Chateau Lafite is not far from New Eagle Castle. It was originally just a very ordinary medium-sized manor owned by the Alaholf family.
With Otto's move in, this place became the center of power in the Allgäu Territory.
Otto enjoyed living in the manor very much. In his opinion, living in a narrow and dull castle room was not as comfortable as living in a large house in the manor.
The smell you smell every morning is completely different. In the manor, when you open the window in the early morning, you can smell the scent of nature.
In the castle, most of the time, the fresh air is mixed with the disgusting smell of excrement.
Since he promised to give the old castle to his brother El, Otto did not stay in the old castle for too long and moved to Lafite Manor in less than a week. The original name of this manor was not called Lafite at all.
There is no name. Why it is called Lafite is completely Otto’s personal bad taste.
After moving to Chateau Lafite, Otto has been busy with a small thing, which is making wine.
In view of the special situation of Aargauland, which has no resources and no special products, Otto wanted to find a profitable product for the territory. After thinking about it, Otto discovered that with the meager knowledge he had left as a liberal arts student, he only had glass and
There are two options for high-quality wine.
It's a pity that Otto doesn't know the specific production process of these two products. He only knows that the glass seems to be made of limestone. He has no idea what other raw materials are needed and how to bake them.
This kind of thing can only be left to the craftsmen to try their luck. Naturally, Otto cannot place his hopes on luck.
As for high-strength wine, Otto doesn't know how to make wine, but at any rate, he still knows the principles of distillation. And wine making itself is not an advanced craft, even ordinary people can do it.
Then what Otto needs to do is simple, which is to supervise the craftsmen to make wine, and then turn the low-alcohol wine into high-alcohol wine through distillation and purification.
In this way, the mountains of food in the warehouse can be consumed. After all, apart from food, Aargauland has nothing to produce.
Unfortunately, what is popular in Europe today is not liquor, but wine. Even if Otto succeeds in making spirits, he still needs to cultivate consumption habits.
Otto was not worried about this. Wine was a favorite among nobles and priests because it had low alcohol content, looked good, and mainly satisfied social needs.
The vast majority of people in the middle and lower classes do not want alcohol to satisfy social needs. What they need is the numbness and happiness brought by alcohol.
Since everyone knows how to make wine, making grain wine is not a big problem. The principle of this thing is the same. After recruiting more than ten craftsmen who are proficient in wine making, Otto supervises them every day and waits for them to come up with the finished product.
.
He was still a little worried. If something went wrong and the liquor was turned into beer, it would be troublesome. Although beer is theoretically more popular and has higher sales, with the current traffic and transportation conditions, beer is
You can only enclose the territory for yourself, and it is impossible to sell it too far.
This is contrary to Otto's original intention.
However, winemaking cannot be completed in a day or two. After Otto tinkered with a small distillation device, he patiently waited for the first batch of wine slurry to come out.
As autumn approaches and the annual harvest season arrives, farmers in Aargauen will surely have a more prosperous New Year this year.
On that day, Otto issued a decree that directly reduced farmers' taxes by 70%. At the same time, it stipulated that all serfs who farmed the territory directly under the Alaholf family could become free citizens as long as they paid taxes on time for three years.
identity, that is, freedom of life is no longer restricted.
If you have been farming for more than ten years, you can purchase the land from the Alahorv family at a price five times the annual output of the land, making it private land for farmers and enjoying three years of tax exemption.
Purchased private land can be passed down from generation to generation, but it is not allowed to be bought or sold without the permission of the lord, the Alahorv family, but it can be subleased.
Otto's idea was to make the vast number of serfs freemen and become wealthy. Only in this way can we provide enough citizens and labor force for the emerging towns, and also make the various commodities produced after urbanization available.
consumer.
Otherwise, the so-called urbanization is just a castle in the air.
Originally, Otto wanted to expand the scope to the entire Argau Territory, but considering the situation of the feudal system, he decided to only implement it in the directly governed territories. Otherwise, it would easily arouse opposition from the vassals.
Land and population are the sources of wealth and power for the nobles. If farmers are allowed to move freely, most nobles will definitely not be happy.
Otto knew that there was no need to rush, and if he took too long a step, it would be easy for him to get carried away. If he made the nobles dissatisfied just after taking power, wouldn't it be a suicide attempt?
The second point is to encourage land reclamation. Any uncultivated wasteland in the territory directly under the control of the Alahorv family will enjoy tax exemption for two years after being reclaimed. After five years of cultivation, that is, a total of seven years, the land can also be purchased.
The purpose of this second article is mainly for the construction of New Eagle Fort. Forced immigration will definitely cause dissatisfaction among farmers, but if the land cultivated after immigration is owned, many people will be willing to do so.
To maintain a town, it still needs enough rural areas to support it.
As for the third article, it announced the commercial tax.
All caravans passing through the Argau Territory must pay a tax at the rate of thirty taxes to one. Territory residents who do business in towns within the territory need to pay a commercial tax of forty taxes to one.
The decree signed by Otto indeed aroused a good response. The majority of farmers were very happy about the reduction of taxes and the opportunity to obtain their own land.
Although other nobles felt that Otto's behavior was inappropriate, the decree only targeted the direct jurisdiction of the Aracholf family, and they had no control over it.
As for the commercial tax, it was a big success. Although the law did not say it, Otto had already told everyone that part of the commercial tax received every year would be distributed to them.
The purpose of Otto's doing this is also to avoid the occurrence of secondary tax collection in the territory, which will have a huge impact on the entire business environment.
Share a piece of the pie with the vassals, and they will naturally not do such things to offend Otto.
The farmers are very kind and honest. After learning about Master Otto's tax reduction for them, during this period of time, Lafite Manor has received various prey sent by the farmers every day, allowing Otto to
I'm a little tired of eating wild game.
"Master." Knight Wade came to Otto, who was taking a nap on the swing with his eyes closed, and reported in a low voice.
"I just received news that another caravan refused to pay taxes and chose to take a detour. The goods transported by this caravan are furs. Do you think we should..."
"Fur?" Otto suddenly opened his eyes and looked at Wade aside, with a smile on his face. "It's going to be winter soon. I think this winter might be very cold. I'm a little worried about it.
Keep the people warm."
"Okay, I understand Master Otto, I will make arrangements right away." Wade nodded and left in a hurry.
Otto yawned and tightened his clothes. The autumn wind was indeed a bit cold.