balotelli to lend more money to Charlotte. Balotelli was very clear about the reasons. First, the high interest rate offered by Charlotte was really tempting. Second, almost everyone believed that the dir could rise for another two months. Third, the money came too easily.

More than a month later, Balotelli returned to Dorucocha again.

Charlotte put her hands behind her back and looked at the street outside the window. "Balotelli, did the trip go smoothly?"

"Thanks to you, it went very smoothly." Because it went so smoothly, Balotelli was inevitably convinced by Charlotte. "This time, I borrowed a total of 17 million dir from four city-states, including 5.5 million dir from Badan City-State, which came from nine Badan elders. They are..."

Balotelli reported the general situation to Charlotte - in fact, he had already reported all this in the Raven Message, and took out a thick parchment bag and handed it to Charlotte. The bag contained the original copies of all the IOUs and the loan accounts that Balotelli had sorted out.

However, Charlotte seemed to have no interest in reading the documents and did not even turn her head. Fortunately, Renee, who was standing by, took the parchment bag instead of Charlotte, avoiding Balotelli's embarrassment.

After Balotelli finished his introduction, Charlotte asked again: "Has the borrowed money been received by the gold exchange?"

"Yes, the local money exchange offices in the four city-states have already taken it over." Balotelli bowed and replied - even Sasini and Remos have local money exchange offices, so Viscount Lanwan is opening branches too quickly!

"Um……"

Charlotte nodded, and nothing more was said.

Balotelli then realized that Viscount Lanwan didn't seem to be in the mood to say too many polite words to him today. In fact, when he just walked into the mansion, Balotelli felt a certain tense atmosphere. The civil servants coming in and out all had serious faces and hurried steps, but Balotelli didn't pay much attention to it at the time. Now it seems that something big is going to happen.

Since Charlotte was not in the mood to talk to him, Balotelli wanted to leave. However, just as he was about to speak, a man with bright eyes, red lips and white teeth, and a charming appearance suddenly pushed the door open.

Of course, the only handsome man under Charlotte's command is Bessel.

"Sir, today's purchase price of private diers has been calculated." Bessel reported.

After hearing this, Charlotte, who had been looking out the window and was a little distracted, turned around and stared at Bessel and asked, "How much is it?"

"1.9," Bessel said in a trembling voice, "The exchange rate between Fuso and Dir in Bataan has reached 1:1.9."

Charlotte took a deep breath, and the corners of her mouth finally curled up: "The time has finally come."

"Let's start implementing our plan." Charlotte ordered.

"Yes!" Those who responded to Charlotte included not only the director of the Gold Exchange, Bessel, but also Cecilia, the housekeeper of Viscount Lanwan, and Robin Mancini, the leader of the Grey Knights who rushed back to Dorucocha with Balotelli.

Crows delivered Charlotte's orders one by one. In the Aiye Alliance city-states such as Petit Sasini, Badan, Corolo, Sudaman, Carmela, and Lemos, hundreds of gold exchange employees under Bessel, the caravans under Cecilia, and the outer informants of the Grey Knights under Robin Mancini all went out. They borrowed large sums of dirs from the local gold exchange, and then waved these dirs to quietly but efficiently purchase herbs, grapes, cotton and linen and other commodities from the local residents, and of course Fuso.

Sokya Peninsula, Bataan City-State, Rat Tail Village.

Shuwei Village is a small village located at the foot of a mountain. The name Shuwei Village was given by the church. Originally, the village had no name, but because the villagers here make a living by picking and planting herbs, and church personnel often come to the village to buy sage, so it was named Shuwei Village.

Marius is a villager of Shuwei Village and the most experienced herbalist. He has served as the leader of the village's herbal medicine collection team many times, responsible for leading the team to find herbs during the herbal medicine collection process, and selling herbs for the village after returning from herbal medicine collection.

Until the last time, Marius carried a whole load of rare herbs to sell in Batan City but failed to sell them. After that, the market in Batan became more and more depressed, and fewer and fewer people bought herbs. Some familiar herbal merchants even closed their shops. The herbs could not be sold, and almost everyone in the village had to beg.

Although his old friend Azam finally bought the herbs from Marius for two dirs, when he set out to collect herbs in the mountains again, Marius told the villagers that he would no longer serve as the leader because the money was not enough to buy food for the whole village for two months. The herbs had taken more than two months for the herbalists in the village to dig.

Although the herbs collected in two months were not enough to fill their stomachs for two months, the villagers of Shuwei Village had no choice but to continue collecting herbs. After all, they had been doing this business for generations and had no idea how to make a living in other ways.

Two months later, the herb-collecting team from Shuwei Village, who wanted to work harder to get more food, came out of the mountains with two loads of rare herbs. However, the villagers still did not show the joy of a good harvest, because the herb market in Badan was even worse...

"Marius, please help us. We really can't sell our herbs." The young man who went to the city to sell herbs carried the load back.

"How can I help you? I can't sell it either." Marius said distressedly. He was not showing off, but he really couldn't sell it. Even restaurants couldn't open in Bataan City now. Who could he sell the herbs to?

"Maybe we can ask Mr. Azzam to help us again?" the young man asked tentatively.

Marius sighed and said, "Azzam's shop is closed too."

"Then what should we do?" The young man was so anxious that he was about to cry. "The villagers have been drinking wild vegetable porridge for two months. If the herbs cannot be sold, they will not be able to afford wild vegetable porridge for the next two months. Are we going to starve to death?"

Marius thought, even if I sell it, I may not be able to afford the vegetable porridge. Don't you see how expensive barley is now? But he opened his mouth but said nothing. The life and death of the whole village weighed on his mind, making him in no mood to speak.

Just as Marius was beginning to feel desperate, suddenly a few children came running in from outside the village, shouting, "The caravan is coming! The caravan is coming! The caravan is coming!"

"Caravan!" Marius stood up in surprise.

Even the children in the village understood what the arrival of the caravan meant. It meant that the herbs in the village could be sold, and selling the herbs meant that they had food to eat. But now even the medicine shops in Badan City could not be opened, so why would a caravan suddenly come to their Rat Tail Village?

Soon, many villagers including Marius gathered at the entrance of the village, where indeed a small caravan was parked.

The faces of this caravan were very unfamiliar, unlike any caravan that had come to the village to collect herbs before. The villagers of Rat Tail Village looked at each other in bewilderment, and finally pushed Marius, who had the most experience in dealing with merchants, to the front.

Marius bowed, then asked: "Where are you from?"

"We are from the Viscount Lanwan Territory," the leader of the caravan replied, "We want to buy some herbs. Do you have herbs?"

The caravan from Viscount Lanwan was extremely rare to Shuwei Village, as they had never seen it before. However, the villagers did not pay much attention to it, as their attention was all attracted by the second half of the caravan leader's sentence.

"Yes, yes, we have herbs!" Some villagers shouted immediately, and other villagers hurried back to the village's drying warehouse to move the herbs.

Soon four large baskets of herbs were placed in front of the caravan leader.

Ginger was originally a reserve tax collector trained by Cecilia. Two months ago, he was inexplicably transferred to Dorucocha, and then inexplicably became the leader of this small caravan with only seven people and two vehicles.

Ginger had no problem being a caravan leader, after all, he was a civil servant, so he was assigned to whatever job he was assigned to. After two months of training in Dorukocha, Ginger received his first procurement mission - spending 10,000 dirhams.

Of course, it was not a simple matter of spending all 10,000 diers. Viscount Lanwan had drawn up a strict purchase list, and purchases could only be made in small quantities and multiple times, and large-scale purchases could not be made from one merchant in one place. To put it bluntly, it was forcing a leader like Jin Jier to take his men to run around among the city-states of the Ai Ye Alliance.

Rat Tail Village was Ginger’s first stop after leaving Bataan.

Jinjier squatted down, picked up a root of the herb, looked it up and down, then stood aside and motioned an old man with a goatee in the caravan to come up and check the herb.

Jinjier didn't actually know anything about herbs, but the old man in his caravan did.

After checking it again and again, the old man with the goatee praised it and said, "This herb is really good. There is even a spiny snake grass. It's a pity that there is only one plant..."

The thorn grass is highly poisonous, but its leaf veins are an extraordinary material and are very expensive. However, a thorn grass has too few leaf veins, and if peeled out, it would probably weigh only a few grams.

After discussing with the old man with a goatee, Ginger pointed to two baskets of herbs and said to the villagers, "I want to buy these two baskets of herbs and this thorn snake grass for a total of three dirhams. How about the price?"

"Yes, yes," Marius was overjoyed. If it were two months ago, he would definitely think that three dirhams were too little, just enough for the villagers to eat porridge. But now that the dirham has risen so much, it's good enough for the villagers to have porridge to drink. "Sir, can you also take these other two baskets of herbs?"

Ginger smiled and shook his head. Seeing that Marius was still trying to persuade him, he quickly explained, "In two or three days at most, there will definitely be another caravan passing by. Then you can sell the remaining herbs to them."

Marius was skeptical about Jinjier's words. After all, Jinjier's caravan was the only caravan that Rat Tail Village had seen for three consecutive months. However, just one day later, Jinjier's words came true. Another caravan from Viscount Lanwan passed by Rat Tail Village and bought the remaining two baskets of herbs.

"I seem to understand a little bit..." The leader of the second team suddenly said when leaving Shuwei Village.

If the Little Sassini were here, they would probably be able to recognize at a glance that this leader is indeed the former Little Sassini hero, Apo.

Because he couldn't figure out what Viscount Lanwan wanted to do, Apo signed up for the gold exchange when it was expanding, hoping to find out the truth. With his advantage of being able to read and write, Apo got a job as a caravan leader.

"What do you understand?" Sandro asked curiously.

Apo laughed and said, "I suddenly understand that money is actually a thing, and things are valuable because they are rare."

PS: Thank you for your monthly tickets and blade recommendation tickets! Thank you very much!

Volume 159: Chapter 146 Chapter A War Without Gunfire (VIII)

After seeing the bustling scene at the gold exchange in Viscount Lanwan's territory, Apo subconsciously felt that there must be something wrong behind the appreciation of the dire.

This is not because Apo knows a lot about economics, he just habitually looks at the problem from the perspective of a general - if the enemy makes unnecessary moves, then his actions must have a purpose.

It is understandable that Viscount Lanwan set up a gold exchange, but it was obviously unnecessary for her to take the initiative to point out that the dir was appreciating. Even if she did not point this out, the gold exchange could still operate as usual, as merchants from all over the world had long been accustomed to exchanging one fusso for four dir. On the contrary, after Viscount Lanwan raised this point, her gold exchange simply increased a lot of workload, which was unnecessary.

After working as an employee and apprentice at the gold exchange for two months, Apo finally had some vague understanding of what Charlotte was doing and what was happening on the Sokya Peninsula. For example, there was no necessary correlation between the number of coins minted and whether there was a shortage of coins in the market.

When Apo saw the mountains of dirhams in the warehouse of the Bataan Gold Exchange, he was almost dumbfounded, because he had been in Bataan for a few days and he knew very well how serious the money shortage in the Bataan market was.

At this moment, Apo finally understood what he had heard during the training - coins only become real coins after they are spent. If they are kept in the warehouse, no matter how many coins Badan mints, the money shortage will not be alleviated.

"So, Viscount Lanwan asked us to spend money everywhere to alleviate the money shortage in the Sokya Peninsula?" Dean asked doubtfully while chewing a sweet herb, "Is she so kind?"

"Of course Viscount Lanwan is not so kind," Apo shook his head decisively, "Even if she is a noble who works hard and loves the people, she is still a noble of the Orlan Empire. What does the money shortage in the Sokya city-state have to do with her?"

"Then what does Viscount Lanwan want to do?" Sandro asked puzzledly.

Apo smiled and said, "This is what I just figured out. Money is also a thing, and things are valuable because they are rare. Viscount Lanwan asked us to spend a lot of dir. Soon the money shortage will ease and the dir will fall in value. And the dir in the Badan Exchange was almost all borrowed by her. Maybe she borrowed 10 fuso dir to use, and when she returns it, she may only need to return 9 fuso dir. There must be some profit here."

"Oh..." The two old subordinates understood a little, but Dean asked curiously, "Then how much can Viscount Lanwan earn?"

"I don't know about that," Apo frowned again and shook his head slightly, "I don't even know if Viscount Lanwan is really here to make money..."

At the same time, someone in the city-state of Badan raised the same question: "What do you think Viscount Lanwan is trying to do?"

The speaker was Lester, the leader of the Bataan Council of Elders.

The person listening to Lester was his middle son, Sam Booth.

"Who knows?" Sam Booth shrugged and smiled, "Maybe she has a problem with her brain. She just wants to give us money. When she can't pay it back, we can legitimately end the Economic Cooperation Agreement."

Sam paused and sneered, "Economic Partnership Agreement? It's really shameless to give war reparations such a nice name."

Lester frowned slightly. His son's words obviously did not satisfy him.

"If you ask me, Viscount Lanwan is really stupid. Ouch..." Sam was about to speak, but was hit by an orange peel. He turned to look at his sister next to him, "Julian, why did you hit me?"

Julian ate some fruit while saying, "I'm worried, second brother, do you really think Viscount Lanwan is stupid?"

"Her money exchange office can borrow fusos and then exchange them for dirs. This obvious loophole has been discovered for two months, but she still hasn't plugged it. Instead, she still borrows dirs to continue the exchange. Isn't that stupid enough?" Sam argued.

"Have you forgotten so quickly the disastrous defeat of the Bataan Citizen Militia at the hands of Viscount Lanwan? If Viscount Lanwan is stupid, what are we?" Julian said with a roll of her eyes.

"That disastrous defeat was all because Giovanni, that pig, didn't know how to fight!" Sam still argued confidently, "If it were me, I wouldn't have been ambushed twice in a row!"

Julian wanted to ask her second brother why he had such confidence even though he had never fought in a war, but she was interrupted by the sudden sound of the door opening.

"Brother, you're back." Julian's eyes lit up when he saw the person pushing the door open.

Lester's eldest son, David Booth, nodded to his brothers and sisters, then took off his hat and said, "Father, I'm home."

Lester nodded and said, "Did the trip to the Kingdom of Lesare go smoothly?"

"It's not going well..." David took out the account book and handed it to his father. The Booth family has been engaged in grain trade for generations. David was sent by the family to the Kingdom of Lesare to purchase grain.

Lester was flipping through the account book while listening to David's introduction of the purchase situation. His brows were getting tighter and tighter. "Why did we only purchase so little barley?"

"It's not just barley, buckwheat, oats, and wheat are all out of stock." David spread his hands helplessly and said, "I don't know why? There are many merchants in the Kingdom of Lesare who are hoarding food. I heard that as early as when the summer grain was just being harvested, some people were already buying it in the market. The money I brought was limited, and I couldn't compete with those people, so I had to buy less."

Lester suddenly felt a sense of crisis. He raised his head from the account book, stared at his son and asked, "The boy who went to the Kingdom of Lesare with you was the kid from the Paltrow family, right?"

"Yes." David nodded. The Paltrow family was the largest grain merchant in Bataan, and nearly half of the grain in Bataan was transported by their fleet.

"So did the kid from the Paltrow family only buy this much food like you?" Lester asked again.

David thought his father was comparing himself with other children, so he said unconvincedly, "He's not as good as me. Seeing that food was hard to buy, that guy ate, drank and had fun at the port for ten days before returning. I guess the food he bought was less than half of what I bought."

"What!" Lester stood up with a gloomy face. He pondered for a moment, then said to his eldest son who had rushed back from a long journey, "Have someone prepare a carriage. I will go to see Jeremy Paltrow right away."

David was confused, but he still answered, "Yes."