These little tricks were trivial and couldn't make any real impact, but they were annoyances. If he had less self-restraint, Hudson would have wanted to kick them out directly.
Especially when he heard the word "borrow", it nearly choked Hudson to death. There were lots of bad debts outside that couldn't be collected back, and adding new debts would surely lead to the collapse of the Mountain Domain.
If it weren't for diverting funds from the swamp development project, the finances of the Mountain Domain would have already been bankrupt. The diverted funds would eventually need to be returned.
The swamp project must not be affected at the very least. If the problem was discovered by Belsden, his reputation would be bankrupted.
Draining a pond to catch all the fish was absolutely out of the question.
There was no money to lend, let alone resources. Wages for hired labor were settled with unrefined ironware.
