In the end, Dr. Wargrave was helped out of the conference room by Pate. The old man in this state was completely unable to communicate.
Danny also breathed a sigh of relief. The old man was clamoring to see Princess Lei Lei for a while, and then he pulled 'Cresson' to salute Queen Leila.
She had considered the resemblance between mother and daughter before, but Barristan clearly told her that Queen Leila was not similar to her, especially in terms of temperament. He could not see the queen's shadow in her.
As the White Knight said, before meeting Dr. Wargrave, no one doubted her identity.
"Sorry, Dr. Wargrave is old and his memory is in a mess. As you can see, he can't even remember his assistant who served him for three years," Dr. Perestan apologized awkwardly.
"It's okay." Danny waved her hand and sat down on the right side of the old doctor.
When everyone sat down, Perestan announced the start of the meeting. First, he handed Danny a piece of parchment with the income and expenditure of sea trade for the past fifty years.
"After returning to the City of Knowledge last night, twenty-five economics students and I sorted out the trade data of the six major trading seaports: Port Lannister, Old Town, Sun Halberd City, King's Landing, Seagull Town, and White Harbor. Finally, we calculated the trade deficit of Westeros for the past forty years."
Danny took a closer look. During the period of 'Mad King' Eris, there were surpluses and deficits. If the years of trade deficit were singled out, it was almost a horizontal line, about two hundred thousand gold royals per year.
Well, there were even a few years of small surpluses in the middle of summer, but there would be a large deficit in winter.
But everything changed after Robert came to power. Not only did the deficit increase every year, but the extent of the deficit also increased crazily, from eight hundred thousand gold royals in the second year of Robert's succession to two million gold royals in the year before his death.
Well, the data after the War of the Four Kings fell, and the deficit hovered around five hundred thousand gold royals in the last two years.
Of the fourteen years Robert had been in power, ten had been in summer.
"This is crazy. In the sixteen years after the War of the Usurpers, the Westeros lost sixteen million gold royals?!" Danny said incredulously.
Perestan rubbed the dark circles under his eyes and smiled bitterly, "We didn't expect it to be so terrifying either. I was so scared that I couldn't sleep for the entire night."
"We need to rebuild the statue of King Aeris. Compared to Robert I, he did a good job during his reign," a doctor named Morath joked.
"It's mainly due to Duke Tywin." Dr. Nemos shook his head.
"Actually, other than being addicted to wildfire and tormenting the nobles until they couldn't eat or sleep in peace, Eris didn't do much evil. At least, not only was he not extravagant, he was also very frugal. Robert inherited at least four million gold royals from him," Professor Ha Dongyin said.
"Sigh, why is it so difficult to have a good king? The thrifty king is crazy, and the heroic man is extravagant. "Dr. Nemos held his head and sighed.
Danny's eyes flashed, and she suggested tentatively, "The Westeros are indeed at the time of reform. The City of Knowledge can launch a 'Grand Council' to learn from the advanced experience of the trading city-states and limit the power of the king."
"Don't even think about it. The City of Knowledge is just a service organization. It doesn't have the right to initiate a meeting, nor does it have the right to participate in the game of power." The professors shook their heads in unison.
What, what's going on?
There's no need to lie at this time, and their expressions don't seem to be perfunctory. Then, why would the City of Knowledge, which doesn't participate in the game of power, target me?
Danny's mind was filled with more and more doubts.
"Ahem, let's get back to the topic." Dr. Perestan coughed a few times and reminded everyone, "The most urgent problem now is how to reduce the trade deficit."
Danny frowned and said, "To solve this problem, we have to figure out where the Westeros spend their money."
"We have statistics," Perestan said as he handed over another sheepskin scroll. "During the reign of King Eris, the City of Knowledge's Witchcraft Lens experiments accounted for one-tenth of the country's external financial expenditure. Luxuries such as Myr lace, brocade, Kohor iron, barren spices, and ivory accounted for eighty percent. The remaining ten percent was necessities such as grain, linen, salt, whale oil, and sugar.
However, we also exported wood, fur, and wine to the trading city-states, especially the wine from Qingting Island. This made the old town a major port second only to the King's Landing. "
Danny lowered her head and flipped through the sheepskin scroll. She asked casually, "How far have you researched the Witchcraft Lens?"
"Miss Leila also knows about the Witchcraft Lens?"
"Yes, I've read about it in a book."
"Sigh, the creation of the Witchcraft Lens requires witchcraft. However, we've researched it for many years and proved that magic is a scam. We've wasted more than 1.5 million gold royals." Dr. Perestan shook his head.
"Magic?" Danny stopped flipping through the sheepskin scroll. She raised her head and looked at the old professor. "Are you sure you want to use magic?"
"Of course, we have all the information on the creation of the Witchcraft Lens." As he spoke, he pulled his necklace and revealed a black chain. "Do you see this? Valleglia's steel. I've researched magic for twenty years, and I'm also a Master Magician! "
Danny stared at his brown eyes for a long time. Other than his determination and pride, there were also two lumps of yellowish-white excrement at the corners of his eyes. She didn't see a single Meditation Rune.
He was purely a muggle!
"Professor, how do you study magic?" Danny asked tentatively.
"I memorize the basic rune table and study the composition of the incantation runes. First, I disassemble it into hundreds of individual runes. Then, I compare the similarities and differences of the runes through the specific functions of witchcraft and analyze the meaning of the various combinations of the individual runes."
Danny widened her eyes and said in disbelief, "Seven Gods above, your process of learning magic is very formal and systematic."
Yes, formal, just like studying a certain major in a university.
This was completely out of Danny's expectations. The process of learning magic was very professional. If she didn't know that the old professor was a muggle, she would have thought that the old professor had graduated from a wizard academy.
"It's fake." The old man shook his head disapprovingly.
"It's true," Danny said seriously. "Your way of learning magic isn't wrong, but you've neglected two prerequisites."
"Miss Leila, you even know about occultism?" Professor Nemos asked curiously.
"Not really. I only know some basic knowledge. There are two prerequisites to learn magic. First, the learner must have the talent to become an Extraordinary. Second, there must be a Magic Tide, which means that there are dragons in the world or the place where the divine power radiates."
After saying that, Danny was also confused. "You even know the orthodox way of practicing magic. There's no reason that you don't know these basic knowledge, right? Let's not talk about anything else. Just go to the docks and find a Fire Mage or a Red God Priest.
"This …" The expressions of the professors changed.
"Miss Leila, the fire mages are all liars," Professor Perestan said in a condemning tone.
"You're all wise people who know the truth. Think about it and you'll understand. The Witchcraft Lens was invented by the people of Valleglia, and the people of Valleglia are famous for their magic skills. It's definitely real.
Without real magic, how can you create the Witchcraft Lens?
Actually, the reason why you can't create the Witchcraft Lens is that the dragons have died out over a century ago, and the world has entered an era without magic.
You won't be able to learn magic no matter what. Runes without magic are the same as the patterns on armor. They have no practical use. "
"Is that so?" Some of the professors were enlightened, but most of them didn't think so. Some even looked disgusted by the topic.
Danny observed their expressions and immediately changed the topic. "I understand now. King Robert is extravagant, and the other nobles are imitating him. The trend of extravagance is spreading from the King's Landing. The Seven Kingdoms consume too much luxury goods, so naturally, the deficit is huge.
As long as the next king is diligent and thrifty, and appropriately raises the tariffs on imported goods, the deficit will be easily solved. "
"Well, Miss Leila, your suggestion is good, but it's hard to implement." Perestan paused and explained with a bitter smile, "The king has two types of taxes for the lords of the Seven Kingdoms: land tax and business tax.
Land tax is related to the population and land under the lord, so it's hard to raise it under normal circumstances.
But business tax is different. If the old town's commerce is flourishing, the king's share of the tax will naturally increase.
In other words, the more luxury goods the nobles buy, the higher the consumption, and the higher the income of the Iron Throne. The tariffs set by Little Finger when he was the finance minister can almost maximize the prosperity of commerce and earn the most money for the king.
And the tariffs are also related to the purchasing power of the nobles. The higher the tariffs, the higher the prices. You can imagine that they're already used to spices and fancy clothes.
Raising the tariffs will offend the king and the nobles at the same time, but there's no obvious benefit. "
"Since they can't bear to be poor and suffer, there are only two options left," Danny said after thinking for a while.
"There are two options?" The professors were pleasantly surprised.
"Yes, I mentioned the first one before. Cheat the Iron Treasury of their money."
Perestan frowned. "Credibility —"
Danny waved her hand and interrupted him. "Don't want credibility. The Westeros will completely abandon their international reputation."
"Uh, what do you mean?" 17 pairs of confused eyes looked at her.
"Obviously, the Iron Treasury can only be cheated once, right?"
"That's right."
"After cheating, the Westeros will completely lose their credibility, right?"
"That's right."
"Then let's go all the way and become a rogue nation," Danny waved her hand and said boldly, "I said before that the warriors of the Seven Kingdoms are unparalleled in the world. We can build a few hundred pirate ships and learn from Tiemin's' Ancient Road '. We can seal off the narrow sea and collect toll. "
“.....”
This suggestion was too crazy. The professors' eyeballs almost fell out of the table.
After a while, Professor Perestan shook his head regretfully. "It's possible, but it doesn't conform to the teachings of the Seven Gods and the traditions of the Seven Kingdoms!"
"That's simple. Take off the knight's armor and pretend to be a foreigner. The foreigners will form a group and occupy the narrow sea."
"What's the difference?" Perestan was confused.
"You should feel a little better! You don't even believe in magic. Do you think the Seven Gods are real? If even the Seven Gods are fake, why can't you pretend to be a foreigner? "
The professors opened and closed their mouths. They were conflicted but did not know how to refute.
"Moreover, the Seven Kingdoms are now in a state of collapse. Killing relatives, killing the king, violating the rights of the guests, violating the sacred oath, these are happening one after another. Let's just give up and become a nation of beasts! "Danny waved her hand and said boldly.
Perestan and the other professors almost broke down when they heard this.
"Maybe the king can set things right. Let's talk about the second option," the old professor groaned.
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