Viking: Master of the Icy Sea

Chapter 181: Agriculture and Reserves

The next morning, Wigg went to visit the school.

Nowadays, Floki's focus had shifted to the temple and the hospital, so the school had been handed over to the management of Kemi Wildfire. Upon learning of the lord's arrival, Kemi immediately organized the teachers and students to welcome him.

"Let them go back to class. I have something to discuss with you," Wigg instructed.

In the headmaster's office, Wigg expressed his approval of Kemi's contributions to agriculture. "You have done an excellent job over the years, establishing experimental fields for clover and turnips at the school. Furthermore, based on the ideas I provided, you led the students to develop a practical threshing machine. I intend to knight you. As it happens, the Sheriff of Aberdeen County is getting on in years. Pack your things; you will depart next week to take up the post."

However, Kemi declined the lord's generous offer, choosing to remain at the school. He had grown accustomed to a life surrounded by children and feared that rushing off to Aberdeen to serve as Sheriff would be a task beyond his capabilities.

"Is that so? As you wish," Wigg replied.

Wigg did not press the matter. He flipped through the roster and had Kemi summon seventeen teachers and students. This group had invented the threshing machine, tended to the experimental crop fields, and were currently attempting to invent a horse-drawn harvester. They represented the absolute elite of Tynefort Academy.

The vast majority of them were middle school students. Their primary task was to self-study the teaching materials, as Wigg had no time to teach classes, while occasionally sparing time to instruct the lower-grade students in a work-study arrangement.

Under the astonished gazes of the crowd, two guards carried a chest of Silver Pennies into the room. A total of one hundred and fifty pounds was distributed among the eighteen individuals, including Kemi Wildfire.

Dazzled by the gleaming silver, Kemi whispered, "This... this is far too much.""No, it is what you deserve," Wigg declared. "In fact, it is far from enough to compensate for your contributions. Once these agricultural technologies spread throughout the Kingdom of Britain and the European continent, tens of millions of farmers will benefit. Unfortunately, I am merely the Duke of Tainburg. I cannot grant you much in the way of honors, so I can only offer some silver as compensation."

After the rewards were distributed, everyone left, each clutching a bag of Silver Pennies. Wigg remained in the office, reviewing the teaching records from the past six months.

At noon, he dined in the cafeteria as usual. The variety of dishes was much the same as in previous years, consisting of fish soup, bread, and seasonal vegetables. However, each person now received a boiled egg and a cup of goat's milk, which marked the only real improvement.

After lunch, Kemi invited the Duke to the experimental fields behind the school. He introduced the crop rotation system he had developed involving wheat, turnips, barley, and clover. It required no fallow period and was perfectly suited to replace the current three-field system.

"Are you certain?" Wigg asked.

Wigg had expended an untold amount of effort to promote the three-field system, and hearing Kemi's idea brought a wave of hesitation to his heart. "Turnips and clover can fix nitrogen and enrich the soil, but eliminating the fallow period is too risky. If crop yields remain stable for three years, then we can promote it on a large scale across the counties."

In Wigg's memory, England invented the Norfolk four-course rotation in the sixteenth century, but he was unsure if Kemi's concept matched that precise method.

"Do not rush," Wigg advised. "Focus your energy on the horse-drawn harvester. The use of agricultural machinery helps save labor, allowing more of the population to engage in handicrafts, commerce, and..."

Kemi possessed exceptional intellect and instantly guessed the word the Duke left unsaid: war.

"Are we going to war again?" he asked quietly.

Wigg shook his head. "That is not something you need to worry about. Focus on teaching and your research at the school, and invent the horse-drawn harvester as soon as possible. I will handle everything else."

Currently, farmers in the Northern Marches widely used iron sickles. An ordinary man could harvest half an acre of wheat a day, and during the busy farming season, even children as young as six or seven had to help out. If war broke out and male commoners were conscripted, the loss of strong labor would inevitably impact the harvest. The longer the war dragged on, the more soldiers would worry about the farm work back home, leading to a higher rate of desertion.

'As I recall, a horse-drawn harvester appeared in America in the early nineteenth century, capable of harvesting ten acres of land a day. Once such machinery is put into use, we can conscript more farmers during wartime and perhaps assemble an army of tens of thousands.' After pondering for a few minutes, Wigg abandoned this impractical thought. The Picts, Gaels, and Angles belonged to different cultures and religions, and their acceptance of Viking rulers was quite low.

If a war were to break out, the demographic with the highest mobilization rate would undoubtedly be the tens of thousands of Viking immigrants in Tyne County.

Having lived together for over a decade, coupled with Heregyth's Anglo-Saxon bloodline, the mobilization rate of the Anglo-Saxon farmers came in second.

Further down the line were the Picts and Gaels of the five counties in the Northern Marches. Wigg did not hold much hope for them; he only asked that they pay their taxes on time and refrain from causing trouble.

In October, Wigg made another trip to Londinium. This time, he was free of burdens. After submitting his tribute list, he stood quietly in the crowd, watching the audience procedures of the other nobles.

When it was Ulf's turn, his expression was uncertain. He hesitated before speaking, "Your Majesty, last year Pascal requisitioned supplies from me worth a total of five hundred pounds. When will the payment be made?"

Upon the throne, Ragnar's eyes were icy. "This is an audience ceremony. Take these trivial matters to the Prime Minister; he will give you an answer."

Seeing Ulf willingly stick his neck out, the other nobles cast admiring glances his way.

In everyone's eyes, the Royal Family could punish a single noble, but they could not defy the collective will of the entire aristocracy. If Ragnar intended to default on his debts, he could not blame his brothers for disregarding their old ties!

Enduring until the afternoon, the audience ceremony finally concluded. Wigg stretched lazily as he left the main hall, only to be unexpectedly pulled into a small room by Gorm.

"Your Grace, is there any other way?" Gorm asked.

Wigg put on a bitter face. "The reason I resigned is exactly because I could not think of a way. With over twenty thousand pounds in debt, how do you expect me to shoulder it?"

Gorm sighed. "It is more than that. I took out a loan from the Flemish merchants, and the total debt has now reached twenty-six thousand pounds."

This news truly startled Wigg.

In the early Middle Ages, the Italian banking industry had yet to emerge. The financing capabilities of Western European monarchs were limited, making it impossible to secure massive loans of hundreds of thousands of pounds as in later eras.

Now, they had borrowed from Berber merchants, Rus merchants, Northern European merchants, and Flemish merchants. Soon, they would run out of people to borrow from entirely.

Since the former Prime Minister had no solutions, Gorm hardened his heart and decided to increase the agricultural tax and the wool export tax.

Following that, Gorm took the initiative to approach suckers like Theowulf, Ulf, and Leonard. He talked until he was blue in the face, managing to convert tens of thousands of pounds of debt into low-interest loans with a six percent annual interest rate.

"Fine, we respect the Royal Family, but His Majesty must also understand our difficulties. In the future, when requisitioning supplies, it must be clearly explained whether it is an expropriation, a purchase, or an advance on credit!"

As soon as Ulf finished speaking, the nobles responded in unison, vaguely revealing a tendency toward the limitation of royal power. Terrified, Gorm hastily agreed, barely managing to quell the debt-collecting storm.