The city lord's mansion was still brightly lit late at night.
Although the busiest autumn harvest has just ended, as the lord of Bonta City, Count Stark has no less work to do.
Unlike his predecessor, Earl Satsuma, who liked to delegate power to his subordinates, Earl Stark preferred to keep all power in his own hands and make decisions on all matters, big and small.
He likes the feeling of being in control.
However, the price he paid for this was that he was much busier than Earl Satsuma.
After just finishing a small meeting, he returned to his office in the City Lord's Mansion and began to approve official documents without taking any rest at all.
Because of its outstanding achievements in this year's autumn harvest, Bangta City received double recognitions from His Majesty the King and the Department of Agriculture. Earl Stark was specially commended by the Kingdom Council, making him a leader both in the kingdom and in his family. Nedu's reputation has soared, and he has become another new political star in the Stark family.
But Earl Stark himself knew very well how much moisture his score contained, and how much falsehood it was mixed with.
Therefore, in order to prevent this matter from leaking out, he must spend more time and energy on the aftermath.
Because he also knew very well that although the family and the family's allies pushed him to this position and asked him to replace Earl Satsuma as the lord of the city, the burden he carried was how important it was, and those other people who were opposed to the family In the family, there are countless pairs of eyes staring at him closely. As long as he dares to make any mistakes, he will be greeted by a violent storm.
Before departure, the family patriarch. Duke Stark, who was also his eldest brother, told him clearly. If he can't handle things here well. If something goes wrong, the family will definitely throw him out as a victim if necessary.
So Earl Stark behaved extremely forcefully after arriving in Bonta City, just to ensure that he could achieve results that satisfied the family behind him and those allies, and at the same time silence those who questioned.
Of course, the premise is that nothing goes wrong.
There are many key aspects of these aftermath tasks that cannot be done by others and must be handled by Earl Stark himself.
Fortunately, his family also gave him great support in this regard.
For example, the data reported by Bangta City is obviously flawed. However, due to the family's control over the Agricultural Department, the Agricultural Department did not conduct an accurate and detailed assessment of this data at all. It just went through the motions and approved the data, making this data extremely unusual among all cities in the Lampali Kingdom. Bright.
With this data, not only did Earl Stark's reputation soar, but in the Kingdom Council, the faction headed by the Stark family that insisted on agriculture also gained the upper hand.
During the debate, the most favorable example provided by this group was the food production data of Bonta City.
Because according to the calculations of the Agriculture Department, as long as the policies currently implemented in Bangta City are followed. If it is promoted in all cities in the kingdom, the food production of the entire kingdom will be greatly improved.
If they can reach the level of Bangta City. Then it would only take three to five years for the entire Lampali Kingdom to completely get rid of famine, and even be able to have a surplus of food every year.
Everyone must admit that the most important factor in maintaining the stability of a country is to keep the people of the country well fed.
As long as the people can survive, the Lampali Kingdom will not experience the same turmoil as it did more than ten years ago.
As long as there is no turmoil in the Lampali Kingdom and it continues to recuperate, it will naturally become stronger.
This is a generally accepted truth on the continent of Sainz, so the other faction that opposes the Stark family has no arguments to refute for the time being.
Even His Majesty the King expressed his approval of the Stark family's views, but made some reservations and did not really state that agricultural development should be the first element.
And to everyone's surprise, just a few days ago, the Lampali Kingdom Commercial Office suddenly announced a new resolution, stating that in order to promote commercial development in the Lampali Kingdom, it decided to grant freedom to some recognized chambers of commerce in the kingdom. Right to trade.
The significance of this free trade right is to allow these chambers of commerce that have obtained free trade rights to conduct commercial trade with other countries freely without having to report to the Commerce Department and the Royal Parliament, so that these chambers of commerce can continue to conduct commercial trade with other countries. Taking a more flexible approach can also save a lot of time.
Of course, the goods being traded must not be on the kingdom's prohibited trade list, and the trade income must also be taxed to the kingdom.
Because the tax standards of each city in the kingdom are different, for the sake of convenience, the taxes that these chambers of commerce that have obtained free trade rights should pay through trade with other countries will be paid directly to the kingdom's finance and will not be included in any city in the kingdom.
As soon as this policy came out, everyone understood that this was His Majesty the King seeking a solution to the Kingdom's financial distress, trying to collect part of the finances of cities in various parts of the Kingdom to fill the Kingdom's finances.
However, commerce in the Lampali Kingdom is not very developed to begin with, and there are only a handful of chambers of commerce that can conduct commercial trade with other countries. Therefore, this policy actually has no impact on the vast majority of chambers of commerce and cities in the kingdom. Naturally, it does not There was little opposition or backlash.
On this list of chambers of commerce that have obtained free trade rights, the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce is prominently listed.
At first, Earl Stark, who was the lord of Bangta City, did not pay much attention to this, because he knew very well that Xu Yi had always been close to Her Royal Highness Princess Sevigny, and the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce also won the respect of Her Royal Highness the Queen and even His Majesty the King. So Xin Fei Chamber of Commerce It is a matter of course that the Flying Chamber of Commerce will obtain the policy support of free trade rights through this relationship.
However, when Earl Stark was reminded by his staff to liquidate the financial revenue of Bonta City, he was shocked to find that the New Flying Chamber of Commerce had obtained free trade rights, but it had a great influence on Bonta City.
According to the financial statistics of Bangta City's tax revenue produced by the city lord's palace affairs officer, in the past two years or so, the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce could only pay a mere few hundred gold coins in taxes each month. It has always been in a state of rapid growth.
within this year. The Xinfei Chamber of Commerce pays more than 200,000 gold coins in taxes every month. The taxes paid in June reached an astonishing 430,000 gold coins, which even exceeded several established large chambers of commerce in Bangta City and accounted for a very considerable proportion of Bangta City's entire fiscal revenue.
Starting from July, the taxes paid by the New Flying Chamber of Commerce have plummeted. In July, it dropped from 430,000 gold coins in June to 260,000 gold coins. In August, it dropped to 190,000 gold coins. In October and October, it barely exceeded 100,000 gold coins.
Is Xinfei Chamber of Commerce evading taxes? Of course this is impossible.
The reason for this situation is that the New Flying Chamber of Commerce was forced by Earl Stark. Almost all of his business has been relocated to Luoyu Valley.
And because His Majesty the King assigned Luoyu Valley and the surrounding land to Xu Yi as his viscounty territory, according to the regulations of the Kingdom’s Nobles’ Council, any income from the nobility’s private domain belongs to the nobility personally, and the nobility only needs Paying certain taxes to the kingdom's treasury does not require you to be responsible to anyone else in the kingdom.
Therefore, after the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce moved to Luoyu Valley, except for part of the business done through Bangta City, most of the other income no longer needs to pay taxes to Bangta City.
Now that the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce has obtained the right to free trade, according to the Commerce Department's interpretation of the right to free trade, the income and taxes generated by the commercial trade between the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce and other countries and regions on the mainland will also be directly handed over to the Kingdom's finance. Tacheng is also not qualified to intervene.
So summed it up. It became the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce. Although it is still a chamber of commerce in Bangta City in name, only the product service center and the new concept modern life magic house of the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce in Bangta City need to pay taxes to Bangta City. There is no need to pay attention to the Bangta City Lord's Mansion for any other business.
The development speed of the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce is obvious to all. Recently, it has reached a large number of business cooperation with the Kingdom of Luersun and the Principality of Standing. At the same time, it is even cooperating with the orcs in the Black Rice Wasteland.
If nothing unexpected happens, Xinfei Chamber of Commerce will only develop faster and faster in the future, and its profits will become higher and higher.
Accordingly, Bangta City will lose a very important tax that will become increasingly important.
Although Earl Stark pursues the policy of suppressing business and promoting agriculture, he actually understands in his heart that for Bonta City, the vast majority of taxes are still paid by major merchants. If it were not a matter of position, he would be in charge of Bonta City. After becoming the city lord, he will definitely continue to vigorously develop business and agriculture like his predecessor, Earl Satsuma.
However, now, because of his own position and the help of the Stark family and allies, he forced the New Flying Chamber of Commerce out of Bangta City. So this bitter fruit that he planted with his own hands can only be shouldered by him. .
In addition to the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce, there are many chambers of commerce in Bangta City that have also lost confidence in Bangta City due to the policy of suppressing business and promoting agriculture. Chambers of commerce are constantly leaving Bangta City and going to other cities, and there are also companies like Amli The Chamber of Commerce, like several other large chambers of commerce, followed the footsteps of the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce and went to the Black Rice Wasteland, the Kingdom of Luersun, and the Principality of Standing to invest.
Among the first batch of chambers of commerce announced by the Commerce Department to obtain free trade rights, in addition to the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce in Bangta City, the Amli Chamber of Commerce, the Armani Chamber of Commerce, and the Sarank Chamber of Commerce were also included.
Earl Stark asked his staff to make a rough statistics on the business of these chambers of commerce, and finally came to a conclusion.
The withdrawal of the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce from Bangta City has reduced Bangta City's monthly tax revenue by at least 300,000 gold coins. Now that these four chambers of commerce have obtained the right to trade freely, Bangta City's tax revenue may be reduced again. Minimum 200,000 gold coins.
The total land tax revenue of Bangta City last month was just over 500,000 gold coins, which is equivalent to a direct loss of half. The blow is undoubtedly extremely heavy.
The current Bangta City is almost like going back a few years ago. It can no longer be called the fastest growing city in the Lampali Kingdom.
More importantly, the massive reduction in taxes proved that Bonta City had suffered a substantial setback under the governance of Earl Stark. This was an even heavier blow to the conservatives led by the Stark family.
Therefore, while Earl Stark was dealing with the aftermath of the autumn harvest, he was also racking his brains on how to increase Bonta City's tax revenue to avoid this situation.
The intense and busy work continued, but at this moment, Earl Stark saw the next official document and his eyes suddenly shrank. (To be continued...)