The Buff from The Wealth of Nations

"Haha, ahaha, of course I won't become a tyrant, rest assured, my uncle!" Reiner chuckled dryly, glancing at the knights around him as he spoke.

He sighed, then said, "Very well then! Lady Gwen shall be buried. Although she died by suicide and cannot be laid to rest as a saint, we should still afford her the treatment befitting a noble!"

"Yes, my lord, may your mercy prevail!" Sir Cord bowed and said.

Reiner stepped out of the room. The castle was in chaos, seductive moans and heart-wrenching screams echoed from every corner. Reiner's soldiers were doing what they always did.

He had to admit, although he knew this would happen, seeing it unfold before his eyes still made him feel a bit uncomfortable. Perhaps his methods had subtly changed, but the core of his beliefs remained largely unaltered.

Reiner frowned, watching a soldier in front of him brutalizing a young-looking maid. The soldier moved wildly, incessantly, while the maid beneath him had ceased resisting, her limbs limp like a dead dog, lying on the ground, letting him have his way.

She had numerous bruises on her body, and her neck was red and swollen, suggesting their interaction had been neither harmonious nor lacking in violence.

"Is it perhaps inappropriate for us to let the soldiers do this?" Reiner frowned, looking at the scene before him.

"What's inappropriate about it? We're the victors. It's only reasonable for the soldiers to enjoy the fruits of victory, isn't it?" Sir Lumbard said flippantly from the side. He was only sixteen this year, but despite his youth, he had already tasted the pleasures of women. He didn't care about such things at all; in fact, he considered it only natural.

Reiner merely nodded without saying more, but he was determined to change this situation. Military discipline had to be strictly enforced.

"Tell the soldiers to finish up as quickly as possible within two hours. There are many things in this castle that need to be moved!"

Reiner said to Sir Valas.

Reiner used this time to go to Baron Lobean's study. He wasn't interested in the maids, and besides, he found such behavior somewhat difficult to condone.

Well, this was a bit hypocritical. Now that he had better options, he looked down on these maids. He hadn't had such scruples when he'd taken advantage of two personal maids before.

At this moment, Reiner was alone in the study. The other knights had been dispatched by Reiner to search the castle for spoils of war. He wanted to see the books in Baron Lobean's study, as the few books at Morland Castle didn't provide much knowledge.

Papermaking technology had not yet spread throughout this world, so books were very expensive. Even with the Moreland Family's income from their territory, Reiner only had a dozen books in his study.

And that excluded the Moreland Family's genealogy, as well as the armorial bearings of Northern Territory lords and the great noble families within the kingdom. The remaining books were mostly historical tales and biographical novels.

It was difficult for Reiner to gain a comprehensive understanding of the world from these books, so he hoped to acquire some knowledge from the collection at Goer Castle. After all, paper and printing were not widely available in this world. Apart from the Collin Church's Holy Father's words, which were extensively copied and spread by monks, most books were limited to small-scale circulation due to production and cost constraints, with many even being unique copies.

Therefore, if Reiner wanted to understand this world more deeply, he needed to collect as many of these books as possible.

Baron Lobean was also just a minor lord with a small territory and limited income, so his book collection was on par with, or even less extensive than, the Moreland Family's.

He casually picked up a book and began flipping through it. The parchment pages were slightly yellowed, indicating it was quite old, certainly not written within the last fifty years.

"The Wealth of Nations?" Reiner frowned at the title on the cover. The name sounded familiar; he seemed to have heard it somewhere before.

Suddenly, his heart pounded, filled with shock. He remembered the origin of the name. This book was incredibly famous in his previous life.

Adam Smith, the renowned British economist, wrote a famous book in the 18th century that influenced the entire world order: The Wealth of Nations.

At that time, capitalism was in its early stages of development. This book timely summarized the experiences of capitalist development in various countries during the early modern period, critically absorbing important economic theories of the time and proposing a systematic and comprehensive economic doctrine.

From labor as the foundation of national wealth, to the division of labor that increases productivity, to the exchange brought about by the division of labor, the medium of exchange—money, and then to the price of goods, and the basic elements that constitute price—wages, rent, and profit—the book provided detailed and insightful discussions.

The book opposed government interference in business and free markets, advocated for lower tariffs and free trade, laying the theoretical foundation for capitalist free economy. Even in the 21st century, Reiner's original era, this book held a very high position in the field of economics.

But how could such a groundbreaking work exist here? If such a book existed, how could Baron Lobean still be a small, impoverished Northern Territory lord? He should have long since made his territory incredibly prosperous and expanded his domain on a large scale.

When he impatiently flipped open the cover and saw the text inside, his excited mood instantly vanished. He finally understood why Baron Lobean, despite possessing such a divine book, couldn't increase his strength.

Much of the book's content had been torn out, and what remained was very irregular and impossible to read smoothly. Furthermore, it contained a large number of obscure characters. The combinations of letters formed completely unfamiliar words. Forget Baron Lobean; even a renowned scholar from The Empire would likely struggle to understand it. It was practically a codebook.

A frustrated Reiner helplessly looked at the book in his hand. He couldn't understand its contents at all, but because the book's title was so powerful, he decided to keep it anyway.

However, just then, the System's voice suddenly rang out, giving him a huge surprise.

Ding, congratulations to the host for discovering item The Wealth of Nations (Incomplete Edition)(17). The manifestation aura is: increases comprehensive territory development speed by five percent, commercial development by ten percent. Each collected incomplete edition of The Wealth of Nations will accumulate the same effect, with a maximum accumulation of thirty-five percent increase in territory development speed and seventy percent increase in commercial development speed!

This information filled Reiner with joy, completely dispelling his frustration over not understanding The Wealth of Nations. What good would understanding The Wealth of Nations do anyway? Could it provide such powerful positive buffs?

In his previous life, Reiner was a slacker who spent his days playing games and reading novels, so he only knew basic economic concepts like "economic base determines the superstructure." Even if he read The Wealth of Nations, he might not have understood it. Instead, such positive buffs were more useful to him.

Such a powerful amplification effect was terrifying. To put it simply, the "comprehensive development speed" included many things. Agricultural productivity, steel output, and even the number of lambs born would all increase by five percent. The commercial buff was even more powerful: more merchants would flock to his territory to conduct business.

Of course, the prerequisite was that his territory experienced less warfare, no Krad People invasions, a growing population, and many unique products. Only then could this commercial buff be maximized.