Chapter 1428 "The Awakening Sleepwalker"

Adam Smith once wrote in The Wealth of Nations: Once the social division of labor is completely determined, the products of a person's own labor can only satisfy a very small part of his desires. Most of his desires require the exchange of surplus labor products that he cannot consume.

To satisfy the needs of other people's labor products, everything depends on exchange, or in other words, to a certain extent, everyone can become a businessman.

Bonuses are divided into output bonuses and production bonuses. Output bonuses are paid to foreign businessmen, while production bonuses are paid to domestic producers.

Incentives are sometimes called subsidies, and sometimes tax refunds are also called incentives. For example, if a foreign woman buys goods in the UK, and the goods are encouraged to be exported by the British government, the foreign country can get a tax refund when she leaves the UK.

Although she is not a businessperson by profession.

The purpose of setting up the output bonus is to hope that British products will be cheaper when resold, thereby defeating competitors with almost the same price. Theoretically, it seems feasible. It is still a five-franc product. Why can she receive a tax refund?

Why not buy the cheaper one?

The grain trade is different from other industrial products. In the same book, The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith recorded a practice of the "Grain Export Reward Act" in 1688. According to ordinary people's understanding, this kind of reward will promote farming and will last for many years.

It will increase the production of grains, thereby lowering the price of grains in the domestic market. However, the output incentives not only did not lower the prices of grains, but actually increased.

Adam Smith believed that the bumper harvest in the previous year was due to the output bonus, which led to an increase in exports, which could not make up for the poor harvest in the following year, thus raising the price of grain in England from 1688 to 1700.

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

France also banned grain exports in 1764, and later lifted the ban. Anyway, as powerful as Napoleon, he only allowed one city in France not to participate in grain exports.

According to British custom, merchants would find farmers and sign a contract with them, stipulating the price at which they would supply a certain amount of grain to the merchant within a certain period of time. This contract would allow farmers to reduce the cost and trouble of going to the market to negotiate prices, so the contract price would usually be

A bit lower than the average market price.

In good years, bonuses will promote the output of grains and increase grain prices. Even in the most fertile years, farming can be rewarded in this way.

However, when there is a shortage of grain, the annual bonus will be stopped. If you don’t work hard to farm when there is no food to eat, do you have to pray and wait for God to send Mars? 1802 is destined to be a bad harvest year. Napoleon also asked the United Kingdom to issue bonuses to promote exports.

It's just a knife that kills people without seeing blood.

Adam Smith believes that when the price of grain continues to rise and reaches a certain level, the lower class people will more or less save food and hinder consumption. Facts have proved that he is wrong, and the lower class people will guillotine the king.

, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette are ready-made examples. If you want to reduce food prices, you must ban food exports, but in this way, the interests of inland food growers will be violated.

Why was the "Corn Law" established? Just because foreign grains would impact the interests of local farmers. Because of the "Bread and Blood" movement, the grains in the Dutch ports were "shipped" to the United Kingdom. Napoleon found people to transport the grains in the Dutch ports to France.

Why did the price of grain increase? Because the harvest in the Baltic Sea was poor and there was a famine. Of course, there was a panic when there was no food to eat, and the price of grain went up.

Even if 1801 was a good year for grains in the UK, if the cold weather continues in 1802, the UK will face a crisis of harvest failure. By then, there will be a real food shortage. Coupled with export incentives, food prices will continue to rise.

This may be why he went to the stock market to inspect that day. No wonder Caprara was so frightened when she heard that he was reading "The Wealth of Nations", and now Georgiana feels the same way.

Napoleon was not afraid of food imports leading to falling food prices. Public opinion was completely on his side. During the French Revolution, women held up their aprons and went to Versailles to cause trouble just for cheap bread. How could the people at the bottom have such complicated opinions? They only knew

It is believed that bad government has caused the skyrocketing food prices. If the speculators who are hoarding are not dealt with, replacing them with good government will stabilize prices.

The British are completely the opposite. Georgiana believes that in order to pursue more profits and money, merchants who hoard large amounts of grain will resell the grain to France. India and Bangladesh are so far away, and the East India Company does not transport the grain.

Come to Europe and sell it.

India not only supplies the cotton, sugar, and silk that Britain needs, but also supplies tea. The British all need to drink tea, just as the French love to drink coffee. Now Georgiana uses the Sèvres ceramic factory in France to produce it.

Drinking black tea from the tea cup did not feel elegant and comfortable at all. Looking at the red tea soup, she felt like looking at blood. She also became a "vampire".

She does not live in the Palace of Saint-Luc, nor in the military 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.

The house was originally used as a residence for vineyard growers, so it is very simple. There is not much furniture inside and the rooms are low. But it has a beautiful garden in which a plant called Yolanda Aragon is planted.

of roses.

Yolanda Aragon is a member of the French royal family who was saved by Joan of Arc in the Orleans War. Mr. Gaston Martin has always been afraid that she will become Joan of Arc. Now Georgiana also feels the same way. Napoleon will not give her a way to survive.

?

It was the British king who killed Joan of Arc at the stake, and she had successfully predicted the outcome of the Battle of Herring. But it was also the French who betrayed Joan of Arc to the British. As long as Napoleon did not hand her over to that madman George III, then she seemed to be still alive.

Is there a way to survive?

She looked at the watercolor sketch on the table. There was a small boat with a mast passing through the aqueduct, transporting goods to other places.

Her imagination initially thought that the aqueduct was a water pipe, with only the function of transporting water. Now she found that it can also carry people and goods, but the average poor will not punt at a drinking water source. On the contrary, the rich

People will not mind using the aqueduct as a means of transportation because they have other water sources.

She remembered that there was an amusement park near Liverpool where tourists could ride aerial gondolas and other rides. The aqueduct from the city center to Saint-Germain could be used in this way. It was also a way to show privilege.

Ordinary people can also punt in the aqueduct, provided they obtain the consent of their neighbors. Property owners can easily reach a consensus. Other lower-class residents who find the water fee of 2 sous a day expensive will not let their free water sources be polluted.

of.

It takes money to maintain this facility, and Georgiana has even thought about how to charge fees to maintain it, but is Napoleon worth it?

Joan of Arc saved Yolanda Aragon, did Aragon ever think about saving her?

"Madam, we have a visitor to see you." said her maid Michelle, who had returned from vacation.

She looked at the rose in Michelle's hand. This was the second rose that Josephine had given her, and it was the Queen of Violet.

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

She only thought that Napoleon was pitiful, but she never thought that she was actually pitiful. She was a witch, but not the kind of witch who cursed people. How could she fall into such a situation?

"Let her do it." Georgiana said expressionlessly. Michelle placed the rose on the small round table. Not long after, Michelle brought Maria Renerman to her living room on the second floor.

.

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

"It's not what she asked me to do." Maria said, "The First Consul asked you 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 have also seen the future," Georgiana whispered, "just in a different way than you."

"You want my advice?" Maria asked.

"Yes."

"If you are not very short of money, just keep quiet, but the other person is a big shot you can't afford to offend. Just tell him the truth, just like I told Robespierre and Marat, it's up to them to believe it or not."

"You seem to say you want to live a long life?" Georgiana asked.

"Yes, that's why I don't want to be a fortune teller anymore."

"What about me? What do you suggest?"

Maria smiled, "Mrs. Talian is now the Princess of 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 staff with a small silver snake at the end and pointed it at Georgiana.

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

"Is this your wand?" said Georgiana, looking at the iron rod.

"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, don't think about maintaining absolute fairness and justice."

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

"Most people have forgotten what happened that night, and you should also know that spell." Maria said with a smile, "I will make you feel like you are in a dream. When you wake up, you will forget everything that happened in the dream."

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

Renaultman put down the iron wand.

"Who are you?" Georgiana asked.

"The Muggle Prime Minister believes that 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 is an honor to meet you, Ms. Sevres."

"
Chapter completed!