Chapter 460: Kick Away the Stumbling Block

In George's opinion, Benjamin's land is even more privileged than the Rat Territory! Even if you can feed a million people, there will be no problem!

And in this perfect order with no disasters, this place should have been able to support a million people.

Not only does it have a large amount of arable land, it also has the prerequisites for various handicrafts, spice industry, wine industry, animal husbandry and commercial development. Along the river, you can exchange what you need, so even if you don’t carry out large-scale land reclamation, Among one million residents, each resident only needs to be allocated three or four acres of land to enjoy the dividends brought by the economy and live a life without worries about food and clothing.

There are all the conditions for capital to sprout here.

But these 200,000 people here are eating people!

Earl Benjamin's territory was indeed very broad. In fact, this is the land bordering the valley that Alfonso mentioned before - more than 30,000 square kilometers.

This place borders the valley to the north and is bounded by the Senas River.

The Senas River spreads and meanders through this plain. The southward tributaries of the river are like blood vessels, connecting many small rivers. In this land, there is even a small lake of medium size.

This small lakeside is at the easternmost edge of the territory, surrounded by many pastures. At the far west of the territory are the green hills.

It is a large county with a total length of more than 260 kilometers from east to west and more than 150 kilometers from north to south.

Counting Benjamin's vassals, the entire land area has exceeded the land area of ​​more than 46,000 square kilometers, and it is still in the plains, with no mountains and forests around it, and very little woodland. Therefore, there are a lot of fields that can be cultivated.

Although many fields have not been cultivated, they are used for grazing and are left idle. Then remove the vineyards, spices and other fields. This makes the farmland only 3% of the overall area, but it still reaches nearly 400 square kilometers - that is, nearly 6 million acres!

Among them, Benjamin's own territory occupies more than half of the entire territory. That is more than 20,000 square kilometers (equivalent to one city). Because pastures, vineyards, flower beds, and forests account for slightly more, the total farmland producing food is 3 million acres.

The total population of the local townspeople, plus the surrounding manors and farms managed by Benjamin's relatives and retainers, was less than 200,000. Many people have died in the past few years and some have been lost. But there are also a lot of refugees coming from the basin, so the number is obviously still 200,000.

Of these 200,000 people, even if only 100,000 people work in the fields, it is enough to double the amount of farmland. But in fact it is not so

The annexation of nobles, churches and land has greatly restricted the productivity here.

No matter how George comforted Benjamin in the house before, Benjamin felt that he was dead. But after George brought Benjamin out, the smart earl calmed down a little - Benjamin knew that he would definitely survive.

While walking, George and Benjamin mentioned the issue of ‘famine’ here.

After hearing this 'famine', Benjamin couldn't help but feel uneasy again. He couldn't help coughing, and said with an ugly face: "Dear Sir George. There was a drought here last year, and there was also a locust plague. Harvest It’s true that I’m not a very good person, I didn’t take good care of the people, but I’m not shirking my responsibility.”

Having said this, tears welled up in Benjamin's eyes: "Actually, I have been actively organizing land reclamation, but with little success. The land is getting drier and drier, and the harvest of many lands after land reclamation is really poor. In vain What a waste of good seeds.”

"Oh?" George raised his eyebrows slightly and asked.

Benjamin calculated an account for him - with data.

Last year, the output of all wasteland, inferior fields and excellent fields combined was 1 bushel per mu, which is more than 50 kilograms. This yield is outrageously low!

The first-class fields are better, with a yield of about 200 kilograms, but after all, the first-class fields are in the minority. Many fields yielded almost no harvest. A little better, if you plant twenty kilograms of seeds, you will harvest only forty or fifty kilograms.

Last year's severe drought, insect infestations, and diseases were one of the main reasons. Another factor was that many fields were not cared for.

"Even if these citizens are beaten with whips, they still don't work hard! Moreover, they make trouble for me every month, so I have to expand the army again and again."

The key point is that although the land is 1 bushel per acre, the kingdom's forced taxation (twenty taxes per acre, usually cannot be collected from the count, but the kingdom is now using the name of war to suck blood) and the duke's taxation (Twenty tax one) is collected based on the output of 4 bushels per acre - that is to say, this territory produces 3 million bushels of grain every year, but has to pay a tax of 1.2 million.

Part of the remaining 1.8 million in food will be used for livestock, military expenses, hiring craftsmen, and maintenance of various buildings and tools. After subtracting, not much is left.

"I still have to take care of the remaining money. You don't know how capable the ministers of the royal court and the monks of the church are at sucking blood."

This sentence is true, judging from the accounts compiled by Wendell. The Earl sucked a lot of blood in the territory, but he also spent a large amount of wealth every year - especially in the past two years, the Earl lent a large sum of money to Old Sky Eagle and Prince Robert.

Judging from this, the earl is indeed living a very hard life, and he has done his best to support these 200,000 people and the 500 knights and 8,000 militiamen in his hands.

But after listening to the miser's words, George smiled slightly.

George looked at Wendel on the side. The priest picked up an account book and counted the various incomes of the earl, which were very detailed by Wendel, and he knew more than the earl.

Including those unknown industries of the earl in other places, they were all dug out by Wendel and his team, which made Count Benjamin sweat.

Calculating, Benjamin's ranch, vineyard, winery, various handicraft industries and shops alone are enough to support his more than 8,000 soldiers - the total expenditure of these more than 8,000 people in a year is only more than 20,000 silver foxes. And most of the 500 knights have fiefs, and they are obliged to serve in the earl's place.

As for other expenses of the territory, even if the maintenance and construction costs are high, they can be supported by other income of the territory - the horses, wine, raw silk and wool materials in this territory are very famous. Especially musk oxen. In the whole Sky Eagle, apart from the old duke and Leighton, Benjamin raises the most.

So the earl can have more than 1.8 million bushels of grain left every year, and even if the refugees are included, there are only 200,000 people here - plus farm animals, vineyards, spices and handicrafts. Many people can not only wear warm clothes, but also eat meat occasionally.

But the key is that the nobles are reluctant to part with them - most of these grains go into the pockets of the nobles!

These grains and property filled the warehouses, where they were moldy and hairy, but the misers never developed and utilized them reasonably, and their biggest helper - the fools in the mouths of the nobles, in their eyes, are dung-making machines that are not even as good as animals, and they live to waste food!

Even the churches are the same - in their eyes, the useful people are just a small group of elites.

The nobles who protected the continent once followed the seven gods and led the people out of darkness and barbarism.

But now, they have slowly decayed and gradually become a stumbling block to the progress of the times.

Fortunately, there are many people like Wendell who have slowly kicked away these stumbling blocks.