Chapter 519 Market Church and the Earl
After reading the letter sent by Warren Taylor in his hand at a glance, Horn's eyebrows wrinkled but helplessly relaxed.
This situation is really unstoppable for a moment. Ludwig, the front foot, was assassinated, and the sugar and grain trade agreement of the Sacred Axis is pending.
The monks and monks in Kasha County are still arguing fiercely about the next abbot and investigating the identity of the assassin.
Horn, do you still need to investigate? Who else but the church? It’s just self-deception.
This assassination really caused a big trouble for Horn. Dean Ludwick was definitely a smart man with great wisdom and foolishness.
His understanding can be seen in his ability to form an alliance with the Salvation Army and the various consensuses reached by both parties. The cooperation between the two parties is largely based on the pressure and prestige of this old man.
Even without Ludwik, the Brago Abbey in Kaschia County would still be a faggot.
On the other hand, Jean Bulow is greater than Ruozhi.
I don’t know when they will elect a new dean.
After shaking his head, Horn couldn't find any good solution except ordering to strengthen the vigilance.
The matter in Kasha County here has not been settled yet, and the Shengsun Rebel Army has sent a new trouble over there.
The nobles recognized the situation and gradually began to sit on the fence.
Judging from this trend, the natural and man-made disasters from 1444 to 1445 in the Imperial Calendar, as well as the civil war in the Kingdom of Leia, made the psychological defenses of the nobles and yeoman farmers in Hotam County much weaker.
As for the real reason why Prince Condai sent the Lancers to eat, Horn could roughly guess it.
Originally, the entire Qianhehe River Valley supplied him with nine command companies, but now there were only five, but only Hotam County was the only one that could be supplied.
Although Hotam County alone provides almost one-third of the tax revenue of the Thousand River Valley, how much it may collect is a question.
The original Langsand County only paid more than 8,000 gold pounds. According to the calculations of the Holy Treasurer Sissi, the Salvation Army can expect to collect 20,000 gold pounds in taxes next year in Langsand County, half and half from the central area.
The total tax base of all taxes in Langsand County is only 70,000 gold pounds. Horn can collect taxes to the limit because he has financial instrument bonds and there are no middlemen to make the difference.
A wartime lancer team costs about 150 to 200 gold pounds per year.
In the current state of the command company, in order to maintain its combat effectiveness, it is still replenishing its personnel and purchasing equipment and medicines.
Prince Condai needs at least 80,000 to 100,000 gold pounds, which the local nobles will never be able to afford.
What to do? It’s not just about bypassing the middleman.
This idea is right, but the method is too crude. If it were Horn, he would issue atonement bonds in the name of the church and then forcibly distribute them to the nobles.
The Lancers only do the work of supervision, escort and suppression, and will not go directly to collect taxes.
When the time comes, the middlemen (nobles) will do the work, and the church will take the blame. If they win, they will be able to pay off their debts, and if they are defeated, they will be brought down directly.
Direct robbery and IOU are two concepts. The former makes people hope you lose, and the latter makes people hope you win.
"Send this letter to the Privy Council. There will be a weekly meeting the day after tomorrow. Submit this issue urgently and copy it out together tomorrow."
The Privy Council is actually the Secretariat, among which Most of them are monks from the Order of the Holy Father.
Usually the paperwork and meeting minutes between Horn and the cardinals are completed by these monks.
"Okay, Your Majesty." A privy monk stood up, took the letter and left the office.
Horn stood up on his own and took down the first draft of the schedule for the regular meeting from the file rack by the window.
According to the Salvation Army system, a regular meeting of cardinals is held every Monday morning, so the issues must be submitted two days in advance, and the meeting content must be delivered one day in advance.
With the warm sunshine slanting outside, Horn leaned against the window and began to read the steaming form that had just been delivered.
After flipping through it quickly, Horn was basically sure that there were only three main pieces of content. The first is the market issue related to consumption tax.
Due to the implementation of the "1445 Plan", the collection of local consumption taxes by the Central Papal Palace must be largely based on fixed markets.
However, according to the current two-month pilot in several markets, some problems have appeared invariably, the most important ones are two.
The first is how to calculate taxes. Tax collectors cannot track every transaction and accurately calculate the tax payable, which is very likely to lead to tax evasion.
Because whether it is calculated based on the entry or exit of goods, or the subtraction of both sides, there is a problem, that is, there are too few people and too many numbers.
Don't just spend the whole day just making statistics, people won't be able to enter the market.
Not to mention the high probability of entrapment and smuggling.
Or simply watching the goods on the market and trading outside the market are possible.
The second is that bulk commodities cannot be traded, because a market can accommodate hundreds or thousands of people at a time, and only dozens or hundreds of pounds of goods can be traded at a time.
Generally, a market covers a surrounding area of 10 to 15 kilometers, with about 20,000 to 30,000 people. The goods they trade are many and complex, but the quantity is very small.
For bulk commodity trading, for example, some local businessmen will sign contracts with farmers in several villages.
Pay in advance how many tons of produce, wood or wool farmers will provide at a time in the coming year.
There are many of them, but the categories are small and single. How many stalls will be occupied by several tons of goods, and how much waste will be caused by transporting them back and forth?
According to Horn's method, they must trade under supervision. It is not appropriate to put this amount in the market.
The Evangelical Court currently responsible for this matter has given a corresponding plan, and tomorrow's regular meeting will decide which plan to adopt.
Horn believes that it is better for the Council of Cardinals to have more multiple-choice and true-false questions and less fill-in-the-blank and answer questions.
If there are fill-in-the-blank and answer questions, it means that there is insufficient preparation and communication before the meeting.
Licking his fingers, Horn turned to the second page, which was the issue of establishing a new construction department.
After the "1445 Plan", there will be several towns as the residence of priests.
Any town where a priestly order is located must build the following municipal buildings: church, town hall, Christian Square, clinic, bell tower, school, night watch tower and armory.
Both the church and the town hall were major political buildings, centers of religious and administrative affairs.
Xinmin Square is a place for business and town activities.
Clinics, bell towers, and schools are functional buildings that are responsible for providing simple treatment, informing weights, measures, and time, and providing education.
As for the Night Watch tower and the armory, it is easy to explain. The former provides security and the latter is military-oriented.
Some of these buildings have been renovated, while others have been newly built.
These buildings are mainly masonry structures, supplemented by mortar, and are five or six meters high. They don't need to be brilliant or gorgeous, as long as they can identify what kind of building they are.
In addition to establishing the core, it can also support the brick kiln industry that has arisen due to peat around Huilu Town.
These buildings are all official buildings, and it would be inappropriate to use private engineering teams and masons with unknown origins.
Horn planned to nationalize several well-performing engineering teams and some masons to become specialized teams for key official construction.
But then there is a question, and it is also an issue that Horn feels will definitely be argued about the day after tomorrow, which is who is in charge of this engineering team.
All cardinals hope that their departments can control as much as possible, because the more they control, the greater their power and the fewer constraints they will encounter.
The last topic is how to receive Count Seizinger who is coming to visit next week.
(End of this chapter)