Chapter 1727 Economic Issues
If all non-combatants are deployed in densely populated hives, it is nothing more than spreading the cost to the governors of various planets. But the problem is that many logistics stations are built in areas with sparse or even no population. On desolate planets and moons with human populations, even their supplies require logistical transportation.
In order to reduce the burden on logistics capacity and save costs, Soshyan proposed an idea, which is to establish an easy-to-trade transaction based on the credit of the expeditionary force, supplemented by the supplies provided by Reza. Equivalent, and use this thing to pay non-combatants, so that the supplies of non-combatants can be completed through merchant ship trade - although due to the profit needs of merchants, the amount that will eventually fall into the hands of those employees will definitely be less than the physical delivery. , but it was all for the sake of war, and Soshyan was helpless.
In a sense, this can be regarded as a temporary common currency in the entire Maelstrom War Zone, but Soshyan's idea is relatively simple. He just plans to use it within the expeditionary force as an "exchange" Instead of using it as a real currency, employees can use it to exchange for supplies of corresponding denominations at fixed locations or designated markets, and it can even be used as subsidies and retirement pay for soldiers in the future.
The empire's treatment of retired soldiers often varies greatly. Some soldiers recruited from fortress worlds often return to their hometowns after retirement to become instructors or hold some low-level public positions, while some hive worlds give them casual treatment. The rewards are sent back to the place of origin, or given a position such as a peace officer or a dispatcher, or some go to a relatively safe new colony to obtain a piece of land or some industry, and become one of the countless colonists in the empire, and the Maelstrom recruits Most of the soldiers themselves came from the hive city, and the empire basically gave symbolic rewards to such soldiers. Soshyan felt that after the war, if they did not plan to continue serving, they should also be given some substantial rewards.
The empire is relatively relaxed about the right to mint money. Basically, each world can mint coins independently. Therefore, there is no legal problem with Soshyan's idea. The only problem is that as a space warrior, he cannot be said to know nothing about economics. , but the understanding is undoubtedly relatively superficial, including Lysander and others. Although they agree with Soshyan's ideas, they can't give any opinions.
On the contrary, Marcus reminded Soshyan that due to the huge amount of payment, this kind of thing will inevitably flow into the free market, eventually affecting the production, supply and trade of the entire Maelstrom, and the Space Marines dominate these It's still quite taboo, so it's best to let the Ministry of Internal Affairs come forward. In addition, it also needs to look at the intentions of the merchants. After all, they control the galaxy's logistics and are also direct stakeholders. It requires comprehensive consideration from many aspects before deciding on the final plan.
Things must continue to be done, but Soshyan listened to Marcus's opinion and planned to let the Ministry of Internal Affairs come up with a plan first, and this temporary currency was temporarily named "military coupons".
After concluding the strategic-level discussion, Soshyan later met with the merchant delegation and listened to their opinions on material supply, especially food supply.
Originally, he should not be involved in such "trivial" matters, but recently the Ministry of Internal Affairs has complained to him many times that the logistics pressure on the expeditionary force is too great, which has made it difficult for them to cope with it - although he knows that there must be some It was an exaggeration, but Soshyan found that this was actually an opportunity.
According to them, due to the continuous escalation of the war, various food suppliers have tightened their exports. This has caused the price of food in the Maelstrom area to skyrocket, and the prices of many daily necessities have also increased with it.
The food supply of the empire basically comes from three aspects. The first is the forging world, which produces most of the synthetic foods used in trade and war in the empire. The second is the agricultural world, which is natural food and raw materials. The main source of food, and the third one is the large and small food production plants and processing plants in various hive cities and worlds with higher industrial levels. However, the food produced by this kind of food is basically only enough to meet local needs, so most of them Most of the time it is not included in the production share.
In the empire's trade network, the most basic one is food trade. The route is generally like this. If food is produced from the forging world, then merchants will exchange it with various raw materials, and then Food is sold to nest cities and other places in exchange for manpower, local special resources, or development rights in a certain area. These can then be exchanged for more raw materials, or they can be exchanged for more food in forging worlds with lower prices.
If it is an agricultural world, then it is usually exchanged for electronic products or other industrial products and consumer goods, and then traded to the nest or other worlds, and converted into raw materials required for the casting world or locally produced industrial products. This food crisis comes from the first type of production, mainly because Angstrom has cut off their food exports. You must know that the total amount of protein blocks and other synthetic foods produced in this world only accounts for the entire food production of Maelstrom. It accounts for about 8% of the food trade, but it accounts for nearly 30% of the food trade. Therefore, its termination of exports has a great impact on prices in the entire maelstrom area.
Therefore, Soshiyang followed the trend and provided another channel for the merchants - the forging world Reza.
Riza has wanted to break into the Maelstrom market for many years, but he has been stared at by Mars and Angstrom. After all, he can exchange cheap food for a large amount of rare resources and minerals. Everyone wants to monopolize the business. Since Angstrom has cut off food exports this time, we can't blame Soshiyan for "taking distant water to put out nearby fire" and using Reza's share of food production to stabilize the maelstrom market. , to ensure the stability of the rear of the expedition, even if this matter comes to Mars, he will not be wronged.
On the other hand, it can be regarded as reaching his previous agreement with Reza.
Hong Kong merchants naturally have no objection to Reza's products. Anyway, they do business with everyone, and Reza's prices are actually lower.
Riza was very grateful to Soshiyang for his help in opening up the market. The sage who followed the expeditionary force said that he would feed Soshiyang's "goodwill" back to the forging world, so that in the future, he could It is foreseen that many powerful war machines will enter the arsenal of the expeditionary force.
Afterwards, Soshyan vaguely revealed some ideas about "military tickets" to the merchants. Everyone had different attitudes towards this, which also confirmed Marcus' statement. Most of them expressed disapproval of it.
After meeting the business representatives, Soshyan met with officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and asked about the special war tax. Because this war was already expected to be protracted, he had to mobilize all the manpower and material resources at hand. Play a long game with the Red Pirates.
The special war tax he originally enacted was only targeted at the nobility and ruling class, but he soon realized that this was nothing more than allowing them to shift the burden downwards. The Maelstrom galaxies experienced the last time Badab It has not recovered since the war. Many worlds are devastated and the people are extremely poor. In order to rebuild the empire's rule, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has increased taxes several times. The ruling classes of many planets have also imposed excessive taxes as usual. Some worlds even received taxes 42,000 years in advance. .
What Soshyan wants is not a victory with ten rooms and nine empty seats, so he must make those bastard nobles willing to pick their pockets.
(End of this chapter)