But nobles are different. From knights and above, nobles don't need to pay taxes. They only need to serve their superiors to replace taxes. For example, the knights of Andalus, when serving Simon, their fiefs are their wages, and this salary does not need to pay additional taxes except for the tithe.
Of course, if the lord is generous enough, they often get some extra rewards.
Maria will be Eleanor's governess in the future. In a sense, she is serving Simon, so Simon feels quite at ease about exempting her from taxes.
Moreover, Simon has already identified Maria as the future mistress of the Gonzalez family, which is a matter of time, so it is only natural for him to give Maria some convenience.
The price Simon gave Maria for the land was based on the market price, six gold coins per acre. This price was very favorable to Maria, because Simon gave her the serfs on the land, and the various taxes and annual service that these serfs should have paid also belonged to her.
Simon was generous to Maria. She couldn't find anyone selling land in Algaba, but when she came to Simon, he was willing to sell Maria 100 acres of land. Although this was only a tiny part of his territory, what Simon sold was not the Gonzalez family's, but his own.
Simon was a knight with honors. He had his fiefdom. When he fought in the arena, he won valuable things such as armor, horses, gold coins, and even land from other knights. These things were finally exchanged for land next to his fiefdom. Together, his fiefdom had already expanded from the original 1,000 acres to 2,000 acres.
Maria didn't expect him to sell so much land to her. She originally thought that buying about 10 acres would be enough.
In the past few days, she has been gathering information and making some plans for herself. In her plan, if she can have ten acres of land, it will be enough for her to operate.
The land output at this time is meager. Compared with the 21st century when she lived, the per-acre yield here is less than 300 kilograms.
Nowadays, the three-field system is generally adopted. Each piece of land is used for two years and then left for one year. At least three of the ten plots of land are left for a year, and the land with output is the remaining one. In addition, the slaves who plow the land for her must leave at least half of the output, so Maria gets even less.
But this was nothing to her. With the seeds and skills given by the system and the books in the encyclopedia library, it would be her incompetence if she couldn't double her output.
Of course, now that Simon was willing to buy more land for her, she would naturally not refuse. If she missed this opportunity, she would never get it again.
On the contrary, Simon was worried whether she had enough money to buy the land. One hundred acres of land even at a preferential price cost six hundred gold coins. When they met, Maria didn't bring much with her, and Simon was not sure whether she could pay enough.
He even thought that if Maria didn't have enough money, he could let her pay it back slowly later.
Simon's special feelings for Maria were positive and obvious, making it impossible for her to pretend to be stupid.
But in the end, Maria still refused.
She smiled and said, "I think I can afford it."
Although Simon said that he wanted to sell the 300 acres of land, if Maria was not satisfied, he could exchange it for any land of the same size in Andalus.
It was his land anyway, so changing the location would not affect anything.
Maria said clearly: "I want land that has not been cultivated or is fallow."
Maria has many seeds. When they are stored in the system, there is no need to worry about the survival rate of the seeds, but if they are taken out, this guarantee will be gone, so it is best to plant these seeds as soon as possible, otherwise they will lose their activity after being stored for a long time and the gain will outweigh the loss.
Although these plants cannot be guaranteed to survive on this land, she always wants to try.
This request is very simple, and Simon agreed very readily.
Although it is the spring farming season now, many lands have already been cultivated, but there are indeed some that have not yet been cultivated. Maria's land area is not large, so her request is easy to meet.
"Then I will take you out to see the land in the afternoon. You can choose any piece of land you like."
Simon invited Maria to see the land together. For him, this is a date in disguise.
Maria readily agreed.
They were going out to look at the land, a carriage was not suitable. Maria changed into a suitable outfit for going out, put on a headscarf and veil, rode on the white horse that was well taken care of by the groom, and followed Simon out of the castle.
They did not bring anyone else with them. Simon did not want to be disturbed, and he did not think that he could not protect Maria.
The first place he took Maria to was the 300 acres of land he had exchanged.
The Gonzalez family did not originally own these lands. They originally belonged to a merchant. The merchant sent his heir to be a knight, hoping that his family could be promoted to nobility. After his son became a knight, he went to the capital to work hard. After knowing that Simon wanted to exchange land, the knight exchanged the land inherited from his father for Simon's land in the capital.
So these lands are a certain distance from the castle, on the edge of a small village.
It took them nearly an hour to get to the place on horseback. Just at this point, Maria felt that these lands were not suitable. It was not that the land was not good enough, but it was far away.
She agreed to become Eleanor's tutor and would live in the castle most of the time. If she chose the land here, she would have to run back and forth in the era without communication tools, and management would become very troublesome.
Especially since she was an outsider and a woman, it would be difficult to make the serfs working for her loyal in a short period.
Maria didn't mind thinking the people here were worse. When facing the situation of starvation, who would have the leisure to think about other things?
Moreover, Maria also wanted to build a house near the land, but there was only a small village with a small population nearby. If she built the house here, she would have to worry about safety issues.
Maria preferred to choose land within the estate near Simon's castle. This way, she could rely on Simon's influence to ensure that the serfs working for her wouldn't dare to underestimate her.
When it came to this plan of leveraging Simon's influence, Maria didn't try to deceive him; instead, she openly shared her thoughts, making sure Simon understood her intentions.
Upon hearing Maria's explanation, Simon wasn't angry at all; in fact, he was delighted. With a triumphant grin, he exaggeratedly performed a gentlemanly bow and said, "It is my honor to be your support."