Lafite Manor is not far from the location of New Eagle Castle. It was originally just a very ordinary medium-sized manor owned by the Alaholf family.
With Otto's move in, this place became the center of power in the Aargauland.
Otto enjoyed living in the manor very much. In his opinion, the narrow and dull castle rooms were not as comfortable as living in the large house of the manor.
The smell you smell every morning is completely different. In the manor, when you open the window in the early morning, you can smell the scent of nature.
In the castle, most of the time the fresh air is mixed with the disgusting smell of excrement.
Since he promised to give the old castle to his brother El, Otto did not stay in the old castle for too long and moved to Lafite Manor in less than a week. The original name of this manor was not Lafite. It had no name at all. Why it was called Lafite was entirely Otto's personal bad taste.
After moving to Chateau Lafite, Otto has been busy with a small thing, which is making wine.
In view of the special situation of Argolen, with no resources and no special products, Otto wanted to find a profitable product for the territory. After thinking about it, Otto discovered that with the meager knowledge he had left as a liberal arts student, the only two options were glass and high-strength wine.
Unfortunately, Otto did not know the specific production process of these two products. He only knew that the glass seemed to be made of limestone. He had no idea what other raw materials were needed and how to bake them.
This kind of thing can only be left to the craftsmen to try their luck. Naturally, Otto cannot place his hopes on luck.
As for high-strength wine, Otto didn't know how to make wine, but at any rate, he still knew the principles of distillation. And winemaking itself is not an advanced craft, even ordinary people can do it.
Then what Otto needs to do is simple, which is to supervise the craftsmen to make wine, and then use distillation and purification to turn the low-alcohol wine into high-alcohol wine due to craftsmanship.
In this way, the mountains of food in the warehouse can be used up. After all, apart from food, Aargauland has nothing to produce.
Unfortunately, what is popular in Europe today is not liquor, but wine. Even if Otto succeeds in making spirits, he still needs to cultivate consumption habits.
Otto was not worried about this. Wine was a favorite among nobles and priests because it had low alcohol content, looked good, and mainly met social needs.
The vast majority of people in the middle and lower classes do not want alcohol to satisfy social needs. What they need is the numbness and happiness brought by alcohol.
Since everyone knows how to make wine, making grain wine is not a big problem. The principle of this thing is the same. After recruiting more than a dozen craftsmen who were proficient in winemaking, Otto supervised them every day and waited for them to come up with the finished product.
He was still a little worried. If he didn't get it right and turned the liquor into beer, it would be troublesome. Although beer is theoretically more popular and has higher sales volume, given the current traffic and transportation conditions, beer can only be sold in a limited area and cannot be sold too far.
This is contrary to Otto's original intention.
However, winemaking cannot be completed in a day or two. After Otto tinkered with a small distillation device, he waited patiently for the first batch of wine pulp to be released.
As autumn approaches and the annual harvest season arrives, farmers in Aargauen will surely have a more prosperous New Year this year.
On that day, Otto issued a decree that directly reduced farmers' taxes by 70%. At the same time, it stipulated that all serfs who farmed the territory directly under the Alaholf family could become free citizens as long as they paid taxes on time for three years. identity, that is, freedom of life is no longer restricted.
If you have been farming for more than ten years, you can purchase the land from the Alahorv family at a price five times the annual output of the land, making it private land for farmers and enjoying three years of tax exemption.
Purchased private land can be passed down from generation to generation, but it is not allowed to be bought or sold without the permission of the lord, the Alahorv family, but it can be subleased.
Otto's idea was to make the vast number of serfs free people and become wealthy. In this way, sufficient citizens and labor force can be provided for emerging cities and towns, and consumers can be found for various commodities produced after urbanization.
Otherwise, the so-called urbanization is just a castle in the air.
Originally, Otto wanted to expand the scope to the entire Argau Territory, but considering the situation of the feudal system, he decided to only implement it in the directly governed territories. Otherwise, it will easily arouse opposition from the vassals.
Land and population are the source of wealth and power for the nobles. If farmers are allowed to move freely, most nobles will definitely not be happy.
Otto knew that there was no need to rush, so he took too long a step and was easily distracted. If he made the nobles dissatisfied just after taking power, wouldn't it be seeking death?
The second point is to encourage land reclamation. Any uncultivated wasteland in the territory directly under the control of the Alahorv family will be tax-free for two years after it is reclaimed. After five years of cultivation, that is, a total of seven years, the land can also be purchased.
The purpose of this second article is mainly for the construction of New Eagle Fort. Forced resettlement will definitely cause dissatisfaction among farmers, but if the land cultivated after resettlement is owned, many people will be willing to do so.
To maintain a town, enough countryside is needed to support it.
As for the third article, it announced the commercial tax.
All caravans passing through Argauland must pay a tax at the rate of thirty to one. Territory residents who do business in towns within the territory need to pay a business tax of forty to one.
The decree signed by Otto indeed aroused a good response. The majority of farmers are very happy about the reduction of taxes and the opportunity to obtain their own land.
Although other nobles felt that Otto's behavior was inappropriate, the decree only targeted the direct jurisdiction of the Alaholf family, and they had no control over it.
As for business taxes, they are happy and prosperous. Because although the law did not say anything, Otto has already told everyone that part of the business tax received every year will be distributed to them.
Otto's purpose in doing this was also to avoid a second tax collection in the territory, which would have a huge impact on the entire business environment.
Give a share of the pie to the vassals, and they will naturally not do such things to offend Otto.
The farmers are very kind and honest. After learning that Master Otto reduced taxes for them, during this period of time, Lafite Manor has been receiving various prey sent by the farmers every day, allowing Otto to I'm a little tired of eating wild game.
"Master." Knight Wade came to Otto, who was taking a nap on the swing with his eyes closed, and reported in a low voice.
"I just received news that another caravan refused to pay taxes and chose to take a detour. The goods transported by this caravan are furs. Do you think we should..."
"Fur?" Otto suddenly opened his eyes and looked at Wade aside, with a smile on his face. "Winter is coming soon. I think this winter might be very cold. I'm a little worried about keeping the residents warm."
"Okay, I understand Master Otto, I will make arrangements right away." Wade nodded and left in a hurry.
Otto yawned and tightened his clothes. The autumn wind was indeed a bit cold.
