Viking: Master of the Icy Sea

Chapter 173: Slaves and the New District

At the mention of land reclamation, Ragnar looked thoughtful and asked where the labor force would come from.

Viggo explained, "Some will come from Northern European immigrants, and the rest from the slave market. The cabinet will reach an agreement with the slave merchants to organize slaves for land reclamation, paying their ransom to the merchants over five consecutive years. Once the five-year period is up, the cabinet will emancipate the slaves, turning them into freeholders."

Freeholders were the backbone of society, providing the rulers with recruits and taxes. Those who possessed fixed property possessed steadfast hearts; to protect their own land and estates, their loyalty would far surpass that of foreign mercenaries or slave soldiers.

Taking the Roman Empire as an example, as land annexation worsened, the freeholder class continuously shrank. This weakened the citizen-soldier system, forcing the empire to conscript more mercenaries and barbarian soldiers, which ultimately sparked endless political turmoil and civil wars.

Ragnar stroked his graying beard. "I am afraid the slave merchants will have complaints about this approach."

Viggo replied calmly, "As long as you agree, Your Majesty, the cabinet will handle such trivial matters. Could a measly group of merchants possibly turn the world upside down?"

Politics, at its core, was the distribution of interests. One side would always suffer losses, and it was impossible to please everyone. Lord Viggo held the entirety of the British Isles in his heart; he had no time to worry about a few petty grievances.

Sensing that the Prime Minister had made up his mind, Ragnar whispered with his two Queens for a long while before deciding to give it a try to turn their current financial plight around.

Clutching the proposal stamped with the King's personal seal, Viggo convened a cabinet meeting that very afternoon to assign tasks to everyone.

First was the newly imposed luxury tax, which would be entirely overseen by the Minister of the Ocean, Ethelwulf. No matter what, they had to collect at least an additional five hundred pounds this year.Second was the issue regarding slaves. Viggo tossed this task to Gorm, ordering him to negotiate with the slave merchants.

"Your Excellency, your plan benefits the royal family and the slaves, but it completely ignores the thoughts of the slave merchants," Gorm said with a bitter face. The so-called five-year repayment plan amounted to a total sum 1.2 times the ransom price of an adult slave. The annual interest rate was simply too low, exceeding the merchants' limits of tolerance.

Viggo remained entirely unmoved. "This particular group has plenty of vulnerabilities to exploit, which is exactly why I am sending you, the Minister of Justice, to negotiate. If they are willing to hand over the people, everything can be discussed amicably. But if they refuse to be decent about it, you are welcome to use other methods."

The next poor devil was Hrolf. Viggo asked him to introduce the undeveloped wasteland in his jurisdiction, but to his surprise, Hrolf merely threw his hands up in defeat.

"Your Excellency, I have only recently taken office and am not yet familiar with the situation in my jurisdiction."

Left with no other choice, Viggo spent the following days venturing out himself, splitting up with his aides to survey the land conditions surrounding Londinium.

Vacant, flat grasslands were suitable for reclamation into farmland, offering the lowest level of difficulty for development.

Land overgrown with woods and shrubs presented a moderate challenge. It was ideal for chopping down trees to sell for timber, then burning away the remaining brush to clear space for farmland and pastures.

The most difficult to develop were the swamps. There were massive stretches of silted peat bogs and reed marshes around Londinium, severely restricting the expansion of the town's area.

Riding a gray horse, Viggo arrived at the highlands outside the city. Overlooking the chaotically laid out, narrow, and crowded town, a plan suddenly sparked in his mind.

"The permanent population of Londinium has reached eight thousand. Whenever summer and autumn roll around, commercial trade becomes highly active, and the population often breaks ten thousand. Come early October, when vassals from all over arrive for their pilgrimage, some strapped-for-cash knights are even forced to sleep on the streets.

If we organize slaves to drain the swamps, the resulting empty land could be used to build houses, merchant depots, workshops, and high-end mansions to sell to different demographics. The return on investment would be vastly higher than reclaiming farmland in other regions." Making up his mind, Viggo had someone fetch Gorm to inquire about the results of his work over the past few days.

As the largest town and trade center on the Isle of Britain, Londinium saw frequent slave trading. Gorm had convened a meeting with the relevant professionals, and unsurprisingly, he was met with unanimous opposition.

The slave merchants' trump card lay in the fact that most of their slaves were kept in manors scattered across various regions; Londinium was merely a trading hub. If the Minister of Justice pushed them too far, the worst that could happen was simply moving their business elsewhere.

In response, Gorm displayed a rare tough stance. He declared that this was the unanimous decision of the royal family and the cabinet. If anyone refused to show respect, they could forget about ever doing business in Great Britain, Denmark, Sweden, or any other related territories in the future—he would completely sever their avenues of wealth.

Taking advantage of the pause while Gorm drank some water, Viggo stroked his chin. "So, they compromised?"

"You could say that. We hammered out an agreement. The slave merchants will scrape together a thousand adult males, and the cabinet will pay to ransom them, repaying the cost over five years. The total repayment amount has been bumped up slightly, equivalent to 1.5 times their ransom price. If we need more in the future, they can hand over two hundred adult males annually, with the repayment terms matching the above."

Having finished his report, Gorm stretched lazily and yawned as he walked out of the Prime Minister's official residence.

Unlike Pascal and Viggo, he did not strive for absolute perfection when handling official duties. Reaching seventy or eighty percent of the goal was already enough for him. He preferred to leave a little leeway for all parties involved and avoid conflict as much as possible.

With the labor issue resolved, Viggo applied to Ragnar to expand the town's area. Upon receiving permission, he marked out a massive plot of land outside the western wall, directed the construction crew to level the ground, and built a wooden palisade along the perimeter.

After toiling until May, the palisade was mostly completed. The construction crew then began building residential houses according to uniform specifications, adopting a "shop in the front, house in the back" layout.

The houses were split into upper and lower floors, utilizing oak truss structures. The walls were filled with wattle and daub, a common medieval technique that involved weaving branches into a lattice and smearing it with a mixture of clay, reeds, and lime.

The original thatched roofs were abandoned and universally replaced with terracotta tiles. Chimneys were added to the structures, and the central fire pits inside the homes were entirely done away with, replaced by brick fireplaces.

Out of fire safety considerations, the streets and alleys of the new district were deliberately widened, with water wells distributed at regular intervals.

As the Sheriff of Londinium, Hrolf occasionally ran over to the construction site to join in the excitement. Comparing it to the messy residential houses in the old district, he could not help but sigh. "Isn't this a bit too extravagant?"

"Extravagant? Do you mean the cost?" Viggo, who had arrived upon hearing the news, explained to him. "The specifications of the houses are identical, and every worker is only responsible for a specific process. The construction speed has increased tremendously, which, in a way, actually saves on costs."

"Exactly how much profit can be made?"

Viggo provided a rough estimate. "It is still unclear for now. Over in Teyne Town, the selling price for this new style of housing is 0.6 pounds. Londinium has a much larger population, so they can sell for at least 0.7 pounds. After deducting the costs, we estimate a profit of 0.6 pounds per house."

That much?

Hrolf was deeply shocked. Assuming they built two thousand residential units, wouldn't that mean raking in a profit of one thousand two hundred pounds?

At this moment, his gaze shifted toward another area. The houses there boasted an even larger footprint and utilized stone masonry structures; it seemed they were constructing mansions for the nobles.

Calculating the potential profit from a single mansion, Hrolf's eyes gradually turned fervent. He decided he had to find a way to make a fortune out of this.