The special envoy sent by the royal court quickly arrived at the Royal City of Polyvisia. This was a somewhat serious-looking old man, about fifty years old, with a standard Mediterranean hairstyle and a bitter and resentful expression. , as if everyone owed him money. His name is Don Bajiro Ai Davidlid, Viscount of the Kingdom. It is said that he is related to King Frederick I, and his Majesty will call him his cousin. He has been serving as deputy director and chief inspector of the Kingdom's Ministry of Justice.
The royal envoy also brought a regiment of guards with him this time, with the purpose of escorting the gold and silver reserves in the former Nasseri Kingdom's treasury worth more than one million gold crowns back to the royal capital. Claude and General Bolognik held a welcoming ceremony as usual and held a banquet to welcome his arrival. What made Claude feel a little strange was that Viscount Don Bargello seemed a little absent-minded, as if he was hiding something on his mind, and soon left the table to rest on the excuse of being too drunk.
On the afternoon of the next day, the two sides began to hand over, and Claude provided the account books and gold and silver reserves of the Nasseri Kingdom's treasury that had been seized, saying that he had not lied in this regard. The value of the gold and silver coins and gold and silver ingots originally stored in the national treasury should be around 1.89 million gold crowns. According to the distribution principle of loot captured from the public treasury, the overseas autonomous territorial military regions can obtain 30% of it, and the remaining 20% will be used as local maintenance funds. , only about 50% was handed over to Wang Ting.
It was just that Viscount Don Bargello withdrew and made a private request to Claude and General Bolognik. He hoped that this time they would be allowed to bring back gold and silver reserves worth about 1.5 million gold crowns to relieve the kingdom's finances. crisis. You must know that the guards stationed in the royal capital have been in arrears for three months, and the local administrative officials in the royal capital have not been paid for six months. Now the royal court relies on this money from the treasury of the Kingdom of Nasseri. Funds to survive...
"No way, Wang Ting is so poor." Claude was shocked.
Viscount Don Bajiro smiled bitterly and explained to the two generals that last year the alliance army was sent out of the kingdom as a gift. When the enemy evacuated from the royal capital, they took away all the property they could and even destroyed the eastern part of the kingdom. All mineral mining bases. When Frederick I and Wang Ting returned to the royal capital, they found that what was left to them was an empty frame and nothing. There was not even a single curtain in the palace, they were all used and destroyed by the enemy...
The entire kingdom has experienced wars in the past few years, people's livelihood has been in decline, and business travel has been sluggish. The taxes Wang Ting received were enough to maintain food and clothing. With no money in hand, Wang Ting could not implement even the best economic recovery plan, just like the destructed mining of mineral resources in the eastern region. The two large landfilled gold and silver mines are the same as the base. Hundreds of thousands of funds must be invested to re-excavate the mine tunnels before they can be mined, so that there are gold and silver mines that can be used to mint coins.
But the treasury currently has no money, and Wang Ting is helpless. The overseas dominions have money, but Wang Ting has already overdrafted the taxes and tributes that the overseas dominions will pay in the next ten years. If he wants to continue overdrafting, the Overseas Domestic Council will quit. It was okay to overdraft during the war, but it was unreasonable to want to overdraft now that the war was over. The parliament said that it could lend money to the royal court, but interest would have to be paid.
Wang Ting didn't care about borrowing money from overseas dominions. Anyway, although the interest rate was high, it was not considered usury. However, the old aristocratic families in the kingdom were not happy. They believed that the overseas autonomous territories were deliberately expanding their influence in the royal court and had bad intentions. If Wang Ting wants to borrow money, he can borrow it from them. With the wealth of these families, he can still provide millions of gold crowns. But theirs is a real loan shark, with 8 out of 10 returns, and the interest is compounded.
His Majesty is angry now. The overseas dominions said that borrowing money is actually like a loan. It doesn't matter if the interest is high, and it can be repaid in two years. However, the old aristocratic families offered us loans at high interest rates, and the interest was compounded. It was possible that the huge sum of millions of gold crowns borrowed could not be repaid in a hundred years, which was simply unreasonable. Therefore, borrowing money from overseas dominions was unanimously opposed by all noble ministers, but borrowing money from established noble families and forces, Your Majesty is not a fool. He jumped into it even though he knew it was a trap, so if you don’t have money, you don’t have money. Let’s just live with it. .
This time, Viscount Don Bajiro came to deliver the funds as a special envoy of the royal court. The most urgent person was the Prime Minister of the Kingdom, Marquis Blancart. He hoped to transport back gold and silver reserves of about 1.5 million gold crowns, which would solve Wang Ting's urgent needs. Among them, 500,000 gold crowns are planned to be used to pay salaries and stabilize the minds of the officers and soldiers of the Royal Guards and the administrative and civil officials within the jurisdiction of the royal capital.
Another 500,000 gold crowns are planned to be invested in the royal capital to repair the commercial areas and road traffic destroyed by the alliance army and attract business travelers to return to the royal capital. As long as business slowly flourishes, the taxes collected by the treasury will begin to increase. This is a very good way to govern. The last five hundred thousand gold crowns the royal court plans to use for the construction of mineral resource mining bases destroyed by the alliance army. As long as the two large gold and silver mines resume production and mining, the national treasury will have more than one hundred thousand gold every month. With the entry of crown funds into the account, the finances will be more comfortable to do many practical things...
Viscount Don Bagelo spoke very sincerely, and had already told Claude and General Bologna all the inside information about the financial difficulties faced by the royal court. Claude felt a little regretful. If he had known this, he should have sent out troops earlier to harass the coalition camp. At least he could not let the top commander of the coalition army, who is his name, be said to be the Duke of Hicks Kingdom, so easily. Withdrew to the Kingdom of Hicks with the wounded soldiers of the Kingdom of Hicks and the property looted from the royal capital. After a loss, it was obvious that the amount of property that the alliance army took away from the royal capital was not a small amount.
No wonder that guy was so generous, keeping so many grain and grass reserves, military supplies, weapons and ammunition in the coalition camp without destroying or burning them, so that we could easily give up the pursuit of their retreating troops. Obviously, the Duke knew in his heart that if he burned these supplies, the Thunder Legion would not let go of their evacuated defeated soldiers even if they died. Even if they chased them to the Menbamark Kingdom, they would be driven out and killed...
What a cunning guy. It was precisely because he left behind a intact coalition camp and so much food, grass, military supplies, as well as weapons and ammunition that Claude felt there was no need to pursue him so hard that he just let him go. passed them. As a result, I now know that when the Duke evacuated with the wounded soldiers, he also took away so much property looted from the royal capital, but now it is too late to regret it. Claude only thought about the big loss...
"What are you thinking about?" General Bolognik pushed Claude, knowing that he was distracted again: "I just agreed to the special envoy's request and asked him to take away the gold and silver reserves of 1.5 million gold crowns to relieve the kingdom. financial difficulties..."
"Please rest assured that the kingdom will not forget your loyalty and dedication. The Prime Minister told me before my departure that because the kingdom has no money and cannot give the brave soldiers the rewards they deserve, he wants to transfer these seven people from the Nasseri area to The mining rights of a small and medium-sized gold, silver and copper mine will be handed over to you for half a year. You only need to hand over one-third of the mineral resources mined within this six months to the Wang Ting, and the rest will be used as a share for the two legions of your overseas autonomous military region. Use of funds.
You should be aware of the kingdom's policy on gold and silver mineral resources, which is basically divided into 70% and 70%, 70% goes to the national treasury, and 30% goes to private individuals. However, within the next six months, Wang Ting will give you 70% of the distribution, which is already an exception..." Viscount Don Bajiro quickly threw out the compensation plan that had been drawn up long ago.
There are seven small and medium-sized gold, silver and copper mines in the Nasseri area, which were the source of gold and silver reserves for the former Nasseri Kingdom's treasury. As for copper mines, they are basically cast directly into copper coins at the mining base and then put into the market for circulation and use. Claude looked at the captured account books, which recorded that these seven small and medium-sized gold, silver and copper mines could increase the income of the Nasseri Kingdom by about 1.4 million gold crowns every year.
Of the mineral resources of 1.4 million gold crowns, one-third is about 400,000 gold crowns, so there is about one million left belonging to the Dominion Military Region. However, it is only for half a year, so as to increase revenue and reduce expenditure, the maximum income can only be about 600,000 gold crowns.
"You have a really good plan. You don't have to pay a single black penny, so you can just sit back and enjoy the profits for free. Give us these seven small and medium-sized mineral resources. We still have to recruit miners, renovate machinery, and equip refining equipment. We must first invest. It takes more than 100,000 gold crowns to mine these gold and silver minerals." Claude shook his head: "Also, why is it only for half a year? This time is too short, it must be at least one year."
Viscount Don Bajiro also smiled bitterly: "To be honest, I also want to give you a longer time, but the Prime Minister and I don't know what will change in half a year. Maybe the resources of these seven small and medium-sized gold, silver and copper mines will arrive We no longer know who owns these mineral resources, and we have to re-sign mining agreements with the owners of these mineral resources...
As for the mining rights of these mineral resources being handed over to you now, you should start mining as soon as possible and send more manpower to dig as much as you can. When the deadline is up, if we don't notify you, then you will continue to mine. If all these mineral resources are owned, then they will wait until the half-year period expires before taking over these mineral resources... "
Claude became more and more strange: "There seems to be something else in this half-year period. Can you tell me what is going on? Or is it that Wang Ting is planning to sell all these gold, silver, and copper mineral resources in exchange for funds?"
"Forget it, you two are not outsiders, you are also the new hereditary nobles of the kingdom. Let me tell you what is going on." Viscount Don Bagelo looked around and noticed that there was no one else in the room. He breathed a sigh of relief.
"Don't worry, no one dares to eavesdrop on our conversation." General Bolognik reassured the special envoy.
"That's it. Prime Minister Blancart submitted a plan for the restoration of the kingdom, which was unanimously approved by the National Assembly. Even the noble assembly believed that if this plan can be implemented, it will enable the kingdom to revive in the shortest possible time. It returned to its peak and became one of the most powerful countries in the Farea continent.
In this plan, Prime Minister Blancart hopes to introduce trains from overseas autonomous territories, build railways, and connect the entire eastern region with railways to speed up the flow of materials and freight and make personnel exchanges more convenient. Rebuild waterways and irrigation systems across the kingdom to ensure stable agricultural production and abundant harvests. Provide support to manufacturing workshops and firms of various products that are beneficial to people's livelihood, accelerate their development, and enable them to compete with goods produced in overseas autonomous territories...
There is also the need to reorganize Wang Bei, update the equipment of the three major legions, learn new tactics and tactics from the two major legions of the overseas autonomous military regions, and strive to become the kingdom's trustworthy force guarantee. At the same time, it is necessary to reorganize a most advanced iron-clad ocean-going fleet and cooperate with overseas autonomous territories to build brand-new iron-clad warships to safeguard the kingdom's ocean-going shipping interests and the security of the entire eastern region's coastal waters.
In addition, there are many details on various aspects of economic development, rectification, local adjustment of taxation, so I won’t go into them one by one. This Kingdom Restoration Plan considers the current status and difficult situation of the Kingdom in great detail and proposes various targeted solutions. There is only one problem that cannot be solved, that is, the kingdom's treasury is empty and there is no money to implement this plan.
The most conservative estimate of the cost of this kingdom restoration plan is more than 50 million gold crowns. Prime Minister Blancart hopes to complete the implementation of each project in this plan within five years, so as not to delay the best development opportunities. But what can you do if you don’t have money, and the investment in the first year is more than 10 million gold crowns, where can you get this huge sum of money
The Prime Minister decided to break down some projects in the plan. Railways and trains are among the largest expenditures. Laying railway transportation lines throughout the eastern region requires at least 20 million gold crowns in construction funds. Prime Minister Blancart hopes to provide overseas autonomous territories with Study, privately raise funds for railway construction and issue railway shares.
However, there is still a big part of the plan that is the cost of armament renewal and the preparation cost of the armored fleet. For this part, Prime Minister Blancart plans to issue national bonds with three-year, five-year, eight-year and ten-year terms. The interest rate is progressively five percent. For example, if you buy a ten-year government bond for one hundred gold crowns, you can get one hundred and twenty gold crowns ten years later.
The Prime Minister hoped to raise 15 million gold crowns for arms construction through the issuance of national bonds, but his proposal to issue national bonds was ridiculed by many people. Many economic experts are not optimistic and believe that interest rates are too low. A nobleman told the Prime Minister that if he did not earn more than three or four hundred gold crowns within ten years if he did business with one hundred gold crowns, then his business would be a failure, so the national bonds were not attractive at all. nothing.
Even if Prime Minister Blancart raised enough funds by issuing national bonds, there would still be a shortfall of 15 million gold crowns for the implementation of the entire kingdom's recovery plan. It was originally hoped that the rapid economic growth and tax revenue in the next few years could be used to make up for the lack of funds, but if you think about it carefully, this is impossible. The economy of the entire eastern region was in depression after the war, and it would not recover in a few years.
Because the kingdom revival plan submitted by the Prime Minister was really perfect, but there was no possibility of implementation due to lack of funds, Prime Minister Blancart was ridiculed by many nobles, thinking that he was a daydreamer. The reason why this Kingdom Restoration Plan was unanimously passed by the National Assembly and the Noble Assembly is that everyone knows that it is impossible to realize it, so they are too lazy to argue and spend their own words...
So the unwilling Prime Minister secretly submitted another secret plan to His Majesty. This secret plan was known to only a few people. The content of the plan is to recommend that the kingdom re-adopt the feudal system of lords and fiefs, that is, the feudal system of territorial aristocrats, and re-confer hereditary feudal territories to the nobility, in exchange for the support and financial assistance of the kingdom's established aristocratic families... "
"Wait, isn't it? Isn't it a retrogression of the kingdom's system to re-confer the hereditary territories of the nobility? In order to cancel the hereditary territories of the nobility, the former king Sterling IX fought for six years in the kingdom's civil war before he won the final victory and restored the kingdom. Isn’t the territorial aristocratic feudal system following the old path?" General Bologna and Claude looked at each other, stunned for a moment. General Bologna came to his senses and stood up excitedly, interrupting Viscount Don Bargillo's words.
"No, no, no, General Bolognik, don't misunderstand me, and don't be so excited. The Prime Minister's secret plan proposal certainly has its own reasons, and it has been approved by His Majesty. Please listen to me first." Viscount Bagillo motioned to General Bolognik to calm down, and Claude also stood up and pulled General Bolognik to sit down again.
"Speaking of this plan proposed by the Prime Minister, I would also like to thank the two generals and the soldiers of your two overseas armies of the Dominion for their bloody battles. They destroyed the kingdom's mortal enemies, the Kingdom of Nasseri and the Principality of Karnas, and recovered all the lost land. , allowing the kingdom to unify the entire eastern region. It was you who laid a solid foundation for the kingdom's revival, so the Prime Minister came up with the plan to grant hereditary territories to nobles... "
Viscount Don Bajiro pointed at his feet: "This time, the Prime Minister proposed to grant hereditary territory to the nobles here, not in the kingdom itself."
Claude looked at the floor under the envoy's feet and suddenly understood: "You mean this Nasseri area?"
Viscount Don Bajiro nodded approvingly: "The Kingdom of Nasseri has always implemented the feudal system of territorial aristocrats. The people here are also used to being territorial citizens and relying on their lords for their lives. If we want to implement this in this area, we The kingdom's four-people system requires at least a large amount of money to be invested in civilian education, which will take 20 to 30 years to bear fruit.
But the kingdom has no money, and the people in this area have always been hostile to our kingdom. Under such circumstances, it is not a good thing for our kingdom to implement the same policies in this area as the kingdom itself. It will make the people here easily incited to riot and rebellion. The four border counties that were forcibly taken over from the Nasseri Kingdom were also subject to civil unrest for more than ten years, which has taught us the most profound lesson.
Therefore, since the people here rely on the lord, we will give them a lord. The peace and development of this territory will naturally be borne by these lords in the future, which can be regarded as reducing the burden on our kingdom. The kingdom will implement a tithe system on these territories, levy a 10% tax and tribute, and review the taxes of each territory once every ten years.
In addition, only hereditary nobles will be granted territories this time, and territories of equal area will be granted according to the size of the title. If you want to choose your own territory, you can. You need to pay the land selection fee before you can change the territory you selected. In addition, if third-generation nobles and honorary nobles also want to obtain a hereditary territory, they need to pay a promotion fee to the royal court to upgrade their title to a hereditary noble.
For example, if an honorary baron wants to become a hereditary baron, he needs to first pay 100,000 gold crowns to become a third baron, and then pay another 200,000 gold crowns to be promoted from a third baron to a hereditary baron. In this way, he can obtain the hereditary baron territory granted by His Majesty. . And you two are already hereditary nobles of the kingdom, and you can directly obtain hereditary territory. But if you want to choose a good hereditary territory, you need to pay the land selection fee... "
novel house.xiaoshuowu.