After receiving the gifts from the three, Altair, as the host of the tea party, led everyone to the reception room without further ado.
After the servants had set out the refreshments, everyone began to chat, starting from the warming weather and the flowers in the garden,
and other natural environmental issues, to news of which noble was pursuing whom, which noble lady was engaged, and other aristocratic social intelligence, and then to fashion and aesthetics — the five of them talked about everything.
It wasn't until Audrey brought up the most controversial corn law recently. She asked curiously, "Why is it that many people clearly know that once this law is abolished, many disadvantages will arise, such as: a sharp drop in grain prices, a decline in land rents, a drastic reduction in noble incomes, farmers losing income due to grain prices and moving to factories in the city for work, and more workers leading to lower wages—"
"Why did the House of Commons still pass this proposal to abolish the corn law? Is this law really that bad?"
Regarding this question, the four people present chose not to reply. Instead, they all fell silent and sipped their black tea.
During the tea ceremony, they watched each other, no one wanting to break the silence.
Altair, of course, was very clear about everyone's thoughts. "Although the Tiffany family is an old noble family, the previous family patriarch, her grandfather, had great foresight and accepted reforms early on. The family's industry had long since transformed from landowners to factory owners."
"Now, her family operates steel and coal factories all over the country."
"The main reason her family still retains a large amount of land is due to the legal constraint of the 'Land Tenure Abolition Act' promulgated by the House of Lords, 'loss of land means loss of peerage.' If not for this act, her family would have long since abandoned their land assets."
"Therefore, even if the corn law is abolished, it won't affect her family. They can completely remain unconcerned and uninvolved."
"Heather, on the other hand, comes from the Sanguine. Although I don't know how they get large sums of money, to be honest, human money is less attractive to them than blood."
"And are there really poor Sanguine? Not to mention their miraculous pharmaceutical abilities, just having lived for so long, casually bringing out any item would be an antique, right? Selling it off should fetch a good amount of money."
"For example, Emelyn White, one of the Three Idiots of the Cosmos, he seems to be just an ordinary newborn Sanguine, but that wall of Emelyn's is worth two houses in Backlund."
"Moreover, Heather married Owen after coming of age, and the two are a strong alliance, so they will never lack money."
"Vivian, on the other hand, comes from a declining Intis noble family, and is a Beyonder of the Demoness Pathway. From her perspective, the great chaos in the Loen Kingdom has almost nothing to do with her family. She might even consider adding fuel to the fire to help herself complete her Acting as quickly as possible during this change."
"As for Altair herself, she clearly understands that this matter involves the interests of multiple parties, including the Loen Royal Augustus Family, the Twilight Hermit Order, the Psychology Alchemists, and so on. Those who stand in the way will not end well."
"Even if she had foresight and intervened, it would be useless. If Adam got angry, he would directly arrange a script for her, and that would be terrible."
"Moreover, this matter is fundamentally unavoidable. Because it belongs to the 'Tide of the Times' that will inevitably occur."
"Adam and the others pushing for change only accelerated the progress of the 'Tide.'"
Seeing everyone fall silent, Altair took a sip of tea, then, to liven the mood, smiled and explained, "Audrey, it's not surprising that the members of the Loen Kingdom's House of Commons passed the proposal to abolish the corn law so quickly, because it's their choice based on their own interests."
"Audrey, you just need to understand why this matter is progressing so quickly; we don't need to worry about other things."
"Actually, this matter is also very simple. First, you need to understand the difference between the House of Lords and the House of Commons, and their members."
"All the members of the House of Lords are hereditary nobles. From birth, their status as members is already predetermined. For example: your father, your eldest brother—"
""
"This means that commoners never appear in the House of Lords. This alone shows that the House of Lords always represents the interests of old noble families and will not consider the interests of the lower classes."
"The House of Commons, on the other hand, is exactly the opposite of the House of Lords. Most of the members of the House of Commons are elected through local elections. These members are mostly new industrial capitalists, a small number of legal professionals, and some nobles (second sons of nobles)."
"Therefore, this also means that the House of Commons serves the interests of the middle class and the emerging wealthy class."
."
"And the emerging wealthy class are mostly various factory owners; they generally don't earn money by collecting land rent. So, unanimously passing the abolition of the corn law will not affect their interests."
"Of course, none of this is very important. The most important thing is that neither the House of Lords nor the House of Commons has ever represented the common people."
"If no one represents the common people, then of course no one will consider their interests."
As Altair finished her explanation, the topic of the corn law was quickly moved past by everyone.
Then Altair brought up her plan to open a new factory. She recently intended to launch the bicycle business and invite everyone to open factories together and make money together.
The main reason she hadn't done bicycle business before was that bicycles were too easy to replicate.
Without a Beyonder, a skilled mechanic, given the materials and after studying and understanding the principles, could easily replicate one.
This situation limited Altair from monopolizing the business. After all, there were no intellectual property laws here, and once this business was started, someone would need to provide escort and protection for intellectual property.
Altair's initial thought was to cooperate with Uncle-Grandfather Leif and monopolize the business themselves.
However, after the Demoness Sect incident, she decided to release another business to compensate other families.
She had already thought of a name for the bicycle company: Bianchi Bicycle Company, a living fossil in the bicycle industry.
After a brief negotiation on the share allocation, the three expressed that they would send Altair a check immediately after returning home.
After seeing off Heather Grant and Tiffany ONeill's carriages.
Altair turned her gaze to Audrey, smiling and advising, "Actually, you don't need to worry too much about this. When the sky falls, there are tall people to hold it up. Besides, the country's parliament members don't want social unrest and instability."
"Remember to eat something sweet when you go back. Don't worry."
Upon hearing this, Audrey could only nod, then turned and got into her carriage, leaving Sheffield Manor.
After seeing everyone off, Altair sighed, thinking that a noble's birthday was truly troublesome.
Looking at Vivian, she curiously asked, "The birthday gift you mentioned, you're not actually going to give it to me in the middle of the night, are you?"
"Don't worry, your birthday gift is already on its way." Vivian replied mysteriously, then returned to the villa.