Although I don't know how Victorians lived and kept warm. But Dussaint himself was quite sure that, at least in Upper Albin, he had never seen anyone walk down the street in cotton clothes and shoes.

Most of the clothing worn by the aristocrats in winter was thick fur fur, and the fur worn by ladies was the most luxurious. Purple soft fur is used for coats and skirts, and the most solemn garments are adorned with a white fur ring on the edge of the fur.

The freedmen could not afford to buy furs, but they had their own way.

The combination of thick cotton and wool felt windbreakers made up their winter clothing, and the woolen boots, although not as good as fur furs, at least kept them from freezing and getting sick.

But such an approach is not something that the poor can imitate.

A good wool-felt trench coat sells for two gold pounds, while a complete suit costs nearly three gold pounds. That's a lot of money for a freedman - a trench coat for twenty years is just fine. In Newsal, the good quality trench coats owned by the fathers even need to be specifically included in the inheritance tax.

There is also a huge difference in income levels among the poor, and the poorer in better conditions have their own wooden or even brick houses, and they can survive the winter smoothly by storing large amounts of forage in summer and autumn, as well as cow dung excreted by their own cattle, and with four or five layers of cotton clothing. A little worse can have three or four cotton garments, lit only on the coldest nights. Although it is difficult, it can survive until the temperature rises in spring.

But the poorest part of the poor does not have such good fortune.

Some of the poorest slums have no permanent shelter and are confined to dilapidated houses or hunters' huts that have been abandoned and have no roofs.

They couldn't even collect hay and bush branches, or dried cow dung cakes, let alone several layers of clothing – some poor families of four or five had only one pair of trousers. When my father went out to work, the family had to lie on the bed and cover their bodies with straw.

Wheat straw and weeds are the main fuels for the poor. At the same time, they are also the main tool for keeping these poor families warm with only one or two layers of clothing and a pair of pants.

Stuffing a large amount of fluffy wheat straw and weeds between two layers of clothing, or simply between one piece of clothing and the skin of one's body, can effectively improve the warmth of clothing.

In many poor families, the wheat straw and dried weed they have painstakingly collected are almost enough to stuff the whole family into their clothes. And when the grass is plugged in, these "warm layers" can directly incapacitate them.

After all, there has not yet been a human being in the world who can carry hard enough wheat straw to cut the skin and engage in heavy physical labor normally.

Such poor families will soon find themselves in a dilemma. They don't even have enough fuel to cook their food. Soon, they will be faced with a life-or-death decision – whether to cook a pitiful amount of food with this straw and then shiver in rapidly decreasing temperatures...... I still nibble on raw potatoes and roots, but my body is relatively warm.

Dussand's strategy is simple – by any means, as many poor people as possible must survive. Let Director Escobar go out and "borrow" the money with his old face, and then Dussaint will physically write off the account for Director Escobar. In this way, with the assistance of the church doctors and the navy, although there is still an astronomical gap between these gathered resources and "peace in the world", they can at least come in handy.

It's better than spending this money on ridiculously high borrowing interest and the canteen of the Interior Bureau.

Based on this starting point, Dussaint decided to open up a new front.

Ladies and gentlemen, thick cotton clothes and two cotton pants and large cotton nests are all good things!

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Cotton was one of the most important cash crops of the empire. It is a major reason why the empire has gradually grown from a small country in a remote corner to a large colonial power, and even a large empire across planets. The cultivation of cotton and the textile industry led to the creation of the steam engine, which in turn contributed to the empire's rise to become a super-colonial power.

The two industries, wool and cotton, were quickly driven by the steam engine and became a huge driving force for the expansion of the empire. Forty-two colonies, plus cotton produced in Orin...... The yield is astronomical.

Although the yield is very high, and the quality of the cotton is very good. But in the field of cotton extraction and use, the level of the empire is still ...... Not too high.

The empire continued to wage wars with its allies, on the one hand, of course, because of the irreconcilable ideological contradictions between the two sides. But on the other hand, it was also because the empire needed a constant source of "labor".

For example, prisoners of war.

Some people joke that the Confederates have a large population in the empire, and in fact have become a nation in the empire.

The League itself also had a long history of slavery. According to imperial historical texts, the founders of the Alliance were part of a large rebel army of the rebel El Salvador four hundred years ago, and eventually formed a force that was formed by wandering into deep space. From the first day of the founding of the country, they invaded the territory of the empire, hunting slaves on the many newly created colonies of the empire, and then used them to build their own country.

In order to respond directly to the Allies' crimes, the Empire also sent naval detachments to forcibly land the Alliance's colonies and capture prisoners of war. And after these prisoners of war were transported back to the Empire, there were only two jobs that awaited them.

Work on the plantation until you die, or spend the rest of your life in the pit.

Naturally, able-bodied prisoners of war would go to the pits to wield iron picks. The best of the best people are dressed like deep-sea diving suits and sent to uninhabitable planets to mine minerals.

Captured prisoners of war who are not suitable for mining minerals will spend their lives on the best sunny lands on the colonized planets, contributing cash crops to the manor owners on the plantations.

This is also an important reason why the poor people of the empire live in such embarrassment. Although they were poor, these imperial paupers were still the subjects of His Majesty the Emperor. Compared to a one-time buyout of prisoners of war who could then be paid with whips and a thin flour soup, the cost of employing the Empire's poor was simply too high.

The cost of purchasing raw cotton is not too high. Director Escobar estimates that 10,000 gold pounds can buy at least 200,000 pounds of raw cotton. In other words, the price of cotton is now as low as 1 shilling per pound. According to Dussand's estimates, an eight-pound thick quilt that weighs enough to withstand the cold can be made for about 11 shillings.

But this cost is still not enough to survive the winter. They need a lower-cost way to combat the cold, as well as financial resources.

Dussander thought about it and decided to get the Home Office to step in and distribute raw cotton instead of manufactured cotton to the poor. As for financial resources...... He doesn't have a good idea about that. After all, the size of the Rosen company is limited, and it is not easy to provide some jobs for the poor people in Albin—it is probably a fool's dream to radiate to the whole of Newsalna.

Sourcing raw cotton, a move that will certainly be welcomed and supported by plantation owners. The distribution of raw cotton can put an end to possible corruption and personal gain in the middle - all the raw cotton bought is unprocessed, and no matter how much the person who handles it in the middle tries to take advantage of it, he will not take two handfuls of cotton into his trouser pocket and take it away.

Even if it is really caught, the loss will not be too great.

Raw cotton is not suitable for burning, but it is a good substitute for wheat straw and hay, and is stuffed into the clothes of the poor to keep out the cold. Of course, this is certainly not the most efficient way to utilize cotton, but it does seem to be the most appropriate at the moment.

And after the winter has passed, these raw cotton can also be processed into bedding for use. Once issued, many problems can be solved.

Help the poor survive this winter, and when the real Home Affairs Committee takes office, the smart people may have a better way to help the poor find their own way of survival.

After going over the problems that might arise during the execution with Director Escobar a few more times, and drawing up a relevant plan, Dussaint stepped into his own steam wagon. The pocket watch around his waist showed that it was already two o'clock in the morning.

On the cold streets of Upper Albin, a ten-year-old nobleman is fighting for how the many poor people of Newsar can survive the winter.

And in the other direction of the Upper Albin, in the brightly lit palace of the Dukes of Saarland, the grand ball has just ended.

Countless nobles in furs, with their faces flushed by alcohol and fine food, staggered in the huge square outside the Duke's palace, waiting for their steam carriages to come and fetch them.

Under the dual effect of alcohol and the grand ball, they shouted at the Duke of Thrall, who was standing on the balcony of the manor, "Your Excellency, I wish you eternal health!" ”