Amounting Pressures From The Great Slump
2085 Words
"Your Majesty, do you intend to market the ice-box for chilled ale too?" Marcel let out a burp as he downed his third mug. Anything that could be turned into business opportunities would be taken into consideration by Marcel. He would never let such an opportunity passes him by so easily.
"You know what, it could be a business opportunity for you too Marcel. Invite these tavern owners and produce the copper tuns from the Engineering Guild here. From then on, they could purchase and be on their way. At the meantime, what else could you think for Gracehaven's Greasy Spoon?"
"Well, one thing is that we have a nice flat wok here that does the job pretty well of making this pan-fried flatbread. Maybe a griller perhaps?"
"Something that could be grilled such as pieces of meat... Naah... That's too cumbersome and troublesome. I guess for dining, this is more than adequate."
"By the way, my good friend. Have you encountered any Witches so far when you travel up and down the towns? I mean those Witches that had special abilities and not those who dabble in witchcraft and casts hexes and curses...?"
"Why, Your Majesty? Are you planning to offer amnesty for wrongly accused Witches?" Marcel eyed me with a certain look which I myself can't describe. Disdain? Disapproval? Unhappiness? Elation? Or maybe C-O-N-S-T-I-P-A-T-I-O-N...
I took out the piece of paper that Heather had drawn for me way back when we interviewed the Priests and Priestesses. I explained one by one of their abilities and shared with him what my thoughts are.
"Hmm... So to simply put, you are looking for more people with special abilities to develop this town further, am I right?" Marcel took the paper from my hands and rubbed his chin. He saw the cartoonish drawing and can't help to snicker since he knew it was described in the simplest term by Heather herself.
"I can't conclude anything, your Majesty. The person you should collaborate with would be their leader, Penelope here with a big tree beside her. What does she do?" Marcel handed me back the paper and I showed what the rest of the citizens were doing.
When he turned back he was surprised. It wasn't time to harvest yet when he left Gracehaven since the crops were mainly greenish and were only at knee-high. But right now the fields were golden yellow and it is even ripe enough to be harvested and the farmers were wearing the large hats that shield them from the sun.
"Th—This can't be harvesting for super seeds that were planted about 10 days ago, right? Is this extremely super seeds or something like that?"
"That's Penelope. She's the Nature Manipulator. Somehow she speaks to the crops last week and now it is ready for harvesting. Do you know what does that mean?"
"Gracehaven could produce 2 harvests per month...! We not only could stop getting the supply from you and other towns but also be able to provide the towns that badly needed them...!"
"What you could do was to stop contracting those farmers who want blood money from you. Buying grains at 6c and selling us at 6c. What do you get in turn? Just to feel tired and not gaining anything, right?"
"Soon, you would be able to supply towns at 2c, the same price as what you used to supply us before. However, we won't be making such a drastic change very soon. We would accumulate as many grains and flour as possible and then we could gradually reduce our purchases."
"Once we have a minimum standing storage of 100,000 pounds of every grain, we would then use the buffer to support other towns. Just imagine a small village like Adewera with less than 50 inhabitants and mainly old folks."
"How are they going to get funds to buy grains and such? Worse come to worst, we might even induct those residents into our community."
"At least they have a place where they would feel protected. What do you think, Marcel?" I explained and the flurry of information for him was a bit too much.
Besides he knew about Adewera, the town was shrinking in the population and was once like Burghbrig with nearly a thousand residents but now... Only a Benevolent King would be their savour.
Heather was skipping around the courtyard with the children and Michelle as the duo saw us at the Gracehaven's Greasy Spoon. The approached us and addressed Marcel before joining us at the table.
The children, that had nothing much to do after class, went fishing instead. This was the norm since the children were considered as obedient and would not behave in a raucous manner.
"How do you do Marcel, well, it seems you are enjoying your chilled ale, eh? So, I believe His Majesty had brought you around to see the new developments around town. Fuuh... I would kill to have an ale. Would you like one, too, Michelle?"
Michelle simply nodded her head and was still shy when she was with us. Maybe she still has a crush on me despite me being married to her rival. We won't be starting a harem soon, would we? Besides, it would be better to stay loyal and find a partner for Marcel instead.
First, there was 2 and now there are 4 of us sitting at the outdoor dining area of Gracehaven. Compared to other royalties, would a ruler be caught dead in the streets enjoying the local food fare?
I don't think so, right? Even the nobles and lords would have a seat for themselves if they were to dine similar food as the commoners. But since the last nobles that we had were the Marquees and Marchioness, their palates were none different than the rest of the citizens.
"You like what you see so far, my friend? These are the latest developments Gracehaven had achieved in the past week. Besides, any updates on the uptrend and downtrend on the sales so far? Would there be anything we need to emphasise on?"
"Well, Your Majesty, we could emphasise on the clay bricks and timber since these were cheaper than produced by our conglomerates of merchants union back at Beverley. The rocket stoves and ovens are abit on a slowdown now so we would sell that ever we have and stop the production as well."
"As for the rest of the handicrafts, we could almost stop almost every product, clear the stock and then concentrate on the flip-flops based on both genders and 3 sizes."
"However, the new ice-box would be a great hit and we could emphasise on it more. So what do you conclude, Your Majesty?"
"Alright I understand, so clay bricks, wooden planks, flip-flops and the new ice-box would be produced then. We will inform Ben about it and cease productions for sale and concentrate for local use only."
"How about the bread, biscuits, cakes, muffins, tartlets, tarts, turnovers and the Bun set? Any feedback so far from the other towns?"
"So far the sales had been great, Your Majesty. On top of the 35 gold coins contracted, we managed to garner another 10 more gold coins on an average from all the 15 towns, making an approximate of 150 gold coins as additional just in food products alone."
"That's pretty neat, Marcel. So we would then wait for the conference tonight, then we all head to the conference hall for a post-conference and therefore, we should be able to wrap up the whole matter."
"Alright, Your Majesty. I'm going to head to my room for a quick nap and be joining you after dinner then. Cheers..." Marcel excused himself as he drank up from his mug and settled the bill for everyone.
=*=
"It seems The Great Slump is really making things hard on the citizens around the towns that we are servicing, don't you think so, dear?" Heather spoke up as she ordered a plain flatbread for her and Michelle.
Since it was still early and had just passed midday, the Gracehaven's Greasy Spoon wasn't too busy or crowded. But if patrons were to start streaming in, they would keep their tones low if they saw us sitting there at the tables among the commoners.
"Sigh... It started 10 years ago and now it just reared its ugly head. Don't worry my dear, the Priests and Priestesses are here and look yonder over the residential lots, the farmers are now harvesting the crops as we speak...!"
"Eh... Ya... Ya... Ya... I could see the farmers all busy harvesting. I thought we just planted those not long ago?"
"Those are super seeds and we have a super Priestess so we have super harvest right now. I think they called it a bumper crop or something like that. Basically, it's not harvesting period in another 15 to 25 days, but we now are able to hoard these grains for our own use."
"Besides, what do you think of Adewera? It's a dwindling town but if we harbour those senior citizens back to Gracehaven, would it be alright? At least they have somewhere to go since the youngsters had left the town and believe me, I think they are just waiting for some help to arrive."
"Your Majesty, if you induce those folks into Gracehaven, won't you be incurring higher costs?" Michelle inquired and then when our eyes happened to locked, she quickly averted her gaze and looked into her mug of ale, maybe trying to find a minnow swimming in it or something.
"Well, Michelle, we would incur additional costs. Especially in wages. But if we don't require them to work or classified them as senior citizens, we could just reimburse them based on a collection of goodwill from the citizens, what do you think?"
"In this way, we would be able to observe on how big the hearts of the citizens here in Gracehaven. Would they ignore others just for their sake or would they willingly spare some small change weekly for these senior citizens?"
"We have like 350 citizens here and if someone willingly spares a copper, there would be 3 silvers and 50 coppers for these senior citizens."
"Moreover, how much could these senior citizens eat if they do not have a full set of teeth? Especially when their teeth were considered like corn on a cob with lots of missing kernels. Hahaha."
Michelle who was taking a sip from her mug immediately spurted the contents out from her mouth and nose...! Ouch...! That's going to hurt, right? She spluttered and coughed and had to blow her nose in the most unladylike manner at the sides.
In just a split second she went from Countess Michelle of Thornaby to a wreck... We laughed at her, behaving just like the times we were in our varsity, sitting at the benches of the sprawling ground and having packed lunches back then.
"Y-O-U..." Michelle started halfway but she stopped since it dawned on her that the two before her were no longer her schoolmates but rather, the King and Queen.
"So, Miss Michelle Ramsgate, what shall you do, to contribute to Gracehaven next since Chadwell had moved to the weaving production area outside, leaving you tethering between a teacher and also loomer?" I asked as I was also concerned about our dear friend's welfare. We just wished she won't become bored with nothing else to do in the future.
"Can I take up arms and be an archer just like the hunter-gatherers? I could learn to pick up archery, you know. I mean Your Majesty..."
Michelle sheepishly answered as a blush came over her face, realising that I still have a thread of care to ask about her wellbeing even though she knew I was married to her rival back in varsity.
"Shoot better than the hunter-gatherers then you could take up arms." I finally replied after giving it much thought. The answer I gave Michelle was neither a Yes or a No, so its pretty grey in most areas.
Besides she was from Gillman Barracks, as a cadet before she was found by Eagle many months before. Her two buddies were doing quite alright, but she herself was kind of alienated. Doesn't she want to look for her family members back in Thornaby or they had moved away to some other towns?
Besides, upper-class men won't leave their houses and possessions that easily, would they?
- Writer
