When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist-Chapter 775 - 730: Rapids City in 1448 (Part 2)

After the navigation of rivers like the Erno River, the water levels have slightly risen in both Joan of Arc Castle and Rapids City.

And the wool trade on the northern line and the spice and white sugar trade on the southern line have caused Rapids City to face greater transportation pressure than before.

Thus, Moliat raised over ten thousand gold pounds to excavate the old river channel that was previously buried underground.

This created two parallel river tracks: one for transporting towards Falan via the southern channel, and the other for transporting towards Leia via the northern channel.

Using this method, Catherine increased the annual freight volume of Rapids City from 80,000 tons to 130,000 tons last year, and in just the first three months of this year, it has already reached 40,000 tons.

There are even those who have calculated the number and size of ships passing through the northern and southern channels into a significant South-North Shipping Index, updated weekly in the Meigedi Business News.

As the largest waterway hub among the four counties of the plains, the increase in freight volume in Rapids City almost directly indicates a substantial increase in the economy.

Most people, including a large number of Thousand River Valley People, believed that Rapids City would decline for a decade or two.

But unexpectedly, under Horn's policy support, Catherine and the Meigedi Commerce Association rebuilt Rapids City into one of the top three economic cities in just three short years.

In this process, Catherine and the Meigedi Commerce Association played indispensable roles.

After the Battle of Rapids City, 80% of the buildings in the Port District were unusable, necessitating the relocation of nearly ten thousand people to Joan of Arc Castle and the ry Court Barracks.

The destruction rate of handicraft workshops reached nearly 50%, and the unemployment rate approached 30%, requiring military governance to maintain order.

In the first year, Catherine and the Meigedi Commerce Association issued the "Streetfront Store Relocation Act" to free up sufficient river and street space.

They also passed Horn's "24-Hour Timing Law" and suppressed a group of Guild members' strikes.

Catherine even ordered front-line soldiers to equip with hand cannons, and to use live ammunition on the strikers if necessary.

Horn considered this a wise move because a gun holds the greatest deterrent power when not fired; if it fires without the expected damage,

then the strikers would only grow bolder, potentially leading to direct attacks on suppressing soldiers, causing greater casualties.

In the second year, Catherine repeatedly raised funds to establish the "Rapids City Reconstruction Foundation" and issued municipal bonds.

Later, they collaborated with the Black Hat Army, contracting most of the Port District's reconstruction work, beginning dual-track waterway expansions while unifying infrastructure repairs.

At this time, various post-war Horn policies and blockades caused Rapids City's economy to plummet.

Last August, the Rapids City Reconstruction Foundation was on the brink of bankruptcy.

If it weren't for Grandmother's Kush Foundation providing help first, followed by the Clove Corridor's war reparations, the city hall of Rapids City would have nearly gone bankrupt.

However, Catherine maneuvered tirelessly, painstakingly enduring the most difficult period and successfully completing most reconstruction plans.

Though not all streets and industries have recovered, the economic level alone surpassed pre-war conditions.

After tossing a Dinar, Horn picked up a copy of the Meigedi Business News and two candies, sat at the edge of the flowerbed, and asked, "Who is running the Meigedi Commerce Association now?"

"Nominally, it's still Lady Catherine, but she only shows up at important meetings. Most of the time, it's us and the Meigedi Part

"Has the negotiation about establishing the Saint Father's Association within the Meigedi Commerce Association been approved?"

"Not yet. They're accepting the establishment of the Saint Father's Association within the commerce association, but only as a personal organization, not an official one, nor allowed to have actual authority.

On the surface, they claim commercial activities require professional individuals, but in private gatherings, they say that public opinions severely interfere with normal business operations.

Your Eminence, shall I offer them some conditions they can't refuse?" The young Cheka supervisor's eyes flashed with a glint.

Horn shook his head: "Don't press too hard, treat it like fishing, sometimes tightening, sometimes loosening the line. Now is not the time to tighten."

"When is the right time to tighten?" René, who always played the role of tightening, or rather Cheka could only play that role, asked.

"When it's necessary." Horn opened the second page of the Meigedi Business News, beginning to read the foreign news section, "When they lose hope."

Compared to the selective news reports from the Truth Daily, which were always "Leia is too bad," "Holy Seat City is too bad," the Meigedi Business News was more objective.

Additionally, beyond foreign news, the Meigedi Business News provided the most precise interpretations of various commercial messages and indicators.

But from this point, Horn could smell a whiff of corruption.

Normally, many industry news pieces are random and couldn't be so accurate.

The accuracy rate of the Meigedi Business News was astonishingly high, according to Cheka's statistics, most mistakes ultimately favored the association itself.

Either Meigedi Business News had a foolproof plan, or the Meigedi Commerce Association was both player and referee, and for most of the games, the referee.

Maybe people of the same era didn't mind, but Horn, from a future perspective, had seen such methods many times.

He couldn't help but be warу.

The Meigedi Commerce Association appeared to be just a small merchant group focused on dyes, but it was a monopolistic organization covering all aspects.

Many times replacing government functions without changing its fundamental profitability demand.

Often, many actions by the association were purely for the personal interests of senior partners.

This is not to say profitability isn't important, but that there must be bottom lines for profitability.

The current good operational status helped Horn accomplish a lot, like bond sales, market stability maintenance, and guaranteeing freight routes.

But this was only because Catherine, in cooperation with the military and Cheka, was able to strongly suppress senior partners' instincts for profit and shortsightedness.

As the economy rapidly developed, these senior partners continued merging and controlling other businesses, slowly trending towards oligarchy.

Horn had already seen this, so he decided to nip it in the bud before it could grow.

For development, the ry Court Barracks allowed the appearance of trust systems, but Saint's Grandson wanted controllable trusts, not uncontrolled oligarchs.

So in the future, Meigedi Commerce Association will split into single-industry guilds or multiple state-owned enterprises, rationalizing workshops through mergers to increase efficiency.

At the same time, these state-owned enterprises and workshops will be managed by a dedicated committee or Monk Association.

Moreover, to ensure these state-owned enterprises remain under control, Horn's first step was to insert the Saint Father's Association into these national enterprises.

In this way, during the dismantling of the Meigedi Commerce Association, it could ensure dispersion yet stability.

"Here's what you do, discreetly monitor those unruly ones for me.

I'll take a look around Meigedi Commerce Association in a couple of days, and then meet with some partners from the insurance and lottery sectors, to see if they understand the bigger picture.

Gather evidence first, and when the time is ripe, I'll let you act." Horn casually flipped another page of the newspaper, "When I decide to act, it must be swift and precise like Jeanne's lightning, without holding back or showing mercy."