Three days later, which was the second day of winter, Barov brought the news that the Joint Chamber of Commerce had signed a contract successfully.
The final result of the negotiation was that Margaery would be responsible for the mainland sales of Graycastle, Sunset Island and Shallow Water Town would be responsible for the island, the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart respectively, and Crescent Moon Bay would take over the other islands in the Fjords and the Kingdom of Dawn.
To Roland's surprise, he also saw an arithmetic equation in the contract, which basically set several major conditions as unknowns, fill in the equation according to the specific situation, and then get a share of the current year's income.
"Who wrote this?" Roland asked curiously.
"My disciple," Barov said with a smile while stroking his beard. "During the summary, he found that instead of making a complicated schedule, it was more appropriate to use this formula to express it, and all three parties agreed on its accuracy."
"I don't remember this being taught in the universal education."
"Didn't you open an intermediate class? I bought a set of mathematics textbooks for each disciple and asked them to attend Lady Scroll's lectures whenever they had time. " He sighed. "I'm getting old, and I can't keep up with these young people, so I have to let them take advantage of me. If I were ten years younger, I would definitely carry these books with me and read them every day, Your Majesty. "
This flattery made Roland feel good all over. Furthermore, he realized that mathematical knowledge was helpful for financial and administrative management. The head steward's insight was quite good.
"What about Edith? How did she do in this negotiation? "
"Not too bad." Barov coughed twice. "Although she charmed those merchants, she obviously lacked experience when it came to specific commercial terms. I guess she rarely dealt with sea merchants. After all, the trade in the Northern Region is not developed, unlike the old king's city, where the finance minister almost every day had to summon visiting Fjords merchants. Back then... "
"I see." Seeing that the chief was about to go back into his memory mode, Roland hurriedly interrupted. "In that case, you should teach her more."
The old chief's face stiffened. "Uh, this... Your Majesty, she actually..."
"That's settled," Roland said gloatingly. Judging from the frequency of Nightingale pinching his shoulder from behind, he knew that his words were not credible. However, he did not want to deal with this kind of tattletale competition, as long as he did not screw up. "By the way, how many people did Neverwinter increase this year? Did it meet the target?"
Although there was still about a month to go before the end of the year, with the arrival of winter, the immigration missions would gradually return to Neverwinter, and the number of immigrants would inevitably decrease.
At the mention of this, Barov's face immediately bloomed into a smile. The wrinkles on his forehead were squeezed into a ravine, and the awkwardness from before also disappeared. "Your Majesty, the City Hall has done the statistics. There are more than 80,000 people who moved here from all over the country, and 50% of them came here voluntarily. Including the natives in the Border area and Border and Longsong, of Border, the population of of Neverwinter has reached 110,000!
"Oh?" Roland was delighted. "Half of them came voluntarily?"
"Most of them came from the central and Eastern Region of the kingdom. It was not obvious in spring and summer, but in autumn, the proportion began to increase. At this rate, by next year, the traitors who supported Timothy will probably not be able to sit still."
This should be the effect of Theo spreading the news of the church's defeat to the Eastern Region. However, Roland still hoped that the nobles would persist for a while, so that he would have an excuse to eradicate them altogether and return a stable and orderly new kingdom to the people of the Eastern Region.
"Are the preparations for the winter ready?"
"Two months ago, the City Hall was ready," Barov replied with full confidence, "The Ministry of Construction commissioned Miss Lotus to build a new batch of caves between the Impassable Mountain Range and the Redwater River, in order to replace the shacks that were leaking. We've stockpiled a large amount of charcoal to make sure that everyone can get a basket. "
After Roland's repeated influence, City hall now finally got used to "no one will freeze to death in winter, no one will starve to death" as the administrative goal, and implemented it in various decrees and measures.
He nodded with gratification. "Very good. Tell Scroll for me to not forget to educate her in winter."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"In addition, I plan to launch a small-scale war without affecting the normal operation of Neverwinter, and the target is the Southernmost Region. When Iron Axe makes a specific combat plan, you can cooperate with him to mobilize all kinds of resources. " Seeing that Barov was hesitant to speak, Roland walked to him and patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."
...
After the director left, Nightingale appeared and asked confusedly, "Is it okay? When he talked about Edith, it was obviously inconsistent with the actual situation. Even without using his ability, I can see it from his expression. "
"If I reprimand him for this, I'm afraid he won't dare to directly suppress Edith anymore." Roland spread out his hands. "In order to maintain the balance of City hall, someone has to restrict the Pearl of the Northern Region. At present, only Barov can do this."
"But why restrict her? If she has enough ability to manage City hall, it won't be bad for you. "
"Because..." Roland opened his mouth, but found that he did not know what to say for a moment.
That's right, why did he have to restrict Edith?
Is he worried that she will be the only one in power?
The possibility of this is very small. As long as I am the king, I can replace her with a word. Moreover, City hall is not allowed to interfere with the army. Even if she controls all the administrative departments, she will not be a threat to the throne.
In fact, when the City hall staff are selected according to the recruitment notice and paid by the treasury, the impact of replacing a manager has been minimized.
Is he worried that she will deceive and tamper with the decree?
At least not in Neverwinter. The effect of any decree will be transmitted to Roland's ears. Moreover, the city is not so big, so the transmission of information is almost real-time.
Before coming to this world, what he hated the most was the way of checks and balances, especially in the workplace. When his boss regarded it as the way of the king, he sneered at it. He did not expect that after becoming the ruler, he would subconsciously think of this... If not for Nightingale's reminder, he might not have realized that he was gradually becoming the kind of person he hated.
Power does need to be checked and balanced, but it should not be played by another person or a few people, but by policies, institutions, and laws. Without violating these frameworks, it is the right way to let his subordinates play to the fullest extent.
Roland heaved a sigh of relief. He pursed his lips and was about to thank Nightingale when he found that her eyes were completely focused outside the window.
"Look, it's snowing," she said softly.
Roland turned around and found that countless white spots had quietly appeared in the gray sky. They were like light elves that were slowly floating down.
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