Harry Potter Morning Light

Chapter 1844 The Witch Association (Twenty)

The most popular in ancient Rome was gladiatorial combat, which was recognized as barbaric and bloody. However, a famous gladiator, even if he was a slave, could win tens of thousands of honors as long as he performed wonderfully in the arena. cheers.

The soldiers of the Roman Legion actually did similar things, but their opponents were not just lions and other beasts, and wars were not as easy to arrange as gladiatorial fights, and they could also earn tickets.

Wars cost a lot of money, and launching a war does not necessarily increase the burden on the people. As long as the spoils and benefits returned from the robbery are sufficient, Roman citizens do not mind this kind of "profitable" war.In fact, many of the builders in Rome were slaves who were snatched back by the Roman Legion, and the exquisite sculptures adorning temples, theaters and other buildings were also removed from Greek temples.But the war of conquest has great risks. If the loss is too large, or the target is not very rich, then the war will increase the burden on the people. A big reason for the Nika uprising is that Justinian overhauled Constantinople. At the same time, war started.

Those barbarians didn't have much money, and the army sent by Justinian was mainly to recover the land. He probably wanted to restore the territory of Rome.Coupled with the cost of the Persian War, the people were overwhelmed. When Justinian appeared on the racing track, people did not cheer like Gaius Julius Caesar or a gladiator, but Call him a bastard to his face, because he's married Theodora, a former burlesque actress, for queen.

One day, when Caesar went to the theater to watch a performance as usual, he put on a purple robe. The material of the clothes was so special that other Romans talked about it.

Knowledgeable people, or people who followed Caesar to "Eastern" Egypt, told others that the material of the clothes was silk, and the royal palaces of Egypt were full of this expensive silk fabric.

So how much does a foot of cloth like this cost?

A knowledgeable person smiled and told the uninformed Roman that the price of silk is not calculated in units of length, but in units of weight, and a pound of silk is worth 12 ounces of gold.In the era of the Roman emperor Diocletian, it was about 274 gold francs per pound, which was beyond the reach of ordinary minor nobles.

But this does not prevent people from coming up with other ways. A piece of plain gauze Chanyi in the Eastern Han Dynasty only weighs a few grams, as long as the silk is woven so light and thin.So the beauties on the streets of Rome wore almost translucent clothes, which caused a big discussion about morality among the Roman nobles. Should they continue to use gold and silver to buy this expensive fabric?
Justinian paid a lot of money for the method of making silk, so that a pound of silk was only worth 12 gold coins. This made the silk industry in Constantinople prosperous, but it also seriously affected the Persian merchants who made the difference in the Silk Road. business.

Justinian thought that the high price of silk was caused by the Persians’ excessive asking prices. At that time, the country of origin of silk was cut off by the Turks because it was in the Northern and Southern Dynasties.Not only the Byzantine Empire, but Persia also had a great demand for silk. When the supply was in short supply, the price "skyrocketed".

This war between Justinian and the Persians was called the Battle of Silk by Western historians. The residents of Constantinople launched an uprising not only because of heavy taxes, but also because of the serious corruption problems in the empire, especially The most annoying are Justice Tribonian and Eunuch John of Cappadocia.

The expenses of the emperor's harem are also collected from taxpayers. Marie Antoinette's title of "Deficit Queen" is also related to her extravagant life style. What is not annoying about "British female spy" Georgiana is that She took no taxpayer money, and she was one of the few people who could calm a furious Napoleon Bonaparte, but everything she introduced cost money.

The first is the Saint-Martin Canal, which costs 3000 million francs. This is understandable. In the 19th century, the Seine River was so dirty that no one drank it. London is relatively rainy. Rainwater can be collected to meet the needs of drinking water and washing the streets. Compared with Paris Much cleaner, the second is steel.

France also has its own iron ore and steel factories, but because of insufficient productivity, it is difficult to meet the needs of industrialization.Importing steel from the UK would have been beneficial to both parties, but steel has zero tariffs.If this is all tolerable, the 12 billion worth of grain reserves cannot be tolerated anyway.

Leaving aside the issue of raising large rats in large granaries, 12 billion is France's tax for several years. Its function is similar to that of a normal warehouse. When the price of food is low, it buys food at a high price, and when the price of food is high, it sells it at a low price. This is contrary to the law of value in the free market, and then there are issues of transportation and preservation.Improper storage of wheat will produce the ergot fungus that "caused" the Salem witch incident. Of course, people at that time did not know about ergot fungus, but the quality of aged grain was not as good as fresh grain, but people did not completely deny this plan.

Everyone remembers how the guillotine was used to solve economic problems during the French Revolution. Napoleon did not let the Girondins do whatever they wanted, let the free market dictate, did not set a maximum price, and did not rule by terror like the Jacobins.He also bought 200 million hectares of grain from Spain. When the domestic grain harvest was poor, some people smuggled grain and exported it abroad in exchange for gold and silver. He made good friends with the British and allowed France to obtain channels for importing grain, importing from the United States and the United Kingdom. The flour produced in France is still cheaper than the flour produced in France.

So many methods have been used, although the price of food has not dropped significantly, it can only be in the middle link, the middleman has raised the price many times, and the cheap things will become more expensive.Silk is expensive in the place of origin, but it is not as expensive as in Europe, which has increased more than 100 times.

The distance from Chang'an to Rome was a long way, and the freight was a sum, and the Arabs had to organize armed caravans to guard against robbers, which was another expense.The countries that once relied on the Silk Road to prosper gradually became silent as European dressing habits changed and new sea routes opened up. On the contrary, some isolated islands on the sea began to prosper more and more.

With the free marketization of grain, it is not the farmers who really make money, but the grain dealers in charge.It takes a lot of manpower and material resources to send people from the grain depot to collect from retail investors, and the bloated bureaucratic system will also generate huge expenses.

Private companies like Danone and Louis Dreyfus can save this cost, but private companies are all about making profits. Lucius Malfoy has a stake in a British Petroleum Company in Texas, the United States. For profit, these equipments are not available all year round. It was replaced and repaired, but it exploded in April 2005, and Gore went to deal with related matters.

To change the inappropriate metaphor, organized crime is orderly, but it is a mess, with small gang fires everywhere and more chaos.After the gangsters like Capone appeared, the order in Chicago was much better than before without them. Those small-scale gangs acted independently and wanted to become bigger and stronger. It was not until the emergence of giant gangs that a few "godfathers" began to control the gangs. , and turned into an assassination against them.The era of melee battles that rely on individuals to fight and fight is over. If you want to lead to the throne of the King of Chicago, you need connections, strategies, reputation, and "notoriety". Free competition will inevitably produce monopoly at a certain stage. It is a game between the government and these monopoly companies.

The privatization of prisons in the United States has been around for a long time. In Gone with the Wind, after the Civil War, Scarlett used prisoners instead of slaves to work in her lumber factory.For example, a mother who went to prison for a misdemeanor can choose to work in a factory in a private prison. She can only get a very low income every day, but the value of her labor can be deducted from her debts. money, let her be released early.

The negotiated price is of course lower than the minimum labor price, but the prisoners in the prison have no trade unions, and ordinary people also regard criminals as immoral, so their interests are ignored.

Private prison companies also collect taxes from the state government. At the same time, private prisons also provide political donations to presidential candidates and governor candidates, lobbying to pass relevant laws to send more people to prison. Arrested and imprisoned, and then he was forced to work from a free tramp.

Hey, he has at least one job, doesn't he?Unlike that girlfriend, who ate and drank at her boyfriend's house, and the judge asked her why she didn't get a job.

What these people hinder is the independence of the judiciary, which will increase the prison rate for non-violent crimes. They will set up a "low-end population" dividing line, and illegal immigrants are also counted. If the former slaves were transported by slave ships, these illegal Immigrants went there by themselves.The electoral system in the United States determines that if citizens are not satisfied with the governor, mayor, or county chief they elected, they have no right to fire them, and the president has no right to fire them, because they are not affiliated, and the president has no right to revoke any of them. The county magistrate, he can only fire his own White House staff and the Secretary of State. There is no prime minister in the United States. If the Secretary of State is fired, the president can exercise the powers of the Secretary of State. This is a manifestation of dictatorship.

There are a series of complicated issues in the process of grain circulation, including road construction, tariff reform and other issues. Generally, referendums are required on important issues such as important bills and land changes. To hold a referendum requires counting votes, which also takes a lot of money. For money, there is no need for a referendum if it is not necessary.

That is to say, if the governor of the United States is different from the president because of his political views and party affiliations, he can choose not to listen to the federal government. Roosevelt’s New Deal limited the scale of prison labor rental. Roads, dams, etc.

It was the Reagan administration again, because the number of prisoners arrested reached a record high, and the public prisons were overwhelmed. The people saw the dilapidated roads and hoped to repair them, but the governor used the money to repair the prisons, but they could not dismiss that Governor, only when his term is up can the people elect a new county magistrate to replace him.

Fortunately, there is a remedy, that is, it takes four years to apply for the construction of a prison, and the governor of Tennessee proposed a solution. Private funds are used to build prisons, and the government pays for "buying services", so that a large number of fiscal deficits can be solved. Since then, private prisons have developed rapidly.

The French prisons during the Reign of Terror were not enough, and some palaces and even missionary schools were turned into prisons. The "female spy" opened a women's and children's asylum located in the missionary school.The job of these widows is to take care of disabled soldiers at the Invalides. Those disabled soldiers are not only trained, but also make military uniforms. How will they make ends meet in the future?
The Lion King Simba's uncle Scar said, "I think greed is a virtue. I call it ambition. After I become king, those powerful people can do whatever they want."

Nana's mother, Gentleman, shook his head, turned and left.

Scar may have grand plans, but Mushafa is too powerful, and he has a pride of lionesses, Scar won't succeed unless Mushafa is alone.

"My brother now has something he didn't have before, which is his weakness, which affects his judgment..."

"It's Simba?" Severus asked Alejandro with a look of shock on his face.

"No, I just want to say that she seems to be able to influence his judgment." Alejandro also said in shock, "Why did you think there?"

Severus grimaced and said nothing.

"I heard that witches hold meetings in forests, creeks, Stonehenge and withered oaks. She disappeared for a while in September. Did she..."

"She wouldn't go to that kind of party," Lucius replied in Severus' place.

"How do you know?" Alejandro asked.

"Just tell me what else do you know?" Lucius asked.

"She was intimate with an actress," Alejandro said. "That actress was gay."

The gloomy Severus was shocked again.

"I heard from people back in Paris that she often wears men's clothing, looks half-female, and has met a lesbian, and she probably doesn't like men at all, so it may be Cleopatra sent by the British to confuse Caesar .”

"I...I know this is not the right time." Lucius covered his mouth with his fist and couldn't hide the smile on his mouth. "Are you sure she is 'straight'?"

"Shut up." Severus cursed, but Lucius laughed heartily.

"The guy dispelled the rumors?" Severus asked.

"No... She has gone through legal procedures to apply for wearing men's clothes. Unless she did something illegal in that suit, no one has the right to prohibit her from wearing it."

"He didn't ban it?" Severus asked through gritted teeth.

"They held a ceremony, which was the opening ceremony of the Saint-Martin Canal, but he was assassinated and stopped halfway." Alejandro said, "He is not her husband, let alone he can use her to set a benchmark, no Women are allowed to wear men's clothing without legal procedures."

"It worked?" Lucius asked with a smile.

"No, there are more women wearing men's clothing in Paris. They like the cynical look." Alejandro said blankly, "It's both masculine and feminine."

"Didn't ask them for formalities?" Severus asked.

"Who would ask them for it?" Lucius looked at Severus incredulously, "Why is your mind so rigid?"

"I'm talking about the rules!" Severus said sternly.

Lucius shook his head, as if he had dismissed him.

(End of this chapter)