Chapter 52 Population Structure
Many free people in Shanlin Town can trace their ancestry back to the Wushanling coalition that encircled and suppressed the noble resistance army.
For example, Tom surrendered. His father was a professional knight who died in the Battle of Hillwood Town;
another example is the butler, Galen. His father was a logistics soldier who also died in the war;
although the political officer Wilson had no relationship with the coalition forces, he was the servant of the previous baron, a bit like Chahar before he became a butler, so he knew a lot of words and had a clear logic in handling things.
At this moment, Wilson was sitting upright on a chair in the dining room with a bowl of thick broth in front of him and a piece of white bread in his hand.
"How many years!"
Wilson's heart trembled a little. He had not tasted such delicate white bread for many years, nor had he drunk such thick broth for a long time.
"Praise the Lord!"
He took a bite and praised it.
Wilson's tired body instantly regained its energy after a day of hard work as the lord personally ordered the kitchen to prepare dinner for him.
"Praise the merciful Lord!"
Wilson had been wandering in Hillwood for half his life and never found a satisfactory job. He even wanted to work for Princet but was rejected outright.
Princet was a political official himself, and he didn't need an assistant.
Now that he has the honour of becoming Ronin's political officer and is valued by the lord, he feels that it is worth it no matter how busy he is with the lord.
Soon, Gallon arrived at the restaurant, "Mr. Wilson, the master is already available to see you. If you are ready, you can come with me."
"Okay, I'll be right there!"
Wilson swallowed the last bite of bread, then drank the last sip of broth, stood up quickly and followed Gallon.
In the study, the political officer saw Luo Ning and greeted him from the bottom of his heart.
Luo Ning motioned for the other person to sit on a chair nearby. "You came to see me so late. Could it be that the census has been completed?"
"Yes, sir, except for you and the people who came with you from Wushanbao, everyone in Shanlin Town has been registered!"
Wilson said as he pulled out a large roll of parchment from his bosom and respectfully placed it on the desk.
Roning took the parchment, which clearly recorded each person's name, gender, age, and occupation by family unit in great detail.
He flipped through several pages and found that Wilson's handwriting was very clear and neat, and it did not feel messy when reading.
"You were able to complete the census in less than two days. I am impressed by your efficiency!"
He turned his gaze to Wilson, "It was indeed the right choice to let you serve as my political officer."
In the face of such praise, Wilson was very humble, "Thank you for your trust!"
Roning clapped his hands and applauded the other party, and the topic returned to the parchment in front of him.
Although the statistics are very detailed, they are just a bunch of raw data. If you want to discover useful value from them, further processing is needed.
The processing of this data naturally has to be handed over to the government affairs officer. Luo Ning can't spend time on this; otherwise, why would he spend money to hire people?
"Registering this information is only the first step. Next, I need you to help me organize this information."
Luo Ning said: "For example, we can divide people into age groups and then count the number of people in each age group; we can also divide people into different occupations and count the number of people in each occupation; we can also calculate the number of unmarried men and women of marriageable age, and so on."
These divisions all make sense.
For example, let's take the statistics of "unmarried men and women of marriageable age". If the gender ratio is seriously unbalanced, resulting in all the men of marriageable age in Shanlin Town being bachelors, then Roning, as the lord, will have to consider where to get some women of marriageable age to solve the problem of single people.
Wilson wrote down all these requirements as part of his follow-up work. At the same time, he felt a little proud because he had done a preliminary screening after completing the registration.
"Sir, please look at the last page."
"oh?"
Roning noticed the look of "Praise me now" on the government official's face and immediately took the last page of parchment out of curiosity:
[Total population]: 1993
[Number of households]: 543
[14 years and under]: 410
[14-20 years old]:416 people
[20-30 years old]: 505 people
[30~40 years old]:346 people
[40~50 years old]:243 people
[Over 50 years old]: 73 people
[Number of serfs]: 1356
[Free tenants]: 609
[Other occupations]: 28
It turned out that Wilson had divided the population by age groups.
Luo Ning looked at the political officer with praise in his eyes, "You did a great job knowing my thoughts in advance, Wilson!"
"Your Excellency is too kind!"
Wilson smiled and responded modestly, "I only thought of part of what the adults thought, and there are many places that have not been considered."
"No need to be modest. The completion of this mission has exceeded my expectations!"
If you do not do well, you will be punished. If you do well, you will be praised. This is Luo Ning's idea. "I believe that being a political officer is just your starting point. If you work hard, you will have the opportunity to become my advisor in the future."
The official positions in this world are not divided into specific and detailed categories such as first, second, and third ranks, but Luo Ning plans to design one.
For example, for the civil servants in the territory, he currently only thought of three levels: clerk, political official, and xx consultant.
The clerk is equivalent to the assistant of the civil servant. Other
officials of the same level as the civil servant include tax collectors, defence officers, etc.
There are similar distinctions at the consultant level.
For Wilson and others, the most intuitive feeling is that after being promoted, their salary has increased.
This way, it can give people hope and motivation to move up.
As soon as Wilson heard Roning mention the word "consultant", his eyes lit up.
Although he still didn't know what a consultant did, it sounded like one level higher than a political officer, so there would definitely be benefits.
"My lord, I will try my best!"
"I look forward to it!"
Luo Ning gestured to the other party to sit down, and he himself began to look at the data carefully.
First of all, he was very satisfied with the population size.
There were 1,993 people in total, plus the guards, Macon, and Elrond he brought with him. The population had reached 2,025.
The achievement of [Prosperous Population] requires that the registered population of the territory reaches 3,000. Although there is still a shortfall of more than 900, it is not that far-fetched.
In addition, Luo Ning observed the distribution of age groups. If people aged 15 to 40 are considered the prime labour force, there are a total of 1,267 people, accounting for 63% of the total population.
That's a very good ratio!
In addition, there are 410 young children, accounting for 20%, which is also very good.
The only thing that surprised Roning was that the Number of people over fifty years old had dropped almost precipitously.
At this age, one can actually be considered an elderly person.
After all, there is no such saying as "An old man in the family is like a treasure" here, and the elderly do not have any benefits.
For these people over the age of fifty, their physical strength and health had declined rapidly because they suffered too much when they were young, but due to the pressure of survival, they still had to participate in heavy labour.
In this case, an increase in the mortality rate of the elderly is also expected.
Although it is a bit cruel, this is the reality.
Even though Ronin is a lord, he cannot change this situation in the short term.
"That's a good statistic."
Luo Ning praised him and said, "I will take some time tomorrow to further explore these data according to the categories I just mentioned."
Deep data mining?
Wilson had never heard of such a word, but he could understand it in the context, so he memorized this thing invented by the lord so that he could brag about it to people who didn't understand it in the future.
"Also, I will go to Muma City the day after tomorrow."
Luo Ning arranged the parchment and said, "Before you come back, I have one more thing for you to do."