Harry Potter’s Morning Light

   Chapter 2429 royalcircus (twelve)

  Brussels is actually located on the banks of the Seine. Before entering the city, the motorcade came to the pier. There are also gorgeous buildings here. Henry Joseph Langhenhofen is standing at the door waiting.

  If the stock exchange was repaired, it would have been included in the morning itinerary in the city center, but since it was not repaired, this trade and exhibition market was used instead.

  Since Louis XIV bombed the center of Brussels and occupied the original bread and cloth market with his palace, merchants could only trade in one place. Usually it is the city gate, because entering the city requires a city tax, but outside the city gate, although it is not as concentrated as the city center, it also enjoys a certain convenience. Just like the hawkers in the vegetable market and the hawkers who occupy the road outside, the management fee is paid for setting up a stall in the vegetable market. The hawker outside the vegetable market does not give this money. People who come to the vegetable market to buy vegetables see the vegetables outside the vegetable market. It was cheaper and more convenient than the one inside, so I bought it outside the market. The vegetable vendors who paid the management fee in the market will definitely quit. They asked the market to find a way, otherwise they would refuse to pay the management fee, or simply withdraw from the market. , as well as the hawkers outside.

   This phenomenon is also seen in other cities, and different places have different management methods. Henry Joseph Langhenhofen was a senior official of the "Show Tax Chamber", Latin for "toloneum", which means road tax.

  This is different from the toll tax, which means that if a hawker wants to set up a stall on the road to display his goods for customers to choose from, then he has to pay the tax. He hid the turkey in his coat pocket and waited for the visitor to find him suspicious, then he took off his coat, took the turkey out to the customer, paid for the turkey and delivered it without paying road tax.

  Which normal housewife would buy food like this? They are all pick and choose at the booth, haggle and then pay. But France now has a black market for bread, and they operate like ghosts and operate at an irregular time and place.

The place where the Langhenhofen family lives is called "Sausage Street". It starts from Market Street and extends to Violet Street. In the Middle Ages, it used to be called Crossbow Street, because the street was full of artisans selling crossbows. , after the Austrians occupied it became a sausage seller, so it was renamed Sausage Street.

  Germans love to eat sausages and bacon. After leaving their homeland, this habit has not changed, so more Germans come to this street to buy sausages. However, most of the German peasants could not leave the territory, and almost all the nobles and rich people who came to Brussels, so the sausage shops in the sausage street were gradually replaced by various boutiques, and the streets were full of exquisite windows.

There are also bookstores, cafés, and Mrs. Langenhofen sometimes leaves the house to have a cup of coffee in the café downstairs, read a book, and enjoy a quiet time without the noise of children, although her two daughters are in Georgiana. It seems quite quiet.

If a woman is unfortunate enough to have six healthy, "lively" like Molly, plus mischievous sons like twins, and no parents, servants, etc. to help, Mrs. Langenhofen's life would be something else thought. The reason why she was able to leave home for a short while at ease was mainly because Henry's younger brother, Joannes, was at home. He was a doctor and loved children, but he was not married.

   She did not elaborate on the situation at home, but Langenhofen himself was actually proficient in medicine, but it was less conspicuous than his former role as Brabantine's lawyer.

  Under the advocacy of Langenhofen, the "Exhibition Tax Chamber of Commerce" built such a building on the edge of the Seine, and it also has to pay taxes. Why not go indoors and be exposed to the wind and the sun outside?

   In fact, most of the small traders did not appreciate it, they moved to the open space next to the dock, but there are many kinds of goods, and it is not just food that needs to be displayed. For example, the first industrial exposition in Paris, the main purpose is to show other countries that Paris has returned to the business field, more than 100 booths are dazzling, there are carpets, clothing, wallpapers, porcelain, glass products, watches, etc., the second industrial exposition is There are steam engines, metal molds, chemical equipment, new textile machines, etc., which are all developed by France.

I am very familiar with "expo" by changing the name, the world's fair, but the main commodity exhibited at the Brussels Exhibition and Trade Center this time is not industrial products, but hundreds of kinds of beer, these are brewers from all over Belgium, if Georgiana You have to get drunk one by one.

   There are also clocks, gems, leather goods, accessories, umbrellas, antiques, etc., which are displayed according to the appearance of the window. And so coincidentally Georgiana wanted to buy some Christmas presents, so she bought some.

   Saying "buy" she actually just pointed to a certain item and said how much she wanted. It's like this is a department store, but there is only one customer, and everyone surrounds her.

   It's just that there is no shopping bag, which makes her feel insecure. In a department store in the 21st century, there will always be a "driver" with a large bag and a small bag, following a fashionably dressed woman. Later, she took a fancy to a black coat made of wool with a gray fur collar. She tried it on and it "accidentally" fit, and then she didn't plan to return it, and continued shopping in this dress. .

  Padma also took the opportunity to "buy" one, and the girls also "buied" when they saw it. Even if they were not dressed properly, there were also Bertin and the seamstresses, but they didn't touch anything when they passed the jewelry area.

   A bracelet is enough to buy dozens of clothes they wear, but Georgiana stopped by a shop selling amethyst.

  The first-class amethyst has a wine-like color. The amethyst in this booth is a little blue. It is made into the shape of lotus flowers of different sizes. It can be opened and closed, and together it is an egg.

  The small lotus flower is suitable for a brooch, and the large lotus flower can be used as a candlestick. When the candle burned to the position of the lotus heart, she almost bought it on impulse.

   At this time, the price of amethyst was about the same as that of ruby, but just as she was about to move, the jeweler made a sales pitch.

In Roman mythology, Bacchus, the **** of wine, made a prank after drinking, and let the beasts chase a girl named Amester. The girl fled in panic and happened to be seen by Diana, the goddess of hunting, in order to save the girl from Cruelly, she cast a spell to turn the girl into a stone sculpture.

After    Backus woke up, he was full of regrets. In addition to being sad and guilty, he sprinkled the sculpture with the wine in his hand, and the stone turned into amethyst.

  Amethyst Queen Catherine also liked it very much. She once sent someone to look for it in the Ural Mountains. The amethyst in this booth and the amethyst the queen liked came from a mine.

   She knew that Bonaparte wanted to have a good relationship with Russia. What could be more direct than sending money?

  Georgianna placed an order for the owner to make a batch of the same brooches, which she planned to give to the ladies who were attending the dinner at the Château Boucher today. It would be very shabby if it was just French perfume as a "Christmas gift".

  The boss was beaming with joy, and the jewelers at the other booths looked at him with jealous eyes.

In the process of walking to the next booth, Georgiana asked Leyla, when handing over the list to the boss, remember to ask him to use Russian amethyst, and then she told Sharptal that if Belgium did not have enough amethyst , you can ask the Russian ambassador in Europe if she knows where there is amethyst, she wants to transfer the goods and send them out before Christmas.

   Then Sharptar asked what Georgiana was going to use as a Christmas present for the tsar, or would it be made of china, like last year?

  Georgianna thought for a while, then shook her head, she was going to give Tsar Alexander a sugar jar full of French sweets made from beet sugar.

   (end of this chapter)