British hegemon

Chapter 6 The Young Master is Released from "Prison"

On August 3, 1305, Roger, who had been imprisoned for twenty-four days after recovering from serious injuries, was allowed to be "released from prison".

The old butler with the sour face was initially firmly opposed to letting the evil spirits out of their cage.

The past month has been the most difficult time of his life. In order to keep young master Roger in the attic bedroom, the bitter-faced man used every trick in the book.

The evil spirit in the attic would occasionally threaten to escape from the bedroom, forcing the bitter-faced man to fulfill his bizarre, sensational, or fantastical demands.

The man with the bitter face thought that Colin had strictly ordered a month-long stay-at-home order, while Roger was still six days short.

Finally, Roger Qiang included the six days before his father gave the order, making it exactly one month.

The stubborn man with the bitter face knelt on the floor at the bedroom door, refusing to let Luo Jie out of the cage.

Helpless, Roger had no choice but to call his adoptive mother and defend himself by saying that he had been redeemed by God, had turned over a new leaf, and would never do evil again.

Finally, under the pretext of personally confessing and praying to God at the Brodick Church, they barely managed to help the kneeling, bitter-faced man up...

……

In the attic bedroom of the "Milk House" manor lord's residence.

Roger gently tapped one end of several hazel twigs with the handle of his hunting knife, and the twigs split into small, soft "toothbrushes".

I dipped it in some ground coarse salt and rubbed it up and down in my mouth to clean it.

Upon arriving in this world, Roger was astonished to discover that the people here could go years without bathing, years without brushing their teeth, and use the same sponge repeatedly dipped in water to wipe their bottoms...

At first, Roger mustered up his courage and tried to adapt, but he soon discovered that he really couldn't enjoy it.

He forced the man with the bitter face to hastily make himself a bathtub, and the sponge for wiping his buttocks was replaced with relatively soft and clean fresh tender leaves.

Toothbrushes were hard to come by, but the noble families here would clean their mouths by chewing hazelnut twigs, so he had the young stableman Igor find a lot of hazelnut twigs and grind them with a little coarse salt to make his own toothbrush and tooth powder.

After washing it almost thoroughly, Roger took the large glass of water that Igor handed him with both hands, gulped it down, rinsed it a few times, and then spat it out the window with some coarse salt.

The young horse groom, Igor, looked at his young master's wasteful behavior with a complicated expression.

"Young Master Roger, lately there's been a lot of talk in the manor. Everyone's saying that ever since you recovered from your serious injuries, you've been like a completely different person."

"You weren't so particular before."

Roger straightened his long, brownish-yellow hair as he looked at his reflection in the clear water of the ceramic basin. His stature was considered tall for this era, and his young but not particularly handsome face was adorned with two slender eyes, which did bear some resemblance to his former self.

The wound on his temple had completely scabbed over, leaving a horrifying scar.

Because I have plenty of nutrition and good physical condition, and I've been quite free lately, I've been doing physical training every day, and my muscles are getting more and more toned.

As the weather grew hotter, Roger tossed aside his flashy tweed jacket and changed into a light, round-necked, wide-sleeved, tight-fitting robe.

Last night, Roger specially asked the old tailor at the manor to sew an inverted pocket inside the wide cuff.

The front of the robe was embroidered with the Campbell family's red eagle and black ship coat of arms; on the left side of the narrow leather belt hung a deerskin purse containing only a few dozen coins, while on the right side, a hunting knife was casually tucked into a leather sheath.

Underneath his robe was only a pair of brown riding breeches. Roger really didn't want to wear those two oddly shaped stockings, so he simply wore a pair of short, black leather riding boots under the hem of his robe.

He was dressed like an ordinary farm boy, but Roger didn't care at all.

After getting ready, Roger touched the not-too-bulging deerskin money pouch on his belt, which contained two gold coins of roughly the same shape and fifty-four intact silver pennies.

In addition, there were a few broken silver coins with missing corners.

Roger specifically asked his stable boy about the two gold coins.

One of them, called the Florin, was a gold coin from Florence, worth about three shillings, or thirty-six pence. It was slightly larger than a silver penny, with one side featuring St. John the Baptist and the other side featuring Florentine flowers. This Florin gold coin was very popular throughout the North.

The other is a Venetian gold coin, which can be exchanged for a florin gold coin. It is the same size, weight and gold content, and its value is also three shillings. However, one side of it is the image of the Doge of Venice kneeling in front of St. Mark, and the other side is the Virgin Mary surrounded by stars.

The young horseman explained with the same patience he would show a patient with amnesia that the coins were worth more than 126 pence, equivalent to 10 shillings and 6 pence.

My mother had instructed me that the ten shillings were an offering to God, as a token of gratitude for God's salvation of Roger.

The remaining six silver pennies and loose silver coins were what Roger was left to "squander".

Roger had a concept of gold and silver currency in his memory, but no direct experience of it.

Whether it's a gold coin or a silver penny, they're all small, thin pieces in your hand, so you don't really feel anything.

However, judging from the expression on her face when she handed over the money bag and her repeated instructions, it was not hard to guess that the money, worth ten shillings, was by no means a small amount, even for a small noble family with some assets.

The monetary system in this era was still very chaotic, and there was no unified standard for pricing the currency itself.

Scotland, in particular, lacked a mature local monetary system due to its weak feudal foundation and turbulent domestic political situation.

Throughout history, kings have minted gold and silver coins on numerous occasions, but the quality varied and the value was difficult to standardize. Coupled with the self-sufficient nature of the traditional agricultural economy, people were mostly accustomed to bartering, making it even more difficult for currency to develop.

However, the Isle of Aran was once a hub of maritime trade in western Scotland, and at one time, merchants and travelers came and went, and goods circulated in all directions. Therefore, its monetary system was centuries more advanced than that of the inland areas.

The most common and complete system is the penny, shilling and pound system introduced by the English.

Not only the monetary system, but also the system of weights and measures largely used the English standards.

Roger was forced to abandon the metric system he had used for decades and force himself to get used to units such as inches, feet, miles, pounds, pints, bushels, acres, and germs.

The shilling and the pound sterling are merely units of measurement and do not constitute actual currency; therefore, the silver penny is the most basic single unit of currency.

Several years ago, the English had already begun minting smaller denominations of halfpenny and quarterpenny, but due to the deteriorating relations between the two countries in recent years, these physical currencies have not yet reached Scotland.

Based on the purchasing power of one silver penny at that time, which was roughly equivalent to fifteen to twenty eggs, and taking into account factors such as productivity development and inflation, one silver penny in this place was roughly equivalent to forty to fifty yuan in RMB during Roger's time.

Twelve pence equals one shilling, estimated at around 600 RMB; twenty shillings equals one pound, estimated at around 12,000 RMB.

In fact, due to the shrinking supply of silver coins on the island in recent years, the value of pennies has been increasing.

Even the knight's wife's personal nanny and cook only earned a penny a day, while the lowest-paid handyman earned half a penny a day.

Of course, the estate would provide them with a meal and lodging, although the food consisted of only black bread and wheat porridge, and the lodging was only in corridors, passageways, or barns and stables.

Even so, countless people are still scrambling to do this job, since ordinary farmers can barely survive a year of hard work without any pay.

So, in times of hardship, the mother was able to donate more than 6,000 yuan to God in order to save her son, which shows the power of faith.

Roger, however, knew nothing of this, and besides, he had no intention of donating those glittering gold and silver to God.

Roger stopped in front of the bedroom door, tugged at his robe again, and stepped out of the room.

Young horseman Igor followed closely behind.

"What are you following me for?" Roger turned around and glared fiercely at the tail behind him.