Harry Potter’s Morning Light

  Chapter 3033 queen’s pleasure (twelve)

   Road maintenance is a very thankless task for the nobles. He not only has to pay for people, but also is responsible for maintaining law and order. If he fails to catch the robbers, he will have to lose money.

Fortunately, many of the gravel roads in the Middle Ages were rammed with earth. Due to the limitation of road construction technology, coupled with flooding, trampling of horses and rolling by two-wheeled carts, the road surface was often destroyed. In the case of responsibility, of course, you can hide as much as you can, and although the king has the power to punish crimes on the "royal road", he has no mandatory force to maintain the road.

What's more, in 1318, the abbot of Canterbury was punished for "improper behavior" because he collected bridge tolls to build roads. Return to the original condition, or build proper bridges so that people can pass safely. If you don't do anything, you can save a lot of things, so why worry about whether you can go that way?

The nobles don't care, but the city council can't just sit back and watch those roads become impassable due to disrepair. You must know that if there are no roads, business travel will not pass through, and without business travel, there will be no taxation and commerce. Town administrations pay attention to roads. However, it is not allowed to collect tolls from business travelers on the "Royal Avenue" without permission, unless they are authorized by the king.

This is still based on the "Peace of the King" rule. Although this muddy road is located in a local area, the jurisdiction belongs to the king. He can also hand over the power of collecting tolls to the magistrate or the church. Under certain circumstances, if the city council wants to obtain authorization, it needs to send envoys to the capital to communicate.

  It is another situation on the European continent. Nobles will set up checkpoints on their territories to collect tolls and customs duties, which are divided according to regions. For example, the Earl of Champagne does not collect toll taxes, and attracts merchants to trade in the market in his territory, and then collects market taxes to maintain his army's expenses. When the army is not fighting, the task of this army is to protect the passing merchants from arriving safely. market.

  Mary I said when she was crowned, "The state exists for the benefit and well-being of the people and the collective."

  The same was true up to Queen Victoria. The queen felt that the royal power would be stable only with the support of the people. This led to the possibility that the monarch agreed that the local council could collect toll taxes, but the fee was so low that it could not even achieve the purpose of road maintenance.

At this time, the local administrative agency will buy a part of the land, and use the proceeds of the land to build bridges and roads, especially bridges. Whether the river widens or narrows, it will affect the lives of residents along the coast. Therefore, in the late Middle Ages, A dedicated organization is responsible for this. Sometimes they also received donations from the church. After all, pilgrimage was still very common at that time. After the church donated, the pilgrims did not need to pay taxes.

There is a nursery rhyme, the lyrics are probably "London Bridge is falling down, falling down, my fairlady". London Bridge has been rebuilt several times after thousands of years. Since each reconstruction is in a new place, this also leads to the inability to change from the "habit" ” to determine who is responsible for the maintenance of the bridge. Among the privileges of nobles and priests in the Middle Ages, the monarch can order that they be exempted from bridgework duties (bridgework), which is also a land obligation since the Anglo-Saxon era, and it is a subject obligation in the Norman era. Huntington Bridge in Cambridgeshire was rebuilt on the original site, so the maintenance system has been preserved, which means that children singing "London Bridge is about to collapse" can only watch it collapse.

  Now across the Thames River, the Tower Bridge next to the City of London was authorized by the Queen to build the City of Finance, and it is now considered a landmark building in London. The bill allowing the City of London to build a bridge was passed by Parliament in 1885, but there were 11 years of petitions before that. The people hoped that public institutions would widen London Bridge or build a new one, and this London Bridge is not close to the financial center. city.

  Stones are usually used to repair the city walls, and sometimes the cost of repairing the city walls will be used to repair the bridge, but the king's permission is still required to change the wooden bridge into a stone bridge.

For civilians, stone bridges are stronger, but if they are wooden bridges, they can be burned with a single fire in case of military operations. London bridges in the Middle Ages have always been wooden bridges, not to mention technical and financial constraints—the bridge has been repaired It is not maintained at all.

  The London Bridge built at the end of the 18th century is a stone arch bridge. It is the one that the public petitioned to widen. Urban expansion will inevitably bring traffic congestion. However, the widened bridge body makes the bridge foundation unbearable. This new London bridge sinks slowly every year.

   What's more, building a bridge is not a matter of children building blocks. Two fulcrums are enough. The bridge still has a part of the land area on the bank. This cannot simply use "Peace of the King" to make the noble hunting garden fall back 200 feet.

  "London New Bridge" links Southwark Borough and King William Street, and the Borough is chartered by the monarch. King William Street looks like a shopping street at present, but it used to be the "Royal Avenue". If the king allows the bridge to be built, but Southwark City does not, then the "London Bridge" cannot be built.

Once the bridge is repaired, a part of Southwark City will become part of the Royal Avenue. The benefits of bridge repairs will definitely be obvious. First, the land will appreciate. The flow of London Bridge is estimated to be more than sufficient.

   So what to do? Is this bridge repaired or not?

  The municipality can conduct parliamentary votes. When most people agree to the revision, the complaints of a small number of people are ignored.

  London Tower Bridge connects the City of London and the London Borough of Southwark. Peabody traveled all the way from the United States to London not specifically for charity.

   At that time, real estate financing was difficult, and a lot of free money flocked to the railroads. In 1866, Parliament passed a law agreeing to finance workers' housing problems, followed by a law in 1868 enabling local governments to demolish unsanitary or uninhabitable dwellings "without paying the landlord anything." Compensation", but local governments are not allowed to rebuild on the spot after demolition, they can only wait for the housing companies that have obtained the charter to repair "model houses".

   Peabody is not like Malfoy, he does not have the land in Wiltshire; and Malfoy is not as eloquent as Peabody. Due to Robert Peel's tax reform, Malfoy dismantled and sold part of the Wiltshire land, and there were taxes and fees for the sale, but the brokers in the City of London had ways to help him deal with this fee.

   Later he dumped the brokers in the City of London and opened his own bank. Peabody uses trust companies to continuously build new housing in London, and has now become the largest rental company in London.

  "Rivals" are not like children. When they meet on the road, they will inevitably provoke them and make things difficult for them.

  As long as Peabody returns to the United States, his "rheumatism" will be cured. The problem is that Peabody refuses to leave London.

  There is a line in the Hogwarts school song, "Whether it is an old man with a bald head or a young man with a scar on his knee, we all need something interesting in our heads."

   Slipped and fell on the muddy road. If you are unlucky, you will be injured, but you still have to get up when you fall down, and continue to push the wheels forward.

And one day, you will suddenly find that you have the power to protect others, or to hurt others, just like Pomona is now, although she remembers that when she first entered school, Hagrid was already holding a lamp, at the station of Hogsmeade Wait for them, and then lead them to the school by boat.

  Of course there is also the "Dolores" opposite, but she probably doesn't remember what happened when she was a freshman.

  Her eyes gleamed in the dark like some kind of hound, not as docile as Fang.

"you…"

   "What are you doing here?"

   Just as Dolores was about to speak, someone suddenly said.

  All eyes turned to him, and Albus Dumbledore actually appeared.

   "You came just in time, Headmaster." Dolores ignored Pomona and smiled falsely at Dumbledore, "Come and judge."

  Pomona doesn't think she really intends Dumbledore to do justice, but...

  She looked at Dumbledore in front of her. He didn't wear a wizard hat as usual, as if he had forgotten, but why did she feel so strange?

  (end of this chapter)