Chapter 167 Tax Owner System
The small dispute that occurred at the meeting came to an end, and everyone continued to discuss other issues.
“So, Hansel, is the Kingdom’s army interested in our canned goods, salt and other things?”
“Uh... Sir, because time is limited, I am just contacting you. The quartermaster under the command of Her Royal Highness the Princess, but from his attitude, the cans are very suitable for their needs."
"How many cans can they buy?"
"We didn't talk about it in such detail at that time, but Her Royal Highness has about 8,000 people under her command, so the demand should be very large."
Paul asked a little doubtfully: "You just said that you only contacted Her Royal Highness the Princess. What does quartermaster mean? "
Hansel explained: "Not all the troops still stationed in Jingyao are directly commanded by Her Royal Highness, but the troops under each general solve the military supply problem alone. . ”
Paul understood that although these armies were all loyal to the same target, the soldiers were divided into generals and there was no unified logistics system. This was also very common in the armies of the old times.
“So we have to talk to those generals one by one.”
"Lord Graiman, I have a suggestion. Please organize businessmen and factory owners to go to the royal capital and let them find sales on their own."
"Trade delegation?"
"Trade delegation? What a good name. Organized in the name of the Lord's Palace, I think those businessmen and factory owners will definitely participate enthusiastically. After all, it is very easy to get things done under the banner of the nobility."
Paul agreed very much. He nodded repeatedly at this suggestion.
"This is a good idea. We should cultivate the 'wolf nature' of these businessmen and let them find opportunities and fight on their own. Otherwise, helping one to the left and the other to the right will definitely not make a big difference. .”
Hansel echoed: "Your Majesty."
Paul slapped the table: "Okay, let's leave this matter to you, the 'agricultural director', haha! Oh, except for cans, like The merchants who make these things also bring a lot of porcelain and paper. When the sea route is opened, we will ship it directly to the south and sell it, without having to let the second-rate dealers scrape another layer of oil and water. "
Hansai. He put his right hand on his chest and assured Paul: "I will start organizing this right away."
"But..." Hansel immediately raised a question: "Can our production keep up? ”
“After I came back, I visited several factory owners in Huxin Town. Not only cans, but also paper factories and porcelain factories. These are very popular products. According to their reports, , just to cope with the current orders, the production capacity is already stretched.”
"This is a problem, so I plan to let the newly arrived refugees find work in factories instead of farming in the fields. You need to notify the factory owners in Arda and Bailding and ask them to come to Recruit people from the refugee group. I don’t want to keep these refugees in vain. I have to let them work and create value.”
“Yes, sir”
Paul said suddenly. With the plan on his mind, he looked around at everyone and said: "Everyone, in order to alleviate the problem of insufficient production capacity, I have another idea - to exempt a group of serfs in the Graiman family from slavery. This is what I think, with the harvester 'When the machinery is put into use, the existing cultivated land in the family will no longer require so many people, so we might as well exempt them from slavery and let them freely choose their own jobs to support themselves, which will also alleviate the problem of labor shortage in the factory. "
This is reasonable and reasonable, and no one expressed any objection. Besides, this is the lord's own property, so he doesn't need to bother others.
“Not only that, I will also issue a decree to encourage those landlords and squires to take the initiative to release the serfs at home, let them work as workers, and then take the initiative to use the money at home to invest in various Emerging industries.”
There was silence for a moment, and seeing the room full of people going blank, Paul immediately added:
“Of course, just encouragement, just encouragement, just encouragement, say important things three times. I don’t plan to set any specific goals or targets, lest the officials below use chicken feathers as arrows to invade the place in order to claim credit.”
Everyone calmed down, and Paul breathed a sigh of relief. Continued: "For those who take the initiative to release serfs or invest in emerging industries, I will provide certain tax exemptions."
Ford's manager twirled his beard and said: "Replenish the factory's supply by releasing serfs Labor, this is a good idea, but you may not achieve much through tax reductions.”
Paul was surprised: “Why?”
Director Ford explained: "Because those landowners and gentry who own a large number of serfs... are often the 'tax farmers' in their own villages?"
"'Tax farmers'? What does it mean?"< br>
“Well... the so-called tax contractor means a tax contractor. The lord entrusts a prominent person in a certain place to be responsible for collecting various taxes in this place and setting a certain amount of quota. , the tax collector must complete this amount quota. If it is not met, he must use his own property to make up for it, and then pay the amount of tax required by the lord. Correspondingly, if the tax collected exceeds the amount set by the lord , then the remaining wallet taxpayers can keep it as their own remuneration.”
Controller Ford pointed out the reason why Paul’s policy has little effect: “The actual amount of taxes collected is determined by the tax collectors themselves. The more they collect, the more they will keep. Think about how tempting it would be for them to collect less tax on their own family.”
Paul suddenly stood up from his seat. He bounced up and asked, "Is this how our territory collects taxes?"
Governor Ford was startled by the earl's reaction, "In places like Huxin Town and large towns like Port Fulan, the Lord's Mansion directly sends tax officers to collect taxes, but in most rural areas, taxation is It was contracted to the local squire."
He was surprised. Isn't this what everyone has done for thousands of years? Why did the lord react so violently? He seemed very unhappy.
He doesn’t know that now ten thousand alpacas are running through Paul’s heart, of course not to the boss himself, but to this fucked-up tax system.
It turns out that I didn’t know that there was such a situation. If I couldn’t meet the tax quota, I would use my own money to make up for it? Don't be kidding, can those landlords and wealthy people have such a consciousness? Even those who have this consciousness have long been eliminated by history.
Paul can figure it out with his buttocks. These so-called tax collectors must be under the banner of lords, desperately exploiting the peasants below, and after spending a sum of money to deal with the errands of the lord's mansion, , and stuffed all the remaining money into his pocket.
The earl was very heartbroken, partly because of the farmers who were overcharged a lot and kept in the dark, but what was even more heartbreaking was that the overcharged money did not go into their own pockets.
Paul announced: "I will immediately issue a decree to abolish the tax collector system. From now on, the Government Administration will send people directly to the countryside to collect taxes!"
Old Ford stood up in a hurry, waved his hands and said : "My lord, please think carefully!"
"Huh? Why? Didn't I give them the power to collect taxes? Can't I take it back?"
"Uh... in theory That's true, but..." Manager Ford thought about what to say, and slowly began to persuade: "Many tax collectors have been passed down from generation to generation. Before the Graiman family was granted this place, They have been holding this power in villages all over the country for a long time. If you act rashly, it may...may cause... local unrest. I am not afraid of them joining together to cause trouble."
< br>
After hearing what the old manager said, Paul was very depressed. Aren't they just a bunch of local snakes? He, a "powerful dragon", couldn't suppress them?
Army Battalion Commander Bryce stood up and said: "Your Majesty, the First Battalion of the Army is at your disposal at any time. You can safely and boldly take back the power of the tax collectors from that group. If someone If he dares to disobey the order, the Army will pick him out and execute him with cannons. "
In the past few days, the Navy had made a splash by destroying pirates of all kinds, which made Bryce, the army boss, very unhappy. He immediately See the opportunity and jump out to challenge.
Paul nodded to Bryce with relief. Fortunately, the army was on his side.
However, he still stretched out his hand to signal Bryce to sit down first, and asked Manager Ford: "Is this method of tax collection very common?"
The old manager replied: "Yes, this is The unwritten system that has existed since the ancient Beira Empire is still used by the lords of most countries. Oh... the city-states in the Horn Bay area may not do this."
" I don’t understand which noble invented this weird way of collecting taxes.”
The old steward didn’t understand why the lord found it weird. In his opinion, it was normal, but he still did. He replied:
"There are various reasons for the formation of the tax farming system. Some are because the new lord has just arrived and must rely on local prominent figures to support his rule. The tax farming system is a kind of cooperation. Some are because the lord is extravagant. If you owe a large amount of debt or need to borrow money urgently, you have to use your tax collection power to pay off the debt or mortgage it. ”
Paul thought depressingly: "It seems that strengthening centralization is the way to go. Huh! Serfdom and tax farming are two big mountains that are pressing on my head. That's all. I'll just tolerate it for now. I'll be tougher in the future." , and slowly collect them."
He waved his hand feebly: "Okay, then I won't bother with anything. But the decree to encourage the release of serfs still needs to be promulgated. It is better than nothing. . Chief Ford, Miss Ladi is not here, please draft one for me.”
“Yes, Lord Earl.”
Mr. Ford was secretly relieved. Fortunately, the lord. Your Excellency did not mess around.
In fact, as the chief administrator of government affairs, he is also happy to see the tax collector system abolished and the government affairs council responsible for the direct taxation in the territory. However, this matter must be done slowly and cannot be rushed.
"By the way, everyone!"
Paul suddenly thought of something and asked everyone: "Many of you here have a lot of fields and serfs in their homes, right?"
Everyone looked at each other. Look, he admitted: "Uh... yes, your lord."
People like Controller Ford, Bryce, Cecil, and many other heads of the State Council, many of whom belong to the "landlords" The ranks of "class" naturally also have many serfs.
Everyone felt nervous. Could it be that the lord wanted to set an example?
Paul laughed, waved his hand and said, "Don't be nervous, everyone, I won't force you to let go of the serfs."
Everyone felt relieved.
“However, if you plan to take the initiative to free the serfs, it’s not just a small tax reduction. After all, after serving the Graiman family for so many years, you will get more rewards.”
< br>Everyone’s eyes lit up, who would be in trouble with the interests?
Paul raised his voice and said: "I declare! Anyone who works for me, if they take the initiative to release the serfs at home, can obtain a corresponding proportion of shares from the industry under the name of the Graiman family."
Oops! The people in the room suddenly became enthusiastic.
It is obvious to all that the profits of the factories established by the Earl are high. With his current financial resources (including taxes), he can actually support a standing army of more than 2,000 people. This was impossible before. It is imaginable that the heads of the Graiman family in the past generations would be shocked when they saw this.
Now, the Earl actually wants to give them part of the shares? This is simply a piece of cake falling from the sky.
Although this required freeing the serfs in exchange, they heard Paul talk about the kind of farm model he advocated - hiring 'agricultural workers' to farm the land.
In other words, after freeing the serfs and spending a little money to hire some people, you can continue to farm your own land, but you can get a large amount of income from the Earl's factory.
I just don’t know how much the “corresponding proportion of shares” among adults can correspond to.
Seeing everyone's eager eyes, Paul smiled with satisfaction.
"Everyone should go back and think about it first. If you are interested, come to me."
You really need to think about it, including himself. He has to find some time to think about it, how many shares correspond to Many serfs would suffer heartache if the price was too high.
In short, the meeting continued in a warm atmosphere.
Hansel stood up and said: "Your Majesty, Earl, I have another proposal. According to the information I found in the royal capital, in the spring of next year, the main army of the kingdom will go south to quell the rebellion."
" Well, what's your proposal?"
"Once a war breaks out, their demand for iron - and furthermore, their demand for weapons will definitely increase. Should we seize this opportunity?"
Paul had mentioned to him before about increasing steel output, but it seemed that he had no plans recently, but Hansel had been thinking about it, as it was related to his future.
Paul also thought of his previous plan: "You are right. With Bairding's iron ore, we can indeed start to increase steel production. But manpower in this area is also a problem."
Hansel suggested: "Then how about I write to the office stationed in the royal capital and ask them to focus on recruiting blacksmiths and miners?"
Paul agreed: "Yes, and we have to adopt a new smelting method. Technology. "
New smelting technology, he suddenly had a lot of ideas in his mind.
It was written too hastily and I feel that this chapter is a bit awkward to read. Please just take a look. o(*￣3￣)o
(End of this chapter)