Harry Potter’s Morning Light

  Chapter 1844 Witch Club (20)

The most popular thing in ancient Rome was gladiatorial fighting. It was recognized as barbaric and bloody. However, a famous gladiator, even if he was a slave, could earn tens of thousands of people as long as he could perform wonderfully in the arena. Cheers.

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

  War costs a lot of money, and launching a war does not necessarily increase the burden on the people. As long as the looted spoils and benefits are sufficient, Roman citizens of this kind of "profitable" war do not mind. In fact, many of the builders in Rome were slaves taken back by the Roman legions, and the exquisite sculptures decorated on temples, theaters and other buildings were also removed from Greek temples. However, there is a great risk of conquering war. If the loss is too large, or the target is not very rich, then the war will increase the burden of the people. The great cause of the Nika uprising is because Justinian was the great monk in Constantinople. At the same time, they launched a war.

  The barbarians don’t have much money. The army sent by Justinian was mainly to regain the land. He estimated that he wanted to restore the territory of Rome. Coupled with the cost of the Persian War, the people were finally overwhelmed. When Justinian appeared on the racing track, people did not cheer like Gaius Julius Caesar or a gladiator, but Called him a ruin in front of him, because he married Theodora, who was once a comedian, as a queen.

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

  People who are knowledgeable or who have been to Egypt in the “Eastern” with Caesar tell others that the material of the clothes is silk, and that expensive silk fabrics are everywhere in Egypt’s palaces.

  So how much does a piece of cloth cost?

  The knowledgeable person smiled and told the ignorant Roman that the price of silk is not calculated in terms of length, but in terms of weight. A pound of silk is worth 12 ounces of gold. If in the time of the Roman emperor Diocletian, about 274 gold francs per pound, ordinary little nobles could not afford it.

  However, this does not prevent people from thinking of other ways. A plain cloth garment in the Eastern Han Dynasty weighs only a few grams, and it only needs to be woven so lightly. So the beauties on the streets of Rome wore almost translucent clothes. This caused a big discussion among the Roman nobles about morality. Shouldn't they continue to use gold and silver to buy this expensive fabric?

Justinian bought a lot of money to make silk, making a pound of silk worth only 12 gold coins. This made the silk industry in Constantinople prosper, but it also severely affected the Persian merchants who made the difference on the Silk Road. Business.

  Justinian thought that the high price of silk was caused by the persians. The silk road was cut off by the Turks because the country of origin of silk was during 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 "stowed up".

This war between Justinian rain and Persians was called the War of Silk and 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 Justice Tribonian and the **** John of Cappadocia are the most annoying.

The emperor’s harem’s expenses are also collected from taxpayers. Marie Antoinette’s name as the “deficit queen” is also related to her extravagant lifestyle. The “British female spy” Georgeanna is not annoying. She didn't touch the taxpayer's money, and she was one of the few people who could calm down the angry Napoleon Bonaparte, but everything she brought in cost money.

The first is the Canal Saint-Martin, which costs 30 million francs. This is understandable. The water of the Seine in the 19th century was so dirty that no one could drink. It's much cleaner, and the second is steel.

  France also has its own iron ore and steel plants, but because of insufficient productivity, it is difficult to meet the needs of industrialization. Importing steel from the UK is beneficial to both sides, but there is zero tariff on steel. If this is all tolerable, the reserve grain depot worth 1.2 billion will be intolerable anyway.

Let's not talk about the problem of raising rats in the big granary. The 1.2 billion is a tax for several years in France. Its function is similar to that of a constant flat. This is contrary to the law of value of the free market, and then there are the problems of transportation and preservation. If the wheat is improperly stored, it will produce ergot bacteria that "caused" the Salem Witch incident. Of course, people at that time didn't know about ergot bacteria, but the quality of stale food was not as good as fresh food, but people did not completely deny this plan.

  Everyone remembers the use of the guillotine to solve economic problems during the French Revolution. Napoleon was not as indifferent as the Girondists, left to the free market, did not set the highest price, and did not have the terror rule like the Jacobins. He also bought two million quarts of grain from Spain. In the case of domestic grain failure, some people smuggled grain and exported it abroad in exchange for gold and silver, and made friends with the British so that France could obtain access to imported grain from the United States and the United Kingdom. Imported flour is still cheaper than the flour produced in France.

  Using so many methods, although the price of food has not dropped significantly, it can only be done in the intermediate links. The middlemen increase prices many times, and cheaper things will become more expensive. Silk is expensive in the country of origin, but it is not as astronomical as it is in Europe, which has increased by more than a hundred times.

  The distance from Chang'an to Rome is long, and the freight is considered a sum. The Arabs have to organize armed caravans to guard against robbers, which is another expense. The countries that once relied on the Silk Road to prosper gradually began to fall silent as the dressing habits of Europe changed and new shipping routes were opened. On the contrary, some isolated islands on the sea began to prosper more and more.

   Grain free marketization, it is not the farmers who make money, but the food traders who are in charge of the middle. It takes a lot of manpower and material resources to go out of the grain depot to collect it from retail investors, and the bloated bureaucracy will also incur huge expenses.

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

   To put it another inappropriate analogy, organized crime is orderly, but it is a mass of scattered sand, with small gang fires everywhere and more serious chaos. After the emergence of the gangsters like Capone, the order in Chicago was much better than before. Those small-scale gangs were in their own hands and wanted to become bigger and stronger. It was not until the emergence of the giant gangs that a few "godfathers" began to uniformly control the gangs. The fire turned into an assassination against them. The era of melee that relied on individuals to be able to fight and fight has passed. To get to the throne of the King of Chicago requires connections, strategy, credibility, and "notoriety". When free competition reaches a certain stage, monopoly will inevitably arise. At that time It is the game between the government and these monopoly companies.

  Privatization of prisons in the United States has been around for a long time. In "Gone with the Wind", Scarlett replaced slaves with prisoners after the Civil War and worked for her own timber factory. For example, a mother went to jail for a misdemeanor. At this time, she 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 deduct her debt. Money, let her release early.

  The agreed price is of course lower than the minimum labor price, but the prisoners do not have a labor union, and ordinary people also regard the criminals as immoral, and their interests are ignored.

Private prison companies also collect taxes from the state government. At the same time, private prisons also provide political contributions to presidential candidates and governor candidates, lobbying to pass relevant laws to send more people to prison. For example, a homeless man may be charged for loitering. Arrested and imprisoned, and then he was forced to labor from a free tramp.

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

These people hinder the independence of the judiciary and increase the imprisonment rate of non-violent crimes. They will establish a “low-end population” dividing line. Illegal immigrants are counted. If the former slaves were transported by slave ships, these illegal immigrants Immigration ran away on his own. The American electoral system determines that if citizens are dissatisfied with the governor, mayor, or county governor they choose, they have no right to expel them, nor does the president have the right to expel them, because they are not affiliated, and the president has no right to revoke any of them. The county magistrate, he can only expel his White House staff and the secretary of state. The United States does not have a prime minister. If the secretary of state is expelled from the president, he can exercise the functions of the secretary of state. This is a manifestation of autocracy.

There are a series of complicated issues in the grain circulation process, including road construction, tariff reform and other issues. Generally, it is important bills and land changes that require a referendum. It takes a count of votes to hold a referendum, which is also costly. For money, there is no need for a referendum.

That is to say, if the governor of the United States is not the same as the president because of his political opinions and party affiliation, he can choose not to listen to the federal government. Roosevelt’s New Deal limited the scale of prison labor rental, and he wanted to give these jobs to those who did not have jobs to build infrastructure. Highways, dams, etc.

In the Reagan administration again, because the captured prisoners hit a record high and the public prisons were overwhelmed, the public saw the roads in dilapidated condition and hoped to be repaired, but the governor took the money to repair the prison, but they could not dismiss that. The governor, only when his term of office is up, the people can choose a new county governor to replace him.

Fortunately, there is a remedy, that is, it takes four years to apply for a prison, and the governor of Tennessee proposed a solution. Private money to build the prison and the government to “buy services” can solve a large number of fiscal deficits. Since then, private prisons have developed rapidly.

  The French prisons during the reign of terror were not enough. Some palaces and even church schools were turned into prisons. The "female spies" opened an asylum for women and children located in the church school. The work of these widows is to take care of disabled soldiers in Les Invalides. Those disabled soldiers not only cultivate, but also make military uniforms. The government allocates funds for them to buy military uniforms. The original clothes making jobs are also women, but the women snatched the disabled soldiers. How will they make ends meet in the future?

  Lion King Simba’s uncle Scar said, “I think greed is a virtue. I call it ambition. After I become a king, those powerful people can do whatever they want.”

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

  Scar may have a grand plan, but Mushafa is too powerful, and he has a group of lionesses. Scar will not succeed unless Mushafa is alone.

   "My brother now has something he didn't have before, that is his weakness, it will affect his judgment..."

   "Simba?" Severus asked Alessandro with a look of shock.

   "No, I just want to say that she seems to influence his judgment." Alessandro was also shocked and said, "Why did you think of going there?"

  Severus did not speak with a sullen face.

   "I heard that witches will gather under forests, creeks, Stonehenge, and withered oaks. In September, she was missing for a while. Is she..."

   "She won't go to that kind of party." Lucius replied instead of Severus.

  "How do you know?" Alessandro asked.

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

   "She has a close relationship with an actress." Alessandro said, "The actress is a homosexual."

  The gloomy Severus was shocked again.

"I heard from people who came back from Paris that she often wears men's clothing, she looks neither male nor female, and she knows a lesbian. She may not like men at all, so it may be Cleopatra who was sent by Britain to confuse Caesar. ."

   "I...I know it's out of time." Lucius covered his mouth with his fist and couldn't hide the smile at the corner of his mouth. "Are you sure she's a ‘straight’?"

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

   "That guy refuted the rumor?" Severus asked.

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

   "He didn't prohibit it?" Severus asked gritted his teeth.

"They held a ceremony, the opening ceremony of the Saint Martin Canal, but he encountered the assassination and stopped halfway." Alessandro said, "He is not her husband, let alone he can use her to set a benchmark, no Women who do not have legal procedures are allowed to wear men's clothing."

   "It works?" Lucius asked with a smile.

   "No, there are more women wearing menswear in Paris. They like that cynical look." Alessandro said blankly, "It's both masculine and feminine."

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

   "Who would ask them?" Lucius looked at Severus incredulously. "Why are your brains so rigid?"

   "I'm talking about rules!" Severus said harshly.

  Lucius shook his head, as if he had already ignored him.

  (End of this chapter)