King
Chapter 797 - 797 58 Tide of Beasts

797: Chapter 58: Tide of Beasts 797: Chapter 58: Tide of Beasts The harvest season is the most enchanting.

Looking at the waves of wheat rolling with the wind, Hudson, holding his son, couldn’t help but reveal a smile of joy.

With this great harvest, the serfs who had recently moved over should be reassured.

For the common people, nothing is more comforting than a bountiful harvest.

The yield of crops doesn’t lie.

After several years of effort, the per-acre yield of the territory’s crops further increased, with the average yield breaking through 220 pounds.

Whether it’s the effectiveness of the fertilizer, the role of select breeding, or perhaps both, Hudson wasn’t certain.

But that’s a minor issue.

Regardless of the specific reason, you have to grab hold of both.

The seeds must be of the highest quality, and the use of Swamp Brand Fertilizer must continue, not to mention the importance of farm composting techniques.

In fact, this per-acre yield could be even higher if it weren’t for the newly developed mountainous regions dragging it down due to their low productivity.

The most fertile swampland had yields nearing 300 pounds per acre.

Of course, these figures were only in the hands of the territory’s upper echelons.

Ordinary people only knew that the Mountain Domain had a good harvest, but they had no clear concept of the extent of the bounty.

Even if spies passed on the news, people would only consider it an isolated case of local land being fruitful.

Such happenings hadn’t been unheard of before.

For instance, the site of a fierce battle between two armies often yielded a better harvest the following year.

Or take the example that a heavy snowfall in winter might also lead to higher grain production the next year.

…

It’s just that no one delved deeply into it, lacking related knowledge, and attributed such extraordinary events to—Divine Spirit’s blessing.

Hudson already had many sacred halos around him and didn’t mind adding one more to his image.

The title of being “blessed by the divine” didn’t even require him to promote it; there were hordes of fans who willingly tacked it onto him.

The most critical factor was the difference in status and identity.

When he was a minor noble, an event of this kind was a matter of life and death, with the slightest carelessness leading to the extinction of the clan.

At this point, at most, it might attract the covert scrutiny of some interested parties.

A rumor, whose veracity was yet uncertain, wouldn’t precipitate an invasion.

The Southeastern Province wasn’t short on grain; the Dalton Family might turn against the Koslow Family for other reasons, but they certainly wouldn’t wage a war of nobility over a few dozen pounds more in grain yield per acre.

The Blood Moon Defense Line currently under construction was funded by all; those with money gave money, those with manpower provided people, and the Dalton Family contributed grain.

Being capable of supplying daily food and drink for hundreds of thousands of laborers with grain left over to sell to the outside world speaks volumes about the Dalton Family’s capacity.

Just judging by the publicly available data, the territories controlled by the Dalton Family span over 30,000 square kilometers, with a population exceeding one million.

Even if the actual figures were doubled, it wouldn’t be surprising.

Hudson hasn’t forgotten that the Dalton Family also owns islands overseas, which don’t fall under the Kingdom’s jurisdiction.

With such a solid foundation, providing sustenance for hundreds of thousands of laborers is naturally not a problem.

It’s merely shifting the grain originally intended for the Northern Border to the construction of the defense line.

Without the burden of supplying the Northern Border, the overall load on the Southeastern Province Nobles had been significantly lightened.

If it weren’t for the plunging prices of grain and the lack of enough buyers in the market, many minor nobles wouldn’t have fallen into financial crisis.

If one were to delve deeper into the matter, it could even be connected to Hudson.

Without the military grain consumption of the Northern Border, the Southeastern Province had a severe surplus in grain production capacity.

Coincidentally, the Mountain Domain, which had always been the province’s largest grain buyer, suddenly stopped purchasing grain.

The double crisis collided head-on, leading directly to a bloodbath in grain prices.

It was worse not just compared to the times of war, but also in comparison to pre-war prices.

On this issue, Hudson was not without blame.

Looking at it from another angle, the large-scale land reclamation plan of the Mountain Domain was purely an increase in grain production.

With a slight decrease in the overall population of the Southeastern Province and a continuous increase in grain production capacity, it was undoubtedly the main culprit triggering the crisis.

Knowing this, Master Hudson had no intention of worrying on everyone’s behalf.

If there was a surplus, then so be it; after all, he wasn’t selling any grain at the moment.

The current retail price of rye in the market was 2.5 copper coins per pound, falling 0.5 copper coins from the normal price before the outbreak of the war.

For grain, such a price drop was already devastating.

But this was meaningless.

A mere one-sixth price reduction was far from the point where one could buy at the bottom of the market.

Moreover, with Hudson’s persona, he wouldn’t be allowed to engage in profiteering.

Even if he were to purchase reserve grain, it would have to be at market price; deliberately driving down prices was not an option.

So why not just wait a bit longer?

When the nobles’ warehouses are full, then it’s often easier to discuss this issue and achieve one’s goal.

Reserve grain, reserve grain, the most important aspect is—reserving!

No one decreed that reserved grain must be stored in one’s own warehouse.

If circumstances permit, temporarily storing it in a neighbor’s warehouse is also a viable choice.

The core factor was still the immaturity of the market.

In a mature commodity market, an oversupply of grain could lead to the expansion of the downstream industry chain, such as livestock breeding, distilling, and refined food processing…

Regrettably, these are industries where the more one does, the more one loses.

In a self-sufficient economic model, people could produce these products themselves.

Aside from the Emerging Nobility in the north who needed to buy them, there was basically no market to be found.