Chapter 621 Economic Reform

Viserys briefly inspected the construction of the military academy. The first half of the academy has been built, and normal teaching has begun, while the second half is still under construction.

And Sir Henrik, who had been chasing Maester Matus in class, had an uneasy day, but Viserys didn't punish him, didn't even give him a second look.

Henrik felt that he had escaped the catastrophe, and let out a sigh of relief on the way back to the dormitory.

Viserys did not punish disobedient students, because his own learning attitude was his best punishment.

What a rare opportunity to be educated today in this world of ice and fire.

He has already told them the importance of learning. This is a smooth and progressive road. Anyone who can grasp it will be able to ride the east wind soaring up, while those who have not grasped this opportunity will continue to do what they should do. The son of a blacksmith is still a blacksmith, and the son of a fisherman is still a fisherman.

After inspecting the Military Academy, Viserys turned to the Medical School. The Medical School was located near Baylor Cathedral, in the center of King's Landing.

The city planning of King's Landing is somewhat special. Although the location of Baylor Cathedral is in the center of the city, it is not the most prosperous area of ​​King's Landing.

The most prosperous part of King's Landing is located near Aegon's High Hill, in the southeast corner of the city. It houses the palace of the King of Westeros, the Prime Minister's Tower, the Imperial Council Hall, and the Inquisition under construction is also located on Aegon's High Hill, which will become King's Landing in the future. The highest legal body for appeals by common people and other nobles everywhere.

However, although the Baelor Cathedral is not as magnificent as Aegon's high hills, it is still very prosperous. The kingdom's medical school is next to the Baelor Cathedral. The scale of the building is not as grand as the military academy, and it is open to ordinary citizens.

The recruitment of the Military Academy is only recommended by the military in various places, and it is not open to the public. The location near the Military Academy is already guarded by a large number of soldiers from the capital garrison.

The other colleges except the Military Academy do not have such strict conditions. They can open to the outside world to recruit students, but they need to pay extremely high tuition fees.

But at present this policy is only on paper and has not been formally implemented. Now it only accepts patients who come to see a doctor. The students are still composed of the second and illegitimate children of nobles from all over the world. However, even so, the medical school is still overcrowded every day, and a large number of The people of King's Landing lined up to see a doctor and were overwhelmed.

The city's great physician, Dr. Ambrose, is now the dean of the medical school, and he is also the leading doctor in the entire Westeros, and beside him there is a busy little fat man running around, Made Viserys look familiar.

However, the medical school's special situation is indeed too busy. Everyone is busy with their feet on the ground. Viserys is just looking at it here. He didn't cause any more trouble for this group of medical workers, but turned and left. here.

The military academy and the medical school are what Viserys cares most about, one about killing people and the other about saving people.

As for the construction of the School of Economics and Theological Seminary, the construction of the School of Economics and the Seminary has not yet been completed.

Economic reform is imperative in the future, but now the country has not been completely settled, and it is still in the post-war recovery stage. There will be even bigger wars waiting for them in the future. Now, stable transition is the main focus, and more suitable reform conditions have not yet been formed.

In fact, it is the deep-rooted great aristocracy in Westeros that has caused the stagnation of national strength. Looking at the free trade city-states on the other side of the Narrow Sea, they are not as strong as the Seven Kingdoms. Their population size and The scale of the land is not comparable to Westeros, it is just a small piece of land.

However, according to the report provided by Illyrio Mopatis, the former governor of Pantos, the Minister of Finance, under such a strong comparison of strengths, a large amount of gold and silver is lost every year in the seven countries, flowing into the free trade city-states on the other side of the narrow sea. It flowed into the Iron Vault, the Ancient Spice Guild, the Thirteen Giants, etc.

Where does this strong trade deficit come from? How to solve it? Naturally became one of the next topics.

However, it is obvious that Westeros is now only a superficial producer of raw materials, with primitive processing and production methods, and the profit earned is the smallest.

Farmers in Westeros produced raw materials, which were then sold at extremely low prices to wealthy merchants in the Free Cities.

The wealthy businessmen have processed the raw materials into commodities and sold them all over the world, including Westeros. They easily took away a large amount of gold and silver at several times and dozens of times the price.

Once the western border was the main mining area of ​​the Seven Kingdoms, the land in the western border was rich in minerals, such as gold, silver, copper, etc. However, the western border with so many resources did not dominate Westeros in the end, but was hollowed out. Body.

Where does all the gold dug up in the western border go?

Anyway, it did not flow into the hands of local businessmen.

The wealthy merchants of these free trade city-states use the money they earn from Westeros to easily destroy the original merchants of the Seven Kingdoms and strangle all their competitors to maximize their profits.

The former Iron Throne did not notice this at all, or was ignorant, and the Minister of Finance only knew how to extend his hand to borrow money, which caused the current situation.

Implement limited trade protection, follow the example of trade city-states to establish their own "iron treasury", that is, banks, promote currency reform, change the way of productivity, etc.

All of these immediate problems need to be solved by Viserys urgently, but this kind of problem cannot be urgent. Economic problems can never be solved overnight. In the future, more long-term development is needed, and we need to take every step. The talent aspect alone is very short.

As for religion, it may be more complicated than economic issues, and it will take years and decades of long-term efforts until a generation completely dies before it can be changed.

Now the seminary is also located not far from Baylor Cathedral, next to the alchemist's guild hall. The dean of the seminary is the archbishop of the seven gods, and the fat archbishop is also honored. Every day Wearing the dean's medal, he walked around the academy with his head held high.

Of course, there are more than seven gods in the seminary. Melisandre, a priestess of the Red God Cult who has a high reputation among the people, was supported by Viserys and became the vice president of the seminary, mainly cultivating and teaching faith. The monks of R'hllor.

In the seminary, there are also the natural beliefs of the Loyna people and the beliefs of the old gods, which are generally more popular in the north. There is also a small-scale forest of gods in the seminary.

In general, the atmosphere in the seminary was quite harmonious, and there was no situation that Viserys had worried about before.

Inspector Viserys returned to the Red Keep after inspecting the Military Academy and the Medical School.