Of course, laughter cannot travel thousands of kilometers to Bangta City.
However, he didn't know whether it was because he sensed that Her Royal Highness Princess Sevigny and Viscount Leslie were discussing him. Even though Xu Yi was hiding in the warm conference hall of the city lord's palace, he suddenly sneezed involuntarily.
This sudden sneeze interrupted Earl Satsuma's ongoing reading and also attracted the attention of everyone else in the conference hall who was listening attentively.
Earl Satsuma put down the report in his hand and looked at Xu Yidao with a smile: "What? President Xu, are you dissatisfied with the report in my hand?"
Xu Yi shook his head quickly: "No, no, I don't have any objection. It's just... I just suddenly felt a little cold."
"Cold?" Earl Satsuma glanced at the two magic air conditioners on the wall of the conference hall, and smiled: "These are the new Fei brand magic air conditioners produced by your chamber of commerce. If you still feel cold under their effect, I will I should ask you, the president of the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce, whether you have neglected your duty."
"Ha ha-"
Of course everyone knew that Earl Satsuma was teasing Xu Yi, and they burst into laughter.
Xu Yi chuckled: "That's impossible. The quality of the Xinfei magic air conditioner is trustworthy and there will definitely be no problems. Maybe it's because I went with Steele to go shopping by the Sandy River last night and blew the air. Got a cold due to the cold wind.”
There was laughter again in the hall.
President Lanke, who was sitting not far from Xu Yi, let out a long sigh and said: "President Xu is young and strong after all, and he dares to hang out by the river in such a cold night. An old man like me, but once it gets dark, I just stayed at home and refused to go out.”
Everyone immediately agreed. You teased Xu Yilai with every word you said.
As the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce grows and develops. Now Xu Yi's status in Bangta City has also risen. He has gradually become able to truly stand on an equal footing with the established chamber of commerce presidents in the city.
Although people would often make fun of him because of his age, no one would express any disdain for him.
Even President Morgan, who had shown the most hostility towards Xu Yi before, now has the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce and the Falcao Chamber of Commerce to cooperate because of the agreement between Xu Yi and Marquis Joseph, so that he no longer shows any signs of hostility towards Xu Yi. Any hostility will show that he is very close to Xu Yi, whether in front of everyone or in private.
After laughing with everyone for a while, the originally serious atmosphere in the conference hall suddenly became relaxed.
After everyone's voices subsided, Xu Yi turned to Earl Satsuma and said: "Lord of the City, I have no objection to this report, but I have a suggestion."
"Oh? Come and listen."
Not only Earl Satsuma, but also other people immediately stopped laughing and looked at Xu Yi with expressions of concern.
After getting along with Xu Yi for a long time, everyone knows that every time Xu Yi says something on such an occasion, it will never be without purpose, and it will usually cause a big or small impact.
And if it was a proposal he made, the city lord would almost never reject it, and it would play a big role.
"Lord City Lord, the report you just read said that Bangta City's plan this year is to further reclaim wasteland. Expand the farmland area and increase food production. Of course I have no objection to this. But I think you have ignored a very important point. Important issues."
"What's the problem?" Earl Satsuma asked curiously.
"That's manpower." Xu Yidao. "I feel that if there are no relevant measures, there will only be fewer and fewer farmers engaged in agriculture in Bangta City, and eventually there will be no one to cultivate farmland anymore."
Earl Satsuma frowned: "How is this possible? There are more than 100,000 farmers in the countryside outside Bangta City. How is it possible that no one is farming? It's okay if you couldn't farm before, but now you have a new flying With the help of various farm magic machines from the Chamber of Commerce, farming is much easier and more efficient than before, and there will be no problem even if there are fewer people than before. I made this plan because of this. Are you saying that your chamber of commerce does not plan to continue producing farmland magic machinery in the future?”
"Of course that's impossible." Xu Yi shook his head immediately. "But Lord Earl, you may not have noticed a fact. Although there are more than 100,000 registered farmers outside Bangta City, have you made any specific statistics on the actual number of people who are still engaged in agriculture in the countryside? how much?"
Earl Satsuma was suddenly stunned: "Do you want to say that these farmers no longer farm? Then what are they going to do?"
Xu Yi chuckled, pointed at himself, and then pointed at the representatives of other chambers of commerce in Bangta City who were sitting in the conference hall and said: "It's very simple, these farmers have all gone to work in factories."
Earl Satsuma was startled, his eyes passing over Xu Yi and other representatives of major chambers of commerce, revealing a hint of surprise.
"Are you trying to say that since those farmers have joined the factories of your major chambers of commerce, they will no longer be willing to farm?"
"Of course." Xu Yi nodded. "Now the average monthly salary in the factories run by the major chambers of commerce in Bangta City has exceeded seven gold coins. And even workers in the probation period who have just entered the factory can often get a monthly salary of more than four gold coins in a month. Compared with those who once farmed in the past, The income is only a few gold coins per year. Obviously, the income of working as a factory worker is much higher. If I were a farmer, I would not continue farming and would choose to work in a factory.”
"Hmm... This is indeed a problem. I ignored it." Earl Satsuma frowned and thought for a moment, then asked: "President Xu, what is the total number of workers in your chamber of commerce now?"
"Excluding elves and dwarves, we just exceeded the 4,000 mark the day before yesterday." Xu Yi replied, holding out four fingers. "After the new fruit canning factory is built, we will recruit another 500 workers. In addition, according to General Manager Kennard's estimate, we must recruit at least 1,000 more workers within this year."
"In other words, your Xinfei Chamber of Commerce alone will steal more than 5,000 people?"
"Yes."
Earl Satsuma asked the presidents of other major chambers of commerce and got similar answers.
As the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce continues to develop various magic machines, it has driven the production models of other major chambers of commerce in Bangta City to continuously transform into industrialization models.
The scale of production is getting larger and larger. More and more workers are needed.
Now there is only one chamber of commerce, Armley Chamber of Commerce. It employs more than 20,000 workers.
In addition to the traditional construction work of the Armley Chamber of Commerce, more than six thousand workers are still engaged. The remaining more than 13,000 workers are distributed in various places in the Kingdom of Lampali, the Kingdom of Luersun, and the Principality of Standing, and are working hard to build roads one after another.
In comparison, the number of workers in Xinfei Chamber of Commerce is already small.
Adding together the employees of Xinfei Chamber of Commerce, Amli Chamber of Commerce, Armani Chamber of Commerce, Salak Chamber of Commerce and Falcao Chamber of Commerce, which are recognized as the five major chambers of commerce in Bangta City, the number already exceeds the terrifying 70,000 people.
If we add up the employees of other chambers of commerce in the city, there are now more than 100,000 workers working in factories in Bangta City alone.
This does not include people working in other industries.
If all were counted, the number of people engaged in other industries besides agriculture would even be close to 200,000.
After getting this estimate, Earl Satsuma couldn't help but be a little stunned.
Since the number of people engaged in other industries is close to 200,000. Then leave aside the old, weak, women and children who are unable to work, then of course there will be no people left to engage in agriculture.
And in fact, the original total population inside and outside Bangta City was less than 200,000. If it weren't for the large number of foreigners crowding into Bangta City, the number of employees employed by these chambers of commerce would not have reached such a terrifying figure.
What's more, even so, the major chambers of commerce headed by the Armli Chamber of Commerce will still often complain to him, the city lord, about the lack of manpower, hoping that he can find ways to get more labor from other places.
Thinking of this, Earl Satsuma couldn't help but look down at the report in his hand, and turned to the last part of the report that had not yet been read out.
The theme of today's meeting is a summary data report on various works in Bangta City last year, and the last part of this report is a tax statistics on various tasks in Bangta City last year.
The reason why representatives from major chambers of commerce are invited to participate in today’s meeting. It is because of the outstanding performance of major chambers of commerce in this tax statistics.
But once again I saw various detailed figures in tax statistics. Count Satsuma still has a sense of unreality.
According to the final statistical results of the Bangta City Taxation Department, last year, the total tax revenue of Bangta City actually reached a terrifying 1.37 million gold coins!
You know, according to figures released by the Kingdom's Taxation Office, the Lampali Kingdom's annual fiscal revenue last year was less than two million gold coins.
According to the regulations of turning over one-third of local taxes, Bangta City turned over 450,000 gold coins, accounting for nearly a quarter of the kingdom's annual tax revenue!
Just an extremely terrible result.
Because just the year before last, the tax paid by Bangta City was only less than 50,000 gold coins. Among the twenty-six cities in the entire kingdom, it was basically at the bottom.
But now, only two years have passed, the tax paid by Bangta City has even exceeded that of the capital Anvilmar City, becoming the city that pays the most taxes in the entire kingdom!
If you turn your attention back to the 1.37 million gold coins received by Bangta City, you will find that among them, although the agricultural tax revenue has been greatly increased with the help of farmland magic machinery, from the previous The amount of less than 30,000 gold coins increased to nearly 100,000 gold coins, but compared with the terrifying figure of more than one million gold coins in total commercial taxes, it is not worth mentioning at all.
In other words, agricultural tax revenue, which used to be the most important to Bangta City, is now even negligible because the most important industry has become business.
If you divide it further, you will find that in commercial taxes, the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce alone has provided a huge number of more than half a million gold coins. If you also add the various magic industry-related chambers of commerce related to the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce. If taxes are added together, this number will exceed 700,000 gold coins, which is more than two-thirds of the total.
In other words, if we really want to calculate it, the most important industry for the entire Bangta City's tax revenue is the magic industry industry represented by the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce.
Thinking of this, Earl Satsuma couldn't help but pay more attention to Xu Yi. He raised his head and glanced at Xu Yi, and said with a smile: "It seems that the issue mentioned by President Xu does exist and is very important. So Xu Yi President, what is your proposal?"
Xu Yi nodded and replied: "My proposal is to promote the industrialization of agriculture." (To be continued...)