Rose Empire

Julian was very curious about her father's reaction and jumped up and said, "I want to go with you, too!"

Under normal circumstances, Lester would have criticized his naughty daughter, but now he was in no mood to do so.

Jeremy Paltrow is the leader of the Paltrow family. Lester's carriage quickly arrived at the Paltrow family's house. Jeremy Paltrow's mansion is enviable even in the wealthy Baden. At this moment, a dance party is being held in the mansion.

The increase in the price of Dir and the large amount of privately minted Dir made it easy for the rich people in Badan to enjoy luxury goods from the Oran Empire, the Kingdom of Lesare, and even the Gangtu Empire, so similar balls became more and more common.

As soon as Lester got off the carriage, the butler of the Paltrow family came out to greet him and bowed, saying, "Welcome to the banquet, Elder Pastor."

"I'm not here for the party," Lester shook his head. "I'm here to find Jeremy. I want to see him wherever he is."

The butler looked embarrassed: "The master is..."

"I don't care what he's doing," Lester interrupted, raising his hand. "I want to see him right now! Even if he's in a woman's belly, I'll pull him out for me!"

"But……"

"This matter is very important and urgent!"

Since Lester said so, the butler had to do it. A moment later, Lester met Jeremy Paltrow, the largest grain merchant in Bataan, in a spacious, bright, magnificent, but lewd (harmonious) bedroom.

Lester sat in the armchair beside the bed, looking at Jeremy sitting naked beside the bed, his face darkened. What he said "on the woman's belly" was obviously just an exaggeration! Who would have thought that this guy was really committing adultery in broad daylight? Lester was extremely grateful that when he came in just now, he saw that something was wrong and blocked his daughter outside.

"What a rare guest, Lester! How many years have you not come to my house? When the housekeeper came to inform me just now, I was a little bit unconvinced," the fat and big-eared Jeremy looked at Lester with surprise, "Why are you in the mood to come to my house today?"

"Put on your clothes quickly and talk to me!" Lester grabbed a pair of pants and threw it at Jeremy.

Jeremy grabbed his pants and put them on while laughing, "It's been a long time since we last had a heart-to-heart talk. When you and I deflowered that Sasini dancer, you weren't so distant with me. We were teenagers at that time..."

Lester and Geremiah had a good relationship when they were young, but as they grew older, they each took charge of their own families. The Paltrows and the Booths were competitors with a high degree of overlap in politics and business. Naturally, the conflicts between the two sides increased, and their friendship became increasingly distant. In the end, they even developed into old rivals who would never visit each other in private.

Hearing Jeremy talking about his youth, Lester's stiff tone softened a little: "Don't talk about those nonsense, I'm pressed for time."

When Jeremy saw his old rival Lester suddenly rushing to his door aggressively, he thought that the other party was looking for trouble with him. Now seeing Lester's reaction, he realized that he was thinking wrongly. He put on his pants, sat down seriously, and asked: "Lester, what do you want to talk to me about today?"

"Jeremy, please tell me truthfully, how much food is left in the Paltrow family's granary?" Lester asked, staring into the other's eyes.

"Heh..." Jeremy laughed and said, "It's not a good idea to ask me this directly..."

The Paltrows were grain merchants, and so were the Booths. Lester's asking this question in person was tantamount to directly inquiring into the other party's business secrets.

However, Lester did not laugh. He still stared at Jeremy and said solemnly: "I am not asking this question for myself, nor for the Booth family, but for the entire Bataan city-state. Jeremy, please tell me how much grain is left in your granary!"

Jiremi and Lester looked at each other for a moment, and felt that this old friend and old rival did not seem to be joking, so he put away his smile, thought for a while, and said, "Lester, in fact, you should know that the last time my family purchased a large amount of grain was last autumn. Now that the summer harvest is about to end, the granary is of course almost empty."

This answer obviously did not give Lester a pleasant surprise. Lester gritted his teeth, raised his head, and then slammed the armrest of the chair.

"The granaries are empty! Why didn't you go and buy the summer grain earlier, you idiot!" Lester cursed angrily.

"It's none of your business when I go to collect summer crops. Didn't you just send a fleet to the Kingdom of Lesare to collect crops not long ago? Why are you pretending in front of me?" Jeremy retorted as usual.

"Yeah," Lester nodded, facepalming, "I'm an idiot too."

Ji Ruimi finally realized the seriousness of the problem, so he asked in a deep voice: "What happened?"

"What happened? Didn't your son tell you why he couldn't buy food in the Kingdom of Lesare?" Lester asked back.

"This..." Jeremy was embarrassed to say that he knew very well that his son was a fool and it was not surprising that he could not accomplish anything, so he did not rush to ask.

"Someone in the Kingdom of Lesare is hoarding grain. David went there too late and didn't bring enough money, so he didn't buy enough grain. Your son's situation should be similar." Lester explained, pointed at himself, then pointed at Jeremy, "Now my family has no food, and your family has no food either. What about the other grain merchants in Badan?"

Girimi soon understood what Lester meant. Because of the price increase of Dier, grain merchants in Badan City generally postponed their grain purchases and reduced the scale of purchases. As a result, they encountered people hoarding grain on a large scale in the Kingdom of Lesare, so most of the Badan grain merchants should not have bought grain at the moment.

Badan's food is heavily dependent on trade. In the past, they had two trade channels, one was the Kingdom of Lesare and the other was the Oran Empire. The Oran Empire's food exports have dropped sharply due to the war. If the food trade of the Kingdom of Lesare is obstructed again, Badan will inevitably face a food crisis.

"Maybe we can only rely on fishing for a living," said Gerimi.

"In a city of hundreds of thousands of people, they need to eat a mountain of food in one meal, so what can a small amount of fish do?" Lester said.

"Is there no more food in the treasury?" Geremiah asked again.

"The citizen militia has gone on three expeditions in half a year, and the food in the public treasury has long been used up!" Lester said, closing his eyes.

"This..." Girimi laughed bitterly, "Is Bataan going to suffer a famine in such a peaceful time?"

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

Volume 160: Chapter 147 Chapter Rice Riot (I)

"Fran, the exchange rate at the gold exchange today is still one franc to two dirhams."

In a tavern in Bataan, "Dil Merchant" Rashid was drinking and complaining to his companions.

"Huh? What's wrong?" asked a companion named Fran casually while chewing some olives soaked in salt water.

"This exchange rate has been down for six or seven days," Rashid explained.

"What's so strange about this? The gold exchange is always so slow to respond." Fran smiled indifferently.

Rashid also smiled, but his heart was still heavy, as he always felt that something bad was brewing.

Rashid was one of the earliest "Dil merchants" in Viscount Lanwan. When Charlotte opened the first gold exchange in Yushu Town, Rashid took advantage of the opportunity to start doing Diil business. But later, the value of Diil became higher and higher, and it became more and more difficult for Viscount Lanwan to acquire Diil. So Rashid left Viscount Lanwan and came to Badan.

Rashid made a lot of money during this period by starting the dier business. Many people thought that Rashid was just lucky, and Rashid did not argue with this, but in fact, Rashid knew very well that the reason why he could make money was because of his keen observation of some small changes.

As Fran said, the exchange rate listed by the gold exchange is indeed often several steps behind the market transaction price. For example, when the exchange rate of the dirham traded by the "dirt merchants" reached 2.7 or even 2.6, the exchange rate listed by the gold exchange was 1:3. However, Rashid carefully observed and studied the exchange rate listed by the gold exchange. According to the rules he observed, the exchange rate listed by the gold exchange will generally only lag behind the market transaction price by two or three days, and at most four days.

However, the exchange rate of the dirham has fallen below 1:2 for seven or eight days now. The price offered by "dirham merchants" in private transactions has been raised to 1:1.5, and some have even raised the price to 1:1.4. However, the gold exchange office still keeps the exchange rate at 1:2, with no intention of changing it at all.

This sign made Rashid somewhat uneasy.

"You two, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."

While Rashid and Fran were talking, a middle-aged man with sparse hair entered the tavern, looked around, came to their table, and apologized with a smile.

The middle-aged man's name was Hoffman, a local fish merchant in Bataan. After Rashid and Fran came to Bataan, they had dealt with many merchants here, and Hoffman was one of them.

"It's been a long wait!" Rashid poured Hoffman a glass of wine and said with a smile, "Mr. Hoffman, you asked us to meet before noon, but now we have finished lunch and you just arrived."

"Haha, it's my fault, it's my fault. There was some business in the store today and I couldn't leave for the time being, so I was delayed." Hoffman explained quickly.

"There are so many closed stores in Bataan, but your store is still so busy that you can't leave?" Fran also joked, "Does Mr. Hoffman have any tricks for doing business?"

"I don't have any secrets. My store was about to close a while ago, but business suddenly picked up today. I was just finding it strange," Hoffman said happily after taking a sip of wine. "But after all, some business is better than nothing."

"Yes, it's better to have business than no business at all," Rashid agreed with a smile, "We should also thank Mr. Hoffman for taking care of our business."

"What's the use of taking care of me?" Hoffman said, pulling out a purse. "I know you well. I'll go to someone else if not you. Besides, my little money is not worth the trouble of exchanging it for gold."

The exchange rate of the gold exchange opened by Viscount Lanwan is always lower than that of private transactions, and the exchange speed is also slow. Most of the time, the gold exchange only opens one exchange window, and people who want to exchange money often have to queue up half a street. Over time, many merchants who exchange small amounts no longer want to go to the gold exchange, but directly find "Dir merchants" like Rashid and Fran. "Dir merchants" offer higher prices than gold exchange, and the exchange is faster than gold exchange.

Rashid took the money bag, counted the dirs inside, and asked curiously, "Didn't you say before that you wanted to exchange a total of 90 dirs? There are 109 dirs in it."

"My business is good. I made some more dirhams," Hoffman said with a smile.

Rashid raised his eyebrows slightly: "You made 19 dirhams in this morning?"

"No, five dir is what I earned yesterday," Hoffman shook his head, then asked worriedly, "Can you help me exchange the extra dir?"

Rashid frowned slightly, then came to his senses after hearing the question and said with a smile: "Haha, although the two of us are just a small business, we can still exchange 18 dirhams."

If Hoffman wanted to exchange for Fuso, Rashid could take over the business alone, but what Hoffman wanted to exchange was the currency of the Kingdom of Lesare, As. Rashid did not have so many As on hand, so he had to seek cooperation from Fran.

"One hundred and nine dirs for one hundred and nine as."

The exchange rate between Fuso and As was 1:1.5. Rashid and Fran counted out As and gave them to Hoffman, asking him to count them in front of him.

"Can't you just give me one hundred and ten as?" Hoffman said with a smile as he put away the as.

"We gave you 109 asses, which is enough," Fran said with a smile, "You can only get more than 80 asses at the exchange office now."

"Okay, okay." Hoffman also knew that the exchange rate between Fuso and Dir was 1:2, which was much lower than the price offered by the "Dir merchants".

After the exchange was completed, Rashid asked Hoffman curiously, "Mr. Hoffman, what kind of business do you want to do by exchanging so many As?"

Hoffman did not hide it and said, "I want to go to the Kingdom of Lesare and collect some grain to sell."

"As a fishmonger, can you make money by selling grain?" Fran asked casually without thinking.

"I have my own ship," Hoffman curled his lips, "and don't you see how much the price of food has risen in Bataan? How can I not make money?"

"How much has it increased?" Fran was also curious.

Hoffman held up three fingers and said in a low voice, "Thirty times! This year's grain prices are already thirty times higher than last year's!"

"Hiss..." Hearing this, Fran couldn't help but take a breath.

Hoffman drank with the two men for a while, chatted casually, and then said goodbye and left.

After Hoffman left, Rashid and Fran paid the bill and prepared to find the next customer. However, after leaving the pub, Rashid remained silent.

Fran noticed that his usually talkative friend was too quiet today, so he smiled puzzledly and said, "Rashid, what's wrong? Why don't you talk?"

Rashid waved his hand: "Don't make a noise, I'm thinking about something?"

"What's the matter?" Fran asked again.

"I told you to stop making noise." Rashid said helplessly.

Fran wanted to tease his friend, but suddenly the noise coming from the street ahead interrupted their chat.

Rashid and Fran looked in the direction of the sound and saw a shop crowded with people, making loud noises. The shop assistants were standing on the table, looking up and talking loudly, but they were unable to suppress the excitement of the crowd.

This scene immediately aroused the curiosity of the two men. In the current depressed Bataan, how could there be a second shop as bustling as this one besides Viscount Lanwan's gold exchange?

The two men leaned over to take a look and found that it was a grain store. The sign on the grain store read "Patlow". Both Rashid and Fran had heard of this sign. The largest grain merchant in Bataan was named "Patlow".

"Why did the price go up again?" A man wearing sackcloth and with gray hair who looked like a farmer asked loudly, "I came to see it the day before yesterday, and it was still this price!"

"The price was the day before yesterday," the clerk standing at the table said confidently, "It's not just our store that's raising prices, all the grain stores in the city are raising prices. Oh, it's not just our city-state, the grain stores in the neighboring Carmela and Sudaman city-states are also raising prices. If you don't believe me, go ask for yourself."

"You change the price every day, how can we afford it?" the old man said again.

The clerk glanced at the old farmer and said, "There is a food shortage now, and the price of food changes every day. If you can't afford it, that's your business."

Fran craned his neck and took a curious look at the price tag in the store. He hissed again, "This is too damn expensive. It's almost forty or fifty times the price of Viscount Lanwan's grain, right?"

Fran was also from Yushu Town. After the establishment of the town hall in Yushu Town, the guiding prices were announced every half a month. The staple food had always been priced relatively cheaply, and the town hall also set up official grain stores to sell grain according to the guiding prices. Even if other grain merchants wanted to raise the prices, it would be difficult to do so.

Rashid didn't really care how expensive the prices were in the Paltrow grain store. He was attracted by the clenched fists and purses of the customers. If he was not mistaken, these people were holding dirhams.

"Sir, where are you from?" Rashid asked a tall and thin young man wearing tattered clothes.

The young man looked Rashid up and down warily, and after confirming that Rashid did not look like a robber, he replied, "I'm from the Stable Village."

"Stable Village?" Rashid blurted out in surprise, "How did you get the dire?"

Rashid said this because he had gone to the Stable Village with others to buy dir before. Of course, it was impossible to use Fuso or As to buy dir in the village, but they could only exchange it with barley and flour they brought from Viscount Lanwan. However, the Stable Village could not afford dir at that time, not even a single dir, and Rashid and his party returned disappointed.

However, Rashid's words sounded like a mockery of the poverty of the Stable Village to the young man. The young man immediately retorted angrily: "Why can't the Stable Village afford it? Yesterday a merchant came to our village and bought all the flax. Now we have money too!"

Rashid ignored the young man's dissatisfaction and asked several customers who came to buy food. It turned out that they were either nearby villagers or poor craftsmen in the city. Their situation was similar. Someone had recently taken care of their business and made a small amount of money.

The more he asked, the darker Rashid's face became.

Even if each of these customers only had five dirs in their hands, there were at least nearly 200 dirs on the scene. As a "dirt merchant", Rashid understood one thing best, that is, only things that are in short supply are valuable. With so many dirs suddenly appearing, the depreciation of the dir is undoubtedly foreseeable.

"How could this happen? How could this happen?"

Rashid muttered to himself in despair.

“Please, please sell us some food at a low price!” A woman at the front of the grain-buying team knelt down and begged, “My family has been out of food for several days. If there is no more food, my son will starve to death.”

The clerk had been shouting for the whole morning and was almost hoarse. Hearing this, he stamped his feet impatiently and said, "You deserve to starve to death if you can't afford to buy food."

“How can you say that?” the gray-haired old farmer next to him pointed at the clerk and said angrily.

The old farmer was Marius, who had just sold the herbs and went to the city to buy food for the village. Marius thought that he had sold all four baskets of herbs and got a good price, so the villagers would not have to eat wild vegetable porridge every day for the next two months. However, after entering the city, he found that the price of food had increased by more than ten times compared to the last time he went to the city. The six dirhams he had were not enough for the villagers to eat wild vegetable porridge.

When Marius heard the woman say that people were almost starving to death, he couldn't help but feel sad.

However, the clerk raised his chin and said disapprovingly: "That's what I was going to say. What's wrong? Ah ah..."

Marius kicked the table leg, and the clerk fell off the table unexpectedly.

"If we can't afford it, we can afford it!"

Someone shouted and the crowd suddenly exploded, rushing into the store like a flood.

"Don't grab it, don't grab it, there's no food in the store..."

The other shop assistants wanted to stop them, but they were unable to do so. If they did try to stop them, they would be beaten to a pulp.

The waiter who had just fallen off the table was stepped on by feet one by one. He screamed a few times at first, but soon he was silent.

The counter of the grain store was soon looted, but the little food on the counter was obviously not enough for the customers who came to buy grain, not to mention that among the customers there were people like Marius who came out to buy for the entire village.