Chapter 119: fermentation
"Really? But you know, the Chancellor of the Exchequer is still putting on a bitter face, making it look like everyone owes him tens of thousands of pounds!"
"You can\'t count on the Privy Council, but I can give you an idea!"
Looking at Mayor William whose complexion changed a bit, Edward smiled, turned his eyes to his white and tender hands, and then said casually.
"Oh, my lord! May I have the honor of hearing this great method?"
Although William had no confidence in Edward\'s idea, as a subject, he wanted to act around the king, so flattering was normal.
William bowed his head forward and said respectfully to Edward.
Edward raised his head at this moment, and shot at the coolies working all around, and those who collided with his eyes from time to time could only lower their heads hastily.
"My Mr. Mayor, look, how are these houses?"
Edward pointed to the crumbling roadside, repaired with wood from time to time, dilapidated common houses, and asked William behind him.
William looked at the houses that exuded corruption and had a big hole in the gate or wall. He blinked his eyes and looked carefully again.
William is very familiar with these dilapidated wooden houses, and he has lived in such an environment since he was a child.
"Your Majesty, there are many houses like this in London, but for two floors like this, it costs at least fifty pounds!"
Although he hasn\'t been back to the civilian area for a long time, he is quite familiar with all this. After all, he still has many relatives who still live in the civilian area.
"Really? What about the relatively complete house next to it?"
"About sixty pounds!"
"What if the house not only looks beautiful, has a toilet, but also has no garbage around, and has trees and flowers?"
"Your Majesty, it will cost hundreds of pounds!"
"But, Your Majesty, in London, only the wealthy districts have such houses!"
With doubts, William said in cooperation with Edward.
"Of course I know that it is only found in wealthy areas, but if it appears in a civilian area, how much do you think it will cost!"
Edward looked at those dilapidated houses, and said with a sigh, as if he was blaming them for their treasures.
William felt that the king\'s obscenity could not be interrupted at this time, but he thought it was necessary to let the king know the current situation in London.
"Your Majesty, at present, there are very few wealthy businessmen and gentlemen who have settled in London, and they have little will!"
In fact, the dirty environment in London may be used to ordinary people, but it is unbearable for gentlemen and nobles living in spacious and comfortable manors in the countryside.
They are not ignorant of the benefits of living in the political center of London.
However, the intermittent plague in London, which lasted for nearly two hundred years, frightened away those interested in politics.
"Don\'t worry, my Mr. Mayor, I already know about these situations!"
"If you want to alleviate the financial crisis now, you only need to spend all the money in London\'s finances to buy a slum and build a group of simple inns!"
"After three months, I think you will make a lot of money!"
After saying the words that reminded him, leaving Mayor William who was still thinking, Edward walked directly to the streets that had been cleaned up.
Under the original dark face, there are large pieces of polished stones, some of which are stone pavement bricks left over from the Roman period.
Edward stepped on a few times with his feet, feeling as if stepping on smooth tiles, with a rough texture of stone.
"My Mr. Mayor, you only need to do one thing now, to wipe out all the rats in London!"
"And all these dirty streets and alleys must be cleaned up by me!"
Edward\'s words interrupted Mayor William who was thinking.
"Yes, Your Majesty, this is the goal that I and the city government are going all out for!"
William quickly ran over, and after getting closer to Edward, he spoke softly.
"I like you, Mr. Mayor! This is your chance to show off!"
Edward didn’t go over to see how the hard laborers used various tools to clean up, because he was afraid of nausea.
Just quietly looking at the sweating laborers in the distance, I don\'t know what is going on in my heart, and Mayor William is silently accompanying me.
"Okay, Mr. Mayor, let\'s go!" Edward looked at these medieval poor for about three minutes, then turned and left.
Boarded an ordinary carriage, Edward and William left directly.
The laborers who have been working hard, don\'t know that their mayor and king came to them to watch them work.
Norwich is the central city of Norfolk County in East Anglia, England. At present, it is the second largest city in England after London.
As early as 1066, it was already one of the largest cities in England.
From the early fourteenth century to the late eighteenth century, it was the largest textile city in the UK.
Now, it is not only a distribution center for cattle, horses, livestock, and grains in nearby counties and villages, but also has a well-developed processing industry for agricultural products such as brewing and flour. It is also well-known in brick-making, leather, printing, chemical, leather shoes, and clothing industries.
In the Middle Ages, cities with developed handicrafts were generally rich.
Because of the developed handicraft industry in Norwich, there are various shops on the street, grain shops, clothing shops, shoe shops, banks, blacksmith shops, bars, carpentry shops, leather shops, etc., thus forming a lively scene on the street.
Suwell\'s father was a blacksmith, so he was different from ordinary civilians. His rich father gave himself the surname Smith.
Smith means blacksmith, expressing his father\'s expectation for the succession of the family business.
In the Middle Ages, although the job of blacksmith was a little harder, he was a high-tech industry, and his life was much better than that of carpenters, leather craftsmen, and coopers.
But as the youngest of the three sons, Su Weier was not as strong as his two elder brothers when he was born, so it was difficult for him to inherit the glorious profession of blacksmithing.
Besides, his father only had a blacksmith shop, which was to be passed on to his eldest brother, and his second brother would also own a blacksmith shop because he married the daughter of the neighbor Uncle Mike\'s family.
The poor man is not only physically unsuitable for the brilliant profession of blacksmithing, but he has not yet married a wife with a rich dowry like his second brother.
So at the age of sixteen, he is still not married.
Of course, the daughters of other commoners can also marry, but his father has been committed to marrying him a woman from a blacksmith background.
Norwich has a population of 20,000, and there are only more than 30 households of blacksmiths. Everyone knows the basics, so how could they marry their daughter to someone who is not a blacksmith?
Shaking his head, Su Weier shook off those troubles, calmed down, and started to go to the bookstore to buy books.
After becoming hopeless as a blacksmith, he began to study law with the encouragement of his father and mother.
Because Norwich has been prosperous for several centuries, the ground of the entire city is paved with blue bricks, and this has always been a place that Norwich people talk about.
Because the whole city is basically dominated by handicraftsmen, the atmosphere for reading is very weak. Sowell searched all over Norwich, but there were only three bookstores.
This time he will go to the bookstore in the city center, which is also the largest bookstore in Norwich.
The bookstore doesn’t have any signboard, it just hangs a flag with the shape of a book as the sign of the bookstore.
The owner of the bookstore is an old retired lawyer, so there are many books about law and history here. The only disadvantage is that the books are too expensive. Even at his level, it is difficult to consume a few books.
"Hey, Wyatt!" Souwell walked into the bookstore with few people, and greeted the bald old man with reading glasses on the counter.
"Hey, Su Weier!" The old man looked at the thick book in front of him, which looked like a dictionary, and said without raising his head.
"Today, I bought another batch of new legal explanations. If you want to buy them, just give me three pounds!"
"Of course, according to the usual practice, you only need to copy two copies, and you can read here every day!"
After saying this, Wyatt closed his withered lips, and began to read the book seriously again!
Suwell thought about it, touched his pocket, and decided to copy two copies. His pocket money was only five pence.
Su Weier went directly to the location of the new book, glanced at it, and quickly found the explanation of the new law, picked up a copy, and walked to the place where it was copied.
The place for transcribing is not big. There can only be five tables in it, and the floor is full of book paper, quill pens, and ink.
When Su Weier came in, there were already two young people who were seriously transcribing.
His arrival didn\'t disturb the two of them, and he didn\'t take the initiative to say hello, so he sat down at a random place, waved his arms, and started copying books.
I don\'t know how long it took, until Su Weier felt the darkness in front of him, he raised his head, and the other two people stopped like him.
"Okay, it\'s getting dark, let\'s come back tomorrow!" said one of the thin men with glasses.
"Okay! Come back tomorrow!" Su Weier said together with another curly-haired guy.
The work of copying books is very complicated. It not only requires neat handwriting, but also good wording. Therefore, it takes him half a month to copy a book worth more than 100,000 yuan.
"Wilson, Kelerou, why did you come so early today!"
The three went out together, and after saying goodbye to Wyatt, they went home together.
"Suwell, I will go to London with Kelelu in a few days. I want to hurry up and finish the book that I didn\'t finish copying last time. We won\'t be able to move as fast as you!"
Slim Wilson shrugged helplessly at Suwell and said.
"Really! Then why are you going to London? What\'s the matter?"
Su Weier asked curiously.
"Oh! My Suwell, don\'t you know? The City of London has begun recruiting officials from all over England!"
"Moreover, this time an examination is used to select the officials who will serve in London!"
"We can also take the exam. As long as we are selected, even civilians can become officials!"
Curly-haired Klerou couldn\'t help interjecting.
(end of this chapter)