19 Crossing into the Middle Ages 019

Just as the profit estimates from the sugar trade were finalized, Louisa felt a pang of regret. In the first year, due to limited planting area, the sugar output was not large, delaying the earnings! Yet even so, the profits were substantial. If all went according to plan, the trade volume for the first sugar season would exceed £10,000.

This was astonishing. It must be noted that Count Balzac of Balduro, owing to the Brudo market, was among the wealthiest nobles in the Vasson Kingdom. Yet, the market income, a significant part of his revenue, was only between £6,000 and £8,000 annually — and that was direct income. The prosperity brought by the market to the entire town of Brudo, from which the Count benefited, was not included in this figure and was incalculable.

Previously, Count Balzac’s regular annual income ranged between £25,000 and £30,000. This was quite high. Another of the twelve original nobles of the Vasson Kingdom, the Count of Waterl to the north of Brudo, earned only about £10,000 annually. Similarly, the Duke of Rhone to the south of Brudo, also renowned for his wealth, had a steady income just above £30,000.

The royal family’s income, however, was exceptionally high. Last year, the Vasson royal revenues reached £450,000. As the crown overcame its initially small demesne and gradually strengthened royal authority, its income soared steadily. It was no longer the case that Brudo’s income reached even a third of the royal treasury’s.

Yet, despite the royal coffers’ abundance, expenditures were vast. Often, royal financiers still had to seek loans from major merchants, and many times defaulted on repayments.

In any case, a trade volume exceeding £10,000 was truly impressive. Although costs had to be deducted, these were minimal. Seeds were nearly free; the land belonged to Count Balzac himself. Fertilizer required some effort to procure but was not costly overall.

Fuel and labor were also manageable. Fuel was produced on-site, and labor came from hired farmers and serfs, so wages, though paid, were limited.

To be honest, Louisa had been surprised by such high income estimates, but in hindsight, it made sense. At this time, one bonnier of beetroot yielded on average over 16,000 pounds. A bonnier was roughly equivalent to one hectare, or about 15 acres. Converting pounds to kilograms, the yield was around 370 kilograms per acre.

This was far less than the yields of more than 10 tons per acre common in later centuries, but considering the quality of seeds and fertilization methods of the time, it was reasonable.

The Swan Manor’s lord retained 288 bonniers of land, of which 250 bonniers were planted with beetroot in the first year, excluding unsuitable plots. Additionally, the manor’s peasants, who could deduct rent and were promised a good purchase price by the lord, also cultivated a certain area of beetroot.

Altogether, the beetroot planting area in Swan Manor reached about 420 bonniers, producing over 6.72 million pounds of beetroot.

Even with a sugar extraction rate of only 3%, this was sufficient to produce 200,000 pounds of sugar. Previously, the rate had been just 2%, but improved beet quality and enhanced extraction and refining techniques raised it to 3%.

At 14 pennies per pound, 200,000 pounds of sugar amounted to 2.8 million pennies, which converted to just over £11,667.

The pure monetary costs were negligible; even accounting for land and labor converted into money, expenses remained low. In effect, the sugar business increased Count Balzac’s annual income by 40 to 50%.

The count, overjoyed by this windfall, grew increasingly pleased with Louisa. Beyond funding an extravagant custom jewelry order for her, he also arranged for a renowned scholar to tutor her, hoping to enhance her education and pave the way for a more illustrious future.

In the early Middle Ages, education was entirely under the Church’s domain, not because the Church sought to monopolize knowledge, but rather because after the collapse of Rome, the incoming military nobility showed little interest in learning. Their social ascent did not depend on knowledge. Meanwhile, the quality of clergy deteriorated overall. To ensure future clerics could at least read religious texts, some visionaries established school-like institutions within churches and monasteries.

At first, few noble children wished to join the clergy, so church schools mostly educated commoners’ offspring. From this perspective, the Church did not monopolize knowledge itself but rather controlled its interpretation, since in the Middle Ages any knowledge could be linked to religion.

As the Middle Ages passed their darkest years, cultural recovery and development took place. By now, in the Vasson Kingdom, at least the royal family and high nobility provided Latin education to their children, and some minor southern nobles with educational traditions did likewise. Many other nobles could read and write, but only in the vernacular, who at this time were still considered “illiterate” or “semi-literate.”

The least emphasis on education was likely in the eastern region of Muberhan, where even princes and princesses in the royal court might be unable to read or write Latin.

Regardless, Count Balzac highly valued education and recognized its worth. The Brudo court hosted a palace school where noble pages received Latin instruction. Since Louisa had not attended school after returning to Brudo, the count considered securing her a tutor a reward.

Louisa could only respond with a hesitant “emmmm…”

“…Yes, I need this crown just so,” Louisa told the jeweler, presenting her own carefully sketched design. Since the count had offered to pay whatever she ordered, she did not hold back. Indeed, she had been busy with the sugar enterprise, so this was her due.

The crown she showed was not Gothic in style—though Gothic architecture had long dominated, its soaring, pointed, solemn, and elegant aesthetics had begun influencing jewelry-making, albeit somewhat belatedly.

Louisa’s design was copied from a book left by her aunt, who had studied jewelry design in their spatial realm. The crown was famous, known as the “Queen Victoria’s Grandmother’s Emerald Crown.” Originally part of a set including a crown, necklace, earrings, and brooch, it was designed by Prince Albert for the queen.

Whether Albert himself created the design or merely commissioned a jeweler to refine it was unknown, but the finished piece was exquisite.

Louisa boldly sketched the entire set for commissioning, making it the largest expense in her jewelry order. The crown’s top alone required nineteen inverted pear-shaped emeralds, the largest weighing fifteen carats! This did not include the various square and diamond-cut emeralds adorning the crown’s waist and base.

In later eras, emeralds ranked among the four great jewels, though the medieval list differed slightly; emeralds were nevertheless included.

As the ancient Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius said: “Emeralds are not cheap because they lack praise.”

There is a modern stereotype that ancient jewelry was cheaper than today’s, but this is mistaken. Such a perception arises because staple goods like grain and textiles, often used as a measure of value, were extremely expensive in the past. People living in times when grain and textiles were relatively cheap naturally found jewelry less costly.

In reality, low productivity meant grain and textiles were not cheap for ordinary people, many of whom toiled year-round yet remained half-starved and ragged.

Whether ancient jewelry was truly expensive or cheap depends on the context. Modern abundance of material goods allows luxury items like jewelry to inflate in price, so in absolute terms, ancient jewelry was cheaper. However, relative to the purchasing power of the time, jewelry represented a significant expense.

For example, a crown such as this would cost over £200. To put this in perspective, most knights earned less than £100 per year.

Even a knight’s squire, if not the eldest son but with a steady income of twenty to thirty pounds (where “steady” primarily meant land ownership), could afford a knighting ceremony and become a full knight.

In the early to mid-Middle Ages, the knightly class was not yet fixed. Wealthy commoners could easily become knights by purchasing the necessary equipment and receiving investiture. By contrast, now one had to be a knight’s child to become a knight, and only the eldest son typically inherited the status.

The main issue was that knightly estates were limited; after passing the estate to the eldest son, there were insufficient resources to provide the other sons with what was needed to become knights.

For commoners, only extraordinary wealth or connections could enable such social mobility.

Although Count Balzac earned £25,000 to £30,000 annually, his neighbor, the Duke of Rhone, earned slightly more, and another neighbor, the Count of Waterl, earned around £10,000 yearly. Both Balzac and Rhone were famously wealthy, and Waterl was no slouch either. His lands bordered the Low Countries, making his domain well-suited for industrial and North Sea shipping development.

High-quality wool transported from Gotland passed through Waterl’s lands, allowing him to profit by processing textiles and distributing them widely.

If this comparison was not enough, castles provided another benchmark. As the military and residential strongholds of medieval lords, castles required significant investment. A baron’s main castle cost about £300 to build; smaller knightly castles were less expensive.

“We have some emeralds here for you to choose from. If none please you, we can also source them from our peers,” the jeweler said enthusiastically. This was a huge business opportunity.

Seeing the extensive use of emeralds in the design, he silently praised Louisa, envisioning her as a goddess of wealth, surrounded by a golden aura.

Such an emerald crown was not a mere “pretty” piece that could be had for just over £200.

“However… you want some colorless diamonds, right? Those aren’t rare, but you require faceting and cutting, which is somewhat difficult,” the jeweler examined the design closely and gave an honest assessment.

At this time, diamonds were not yet considered top-tier gemstones, ranked below emeralds, rubies (including spinel), sapphires, and opals. This was because colored gems were favored, and diamond cutting techniques were still primitive, making transparent diamonds appear dull. Colored diamonds, like yellow or blue diamonds, were exceptions and popular.

The technology for faceted gemstone cutting was just arriving from India and Persia, and only the finest craftsmen understood it. Faceting the emeralds on Louisa’s crown was manageable due to their simpler shapes, but the diamonds posed a significant challenge.

Diamonds’ extreme hardness made cutting difficult.

“I just want to see a good enough effect. If you cannot achieve the technique, but can disguise it with design, I won’t mind,” Louisa said lightly.

The craftsman, of course, did not take her words at face value and immediately began considering how best to cut and polish the diamonds. Serving high nobility was like this: large orders brought great profit but also demanded perfection. High nobles were notoriously picky, and satisfying them always posed challenges, something the jeweler was well aware of.