The First Plenary Meeting of Border Town's Senior officials (Part Ⅰ)
The First Plenary Meeting of Border Town's Senior officials (Part Ⅰ)
The City Hall which had started with only Barov and a dozen of his students now employed nearly 100 staff. Among them, there were broken nobles, captured knights and their squires and local people who had completed primary education and received diplomas.
Thanks to population growth, departments of the City Hall had come into being one after another. Now, it was finally one step closer to what the prince had expected it to be. Instead of doing everything by himself, he could rely on the City Hall departments to carry out what he decided and planned, which made him felt satisfied.
The senior officials attended this meeting were heads of the departments, including Minister of Agriculture Sirius Daly, Minister of Education Scroll, Acting Minister of Chemical Industry Kyle Sichi, Minister of Construction Karl Van Bate, Commander of the army Iron Axe and City Hall Director Barov Mons. In fact, the City Hall had another department, Ministry of Industry, but it was under Roland's direct supervision due to the fact that no one else knew industrialization better than him
A bucket of ice water was placed besides each attendee to maintain a cool temperature in the hall. Candle had filled the ice inside the water with enchantment to ensure that they would not melt in the whole morning even when the sun was scorching hot outside the castle.
"Well, it's time to hear each department's report on recent work. Let's begin with Ministry of Agriculture." With these words, Roland picked up a kettle in the ice water bucket to pour himself a cup of ice water.
"Yes, Your Highness." Sirius rose and bowed. He spread out a scroll that was prepared in advance and began to report. "Ministry of Agriculture has collected about 17,000 Hu (850,000 kg) grains from serfs, enough to meet the town's need for grains in the following year. In addition, according to your request, we also offered to purchase surplus grains at the market price from the serfs but have collected only 4,500 Hu (225,000 kg) in this way by now, as much fewer serfs were willing to sell their remaining grains to the City Hall, compared with the number of serfs turning in grains."
The "Hu", a vessel made of woven bamboo strips, was used to weigh wheat by people in this era and one Hu equaled 50 kilograms. Roland only knew it as a unit of measurement but had no idea how many kilos or liters one Hu of wheat was. As long as he knew the grains that the City Hall had collected were enough to feed the people of the town, he would never bother himself with this kind of trifles.
It was the grain purchase situation reported by Sirius that gave him cause for concern. In accordance with the City Hall's regulation, 70 percent of the harvest should be handed over to the government and a large proportion of the remaining 30 percent should be sold to it. After deducting the portion of grains that the serfs kept for food and seeds for the next year, the amount bought by the City Hall should be around 7,000 Hu (350,000 kg). The current amount of purchased grains suggested that some serfs chose to hoard grains privately in their wooden sheds.
Roland had foreseen such a problem but still could not help but sigh when hearing this. The cause of it was obvious. Some people planned to store up grains to corner the market. Once the town could not offer sufficient grain supply or was hit by some natural or man-made disasters, they would sell out their grain stock at a much higher price. It might even be a dozen times as much as the market price now.
To prevent such a situation from disturbing the market, Roland had made grain an exclusive commodity controlled by the City Hall and required all the grain buyers to show their ID cards first. The town's economy was still at its initial stage of development. Its grain reserves were quite low and grain prices could greatly affect its stability. Under such circumstances, he must adapt those restriction and real-name policies to stabilize the grain prices. If he did not restrict the sale of grains, the cornering and profiteering in the market would easily bid up the price.
"Your Highness, why not force the serfs to sell their wheat to the government? After all, in accordance with law, they're not allowed to sell it to anyone else," Sirius felt confused and asked.
"No, their remaining wheat is their private property. They've got the right to deal with it according to their will. The regulation doesn't forbid serfs to keep grains for themselves. That means, they're allowed to store some away. As long as it isn't banned by any regulation, it's allowed," Roland answered.
The last sentence of Roland made Sirius even more confused. The other officials also knitted their eyebrows, except Barov who revealed a thoughtful expression on his face.
Seeing them, Roland gave no further explanation. He expected them to digest this idea of following rules and procedures in doing their jobs by themselves. Only when they fully embraced such an idea, they could be regarded as qualified officers of the new era. Of course, this idea might also lead to another extreme, bureaucracy, but Roland believed that it was at least better than disorder. He took a sip of his ice water and asked Sirius, "Anything else you need to report?"
"Uhm... Yes." Sirius Daly shook his head to straighten his thoughts. "As all crops in the fields have been harvested by now, are we going to leave the land fallow for the coming year?
"No, don't let the fields lay fallow." Roland waved his hand. "The excrement piled beside the fields is organic fertilizer for the soil. After harvest, you can instruct the serfs to shovel it into the fields and thoroughly mix it with the soil. Remember that the place left empty beside the fields should be reserved for new organic fertilizer." The excrement would need merely two months to decompose in the summer, and four months in winter. Given that, in the next spring, the town's fields would, for the first time, have improved soil fertility and a new batch of organic fertilizer as a starter treatment. That meant, there was no need for a fallow period.
Chemical fertilizer aside, this practice of using human and animal wastes to fertilize the soil was already a huge improvement in agriculture of this era.
"Well, yes, if you insist." Sirius touched his head. "Here's another thing... Your Highness, if we continue to plant wheat next year, the stone mills we've got now won't be able to meet the future demand. I propose to build a new mill by Redwater River and I hope that it'll be driven by a steam engine."
"Good, I agree. You submit a proposal to Barov first to get fiscal funds, and then you can discuss the construction plan details with the Ministry of Construction," Roland nodded and said, happy to see such a progress. Except him, now there was finally another one who took the initiative to use the new technology.
"Thanks, Your Highness," Sirius said, "The last thing I want to report is about the entitlement of free citizens. This time, 516 serfs in total are qualified for the entitlement. As the qualification was decided according to the weight of wheat they turned in on the spot, no one raised an objection. I've already submitted the name list to Lord Barov." Sirius stood up again to bow. "My report is over."
"Well done." Roland clapped his hands to show encouragement. Sirius who had been a young knight serving the Wolf Family now seemed to have well adapted to the new life of the town and did a good job in the City Hall, making an excellent example for the broken nobles and knights in the stronghold. Roland believed advertising Sirius' story would help him a lot in recruiting more of those people.
Scroll was the second to report. She had done her long hair up behind her head, and dressed in a neat, white shirt and a plain, black long dress without decoration or lace, she looked mature and capable. It was hard to imagine that only half a year ago, she had still been a homeless witch, wearily running from the church.
As her ability was the photographic memory, she could precisely report the numbers and facts without any written materials in hand. This ability made Roland envy her a lot. "We've seen two batches of students, a total of 85 people, finish their primary education. Most of them have studied in Mr. Karl's college. Among the graduates, 46 chose to work in the City Hall, 21 chose the bicycle plant, 13 applied for joining the First Army." She paused here for a while and continued, "And five applied for the jobs in chemical laboratories."
"Only five? It seems that the investiture ceremony doesn't deliver good advertising results as I've expected. Well, the three new laboratories will lay idle for some time." Roland was surprised and could not help but look at Kyle Sichi who seemed quite displeased at present.
"At least, the employment rate is 100 percent." Roland comforted himself in his own heart.