Banished Prince Charming

Chapter 32 - Interesting Miners.

"PAYING TAXES...?! This is totally absurd...!" Jack slowly raised himself up and introduced himself to the new families. After he explained his role which was not being paid, and also the trade as a Blacksmith that had yet to have some incoming orders from the merchants, he still needs to pay a tax that is 10 times more than what they need to pay as labourers.

"What do you mean by 10 times you need to pay as taxes? How much tax does that young man is talking about, eh?" the Ashworth spoke up.

After discussing the salaries of a general labourer with Jack some time back, I learnt that those labourers were paid 2s a month that would be 6c a day. The balances would acc.u.mulate by 365 days and be paid an additional 2s as a bonus for them.

"Listen to me carefully. W-H-E-N you are successfully employed as a labourer, you would be paid a steady income of 2s a month per person. The Ashworth would be lucky since your two sons are teenagers and would easily fit into the workforce. You would L-I-K-E-L-Y be earning 8s monthly. Listen on how I enunciated when and likely and not using the word I-F."

"The monthly taxes that you need to pay is only 10c per person. This tax is just minimal since it would be used for the future development of GraceHaven. I myself have to pay 1s monthly once I got my first project. The title that was bestowed upon me is just a part of my responsibilities for GraceHaven and I am happy to do it even though I'm not paid for it."

Jack acting as a mediator worked perfectly according to my plan and the mention of earning money was easy since being a labourer would enable them to be entitled to meals too.

The Burns heard what was being thoroughly explained by Jack finally understood what it was all about. Furthermore, the possibility to have their own trade and profession would mean boundless limits. The Burns and his sister in law wouldn't mind the hard work at all and they could earn 6s a month and by the end of the first month, they would be self-sustained and able to survive and have a good start in life.

Then Gwen the Justice Minister spoke up in a stern voice about the tendency to squirrel away the wheat or corn in the plantations next to the residential plot. She also took out a short whip that would be used to punish those who does not abide with the law and let out a resounding crack after she finished her short speech.

The method was a deterrence against future pillages of livestock or foods whether intentionally or not. The example Gwen set was a good idea because these two families would help to spread the word that there would be no mercy for those who were caught, whether they were male or female.

I was laughing inside silently while keeping a straight face when I looked at the horror of the young boys upon hearing the sharp crack of the whip made by Gwen. In the future, if anyone made any attempts to take a few corns for themselves would be deterred by these families for sure. Hahahaha.

The sweet-scented and mouth-watering loaves of bread had finally been completely baked and were left to be air-cooled on the table. Another round of tea had been boiled and passed around while Gwen took her hunting knife and began to halved the loaves of bread before placing them on a serving plate and handed it to them.

These new families were being psyched by the whip that was dangling at the sides of her waist as she goes around and handed the halved bread.

As soon as they bite into the freshly baked bread while sitting down at the long benches, I could hear the o.r.g.a.s.mic m.o.a.ns of delight when they bite into the sweet pineapple cinnamon bread.

The Burns' young girls were so ecstatic that they exclaimed aloud, "Mummy, Daddy... I am beginning to love this place already. This is the first time I ate such a sweet-tasting fruity bread...!"

I smiled as I saw the Burns patted his young girls' heads and looked at me and grinned. I knew they had taken the bait and for the sake of their children and for 2s per person a month, they would work tirelessly and may also pledge their allegiance to GraceHaven too.

The miners were equally surprised when they took a bite and discovered that it was the finest bread that they had tasted straight from the oven even though it was half a loaf. They never had these simplest joy before and were looking forward every time they bring in a new family over.

So they decided to gather more families from nearby towns of they have a d.e.s.i.r.e to relocate JUST FOR THE TASTE OF FRESHLY BAKED BREAD...!!!

I asked around if they would like to raise any questions but everyone was shaking their heads. I then asked, "I have a question for everyone. Don't tell me the bread is for you to state at right? Who wants another piece of bread? Raise your hands...!" with a slight psychological push, nearly everyone raised their hands while the miners raised theirs while looking around to see if they were the only ones raising them.

Chuckling to herself, Gwen halved the loaves of bread and handed down to everyone again. The Burns' young girls thanked Gwen meekly and giggled when they held the bread in their hands and were giggling as they bit into their loaves of bread with smiles all over.

Looking at those young girls' simple p.l.e.a.s.u.r.es in having these loaves of bread ignited something deep inside my soul. Then I looked at Heather who was also stuffing her face with bread and smiled at her. These were the actual reasons why I would tirelessly and incessantly try to build this tiny settlement into a village. It is all because of those happy, hopeful beaming faces and not for myself.

"Father, please lead me to lead these people to make you proud of me. Rest in eternal peace, Father... Mother... and Tanya." I looked up in Heaven's and saw the new moon. "Right, it is time for me to make a new mark to note of this new day of the month tomorrow." as I made a mental note to put a piece of reed stalk in a bamboo mug to indicate the start May.

It's going to be a month and a half before summer kicks in and it's going to be warm blistering weather.

=*=

Author's Note: Spring starts somewhere in mid-March till mid-June. Then it would be stifling warm summer from mid-June to mid-September while autumn or fall would start from mid-September to mid-December and that's the start of the harvest for some vegetables.

There won't be snow in some parts while rain would play a part during the winter season from mid-December to mid-March.

Having lost track of the number of days and month, Audemars would only depend on the new moon to indicate an estimation of a new month the following day. This is actually based on a true astronomical study.

=*=

After the meal, I gestured to the miners that I would speak to them privately at the Blacksmith shop to perform the settlement. I asked Heather along since she was holding on to my coin pouch that contains some gold coins and a bunch of silver and coppers.

Besides, the whole lot of more than 200 gold coins was still undisturbed and safely buried on all corners of the house. No one knew about it, not even Heather herself.

Since the new families do not have any ground coverings to rest for the night and also there was a lot of woven mats, Gwen took 2 rolls of 6' by 8' and handed it to them. She explained that they need not return these but could be used in their new dwellings which were of the exact floor size.

The benches were cleared and set aside to make space for the two families to turn in for the night. After a hearty meal, they find it hard to sleep as they sat on the mats together with the pioneer ladies and exchanged information about the origins of GraceHaven. As usual, the pioneers hid the fact that I was a banished Prince but just mentioned I was one of the scholars instead.

=*=

"There's 4 sacks of ores and 6 bags of coal being delivered by the miners. How would you like to pay them, young master?" queried Jack as soon as we were out of earshot from the rest of the pioneers.

"As I've mentioned earlier before, it's 20c for each sack so there's a total of 200c altogether. Since we do not have enough coppers, we would be paying them as 1s and 100c. So the one who got the 1s needs to exchange it for coppers instead. By the way, there are 2 kegs for you and 10 milk bread before you depart. Would that be fine?"

I played my part as I hold my word of paying the miners at my agreed amount.

"Sir, we would like to be part of GraceHaven here. Could I bring my family over? The 6 of us wishes to grow within GraceHaven. Our wives would be able to make woven mats, baskets, hats, kitchenware, fishing nets, bags et cetera. Marcel mentioned about the woven mats from this village and the response was very good from the buyers. Even though the price may be a bit expensive but it is longlasting."

"My wife operated a loom before so she would be able to weave fabrics like linen, hemp, cotton and furs. Her main profession was loom but not as a tailor, do you think there's a chance for her to be an artisan in the future?"

"Sir, my wife worked at a mill before and knew how to turn grains into flour. She used an upright pestle to pound those grains and then mill them after she got rid of those husks. She could operate a hand mill or a windmill."

"Marcel spoke of a deserted town that had been looted since. Inform him to procure a loom and we could discuss further. If there's no loom, would she mind doing other menial jobs instead?" I pondered at the responses from the miners as I've never expected their responses to be this overwhelming at all.

"Surely Sir, my wife is docile and she listens to what's best for us. But then... You told us about the reduced coppers of we were to become residents here before, right?"

"No, I had changed my mind. You would not only sell the ores and coal to me but you use this place as your hub. So whatever price you sell to the merchants, I would match them. But no kegs and bread."

"If you need them you can purchase the kegs directly from the merchants and as for bread, you can buy them from us at 1c per loaf. To conclude, the 6 of you would be sharing the profit from selling your ores and coal to the merchants. You get what I mean?"

After explaining the new terms, they fully understood that their livelihood would still be mining ores and coals and their mode of sales would be through the merchants and us. Furthermore, they had not bought any kegs of ale from the merchants before as they were always deep in the mines for days at a stretch.

"When do you intend to bring your family in? As for the kegs, you may be issued with them when you are about to leave. By the way, find us someone who has the blueprint for a manual hand mill. I'm sure it would be beneficial in the long run."

"Alright, go find someone with a blueprint of a hand mill and a loom from Marcel. A few more nannies and a Billy goat would be nice too. Thank you again for your business and as artisans, there's a tax of 1s every month starting on a new day for the month of May. Non-artisans pay only 10c per month."

"We understand Sir. We will inform our families when we make our way back and we would return between 10 to 14 days. It is about 6 days trek to our hometown."

"If that's the case, you only pay the tax when you arrive and begin your journey as an artisan. If you are coming back in 10 to 14 days, you just need to produce 50c for artisans and 5c for non-artisans based on the half-month rate."

"Thank you so much for your kind understanding. I will inform the merchants to head over to GraceHaven would they be interested to purchase other goods."

"Don't bother about the rest of the merchants. We only deal with Marcel alone. He is the current number one sole merchant for GraceHaven. Alright, bring the good news to your families and in the meantime, don't forget what I tasked you to do."

I excused myself as I headed to the new households and called out, "Industry Minister Ben...."