Chapter 679 The Imperial Minister of Finance (Part 1)
On January 2, 592, the capital of the Star Dragon Empire, Hagia Sonie, the Ministry of Finance of the Empire.
When the number displayed on the electronic clock jumped from ‘3:59:59’ to ‘4:00:00’, a slightly wrinkled skin and a slightly unnaturally swollen palm pressed on the top of the electronic clock, and also interrupted the alarm that was about to ring at the next moment.
At this point, most people in the empire are still sleeping during the holidays at the beginning of the New Year, or are rarely reunited with their families. Yes, even slave workers can get a holiday ranging from one day and a half to two days in the first two days of the New Year.
But for this owner who presses the palm of the alarm, it's just the beginning of a new workday.
Jacques Cole, the 58-year-old Imperial Chancellor, sat up from the bed in the inner compartment of the Chancellor's office like a robot. For him who was directly awakened by the biological clock, getting up early and pressing the alarm in advance has become the first thing he needs to do every day when he wakes up every decade.
Jacques Cole, who was leaning against the head of the bed, waited for a few seconds, and then a slight sound of motors and mechanical transmission came from the head of the bed behind him. Then a group of medical robotic arms protruded from the hidden groove behind came near his left arm, and after simple fixing, a small can of golden liquid was injected into him.
Soon, Jacques Cole felt his brain become more and more refreshing from sticky, and his whole body quickly recovered his energy like a sponge full of water.
Injecting this basal nutrient solution and stimulant mixture specially formulated by the Royal Pharmacist team is the second thing Jacques Cole needs to do every day when he wakes up.
Since taking the position of the Imperial Minister of Finance twenty-three years ago, Jacques Cole, who was still young and strong, soon found that his body was getting worse day by day. This decline in physical function was not caused by the fact that he spent all day after he was in a high position, but the irreversible loss of the body caused by the guaranteed working hours of more than fifteen hours a day.
Everyone only saw the glamorous side of the Imperial Minister of Finance.
Yes, the Finance Minister of the Star Dragon Empire, as the head of the imperial officials in charge of economic and financial affairs, and an important figure in helping His Majesty the Emperor manage the "money bag", has always been regarded as the head of the four major ministers of the interior, second only to the prime minister of the empire in status.
When the former imperial prime minister was overthrown by the regent and the newly appointed prime minister's foundation was still unstable, Jacques Cole became the pinnacle of the entire imperial officials almost overnight.
As I said just now, after all, he cares about the ‘purse’.
So not only did the old emperor Frederic pay great attention to him, but other departments, including the military, were trying every means to establish good relations with him, because all things related to financial appropriations will eventually be transferred to him, and national fiscal expenditures even require him to personally approve them.
It is precisely because of this that, like Marshal Trafalgar of the Federation, with the connections, prestige, and power accumulated over the years, Jacques Cole successfully carried 102 colonial galaxies and 47 resource galaxies of the Star Dragon Empire on his shoulders.
It seems that I have mastered extremely critical power, and the scenery is unlimited, right?
But in fact, Jacques Cole regretted it on the first day after he took office.
He regrets that he has a great youth, so why don’t he continue to be the eldest master of the Cole family to go shopping and walk birds?
He regretted why he was lost in the recognition of his abilities by His Majesty and other ministers, and then took over this mess without hesitation?
After seeing the shocking data and five-digit pending matters, he was eager to drag the former Chancellor out of the cemetery that had just been buried, and then pointed to the huge holes in the report and asked him where the money went?
And why did his name rank first in the list of candidates for the Chancellor of the Exchequer he left behind?
But it is obvious that the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, who worked diligently for the empire for 90 years and finally fell in the office, could no longer answer this question.
After browsing a large amount of information from the Ministry of Finance on the first day of his tenure, Jacques Cole chose a cemetery for himself in the family cemetery the day after taking office because he was afraid that he would die of exhaustion like his former Chancellor of the Finance Department.
After putting on the coat that was casually hung on the hanger by the bed, and coming to the bathroom to complete the washing and keeping himself clean and tidy with minimal facial appearance, Jacques Cole walked out of the compartment.
The curtains in the office slowly opened after he stepped in, and the hidden light strips in the room also turned on the fill light after detecting insufficient light inlet.
At this point, the employees of the Imperial Finance Department had not started working, and Jacques Cole's secretary was given three days off by him, reuniting the poor man who had not returned home for a year with his family.
By the way, attend the aristocratic party for the next New Year to see if you can meet a suitable aristocratic woman. If you haven't met within these three days, you have to wait for next year~
On weekdays, Jacques Cole didn't have so much time for Hagia Soniée, so he let his secretary go out for a "blind date".
"Wojin, organize a briefing until I wake up."
Jacques Cole spoke in a somewhat dry voice, and a beautiful and slender woman with gorgeous long hair with bright golden hair and eyes like two melted golden balls in front of his huge office.
This is his AI assistant. On weekdays, he usually helps him sort out various documents, information and data summarized by the department below. When a secretary is not present, he will also temporarily take on part of the secretary's work, such as organizing briefings.
If Isabel was present at this time, he might have noticed that the face of this woman's virtual image was somewhat similar to his mother, the sister of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
This is why Jacques Cole doesn't let the image of an AI assistant be projected.
While waiting for the "Workin" to organize the briefing, Jacques Cole skillfully took out an energy bar from the drawer of the corner cabinet, stirred the warm milk that had just been poured out for a few times. After it melted slightly, he drank the cup of dough.
This is the breakfast of the Imperial Minister of Finance, which is efficient, convenient and fast, but it doesn't taste very good.
However, Jacques Cole didn't care about these. In the past twenty-three years since he was in charge of the imperial finance, there have been a constant stream of people trying to please and make friends. He still needs to balance the forces from the financial side. Otherwise, with the newly appointed imperial prime minister's slightly reckless style of acting, the political balance within the empire would have long been gone.
All these things are inevitable to squeeze out valuable rest time to attend various dinners and cocktail parties, so he has never eaten any delicacies or delicacies in the world? After more than 20 years, anyone has gotten tired of eating it.
"Sir, now we will start the morning briefing. The current Ministry of Finance has accumulated matters to deal with, 3"
"Skip and say the one behind."
Before Woking said the overwhelming number, Jacques Cole interrupted her in time. He didn't want to be ruined by the matters that the Ministry of Finance could never finish at the beginning of the day.
"Okay, sir, the Duke of Aldesia and the Minister of Navy submitted a new fleet construction plan together. At the same time, the twelfth application was sent, hoping to immediately start upgrading the seriously damaged "Serene Fortress". "The fleet construction plan was rejected, telling them to want a new fleet, quickly streamline the old warships in their fleet, and do not to maintain the scale of the fleet and extend the life of these warships. If they could streamline the fleet earlier and save maintenance costs, they would have been able to start planning the new fleet long ago."
The first news I heard in the morning was that the Duke of the Empire and the Minister of Navy came to "request for silver". Jacques Cole pinched his eyebrows helplessly.
Of course, he knew that the Imperial Navy suffered heavy damage in the previous battle with the Federation, and it was indeed necessary to supplement the lost fleet, but the problem was that the fleet did not appear out of thin air. The entire empire was full of places where money was spent, so according to conventional operations, he should have moved the money from other project budgets.
But the problem is that the empire now has no other project budget that can be "moved".
Therefore, Jacques Cole could only reject the request first, and he also believed that the Duke of Aldesia and the Minister of Navy could understand the meaning of this ‘refusal’, and then patiently waited until a few weeks later to make the same request again, and then prayed that there were several less important projects that could make budgets for the construction of the fleet.
"As for the upgrade of the 'Transit Fortress', they will be able to use the idle construction team after the sixth artificial ladder fortress is completed. Now I have to wait for this moment. I cannot agree to add another construction team for the transit Fortress!"
Regarding Jacques Cole's words, "Workin" did not raise any objections, but just faithfully recorded it all, and then generated a formal document based on Jacques Cole's suggestions.
Whenever Jacques Cole makes a decision, "Workin" will quickly inform the next important matter to ensure that the whole process does not waste too much time.
"Sir, the Taxation Department hopes to increase the 'entropy tax' this year by 0.5% to fill the energy loss caused by transportation across the country in the past two years."
"Reject." Jacques Cole said directly without thinking, "Tell them not to make such brainless suggestions anymore, 0.5%. They sit in the office all day long, and they don't know how many aristocrats will be bankrupt and how many companies can no longer operate. Do they want industries to collapse within the empire?"
Jacques Cole is qualified to say these words to the "Imperial Civil Service" in the Taxation Division, because when he was a student of the Star Dragon Empire State University, he spent a lot of time visiting various galaxies in the Empire with his mentors.
No mistakes, one song, one content, one in 6, one book, one bar, one reading!
He has been to wealthy galaxies, attended aristocratic banquets on those planets, and disguised himself to the barren border galaxies, going deep into the slums of backward planets to eat and live with the poor. Therefore, compared to these "imperial civil servants" who have never left the capital galaxy in his life, he obviously needs to understand the underlying operating logic of this huge empire.
Even if it's only a small part.
"Sir, the next step is the report of the Tax Division. The Cassandra Galaxy still has not made up for the tax arrears arrears from the previous year. The lord of the galaxy, Earl Monet, turned a blind eye to the repeated urging of the Tax Division. The Director of the Tax Division applied for armed taxation."
"Cassandra Galaxy."
The general situation of this galaxy flashed through Jacques Cole's mind. In fact, after brain transformation, Jacques Cole had already remembered all the colonial, resource galaxies and even the planets in the galaxy in his mind.
This galaxy that has arrears of taxes has not sufficient resources, and the planet development progress is relatively slow. In addition, the governance capabilities of Count Monet and the family behind him can only be said to be very average, so the taxation of this galaxy has always been a difficult problem.
After the Federation invaded the empire, the Cassandra Galaxy accidentally ignited the war and became the front line, which directly made the galaxy that was not rich.
It's a bit miserable, but that doesn't mean they can default on taxes.
In Jacques Cole's view, taxation is the economic base of this huge empire and it is absolutely unmissable. If even this base has problems, then he will not even have the opportunity to tear down the east wall and repair the west wall.
Since these tax-related wealth can be generated under the governance of the Monet family, they should have reserved the tax payment part in advance, instead of crying to the Ministry of Finance at this time.
Although Jacques Cole knew that his next decision would inevitably make the Monet family increase their efforts to exploit civilians under their rule in order to pay full taxes, countless families in the Cassandra system will be broken, and countless civilians at the bottom will not survive the next few extreme quarters.
But compared to filling the few percent of the holes that can be filled by filling the tax, these foreseeable tragedies will only be ignored by Jacques Cole.
"As the Chancellor of the Finance Department, I agree to the Tax Division's application for taxation on the Cassandra Galaxy armed forces, authorized the Tax Division's armed forces to dispatch the right to copy the relevant information to the Secretary of the Navy. The construction of the new fleet and the upgrading of the "Transatile Fortress" will be based on the help he provides to increase the priority."
"Yes, sir."
The whole morning + morning time was spent in the process of "Woking" constantly cooperating with data and images telling relatively important briefings, and Jacques Cole made decisions from time to time, approving or rejecting some projects.
As the Chancellor of the Finance Department, Jacques Cole naturally did not need to handle all matters at all times. Those piles of affairs that had dropped from five to four digits under his twenty-three years of efforts were naturally responsible for all the employees of the entire Finance Department.
He just needed to give instructions on some of these national projects and ensure on a macro scale that the economic situation of the entire empire could be like a carriage that was about to fall apart, and just stumbled and continued to move forward first.
A famous Chancellor of the Finance Department in the history of the empire once said: "In this light-year empire, the Chancellor of the Finance Department is essentially a "wizard against the second law of thermodynamics" - he must use financial tools to fight the entropy fate that the universe is doomed toward chaos. The fluctuations of the twelve digits after each decimal point may directly affect the survival of billions of living organisms in a certain galaxy. ”
After Jacques Cole became the Chancellor of the Finance Department, he also regarded this sentence as the standard.
He also relied on this principle to tamp out imperial golden dragons from all the cracks that could be tamped.
In these twenty-three years, he not only did not let the old emperor Frederick shout "My money!!!" so he also increased the imperial military expenditure, expanded the fleet, and built five artificial celestial fortresses.
Although he has only repaired a small part of the huge mess of the empire, at this time, Jacques Cole will be glad that he was nominated for the Chancellor of the Finance Minister rather than the Interior Minister.
After all, the Imperial Ministry of Interior had much more things to manage than their Ministry of Finance, so their accumulation of matters was exactly five times that of the Ministry of Finance, and the Interior Minister heard that he had not returned home for three years.
Whenever I think of this, Jacques Cole has to praise the other party, "Loyalty, my Ministry of Finance needs such talents~."
(This chapter ends)