Chapter 97 The King's New Deal
Jiang You's eyes flickered for a moment: "Running a city... I've never considered such a thing before!"
"Actually, there's more than one city," Andrei smiled. "Baron Neumann's territory is actually quite large. West Eston is just the most prosperous city and his main base. Besides this city, there are many villages and towns... you probably haven't been to any of them yet. But you have to eat one bite at a time, do one thing at a time, and walk one step at a time... A city that's already functioning smoothly is always easier to manage than a rural area. We can start with West Eston and try it together."
"That's right!" Jiang You nodded vigorously, "It's just that I'm only good at making sauces!"
She has played a lot of management games, but in this magical world, she doesn't know how much experience she can still use... On the bright side, maybe it can all come in handy?
"We can try this together," Andrei said. "If we start with the people's livelihood, we'll always do better than Baron Neumann, the fat-headed man who spends all his time plundering the people."
"That's right!" Jiang You became excited again. This is an entire territory! How many business game enthusiasts and time travelers dream of getting an entire territory of their own!
——Okay, this territory doesn’t belong to her, but it belongs to her boyfriend… Well, if you round it up, it doesn’t make a difference!
"However, if we want to build a territory, do we have the money?" When she thought about the funding, Jiang You became worried again. King Huntington's stingy approach really left a deep impression on her.
While a little bit of perks from the king's fingers can make his subordinates rich, cash flow is really important! You can't always give people real estate that is difficult to liquidate! Unsaleable real estate can bring down the bank!
Andrei nodded. "Thanks to Nasha's half-sister, our men and the Shadow Army worked together to track down the stolen goods. We've managed to seize a significant amount of the illicit funds that Baron Neumann had stolen from Evil Eye Moon. According to His Majesty the King, this illicit funds, along with Baron Neumann's confiscated property, will be confiscated. Half will be handed over to the national treasury, and the other half will be returned to me along with the territory as a reward from the King, serving as the initial capital for our future operations."
"In addition, His Majesty the King probably wants to take this opportunity to promote a new reform - the territorial tax."
"Hmm? What is this?" Jiang You asked curiously, "Don't we have to pay taxes in Eston West City?"
"That's a tax paid to the lord." Andre laughed. "Normally, according to the rules passed down through the ages in the German Kingdom, noble territories don't pay taxes to the king, only military responsibilities. However, the lord has the right to collect taxes from the people within his territory. For most nobles, this is pure net income."
In this magical Middle Ages, there are very few nobles who know how to manage their territories scientifically. Most nobles adopt a free-range approach: they give the people in the territory some policy benefits, and then let them develop freely and fend for themselves.
Tenant farmers were left to manage their own farm affairs, while merchants were left to manage their own business. The lord generally only needed to manage his kingdom's knights and private soldiers, maintain law and order within his territory, and then sit back and wait for the happy time of collecting rent and taxes each year.
Most of the nobles are not in their territories all year round. Instead, they use the taxes paid by these territories to have fun, buy assets in the royal capital, the countryside or other people's prosperous territories, and naturally they will not invest in infrastructure in their territories.
Nobles generally received their titles and territories from the king through their ancestors' military achievements, and their only obligation to the king was military loyalty. If banditry, foreign invasion, or rebellion occurred locally or elsewhere, these noble lords were required to respond to the king's call and send troops.
Apart from this, they did not need to pay any money to His Majesty the King, whose income came from his own land.
"But there's a problem here," Andre explained to Jiang You, "King Delman is a man who loves to confer titles. He has granted most of the kingdom's land to those who please him. These people are neither his blood relatives nor brave generals with military merits, but they all received territories as exceptions. The royal family's own resources are becoming increasingly scarce.
"The German dynasty had the luxury of extravagance. They accumulated a vast fortune over the generations. So, even though the last German king spent countless lavishly, he reportedly left behind a wealth of treasures... The problem is, when King German suddenly passed away, all of this royal wealth disappeared. It's unknown whether the old king squandered it all or hid it somewhere."
Jiang You blinked. She hadn't expected that the succession of kingdoms would leave behind urban legends like the kingdom's treasure. However, thinking about their previous adventures in Rose Villa, it seemed that everything had an explanation.
"So, those nobles accepted Madame Butterfly's invitation to go to Rose Hill. Could it be that they also wanted to find the missing treasure of the Delman royal family?"
"Probably," Andrei himself speculated. "Anyway, during the transition between dynasties, large sums of treasure that should have been in the treasury mysteriously disappeared. When King Maybury ascended the throne, the treasury was completely empty, and the vast majority of his nobles didn't truly acknowledge his dire situation. Forget about supporting the king; they didn't even want to respond to his majesty's military call."
"That's right...it was King Derman who bestowed the title upon them. What does that have to do with King Maybury Huntington?" Jiang You could understand their thinking. "These nobles feel that their territories are a blessing from their ancestors, and their loyalty is not to King Huntington.
"The treasury is empty, and all the lands in His Majesty's possession have been divided up by King Delman... Not only is there no savings left, but even most of the income has been cut. If His Majesty wants to change the status quo, he must start with the fat and disloyal old nobles, take back the land and redistribute it to his own people." Jiang You understood.
"That's right, but it's far from enough," Andre said. "If the problem of treasury revenue isn't completely resolved, the money looted from the nobles will soon be spent. Therefore, His Majesty the King intends to impose a national tax on the territories of the new nobles, and I will be the first of those new nobles. This new policy will be announced at tomorrow's enfeoffment ceremony. From now on, 20% of the taxes we collect from our subjects must be handed over to His Majesty the King."
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