Chapter 307 Rating
George's health is fine and he works hard.
But for this kind of thing, hard work will not necessarily lead to results.
Annie's health is fine and her work attitude is not bad. Although she won't take the initiative to find work, she will definitely complete the work she needs to do in both quality and quantity.
Both of them are still young and not in a hurry.
This period before and after New Year is always very busy.
This year’s New Year’s banquet at Yuriev Palace will be hosted by Anne.
This job is actually easy. Anne did what Catherine did in previous years, and Xiao followed suit.
Next year will be the Year of Sino-Japanese War. Although George has forgotten when the Qing-Japanese War broke out, it will definitely be within next year.
In fact, there are some clues to follow.
The "Akitsusu" protected cruiser built by Japan's Yokosuka Shipyard started construction in 1890, was launched in 1892, and will officially enter service next year.
If nothing unexpected happens, after the "Akitsusu" is put into service, Japan will wait for an opportunity to start a war. Otherwise, if time goes on, it will become increasingly disadvantageous for Japan.
Now Japan's military expenditure has reached 60% of the Japanese government's expenditure. If it continues without fighting, Japan itself will collapse.
The 20,000 new Koryo troops trained by Amul have been deployed to Koryo, with 3,000 troops stationed in Busan and Incheon each. The main force is deployed around the Koryo capital.
The current total strength of Goryeo, including the new army trained by the Qing Empire for Goryeo, is only 26,000.
The Amur Military District is even worse. Not counting the reserves, the total strength is less than 20,000.
Japan can now mobilize more than 300,000 troops.
The Qing Empire had millions of troops.
For this situation, the new governor Pobedonostsev was very worried.
In St. Petersburg, Pobedonotsev’s reputation was not good, which led George to have many misunderstandings about Pobedonotsev.
After having more contact with Pobedonotsev, George realized that Pobedonotsev was an absolute imperial Russian at heart. He was probably the person in the entire empire who supported the Tsar the most in strengthening centralization of power. This was probably Pobedonotsev. The reason why Stev is so controversial.
After Asan ascended the throne, he abolished the Duma and returned all power to the Imperial Council. This will definitely cause dissatisfaction among many people.
But for a huge empire like Russia, decentralization would lead to absolute disaster.
As Yasan’s court teacher and personal advisor, Pobedonostsev has always insisted that Russia only needs one voice.
So Amur must also give priority to the interests of St. Petersburg.
On January 1, 1894, the Russian Empire began to impose real estate taxes.
All cities in the empire that levy real estate taxes are divided into five categories according to the rental price of real estate. For house renters, the amount of tax is determined based on the rental price.
The amount of real estate tax is determined according to the principle of a progressive system. For cities in the first level, the amount of real estate tax ranges from 300 rubles to 6,000 rubles. For cities in the fifth level, the amount of real estate tax ranges from 60 rubles to 1,200 rubles. The tax ranges from rubles, with the maximum tax amount reaching 10% of the house rental amount.
The situation in Amur is very special. In order to attract new immigrants, houses in most cities in Amur are officially allocated by Amur. Private sales are not allowed, so it is difficult to determine the price of houses.
Pobedonostsev believes that with the city size and economic development level of Vladivostok, it is fully qualified to become a first-class city.
George would definitely disagree.
The real estate tax was not introduced in a hurry. The empire had been preparing for a long time. When the city level was evaluated, Vladivostok was still under the military control of the Siberian Fleet and did not participate in the rating at all.
While in St. Petersburg, Pobedonostsev had no idea how far Vladivostok had developed.
After arriving in Amur, Pobedonostsev realized that although Vladivostok has a pitifully small population, the income of the Vladivostok municipal government is almost the same as that of St. Petersburg.
According to Russian standards, St. Petersburg is a megacity with a population of one million, undoubtedly the first level.
There are only more than 60,000 permanent residents in Vladivostok. According to this standard, it is a fourth-level city at most.
But from an economic point of view, Vladivostok must be the first level.
About this issue, a heated argument broke out between Mikhail and Pobedonostsev at a meeting of the Amur Management Committee.
"Clear your identity, you are the governor of Amur, you cannot do anything to harm Amur!"
Mikhail does not agree to designate Vladivostok as the first level, and is only willing to serve as Level 5 declaration.
"I am first of all the Amur governor of the empire and must be responsible for the empire!"
Pobedonostsev deeply hates Mikhail's relatives.
When Ya Er was alive, the queen was bedridden all year round and had no time to take care of him.
Not long after Yekaterina married Ya Er, Ya Er was assassinated. Before the Mikhail brothers had time to adapt to their status as "foreign relatives", they were sent to the France.
Asian Queen Maria had a greater desire for power and had many conflicts with Pobedonostsev.
This was also the main reason why Pobedonostsev was sent to Amur as governor.
Pobedonostsev never expected that even after arriving in the distant Amur from St. Petersburg, he still could not get rid of the evil problem of his relatives interfering in politics.
“Very good, I hope everything goes well for you——”
Mikhail suddenly felt strange.
Pobedonostsev was suspicious, feeling that something was not quite right.
"Ahem——"
Milyutin gave Pobedonostsev a look and let Pobedonostsev realize it for himself.
After the meeting, Pobedonostsev hosted a banquet for Milyutin at the Governor's Palace.
“Most of Amur’s enterprises are privately owned by Super Duke Yurievsky, and His Highness Nicholas and Mikhail also have shares.”
Milyugin also Loyal to the Tsar. However, Amul’s situation is a bit special and cannot be generalized.
There is no saying that the Russian Empire does not compete with the people for profit. Nobles enjoy various preferential policies such as tax exemptions and exemptions when doing business.
George is a member of the royal family. If George is willing, George can not even pay a penny in taxes——
Not only does he not have to pay taxes, but if George has a dark heart, the empire will have to pay him a penny every year. Amur has a lot of subsidies.
But George did not do this. Not only did he pay taxes according to regulations, but he also paid a penny less.
For other grand dukes in the empire, this is too rare.
This is the reason why Milyutin and George have never had any conflicts in the years they have been in Amur.
Pobedonostsev frowned. He didn’t expect there to be so many twists and turns.
Now that the tsar's physical condition is getting worse and worse, he may leave the country one day, and Nicholas will ascend the throne by then.
So in addition to the imperial uncle, George will also have an identity as an imperial merchant.
Coupled with his status as commander of the Amur Military District, George has become unrivaled in the Far East.
Considering how much Nicholas trusts George.
After Nicholas succeeds to the throne, the position of Governor of Amur will belong to George sooner or later.
"The empire is too difficult. You may not know that the empire levies real estate tax, and the total estimated collection is only about 2.5 million rubles."
Pobedonostsev also knew that George had offended Sorry.
But the imperial treasury is so empty that rats can starve to death.
The Vladivostok Municipal Government is planning a large-scale transformation of Vladivostok, which makes Pobedonostsev really heartbroken.
After the Tsar granted Amur to George, George almost bulldozed the old Vladivostok and built a brand new city.
Most of the buildings in Vladivostok are only a few years old. To put it bluntly, some wooden buildings may not even be dry yet, but the Vladivostok City Government has to demolish them and rebuild them. This is not the case in Bobie. Donostsev seemed like a complete waste.
George thought it was necessary.
The year before last, Vladivostok tried to build a fortress-style tube building in Khabarovsk for central heating, and achieved good results.
George plans to transform Vladivostok in the spring of next year and implement this model in Vladivostok.
In the budget of the Vladivostok city government, it will cost at least 15 million rubles to replace all the scattered buildings in Vladivostok with this fortress-style tube building.
It’s a lot of money, but there are also many benefits.
“This is a question for the Chancellor of Finance. What does it have to do with Amur?”
Miliugin is not free from poverty either. Whoever pollutes will be responsible for the pollution.
The empire's fiscal revenue is small, so it makes no sense to use Amur as a sheep to gather wool.
All Russian Grand Dukes have fiefs.
If other Grand Dukes pay taxes according to regulations like George, then the empire's fiscal revenue can be directly doubled.
It will be no problem to build another hundred battleships by then.
"The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility."
Pobedonozev's main theme is that a capable person works harder.
Milyuging was helpless.
If Pobedonostsev is like this, he probably won’t be able to stay in Amur for long.
Sent Milyutin off, Pobedonostsev continued the meeting.
Fovilia, who was thrust into the Vladivostok Finance Bureau by Pobedonostsev, was full of envy.
“Vladivostok is so rich. The annual income from business tax and consumption tax alone is at least 10 million rubles. I don’t know the specific data because most taxes are collected by The monetary capital tax levied directly by the Bank of Siberia also reached the level of tens of millions of rubles.”
Beginning in 1885, the Russian Empire levied a 5% tax on banknotes and deposits.
In 1887, the Russian Empire imposed another 5% tax on railway bond income.
In the same year, Empire charged a 0.22% tax on bank overdraft amounts.
As for excise tax, it was one of the main taxes in the Russian Empire after the liquor monopoly tax and land tax.
“Is the Bank of Siberia so rich?”
Pobedonostsev did not expect that the Bank of Siberia’s currency taxes would be so high.
This is normal.
The money of people in Vladivostok is basically deposited in the Bank of Siberia.
Not necessarily St. Petersburg.
Many Russian grand princes deposited their money in British or French banks, or simply made various investments without saving any money at all.
Investing in Russia is not bad.
Some princes love investing abroad. They don’t have a single ruble in the Bank of Russia, and they can’t even collect taxes.
“Super Duke Yurievsky still has many investments in the United States, and every year a large amount of funds flows into the Bank of Siberia in the form of settlement.”
Fovilia's understanding was not complete enough.
(End of this chapter)