Only Liquid Money is Money

Perhaps because of the reputation she had built up earlier, when they heard Flora’s outrageous statement, the others did not refute or express surprise, but began to think carefully.

This was a good thing.

But the Crown Prince and the old butler were limited by the fact that they had not been to the lower classes and all over the world, and Assistant Morick was limited by the fact that his life was too hard when he was in the lower classes, so the things he could see were too narrow.

After that, he directly became a civil servant under the nobility, lacking a little experience… Flora waited for a while and decided to enlighten them directly.

“Yara, how much manpower have you invested in the cultivation of tomatoes? Or rather, if there is no harvest at all, how many people will be affected?”

“About a thousand people,” Yara said with a slightly heavy heart.

Regarding this point, Flora had inquired and investigated. Baron Cyk’s territory was relatively small and remote, with only more than 2,000 people under his rule.

Most of the fields were used to grow tomatoes, and grain was mainly bought.

If what Flora said really happened, more than 2,000 people would be affected.

Yara only answered the first question in order not to make it seem like she was selling misery.

But the Crown Prince and the others, who had investigated the maids’ backgrounds long ago, immediately understood the situation and knew what Flora meant.

“Indeed, my financial resources can affect the fate of many people, but there is still that question, why should I do this?” the Crown Prince asked calmly.

“Just to help her?”

“To allow the money in Your Highness’s hands to circulate.”

Flora didn’t read many books, but she liked to peel away the appearance of things to analyze the core.

So in her limited learning and constant observation and thinking, she realized early on—

“The essence of money is a medium of exchange, which was created to solve the inconvenience of bartering.

Its core function is to promote transactions. If money doesn’t circulate, it can’t play its economic role.”

“The circulation of money can amplify the total economy through the cycle of ‘expenditure – income – re-expenditure’, but if money is saved or hoarded, this cycle will be interrupted, and economic growth will also slow down.”

The Crown Prince was different from ordinary nobles and had to consider the overall economic situation of the empire, so Flora approached it from this perspective.

“Of course, I’m not saying that we should recklessly waste money to buy unnecessary items, but that we can redistribute social resources and create more employment through consumption, make the market more active, and obtain tangible benefits from it.”

“For example, this tomato. If we just buy it back for our own use, it will definitely be a waste, but we can take it out to sell… Does Your Highness’s industry have restaurants opened in the imperial city and various major cities?”

“Yes, but this kind of food is estimated to not sell well.”

Morick replied.

Flora actually asked knowingly, since the place to eat was the easiest to inquire about and leak information. With the Crown Prince’s way of doing things, it was impossible not to get involved in this aspect.

But considering the Crown Prince’s situation, the restaurants under his name were probably not accepted by the upper and middle class nobles, but it didn’t matter.

This purchase was a good opportunity to expand influence.

“Regarding this point, we can take the method of ‘broadly informing’.”

“Specifically, we first create high-end cuisine with tomatoes as the main ingredient, and then promote to the outside world that His Highness, who has always been stingy, also loves to eat and is frantically buying tomatoes, attracting the nobles and the rich in the city to taste it, and then lead a trend in multiple cities with the imperial capital as the center and make a fortune first.”

Although the Crown Prince’s reputation outside was extravagant, this was obviously a rumor spread by people with ulterior motives. The imperial city nobles who directly dealt with the Crown Prince definitely knew the real situation.

Of course, it was precisely because they knew that they didn’t like the Crown Prince very much and secretly paid attention to his every move.

At this time, the Crown Prince actually went against the norm, became obsessed with a food, and was willing to spend a lot of money… It was hard not to be curious.

The only problem was… Flora glanced at a certain black-haired youth who didn’t show any displeasure before continuing:

“In this way, not only did we not lose money, but we also didn’t waste food, and we also obtained more funds, which can be used to buy other things and continue this economic cycle…”

Although Flora didn’t say it, everyone knew that in this process, Yara’s family’s crisis had been quietly resolved.

But that alone was not enough—

“Of course, the world is never short of people who follow the trend. Afterwards, there will probably be many people who will go to the Cyk family to directly purchase tomatoes and try to imitate us to launch similar dishes.

At this time, we can launch a cheap dish for the middle and lower-level nobles, or even the general public, while the original dish will continue to follow the high-end route.”

“Those who imitate us, even if they buy tomatoes, but without Your Highness’s golden brand, they can only benchmark with cheap dishes in the long run, but the profits they can get are limited…

In this way, there will not be a large number of manors that will recklessly change to growing tomatoes in order to make profits, leading to a reduction in the production of major crops such as food.”

“Similarly, this method can also be used in many places not limited to ingredients.”

The empire currently had a very serious trend-following phenomenon.

It had nothing to do with the land enclosure caused by the rise of any technology.

It was simply that the nobles blindly changed the products of their manors based on what was currently popular and selling well in the market.

Some people did make money, but more people lost everything.

This led to another extreme situation, where some great nobles took the lead in advocating frugality and hoarding money at home without using or spending it.

Well, the Crown Prince was one of them.

However, the non-circulation of money led to a more terrible social economy, and because the production of major crops was reduced, the price of food increased, and a large number of people became poor and hungry, displaced… In the end, they could only rise up.

In recent years, the empire had been putting down rebellions everywhere, and even the Crown Prince had fought against the rebels more than once.

Flora’s approach, not to say solving the problem at the source, could at least alleviate this situation and allow the people to live and work in peace.

However, how to do it specifically was a matter for the Crown Prince and his think tank to study.

She was just making a start, giving an example, and giving them a little inspiration… After all, she was going to leave after all.

The others didn’t know her negative thoughts, and after this point, they quickly entered a state of learning by analogy.

“I think Your Highness can reward the extra tomatoes to the subordinates as a benefit.”

Old Butler Charlton quickly thought of a way to win more people’s hearts for the Crown Prince.

“Wait, most of the ingredients here seem to be able to be purchased from our family’s suppliers… Your Highness, this is a good opportunity to sell them favors!”

Morick pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses and surprisingly discovered more shining points on the list.

Remembering those emaciated “rebels” who were still angry and desperately rushing towards him, Ryan nodded:

“Let’s do it.”

“Thank you very much!”

Flora showed a joyful smile as if she was the one who had benefited, and then turned around and joked, “Yara, don’t take the opportunity to raise the price.”

“Of course not, how could I do such an ungrateful thing!”

Unexpectedly, Yara waved her hand excitedly to clarify, as if she was afraid that everyone would change their minds because of this, but soon she noticed that no one cared about this and quickly bowed her head to express her thanks to the other four people.

“There’s no need to do this, but you should tell your family about this soon,” Flora urged.

Speaking of this, Yara remembered the letters her parents had sent and suddenly felt a little angry for some reason.

Especially when she saw the concerned look on the blonde girl’s face and the Crown Prince not far away, who was expressionless but actually worried about the people’s livelihood, she felt even more upset and ashamed.

She immediately took her leave and pushed the dining car to the kitchen, then went straight back to her bedroom.

She tore open the seal and started reading the letter.

As she read, Yara’s tightly furrowed brows gradually relaxed.

In the end, it turned into tears that burst out of her eyes.

“What a bunch of idiots!”

She choked out.

[Don’t worry about the situation at home, just live your own life.]

It simply wrote that.