"Eric Flint - [Grantville 04] - 1634 The Ram Rebellion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Flint Eric)

Edgar’s explanation wasn’t any too clear, but Birdie got the gist of it. Willie Ray might have to ask the
farmers to do things that weren’t that profitable in the short run. Things like building up seed stock.
Birdie, like many farmers, bought seed every year, instead of saving his own. Saving your own seed
hadn’t made much sense up-time.

“What it boils down to, is the bank is going to cut all the farmers some slack. Considering the
circumstances, what with the Ring of Fire and all, we’re giving you a year to get caught up.”

Birdie was pretty sure that Edgar wasn’t telling him everything. Bankers always acted like it was their
own money you were asking them for.

“Suppose I need some more money? Bank gonna be good for that? There’s a lot that needs doing, and
it ain’t getting done for nothing.”

“We might loan you more money, Mr. Newhouse. If Willie Ray agrees that what you need it for is
important to the town, it’s more than likely that you’ll get what you need.”

All this support came as a bit of a surprise to Birdie. Grantville had never been farming country. The hills
were just too steep and the valleys too narrow. The focus had always been on industry of some sort,
natural gas, coal mines, even the toilet factory. Just before the Ring of Fire, a fiber optics plant was being
built. Farmers had never been a big part of the local economy.
***

“Poor bastards,” Willie Ray remarked when he and Birdie reached Birdie’s tractor. Willie Ray had been
introducing Birdie to the local farmers. The introduction had been accomplished with gestures, for the
most part, with a few badly accented words of German thrown in here and there.

“What happened to them?” Birdie asked.

“From what I gather, Sundremda, that’s this little village here, used to have fifteen farming families plus a
few folks who had houses and gardens in the village but weren’t farmers. There was a blacksmith, a
carpenter, and the like. This last year has been rough though. Now there are six farming families and four
of those families are part time farmers.Halbbauer the Germans call ‘em. ‘Half farmers,’ that would be in
English.”

Birdie knew what that was like. He regularly had to work odd jobs to keep the farm going.

“They also lost a bunch of their livestock,” Willie Ray continued, “which made getting in this year’s crop
just about impossible. Some of it was lost to the mercenaries that hit the place a few months back, and
some to Remda, a little town that way, a ways, where they ran when the village got hit.

“Ernst, that fella you shook hands with, called it theft when I was out here before with Miss Abrabanel
to translate. From what I understand the folk in Remda are saying they took the stock for rent and fines.
Then, some bug came up about the same time, and quite a few folks died. So everyone’s blaming
everyone else and there are law suits goin’ both ways. Meanwhile, the folks in Remda seem to figure
possession is nine points of the law, so they’re holdin’ the stock till everything’s settled. I’m guessing
they’re also holdin’ the oxen to force the Sundremda villagers to settle their way.

“You clear on what’s needed?” Willie Ray asked when he had finished his explanation.