Chapter 9: a Fair Days Wage for a Fair Days Work. (1/2)

After a hard day's work, Berengar sat down next to the poor farmer known as Gunther and shared a wineskin with the man as he wiped away the sweat from his brow with the sleeve of his luxurious doublet. As the two rehydrated, Berengar suddenly remembered his most important reason for entering the fields. As important as advancing the agricultural technology of his family's land was, there was one matter that truly kept him awake at night.

”Hey Gunther, do you have about a pound of Lard I may purchase from you?”

That's right, Lard! No matter how important advancing the agricultural system of his family's land was, it was a process that would take many years, possibly even decades, to fulfill truly. Right now, he desperately needed lard to create pomade so he could get his appearance the way he desired. I mean, sure, his family probably had lard in its kitchen, but the cooks were awfully stingy about the resources he could take out on a whim. If he kept stockpiling lard sooner or later, he would have to explain to his father that he was using it to create a primitive hair gel.

Only once did he use the greasy residue from his natural grime to fix his hair, and he immediately regretted it; the entire day, he felt grossed out knowing that the sweat and dirt produced by his body were used to style his hair; it was simply unsanitary! After the first day of his transmigration, he opted never to resort to such filthy habits ever again. Thus he had been parting his hair ever since and felt it did not fit of this handsome face he had acquired.

Gunther had a hard time believing this young lord's behavior; even now, after helping a lowly peasant like himself plow and seed his fields for the entire day, the Baron's son was asking to purchase lard off of him instead of outright confiscating it.

”Milord, all of this land belongs to your family; everything I produce belongs to ...”

Before Gunther could finish his thought, Berengar raised a hand and cut him off. With a dignified expression, Berengar smiled at Gunther and preached his ideology.

”I'm a strong believer of the saying a fair day's wage for a fair day's work. You tell me what you think the lard you have put so much effort into producing is worth, and I will pay it.”

Gunther stared at Berengar with an astonished look; he had never met such an enlightened noble before, yet what Berengar said next was like a dream come true for a lowly peasant such as himself.

”One day, when I rule over these lands, I will pay every man the worth of their labor, regardless of the class they were born into.”

A small tear formed in Gunther's eyes as he heard the pleasant words of Berengar; if this were an ordinary nobleman, he would never believe such an outrageous statement. Yet, Berengar, a man with obvious physical frailty and of noble birth, had stood side by side with him, helping him plow and seed his fields so that together they could introduce a new system of crop rotation. The noble scion did it without demanding for anything in return.”

After considering Berengar's offer for quite some time raised three of his fingers.

”Three pfennigs”

Berengar thought it was a fair price as such, he reached into his doublet and pulled out a small satchel which contained a pouch of small white coins; he pinched three of the small coins with his fingers and pulled them out of the satchel, handing them over to Gunther with a smile on his face.

Gunther, on the other hand, was staring madly at the three white coins. When he was said ”three pfennigs,” he referred to the copper pfennigs, not the white ones, which contained at least 50% silver within the metallic mix. These were worth far more than he had asked for.

After gaping at Berengar like an idiot for a few moments, he finally recovered from his daze and handed them back to the young lord.

”Milord, when I said three pfennigs, I was referring to the copper ones, not the white ones.”

Berengar looked at Gunther with a look of confusion on his face; in his entire memories, the young nobleman had only ever encountered the white pfennigs. He was entirely unaware that a separate currency with the same name existed and was worth far less.

After hearing such a thing existed, Berengar couldn't help but feel disgruntled. He could not believe the currency used in this society was primitive. He would investigate this at once and develop a plan to rehash the currency used in this feudal society. He swore even if he had to create his own currency, he would fix this backward system that Kufstein currently used.

Luckily for him, this would be within his power as the Baron of Kufstein when he succeeded his father. Much like during the timeline of his previous life, sometime during the 12th century, the German King was no longer able to enforce the regalia of minting coins. Thus the minting process fell to the authority of every local town and lord. The value of a coin from one barony could be worth more or less than the value from another.

It was truly a maddening system. However, if you thought the Kingdom of Germany was a mess, then the Holy Roman Empire as a whole was far worse; there was no uniform currency throughout the entirety of its territory. While the Kingdom of Germany and its domains used the pfennig, or penny as it would be translated to in modern English as the most common currency, the same could not be said about the other Kingdoms the Empire comprised of.

Though he may be a baron, at the very least, he could simplify the coinage minted in his territory when he came to power. However, for now, he had to endure the stupidity of such a foolish system. After thinking it through, Berengar folded Gunther's hand, which currently held the three pfennigs, and smiled.

”Three pfennigs is three pfennigs as far as I'm concerned. When I come to power, I will mint new currency; made of solid gold and silver so that its value is absolute.”