Chapter 507 Go to the Village
Baron Turgot found an opportunity to ask the village chief how much a tractor cost. The answer he got made him dumbfounded. It was only 60% of the amount Count Volpe paid for the tractor. , and it’s a ten-year loan, also interest-free.
While he was coming up with an idea, two men walked into the village.
In the past few days, Weisen State Governor Omet has only brought a secretary to visit the villages captured by lot in private in the past few days to inspect the autumn harvest and autumn planting work. Today he happened to come to the chickpea village and the drying field. While watching this year's wheat harvest, I overheard a conversation between an outsider and the village chief.
Baron Turgot said to the village chief: "I will give you money, 10% premium, how about buying me a tractor."
He had long wanted to buy a tractor, but it was too expensive for him.
Unexpectedly, the village shook its head like a rattle and refused on the spot: "No, I don't have that much money to pay the fine, and I don't want to lose my job."
Baron Turgot asked curiously : "Why the fine."
After Omet heard what they said, he came over and said: "Because their tractors cannot leave the Principality of Wesson."
He thought Duer The baron was a foreigner who came to do business, so he asked his secretary to talk to the village chief about the flour purchase business in the name of buying flour to get information, while he talked to the foreigner himself.
Nowadays, every tractor exported will pay a tax to Wesson State. As the governor, Ogilvy naturally has to explain the policy clearly to the customers who come to send money.
Omet took Baron Turgot to the tractor driving the thresher, pointed to the filter front cover and said: "There are two types of tractors produced here. The only difference is the front cover. The screws are arranged differently. One has one on the central axis, and the other is rotated a little, and the central axis is between the two screws.”
Baron Turgot saw the front cover of this tractor. The screws belonged to the first type, and after recalling it, the tractor bought by Count Volpe did indeed belong to the second type.
He asked: "Why is this?"
Omet smiled and said: "The land here belongs to Grand Duke Wesson, and the tractor also belongs to Grand Duke Wesson. Keep your things at home. What money does the land cost?”
Baron Turgot thought it made sense when he heard it. He bought draft horses for the farms in his territory, but he didn't let his left pocket pay for the right pocket.
Omet continued: "This tractor was sold to the village with an interest-free loan, just to let them understand that this machine is expensive and needs to be taken care of. It is actually equivalent to renting it to the village."
< br>Baron Turgot thought it was reasonable again. He bought the draft horses and rented them to tenant farmers. Sometimes those people didn't care enough to use them until they died, and they were unwilling to feed them good food, so the fat would fall off.
Omet finally said: "So the machines that Grand Duke Weisen keeps in his own land are different from the machines sold to outsiders, and the prices are naturally different."
Turgot The baron felt that this was indeed the case. If a tenant farmer sold his draft horse, he would be hanged.
He immediately had another most important question: "But the farmers have to pay for it in the end. Can they afford it?"
Omet just smiled.
The core of Baron Turgot's "Wesson Collapse Theory" is that the economy of the Principality of Wesson is not in line with the characteristics of agricultural production. The specific details are that farmers are overwhelmed and will eventually flee from farming, leaving the fields deserted and uncultivated.
Now he sees an important factor supporting his theory. After paying land rent, farmers have to pay an additional fee for using machines, so their lives must be difficult.
But he saw the people around him. Although their clothes were a bit old and some had pudding on them, they were still clean and did not look worn out. Most importantly, they all fit well.
When All Might saw him looking at the farmer's clothes, he said, "Don't look at the rags they are wearing now. These are old clothes they only wear when working. They will change them when they go to watch a football match in a few days." There are new clothes.”
Baron Turgot said incredulously: “They all have two sets of clothes?”
According to his experience, it is considered good if each person in the farmer’s family has one set of clothes. , these two sets of clothes are only available to at least small clerks in the city. Omet said: "Clothes are cheap here."
"Let's go into the village and have a look."
Baron Turgot thought the same thing. Clothes in the Duke of Wesson are notoriously cheap.
The two walked along the road next to the drying yard to the village. Most of the houses here are old stone houses, but the thatch on the roof has basically been replaced by tiles, and the road in front of the house is covered. Covered gutters.
The weather is nice today. Dozens of aunts and daughters-in-law moved out chairs and sat in groups in the central square of the village. Some were doing cross-stitch, and some were knitting straw hats and fans out of wheat straw. , pen holders, baskets and steamer mats, etc.
Omet said to Baron Turgot: "In the past, harvesting required the whole family to work together. Now that we have machines, we don't need so many people. Women can make money by doing manual work."
"Pea Village There is a girl who is very clever with her hands. She can make many animals out of wheat straw. I bought a fire dragon made out of wheat straw for my youngest son. ”
"There is someone in another village who is more skillful with his hands and can make corsages. They are so delicate and beautiful that they were sold out by the girls within ten minutes of setting up a stall in Oak City."
Baron Turgot is considered a big man. It’s an eye-opener. I never thought wheat straw could be so profitable.
He thought of another question and asked: "The one who is not so skillful with his hands, doesn't he have no work to do?"
Omet pointed to the other side of the village and said: "Go there Just look over there and you will know.”
On the other side of the village is a side field for growing vegetables, and the workshops here are also busy.
Just then, an aunt came over carrying a basket of freshly picked red eggplants. She handed them to the eldest sister working at the door of the workshop. After weighing them, she paid them on the spot.
“This is a workshop for making red ketchup, which is the collective industry of the village.” Omet said, “Most of the workers are women. I heard that the red ketchup they make is sold to the north. "Dama Kingdom."
He pointed to several workshops nearby and continued: "There are also workshops for pickling sauerkraut, making bean cheese, and making cheese and butter. Most of them are done by women. The work can be sold in the city, and the income is not low."
After finishing speaking, Ogilvy went to the red ketchup workshop, pretending to be a buyer in the factory canteen, and asked the manager. The aunt asked about the price and output.
Then he went to other workshops, and in a few moments he found out about the vegetable varieties, production volume, and how many unmarried girls there were in the village.
"Bring some young men over next time!" The aunt of the cheese workshop specially reminded Ogilvy when she said goodbye. She had a daughter who was old and wanted to marry a factory worker.
Baron Turgot is a little hard to understand. Often such workshops are in the city or next to the lord's residence. Why is this place built in a village?
The two came to the vegetable field, where greenhouses were built on 30% of the land. The weather is still hot, and the greenhouse films have been lifted up.
The vegetable field was more lively than Baron Turgot imagined. He suddenly thought that he had not seen any children in the village just now, and now almost all of them were working here.
There is a fence next to the vegetable field. Children under six years old are placed inside. There are a few old people watching. It is regarded as a kindergarten in the village. The older ones have already started working in the field.
Now is the summer vacation and the season when plants grow rapidly. The wind and bird droppings bring weed seeds, and children as young as six or seven start squatting on the ground to weed, and some remove pests from the leaves.
Omet walked to the field and saw vegetables ready to be harvested, so he went over to ask about the price and yield.
Baron Turgot vaguely sensed something important from All Might's actions, but he couldn't put it into words at the moment.
(End of this chapter)