British hegemon

Chapter 51 The Manor's Liabilities

On the way back to Milk House Manor, Roger couldn't wait to switch the saddle from his dappled horse to this black mare, and then rode the tall horse along the road with great joy.

And that mongrel horse became a pack animal used to carry weapons and armor.

The common people along the way already knew that Roger had been knighted, and even though they were unwilling, they had to take off their hats and bow in respect.

When the group arrived at the Milk House Manor, the bitter-faced steward was already waiting at the manor gate with a group of servants and more than thirty villagers.

This is a simple ceremony to welcome a new lord.

Roger's smuggling business in his previous life had also grown to the size of a "group," with twenty or thirty "employees" in the companies he used as cover and for smuggling. Standing at the gate of the manor now, that feeling of inspecting the company had returned.

Roger briefly met with the people of the manor, offering some words of encouragement to the bewildered servants. Then, with a sour face, Roger was invited into the first floor of the manor to begin fulfilling his duties as lord.

This is the "ruling center" of Milk House Manor, resembling a condensed version of the first floor of a baron's manor. It also has a hall, offices, and other facilities, but it is much more shabby. The baron's manor officials' offices in Milk House Manor are warehouses for storing weapons, armor, and valuables.

This office is slightly larger than Roger's attic bedroom, with a small long table by the window and a few chairs taking up most of the space.

On the small long table sat a candlestick and two wine glasses, along with ink, a quill pen, and several sheets of parchment.

On the left wall of the long table hung a huge tapestry embroidered with the Campbell family's red eagle and black ship emblem, while on the right wall was a fireplace.

New straw was laid on the ground, and water stains could still be seen between the straws, indicating that it had just been washed and cleaned.

Although sunlight streamed through the small window, the house was still dark and had a musty, dusty smell.

Knight Colin was passionate about military affairs and didn't care much about such civil matters, so apart from the occasional visitor with a sour face to do some writing and calculations, he was rarely visited and naturally fell into disrepair.

"Sir, these are the asset ledgers of the Milk House Manor, including a tax register, a land register, and a register of property such as warehouses and livestock sheds. Please take a look."

The man with the bitter face was still a little unaccustomed to Roger's new identity, but he still awkwardly called him "Master," after all, this former devilish second young master was now the head of the family.

Roger reached out and wiped the chair behind the desk; it was fairly clean. He then sat down and took the parchment ledger, which had only seven or eight thin pages and was covered with crooked symbols.

The man with the bitter face couldn't write English or Latin, so the ledger was written in Gaelic.

Roger often interacted with foreigners in his previous life and had also attended school for a few days, so he knew some basic English.

However, the English of later generations is quite different from the Old English of today.

Fortunately, after arriving in this world, I inherited the memories of this body. After a period of adaptation, I was able to speak and write.

There are many people who can speak in this era, but those who can write are extremely rare. Even Roger's adoptive father can only write some simple words, and his physically strong older brother is completely illiterate. Therefore, the bitter-faced man who can write account books is already considered a high-end talent.

There are probably no more than two people on the entire island of Arran who can both speak and write, and Roger, who studied in the monastery for five or six years, is the only person on the island who can speak Latin, French, English and Gaelic relatively fluently.

The original owner was just bad, not stupid.

Roger slowly flipped through the ledgers, while a man with a sour face whispered his report.

"...After several grants, Milk House Manor now has 492 acres of arable land, half of which is self-cultivated, one-third is owned and leased by yeomen, and about one-fifth is occupied by twenty serfs."

"The 300-acre Ranch on the Slow Hills is all self-managed, with the residents grazing their livestock and paying a hay tax; the forest in the Gotter Hills in the north of the island is about 400 acres, but your forest doesn't have much high-quality timber, and it's harvested once a year in late autumn. The timber is sold to Ayr County, and the firewood is sold to the islanders."

"The farmland of Milk House Estate is fertile, with two fields cultivated. The yield of wheat is about six bushels per acre, and barley is about fifteen bushels per acre. In addition, with the addition of other grains such as rye, oats, and black beans, as well as the taxes paid by the people, the annual harvest can reach two,500 to three,000 bushels of grain. (Note)"

Roger did the math in his head. At that time, one bushel of grain was about sixty pounds. That meant that the Milk House Manor's annual grain production exceeded 150,000 pounds. Based on a sufficient ration of three pounds per person per day, it was enough to feed 130 to 140 people. If they were more frugal, they could even feed 200 people.

As it is currently harvest season, wheat on the island is priced at 24 pence per bushel, and even the cheapest oats cost 6 pence per bushel.

A quick calculation shows that Milk House Estate's annual income is at least a hundred pounds.

However, this is only the theoretical grain income. You must deduct one-sixth of the grain seed reserved for next year, one-tenth of the taxes paid to the baron's mansion, one-tenth of the offerings paid to the church, and one-twentieth of the military rations paid for or provided by the army for war.

It also includes the taxes owed by the subjects, the wages of hired servants, the rations for serfs and tenants, and the fine feed for horses and livestock.

A quick calculation shows that at least two-fifths of the grain is gone.

Don't think the taxes are too heavy. Such taxes are only for the upper class. For ordinary people, in addition to the above, there are poll taxes, hay taxes, firewood taxes, mill taxes, road taxes, transaction taxes, and so on. Half of their income has to be paid to the lord and the church; serfs probably have to hand over two-thirds of their income.

Arran Island is not primarily agricultural, and its rulers are somewhat humane in terms of land taxation. In other places, however, the lords exploit their people with extreme cruelty. They toil away for a year, only to have to endure hunger and cold in the dead of winter, guarding empty grain bins.

Even worse, some may end up owing the lord huge amounts of taxes, eventually going bankrupt and becoming slaves.

That's not all. Don't forget that Milk House Manor is a knight's fief, and its most important mission is to provide material support for the knight's military service.

Knights need fine warhorses, packhorses, and swift riding horses, as well as armor and weapons that are incredibly expensive. They also need to support their squires and soldiers, and provide them with the most basic weapons and armor. This is an enormous expense that is difficult to estimate.

Although a knight is not a nobleman in the strict sense, he is already in the upper class of society. His family naturally cannot wear commoners' clothes or eat coarse food like commoners. Knights also have to organize a few banquets and make some friends from time to time, which also costs money.

And let's not forget that the reason why Milk House Estate was able to possess the most fertile fief besides Baron John's was because the estate would provide Baron John with two knightly service during the war, which meant covering the expenses of two knights and their squires.

The largest debt the estate owed was the loan taken out by King Corin II after he conferred the title of apprentice knight, in order to prepare weapons and armor.

Considering all this, the meager real estate income from Milk House Manor is hardly enough to make ends meet.