Chapter 1428 "The Awaken Sleepwalker"

Adam Smith once wrote in The Wealth of Nations: Once the social division of labor is completely determined, a person's own labor production can only satisfy a very small part of his desires, and most of his desires need to exchange himself with surplus labor products that he cannot consume. To meet the needs of the products of other people's labor, everything must depend on exchange to live. In other words, to a certain extent, all people can become merchants.

  Incentives are divided into export incentives and production incentives. Export incentives are paid to foreign merchants, while production incentives are issued to domestic producers.

Incentives are sometimes referred to as subsidies, and sometimes tax refunds are also referred to as incentives. For example, if a foreign woman buys a product in the UK, this product is encouraged by the British government to be exported. This foreign country can get a tax refund when she leaves the UK. Although her own occupation is not a businessman.

The purpose of setting up the export reward is to hope that the British goods will be cheaper when they are sold, and then to defeat the competitors of almost the same price. In theory, it seems to be feasible. It is also a five-franc product. Why can she receive a tax refund? Why not buy the cheaper one?

Grain trade is not the same as other industrial products. It is also in the book "The Wealth of Nations". Adam Smith recorded a practice of the Grain Export Incentive Act in 1688. According to ordinary people’s understanding, this kind of reward will promote farming. It will increase the production of cereals, thereby lowering the price of cereals in the domestic market. However, the export incentives not only did not reduce the price of cereals, but increased.

  Adam Smith believed that the bumper harvest in the previous year resulted in an increase in exports due to the export of incentives, which could not make up for the lack of harvest in the following year. Therefore, the price of food in England from 1688 to 1700 was raised.

  The bad weather during this period is not a phenomenon unique to England, but a phenomenon common to most parts of Europe. The award of awards increased the degree of grain shortage in England, so by 1699, the export of grain was banned for nine months.

  France also banned the export of grains in 1764, and later lifted the ban. Anyway, strong, such as Napoleon, only allowed one French city to not participate in grain exports.

According to British custom, merchants will find farmers and sign contracts with them to stipulate the price set when supplying a certain amount of grain to the merchant within a certain number of years. Because this contract will allow farmers to reduce the cost and trouble of going to the market for bargaining, the contract price will be normal. A little lower than the average market price.

  In the harvest year, the reward money will promote the output of grains, which will increase the price of the grain. Even in the most abundant year, the farming can be rewarded in this way.

  However, the annual rewards for grain shortage will stop. If you don’t have enough food, you don’t work hard to cultivate. Is it necessary to pray and wait for God to send Ma? 1802 was destined to be a year of poor harvest. Napoleon also asked Britain to issue incentives to promote exports. This was nothing but a knife to kill.

  Adam Smith believes that when the price of cereals continues to rise, to a certain extent, the people of the lower classes will more or less save food and hinder consumption. It turns out that he was wrong. The people of the lower classes would guillotine the king. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette are ready examples. If food prices are to fall, it is necessary to prohibit grain exports, but in this way the interests of grain growers in the interior will be violated.

  Why set up the "Corn Law"? Just because foreign grains will impact the interests of local farmers, and because of the "Bread and Blood" movement, the grains that have been “delivered” to ports in the UK and the Netherlands were sent to France by Napoleon. Why did the price of grain rise? Because of the Baltic Sea’s poor harvest and famine, of course, there is no food to eat. Of course, you have to panic, and the price of cereals is going up.

   Even if Britain’s cereals were a good year in 1801, the cold weather in 1802 would cause Britain to face the crisis of harvest failure. By that time, there would be a real shortage of food. In addition to export incentives, food prices could continue to rise.

  He went to the stock market to inspect it that day. It’s no wonder that Caprara was so frightened when he heard that he was watching "The Wealth of Nations", and now Georgiana feels the same way.

Napoleon was not afraid of food imports that would cause food prices to fall. Public opinion was completely on his side. The women who went to Versailles with their aprons during the French Revolution made trouble for cheap bread. It is believed that the bad government has caused the food price to soar. If you do not deal with those speculators who are hoarding, changing to a good government will stabilize prices.

The British did the opposite. Georgiana believed that in order to pursue more profit and money, merchants who hoarded a large amount of grain would also resell the grain to France. India and Bangladesh are so far away, the East India Company did not ship the grain. Sold in Europe.

India not only supplies the cotton, cane sugar, and silk that the United Kingdom needs, but also supplies tea. The British all need to drink tea, just like the French love coffee, and now Georgiana uses the French Sèvre ceramic factory to produce Drinking black tea in the teacup, she didn't feel elegant and cozy at all. She looked at the red tea soup as if she was looking at blood, and she became a member of the "vampire".

  Now she does not live in St. Luke’s Palace, nor in the army camp where the British gather, but in the town of Sèvres, in an old noble villa that has been confiscated but has not been sold.

This house was originally used for vineyard growers, so it looks very simple, there is not a lot of furniture inside, and the rooms are very low, but it has a beautiful garden with a plant called Yolanda Aragón. Roses.

Yolanda Aragorn is a member of the French royal family saved by Joan of Arc in the War of Orleans. Mr. Gaston Martin has always been afraid of her becoming Joan. Now Georgiana feels this way. Napoleon will not let her survive. ?

  It was the King of England who killed Joan by fire, and she had also successfully predicted the outcome of the Battle of Herring. But it was also the French who sold Joan of Arc to the United Kingdom. As long as Napoleon does not give her to the madman George III, then she seems to have a way out?

  She looked at the watercolor sketch on the table, and a boat with a mast was passing through the aqueduct, transporting goods elsewhere.

At first, her imagination was to use the aqueduct as a water pipe, which only had the function of transporting water. Now she found that it could also carry people and goods, but the average poor would not punt a boat on the source of drinking water. Instead, they had money. People don't mind using the aqueduct as a means of travel because of other sources of water.

  She remembers that there is an amusement park near Liverpool, where visitors can take aerial gondola rides, and this aqueduct from the city center to Saint-Germain can be used in this way. This is also a way of demonstrating a privilege.

Ordinary people can also punt a boat in the aqueduct, provided that the neighbor’s consent is obtained, and the property owners will easily reach a consensus. The other bottom-level residents who feel that the water fee is expensive for 2 su a day will not let their free water source be contaminated. of.

  It takes money to maintain this facility. Georgiana has even figured out how to charge to maintain it, but is Napoleon worth it?

  Jan of Arc saved Yolanda Aragorn. Has Aragorn ever thought of saving her?

   "Madam, a guest is looking for you." said Michelle, her maid who returned from vacation.

  She looked at the rose in Michelle's hand. This was the second rose that Josephine gave her, and it was the violet queen again.

  This place is located on a hillside, just beside the only way for Paris to "enter" Versailles. The decoration style inside is very idyllic, which is very suitable for a country woman like her.

  She only thought about how poor Napoleon was, but she never thought that she was actually very poor. She is a witch, but she is not the kind of witch who curses people. How could she fall into such a situation?

"Let her come." Georgiana said blankly, and Michelle put the rose on the small round table. After a while, Michelle took Maria Lenoman to her living room on the second floor. .

   "What did she ask you to do?" Georgiana asked.

   "It was not what she asked me to do." Maria said, "The first ruler asked when you will return to the palace?"

  "Do you think I am Joan of Arc or Aragon?" Georgiana asked.

   "Why do you ask that?"

   "Because I also see the future." Georgiana whispered, "It's just in a different way than you."

  "Do you want to hear my advice?" Maria asked.

"Yes it is."

  "If you are not short of money, keep quiet, but the other person is a big person you can't afford, and you tell him the truth, just like I told Robespierre and Mara, believe them or not."

   "You seem to say you want to live longer?" Georgiana asked.

   "Yes, so I don't work as a fortune-teller."

   "What about me? Do you have any suggestions?"

  Maria smiled, "Madame Talien is now a princess in Paris, and the other half of my prediction that day has also come true. Who do you think you are?"

  Georgiana didn’t know how to answer.

  Maria took a small iron rod with a small silver snake at the end, and she pointed it at Georgiana.

   "When I introduce myself to those customers, I will call myself a waking sleepwalker. You can think so too."

   "Is this your magic wand?" Georgiana looked at the iron rod and said.

  "As long as you are not so obsessed with the realization of your personal ambitions, you can leave at any time." Maria said, "but if you plan to stay, you should not think about maintaining absolute justice."

   "Are you going to use a spell on me?"

   "Most people have forgotten what happened that night. You should also know the spell." Maria smiled and said, "I will make you feel like a dream. After waking up, I forgot what happened in the dream."

   "I don't think so." Another woman's voice came from the corner of the house, and then she pulled down the invisible cloak that was draped on her body, revealing a pale face "Do you know who I am? Ms. Lenoman?"

  Lei Norman put down the iron wand.

   "Who are you?" Georgiana asked.

"The Muggle Prime Minister thinks you are worthy of protection. I am an Auror sent by the British Ministry of Magic." The woman said in English "My name is Lufu Truman. It's an honor to know you, Ms. Sèvre. "

  (End of this chapter)