"This has caused the number of us to start working in the farming industry to begin to decline, and since this is with your personal permission, Lord Earl, more and more civilians have given up their land to become workers!"

"I think it's a bit dangerous! Our agriculture may be affected by this, so I have not dared to make a decision on this matter, and I will not report it until you return, Lord Earl! ”

William was also a little shocked when he heard this, but he still said: "You don't have to worry about agriculture, the yield of crops depends on the area of cultivated land that is effectively cultivated, not the people who are engaged in cultivating it!" ”

It is true that as long as the arable land is cultivated effectively, then there is no effect, after all, most of the Western countries in William's previous life adopted the farm economy, and the ability to withstand the blow is far greater than that of the current small peasant economy.

Although the development of technology can ensure that a large number of apprentices can be cultivated by two people, the organization of farms has existed for a long time.

So this situation is not particularly worrying for William.

What really shocked him, or was a little frightened, was that those people gave up their land to work as laborers under the merchants.

Such a scene reminded him of the rise of capital that had been staged in the history of his previous life!!

In fact, William's understanding of capital is very objective, and he is not like many old party members or early party members who talk about capital like a tiger.

He knew that capital was an inevitability of commercial development, and he was not averse to it, but he was now the de facto ruler of Denlenburg.

Speaking of capital, there is a great threat to the traditional feudal lords, and the merchant class, after the women and children reach a certain level, will seek social status and political voice from the nobility and society.

In addition, capitalists pursue low costs and high profits, and the salaries of workers are undoubtedly a large cost expense, so they will generally desperately lower the wages of workers to achieve the purpose of reducing costs and enhancing competitiveness.

Lowering workers' wages will make them even poorer.

The most classic is that during the first industrial revolution in his previous life, those capitalists even hired a large number of child laborers in order to save costs.

As a direct result, the working class went bankrupt and became almost slaves of the capitalists.

Moreover, it is difficult to say whether a businessman with a large amount of resources and a memory of thousands of workers who have been banned by the orders of the cooperative production training will have any bad intentions.

These civilians, who have sold their land use rights, will undoubtedly become the targets of oppression by the capitalists.

If they still have the land, then they have at least one way out, and if their current salaries are not comparable to the wealth they get from farming, then they will return to farming.

There is no question of whether the capitalists will exploit them, but most of them choose to sell their land, which poses considerable danger.

Moreover, after the capitalists have capital, they may not buy and acquire a large amount of land and drive out the original peasants, although this is unlikely to happen in William's territory, but they can also use enough capital to invest a large amount of upfront investment and buy the land in the hands of most of the people at a high price.

And these serfs who were assigned land by William must have been interested in seeing the wealth, and after selling the land on which they depended, they would definitely go to the merchants to find a job in order to find a livelihood.

Civilians who have no arable land, how do they want to knead them, but they are not easy to catch?

William's fear of capital comes from this, so when he heard about this situation, he began to be extremely vigilant.

He even began to regret the promises he had made to the merchants in order to promote business.

At that time, he really did not expect this to happen, because he had the impression that capitalism was not so rampant even in the fifteenth century, and it was impossible for capitalism to sprout and rise in the cultural atmosphere of the holy world in the current world of the twelfth century.

Obviously, however, things have turned out beyond his expectations, but fortunately, this situation is not widespread, and the workers have not sold a lot of land, and some still own it.

The power of the merchants has not yet reached the level of the capitalist in William's previous life, and it is far from enough to provoke William.

In fact, if you really have to calculate carefully, William is the biggest capitalist in this land, and the business chain of state-owned enterprises under his own command has developed extremely large, and his own industry is almost comparable to all the merchants in the territory.

Of course, if you count foreign business travel, it still can't be compared.

William took this matter very seriously, and he intended to carry out a series of detailed measures to prevent the growth of capital, and it was better for the aristocracy to rule in this era, and he would not do anything contrary to his class.

William said: "Okay, I know, I want to know about the construction of the territory during this time, and then you will introduce me to the judicial situation in a while, Kenos!" ”

Vidal began the report: "Report to your lordship, before you left, there were nine commercial cities in our territory, and there were also five commercial towns in the second place, and now there are three more, a total of nine commercial towns!" ”

"As for the defensive fortress-level castles that can garrison more than 8,000 troops, we originally had six, guarding various strategic locations, and there are eight castles that can garrison about 1,000 people at the second level, and there are also twelve medium-sized castles with 1,000 people, which form the defensive nodes in our territory, and there are also small fortresses that can be stationed by 100 people, which are distributed in the territory of three hundred and fifty-eight! Seventeen more than before, of course, thanks to your wisdom, Lord Earl! Plundered more than 100,000 orcs in the Duchy of Maineke! Otherwise, if we rely on our own people, we would definitely not be able to build such a large number of heavy facilities and buildings! ”

Vidal also made a small ass, and seventeen years also turned him from a small serf into an old fox who was good at pandering to his superiors.

"Hmm!" William nodded, he was still quite satisfied with this development, and casually browsed the ledger presented, William asked, "Kenos, do you have anything you want to explain?" ”

Kenos also talked about the judicial cases during this period of time, and as for the more difficult cases to deal with and more involved, he also reported them to William and asked him to make his own decisions.

After dealing with this, the time was almost up, the banquet was probably ready, and the nobles were still waiting for William's reward for his meritorious deeds.

Anyway, after coming back, there will definitely be a long backlog of things to deal with, and he will definitely not be able to deal with it without a month of busyness, so he is not in a hurry.

What's more, regarding the matter of capital, William also intends to listen to the opinion of the newly acquired Jia Yu, if he is really talented and has a certain loyalty, then he intends to hand over the rights from Vidal to him.