The castle hosted a banquet for three days before bidding farewell to the Counts of Calder.

The Alvas remained at Butterfly Castle, and Audrey was a rare trip home to prepare for a week's stay, and in two days it would be Aldington's birthday.

In previous years, Aldington had celebrated his birthday in the Grey Iron Castle, and this year he was going to have a big one.

The Earl and Earl of Hellington went to Reef City as guests, and it was the Earl of Reef City who came to invite them, and the two families had been married in the last generation, and the relationship was not bad. Hector wandered in Little Versailles, the dreary country life of Château de Butterfly, which did not suit his personality, and the beauties of Little Versailles also needed to be pampered.

The Oldems made an appointment to arrive the day before Oldington's birthday.

So three days later, the Butterfly Castle was quiet again, and Audrey liked to go to the magic manor and exchange academics with the magicians of the Silver Hand Magic House. Baron Alva was taken by Hectra and went to Petit Versailles, and as the second son of his palace uncle, he was still very popular with the celebrities of Petit Versailles.

"Stay at Uncle Autumn's house, and remember, don't spend the night outside." Audrey had told her before leaving.

Cousin Hetty and Cousin Hannie learn to pray with Mrs. Carly, and Hector hopes to train both daughters to become priests.

The magician practice is hard, and the talent requirements are still high, and the two little girls don't have this qualification, so it's easier for the priest to practice.

"Aldington, don't keep an eye on the big cat, even if the big cat wakes up, it needs time to recuperate." Baron Aureno called Aldington over, "The tax collector of little Versailles has arrived, and in the afternoon he will measure the area of the lynx forest, and you will follow him to take a look around." ”

"Okay." Aldington nodded.

The Lynx Forest Development Plan is in full swing, and the manor stewards in Red Leaf Town and the surrounding territories are all gathered near the Lynx Forest. The timber merchants of Horseshoe Pearl City also rushed to buy the high-quality timber from the lynx forest, as well as herb dealers, game merchants, and so on.

Not to mention the hunting party and knights who are rounding up the monsters in the lynx forest.

Without the Golden Clustered Ear Lynx in charge, the Lynx Forest ushered in the greatest realization of value, and all resources could be sold for money. And all this money can't all fall into the pockets of the iris family.

This is also the reason for the arrival of the little Versailles tax collector.

"Your Excellency Baron Aureno, the area of lynx forest reclamation that you submitted has been surveyed three times by officials of the Ministry of Taxation, a total of 950 square kilometers, in what way are you going to use these lands?" The tax collector has a bushy beard, "Lease, buy, or take each half?" ”

"Your tax department, help me calculate all the taxes to be paid first, and then I will decide whether to lease or buy." The baron said.

The general tax officer advised: "I will not be able to count for a while, I suggest that you still buy the land directly, the price of land in the Danube Plain is not high, you buy it at one time, and you will save the tax department from handing over the tax accounts to you every year, and other nobles rarely lease." ”

Lady Helena, who was in charge of the territory's finances, said, "We want to, too, but there are many places where we need money. ”

The tax collector shrugged his shoulders and was noncommittal.

Dealing with the nobles is the most troublesome, or the fart people save trouble, who dares to do hard labor without paying taxes, and the nobles are always careful, and they want to gnaw meat from the kingdom and don't want to pay money. The most important thing is that the officials don't dare to care about the nobles, so he really wants to buy it out at one time, and he doesn't have to worry about how the iris family likes to toss the territory in the future.

Wait for the tax administrator to go to other places to settle accounts.

Aldington asked Lady Helena, "Mother, what is the limit area of our family's fief?" ”

"There are 15,000 square kilometers."

"Is it so big, bigger than an earl's territory?"

"This is the province of the Danube, a war-torn border, and the land is not developed enough, and it is the least valuable." Madame Helena explained in detail to her son, "If we change to the Seine Province, I am afraid that our family's fief will be less than 800 square kilometers. Any inland province will not exceed 5,000 square kilometers. ”

"I don't think the land in the Danube province is sparse compared to the land in other provinces, and most of the land here is high-quality black soil, which is very valuable for development."

Lady Helena smiled: "You think it's valuable, the kingdom's "Pioneer Law" doesn't think it, one marquis, two uncles and five men, our family's land area is the smallest, if it weren't for the annoying big cat in the way, it would have expanded to two thousand square kilometers a long time ago." Fortunately, the big cat was caught this time. ”

The Pioneer Law, a law on deforestation.

According to the Pioneer Law, the kingdom owned all lands except for the fiefdoms, and the king encouraged nobles and freemen to pioneer. The land pioneered by the freedmen was leased for a long time only by paying rent to the king; The land pioneered by the nobility can also be leased by paying rent.

But at the same time, the nobility could spend a tax to directly buy these pioneer lands and incorporate them into their own fiefdoms and become private domains.

Depending on the title, there is a limit to the total amount of land that can be incorporated into a province.

Therefore, the actual area of a noble domain should be the area of the sub-enclosure, plus the purchased area. The fiefdom of the baron of Hongye Town was only 800 square kilometers at the beginning, and then some were purchased one after another, and now it has expanded to more than 1,100 square kilometers. And the Baron of Momiji Town stipulates in the law of the kingdom that it can be expanded to 15,000 square kilometers.

"Then we should enclose more land, mother, it is not a bad thing to have more land, even if you put it where you are not in a hurry to reclaim, you can use it one day."

"Do you think your father and I don't want to hoard more land, but unfortunately, even if we buy all of the 950 square kilometers of new land, our family can't afford to pay the taxes to the king." Lady Helena shook her head, "Now you can only buy a part, rent a part, and slowly raise taxes." ”

The king is not really kind enough to give the kingdom's land to his vassals cheaply, and if he wants the land, he can open up the land himself, and then spend money to buy it.

Then the Pioneer Law also stipulates that the more land you buy, the higher the tax.

So going around and around, the big nobles still have to work for the royal family.

Of course, this is also a win-win, the nobles have increased the area of fiefdoms, the kingdom has a lot of new arable land, and a lot of land rent and taxes have been added, and they are all satisfied.

"Mother, why don't you sell some of the land in my name and buy more land. Then my estate was planned from the lynx forest...... The land donated outside is too scattered and the management is very inconvenient, so it is easier to manage the land by concentrating it. ”

"It's okay, I will compensate you according to the market price at that time, but your food estate, as well as pea manor and wine estate, you don't need to sell it, these three estates are all old manors that have been cultivated for many years, and the probability of the farmland triggering the blessing of the gods is very high, so it is not cost-effective to sell it."

"Okay."