I built a manor in the Middle Ages

Chapter 8 Exchange of Materials
The village chief calculated the inventory of his village:

Since the fall of the Roman Empire, many technologies have been lost, including composting.
During the Roman Empire, pigeon droppings were used as raw materials to make simple fertilizers to cultivate the land, but due to various factors, it was no longer used by people.
Now, one needs to sow 100 pounds of seeds per acre of land, and finally harvest about 400 pounds of grain.
That is to say, the net gain per acre is less than 300 pounds.
This is still a time of good weather.
Such a production volume can no longer be described as low. It is simply horrific, but this is the most common phenomenon in the entire Grand Duchy!
Only the nobles could eat their fill, while the serfs could only make ends meet.
The situation in Ward Village, which is equivalent to half a mountain settlement, is slightly better. People can hunt animals and dig wild vegetables and fruits to satisfy their hunger.

Even so, I still only eat two meals a day

In fact, the church also advocated two meals a day, but that was to stick to the so-called doctrine. The reason was simply that food was scarce in Ward Village.
Even in this situation, the village chief was still calculating the village's surplus grain, hoping to squeeze out some to trade with the "minstrel" who had cleared up the misunderstanding.
At this time, the two people had changed venues and came to the village chief's house.
—A mud and wood hut not much better than Luc's cabin
".Fifty pounds of seed."

The village chief sat on the bench, watching the person across the table slowly spit out a number.

The scarce light could not extinguish the darkness in the house. Shrouded in shadows, Luc did not speak. The village chief waited anxiously, while unconsciously glancing at the package in Luc's hand.
The reason why his attitude changed drastically was because of the appearance of this small package, and what was inside it was
--Salt!

The village chief swallowed his saliva and said, "Oh my God, that's salt, extremely precious salt no matter where you go!"

No one can be without salt, but salt is hard to get into the hands of these low-class farmers.
Most of them rely on plants containing salt as a substitute. Occasionally, in order to obtain salt grains, they personally lead people to the outside of the mountains to exchange with those cunning merchants.
And every time they exchanged, they would be severely extorted by those jackal-like guys for a large amount of food and dried meat.
This is one of the reasons why Ward Village is so poor.
But at this moment, the person in front of him actually had five pounds of salt on him!

Five pounds!

Combined with the salt extracted from wood ash and other places by the village, if you live frugally, it is enough for a family to eat for a year!

"My friend, I know fifty pounds is a little, but it's the most we can spare."

Seeing that Luke still didn't speak, the village chief unconsciously changed his address. Of course, there is more than this in the village, but it is better to pay less.
Raise the price when necessary. This is the experience gained by the village chief from dealing with profiteers over the years.
The village chief stared intently, hoping to see some emotion on Luc's face. After a long while, Luc slowly opened his mouth, but his words surprised the village chief.

"Twenty pounds!"

"I only want twenty pounds!"

"Twenty pounds of seeds for five pounds of salt. If you agree, we'll make the deal now!"

A gust of wind blew by, and the village chief froze in place, thinking he had misheard.

After all, he had lived for so many years and had never heard of such a cheap ratio!
In fact, Luc was wrong. In most areas, farmers did not grow wheat, but cheap rye. This was the case in Ward Village. Although the black bread made from rye was rough and gritty, it could be eaten for a long time after being mixed with some weeds and sawdust.
A ratio of one to ten salt to rye was already considered cheap, but the one to four ratio at this point left the village chief dumbfounded. "Friend, are you kidding me?"

The village chief blinked in disbelief, but Luc smiled and waved his hand.

"I swear to God, I'm not kidding, but I need you to provide me with something else."

Yes, the composting technology of the Roman Empire was lost, but don’t forget that Luc has another more advanced composting technology in his mind!
The yield per acre is 300 pounds. It’s amazing how these people can grow it!

Converted into mu, that’s fifty kilograms per mu!

So it was useless to have so many seeds, and he couldn't take them away. It would be better to exchange them for some other supplies. Besides, business was about long-term success. Luc had a feeling that this would not be their last deal.

"Hoe, needle and thread, pottery. I hope you can give me some of these things." Luc listed a series of supplies, which he urgently needed.

But the village chief looked embarrassed after hearing this: "Sorry, we can't sell these things to you."

"It's not that I'm stingy. The hoe is like our arm, just like your sword. If we don't have the hoe, how can we dig the land? We don't have any extra iron tools, and we don't have money to buy cattle."

"As for needlework and pottery, we have none in excess."

"However, since you are so generous and kind, I can't give so little."

The village chief suddenly stood up and walked to a locked wooden box in the corner. He took out a package and handed it to Luc.
"Here, my friend, these are real wheat seeds!"

"But it's only less than a pound."

Luke took the wheat seeds and stuffed the leather bag containing the wheat into his arms, saying helplessly, "This is the only way."

The village chief smiled and nodded, with an expression that showed he had gotten a good deal. Less than a pound of wheat seeds could not produce anything. Being able to exchange it and twenty pounds of rye for five pounds of salt made the village chief experience for the first time the joy of the unscrupulous businessman who had cheated him.

"By the way, Mr. Village Chief, could you introduce me to the lords of this place?"

Luc suddenly spoke up and asked another question that concerned him.

"Lord?"

The village chief stroked his graying beard. "The greatest lord here is, of course, the Duke of Burgundy. This is the Duchy of Burgundy, after all. The closest lord is Baron Berry, who lives beyond the mountains. As for our village, unfortunately, we don't have a lord."

"You know, this place is deep in the mountains, and lords are rarely sent here. To be honest, if a knight hadn't been conferred here last year, I would have thought the nobles had forgotten the existence of Ward Village."

The words of the village chief reached Luc's ears, causing him to fall into deep thought.

He captured two key words: Burgundy and deep in the mountains!
If I remember correctly, Luc originally lived in the County of Auvergne, which means he came to the "border"!

Moreover, the village chief claimed that Ward Village was already deep in the mountains, so where was the location of his wooden house?
Seeing that Luc was preoccupied with something, the village chief thought that the bard was thinking about his future route. He was afraid that the other party would go back on the deal, so he went out first to prepare the seeds.

When Luke went out, the misunderstanding was resolved and the villagers went back to work. Only a few children were left playing in front of the door. Next to the children, there were a few puppies that seemed to have been born not long ago, jumping around them.

Luc looked at one of them and suddenly an idea came to his mind.
After a while, Luc set out on his way home, carrying a large bag of seeds and a little black dog.

(End of this chapter)