Chapter 2429 royal circus (twelve)

Brussels is actually located on the banks of the Seine. Before entering the city, the convoy came to the pier. There are also very gorgeous buildings here. Henri Joseph Langenhofen is waiting at the door.

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

Since Louis XIV bombed the center of Brussels and used his palace to occupy the original bread and cloth market, merchants can only trade in one place. Usually it is the city gate, because the city tax is charged when entering the city, but although it is not as concentrated as the city center outside the city gate, it still enjoys certain convenience. Just like the hawkers in the vegetable market and the hawkers who occupy the road outside, they pay management fees for setting up stalls in the vegetable market, but the hawkers outside the vegetable market do not pay this money, and people who come to the vegetable market to buy vegetables see the vegetables outside the vegetable market It is cheaper and more convenient than the ones inside, so I bought it outside the vegetable market. The vegetable vendors who paid the management fee in the vegetable market will definitely quit. They ask the vegetable market to find a way, otherwise they refuse to pay the management fee, or simply withdraw from the vegetable market , also occupying the same road as the hawkers outside.

This phenomenon also exists in other cities, and different places have different management methods. Henry Joseph Langenhofen is a senior official of the "Exhibition Tax Chamber of Commerce". It is "toloneum" in Latin, which means road tax.

This is different from a toll, which means that if a peddler wants to set up a stall on the road to display his goods for customers to choose, then he has to pay the tax. He hid the turkey in the pocket of his coat, and when a customer came and saw him acting suspiciously, he lifted his coat and took the turkey out to the customer, paying for it and delivering it, in which case no road tax was payable.

Which normal housewife would buy vegetables like this? They all pick and choose at the booth, bargain and pay before paying. But now there is a black market for bread in France. They seem to be elusive, operating at irregular times and places.

The place where the Langhenhofen family lived was called "Sausage Street", which started from Market Street and extended to Violet Street. After the Austrians occupied it, it became a sausage seller, so it was renamed Sausage Street.

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

There are also bookstores and cafes. Mrs. Langenhofen sometimes leaves home to drink a cup of coffee in the cafe downstairs, read a book for a while, and enjoy the quiet time without the noisy children, although her two daughters live in Georgiana. It seems quite quiet.

If a woman is unlucky enough to have six healthy, "lively" sons like Molly, plus mischievous sons like the twins, and without the help of parents, servants, etc., the life of Mrs. Langenhofen is still different. thought about it. The main reason why she was relieved to leave the house for a short while was because Henry's brother Joannis was at home. He was a doctor and loved children, but he was not married.

She did not elaborate on the circumstances of the family, but Langenhofen himself was actually proficient in medicine, but it was not as conspicuous as his status as a Brabantine lawyer.

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

In fact, most of the small vendors are not grateful, they moved to the open space next to the pier, but there are many kinds of goods, and it is not just food that needs to be exhibited. For example, the first industrial fair in Paris, the main purpose is to explain to other countries that Paris has returned to the commercial field. There are more than 100 booths, including carpets, clothing, wallpaper, porcelain, glass products, watches, etc. The second industrial fair is There are steam engines, metal molds, chemical equipment, new textile machines, etc., all of which were developed by France itself.

If you change the name, you are familiar with "expo", the World Expo, but the main products exhibited at the Brussels Exhibition and Trade Center this time are not industrial products, but hundreds of beers. These are brewers from all over Belgium. If Georgina Try one by one to get drunk.

There are also clocks, gemstones, leather goods, trinkets, umbrellas, antiques, and more, which are displayed like window displays. It so happened that Georgiana wanted to buy some Christmas presents, so she bought some.

Saying "buy" is actually just pointing at a product and saying how much she wants. It's like this is a department store, but there is only one customer, and everyone surrounds her.

It's just that she doesn't feel safe without a shopping bag. In the department stores of the 21st century, there will always be a "driver" carrying large bags and small bags, following behind a fashionable woman. Later, she fell in love with a black coat made of wool with a gray fur collar on it. She tried it on and it "accidentally" fit, and then she didn't intend to return it, and continued shopping in this coat .

Padma also took the opportunity to "buy" one, and the girls also "buy" after seeing it. Even if they didn't fit, there were Bertin and the seamstresses, but they didn't touch anything when they passed by the jewelry district.

A single bracelet was enough to buy dozens of the clothes they were wearing, but Georgiana stopped when passing by a shop that sold amethyst.

The top-quality amethyst has the color of wine. The amethyst in this booth is a bit blue. It is made into the shape of lotus flowers of different sizes. It can be opened and closed, and it is an egg when closed.

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

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 started to sell it with a glib tongue.

In Roman mythology, Bacchus, the god of wine, made a prank after drinking and let the beasts chase a girl named Amestre. The girl ran away in panic, and happened to be seen by Diana, the goddess of hunting. To kill, she cast a spell to turn the girl into a stone statue.

After Bacchus sobered up, he regretted it a lot. He sprinkled the wine on the sculpture with the wine in his hand, and the stone turned into amethyst.

Queen Ekaterina also liked amethyst very much and sent people to look for it in the Ural Mountains. The amethyst in this booth and the amethyst that the queen liked came from a mine.

She knew that Bonaparte wanted to have a good relationship with Russia at the moment, what could be more direct than sending money?

Georgiana placed an order and asked the boss to make a batch of the same brooches. She planned to give them to the ladies who attended the dinner party at Chateau Boucher today. It would be too poor to just send French perfume as a "Christmas gift".

The boss beamed with joy, and the jewelers at other booths looked at him with envy.

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

Then Schaptal asked Georgiana what she planned to use as a Christmas present for the Tsar, or, as last year, porcelain?

Georgiana thought for a while and shook her head. She planned to send a sugar jar to Tsar Alexander, filled with French sweets made from beet sugar.