The Duke of Windsor stared at the two people opposite him with a gloomy expression.
"What did you say? All the businessmen ran away? Why? Where did they run? What did they want to do?"
The two men swallowed together, looked at the Duke of Windsor carefully, and then hesitantly replied: "My lord... Your Excellency, the reason why the merchants ran away is probably... I'm afraid it has something to do with you..."
"Is it related to me?" The Duke of Windsor raised his eyebrows and said sternly: "What does this mean? Did I drive them away?"
The two officials responsible for the financial affairs of the southern province of the Candela Empire showed helpless and bitter smiles at the same time.
In recent times, merchants from the southern provinces have left the southern provinces one after another and changed the main business points of their chambers of commerce to other parts of the empire. If one investigates the reason, it really lies with the Duke in front of him.
The reason for this is actually very simple, that is, an order issued by the Duke - no items related to the New Flying Chamber of Commerce are allowed to enter the southern province.
As His Majesty the Emperor changed his attitude towards the New Flying Chamber of Commerce in the second half of last year under the advice of Minister Hastri, the Minister of Finance of the Empire, countless new members came from the Principality of Standing, the Kingdom of Lampali and the countries in the southwest of the continent. The magic machines produced by the Flying Chamber of Commerce entered the Candela Empire.
Subsequently, the Candela Imperial Navy privately reached a cooperation agreement with the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce with the tacit approval of His Majesty the Emperor. After the two parties jointly opened a maritime trade route, a large amount of goods from the Principality of Standing poured in from the southern coast of the empire. Inside the empire.
These products are not only various magic machines produced by the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce and other magic machinery chambers of commerce, but also include various magic industrial products produced under the influence of the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce.
Because compared to most of the products in the Candela Empire, these products are extremely high-quality and cheap, and their performance is far superior. So it is very popular in the empire.
For businessmen with a keen sense of smell. The business opportunities contained in this are self-evident.
So there is no need for Xinfei Chamber of Commerce to spend too much effort. Like cats that smelled something fishy, the merchants of the Candela Empire poured into the southern seaport of the empire and the junction of the southwest of the empire and the Principality of Norton, in order to grab some goods from the Principality of Standing as soon as possible. The goods are then shipped back and sold at a good price.
Under the influence of this business trend, a ban previously issued by the Duke of Windsor became particularly conspicuous.
This ban not only bans the products of Xinfei Chamber of Commerce, but also all products related to Xinfei merchants.
This "all". This includes almost all the goods coming from the Principality of Standing and entering the Candela Empire from the Principality of Norton.
Because there are almost none of these products that are currently very popular in the Candela Empire that are not related to the New Flying Chamber of Commerce.
Even the fruits produced in the Principality of Standing, which were previously the only fruits that the Principality of Standing could import in large quantities from the Candela Empire, are now basically affected by the industrialized manufacturing brought about by the New Flying Chamber of Commerce.
For example, the various types of canned fruits that currently have extremely high sales demand are basically products of the new magic industrial system promoted by the standard Xinfei Chamber of Commerce.
In fact, the Duke of Windsor is not the only one in the Candela Empire who explicitly opposes such large imports of products from other countries, because they feel that this will have a significant impact on the Candela Empire itself.
However, others are at most opposed to the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce. The reason is that the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce supports the enemy country of the Luersun Kingdom and is considered an enemy of the Candela Empire. Of course, the empire cannot cooperate with it.
The Duke of Windsor simply opposed everything related to the New Flying Chamber of Commerce, and designed too many things.
Under the high-pressure policy of the Duke of Windsor, no goods related to the New Flying Chamber of Commerce could enter the southern provinces. This made the businessmen in the southern provinces who sensed business opportunities very depressed.
Letting these businessmen ignore business opportunities is tantamount to making a cat that smells a fishy smell not be tempted. It's simply not possible.
But how could ordinary merchants dare to resist the Duke of Windsor, who dominated the southern provinces? So the end result was that these merchants simply shifted their focus directly out of the southern provinces and moved to other parts of the empire that were not opposed to cooperating with the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce. The place.
In fact, seriously speaking, these businessmen are just paying more attention to the business progress related to the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce. It does not mean that they have completely given up on the various businesses they originally had in the southern provinces.
But now that this situation has been reflected, it has become as if businessmen are fleeing the southern provinces one after another.
For the Duke of Windsor, the most intuitive manifestation lies in financial statistics.
After entering April, the southern provinces conducted financial statistics for the first quarter as usual.
Statistics show that compared with the same period last year, the grain output of the southern provinces was basically the same, and there was no change in the fiscal surplus obtained from grain.
However, commercial tax revenue has dropped significantly compared with the same period last year, with the decline reaching 13%.
Originally, this was nothing to the Duke of Windsor, because he was originally a very typical traditional nobleman from Sainz continent, and the most important thing was food.
If there is no problem with food, he will not think there is any problem.
As for business, just make sure there are no troubles.
However, when the first quarter financial report was submitted to the Imperial Treasury, the southern province was criticized by name and criticized by the Imperial Treasury.
According to the explanation given by the Imperial Ministry of Finance, the fiscal revenue of the Southern Province in the first quarter ranked second to last among the nine major provinces of the Empire, only slightly better than the Northeastern Province in the Candela Empire, which has always been known for its barrenness.
Compared with the previous fiscal revenue of the southern provinces, which was at least in the middle of the empire, this was undoubtedly a significant decrease.
Moreover, the fiscal revenue of the southeastern province adjacent to the southern province and the Tular province, most of which is close to the coast, increased significantly in the first quarter of this year. The fiscal revenue of Tular province even exceeded 3,800. The amount of ten thousand gold coins far exceeds the mere 17 million gold coins in the southern province.
This forms a strong contrast, making the slight decline in the southern provinces compared to last year even more dazzling.
The Duke of Windsor, who had received many looks from the Imperial Treasury, was extremely angry. After returning to the Governor's Palace. A thorough investigation into the cause was immediately ordered.
The two financial officers who were mainly responsible for the investigation gave the answer that "a large number of businessmen fled the southern provinces." Of course it made him extremely dissatisfied.
"Your Majesty the Duke... Actually, I think... compared to the issue of commercial taxation, I think we should pay more attention to the issue of food at this time..." A financial manager hesitated and made a suggestion while shrinking his neck.
"What?" The Duke of Windsor stared. "Do you want to tell me that there will be problems with normal food production in our southern province? I tell you, the important spring harvest is coming soon. If there is any problem in this area, don't say that all of you will Don’t think about it, even I will be in trouble!”
The two financial managers could only smile bitterly again. The financial manager who had just plucked up the courage to speak winked at his colleague, gesturing for him to speak too.
Another financial manager had no choice but to bite the bullet and said: "Your Majesty, it's not that there is any problem in this area, it's just... we just found that as long as you change your mind slightly, our spring harvest will go ahead. It will go more smoothly, and maybe the autumn harvest will also lead to a substantial increase in grain production. "
The Duke of Windsor was slightly startled: "I can significantly increase food production by just changing my mind? Are you kidding me?"
"No, how dare we make fun of you." The financial officer took out a document from his arms and handed it to the Duke of Windsor. "Your Majesty, this is a report on the agricultural industry within the province that Baron Domingo dragged us to give you. Please take a look."
"Domingo? Why didn't he bring it to me himself?" The Duke of Windsor looked at the two of them doubtfully.
"This..." The two financial managers looked at each other and smiled bitterly. "Baron Domingo said that he was afraid that this report would make you angry. He didn't dare to do it himself, so please leave it to the two of us."
"Oh?" The Duke of Windsor glanced sideways at the two of them. "Then aren't you afraid of my anger?"
The two financial officers smiled bitterly again.
"We can't escape anyway."
Seeing the bitter expressions on their faces, the Duke of Windsor snorted coldly, took the report, glanced at it twice, and his face immediately sank.
"These nonsense ideas again, no wonder he doesn't dare to come to see me!" The Duke of Windsor angrily threw the report directly to the ground, pointed at the two people and cursed loudly: "Tell Domingo for me, if he still insists If you introduce farmland magic machinery from the New Flying Chamber of Commerce, don’t show up in front of me again! The same goes for you two! Don’t think that I don’t know what you are thinking. Are you the same as those merchants who only have gold coins? , you want to force me to cooperate with the damn Xinfei Chamber of Commerce, right?"
The two financial officers lowered their heads deeply, not daring to look directly at the Duke of Windsor.
They knew very well that the Duke was really angry this time.
The Duke of Windsor pointed at the two of them, cursed, and finally shook his arm.
"Get out!"
As if they had been granted amnesty, the two financial officials bowed quickly and quickly retreated.
After both of them left, the Duke of Windsor was the only one left in the room. He breathed heavily for a while and gradually calmed down.
After staring at the report on the ground carefully for a long time, the Duke of Windsor hesitated, picked it up and read it carefully again.
This time, he looked far more seriously and focused than before.
It took him half an hour to read a report completely. After flipping through the last page, he was silent for a long time, and suddenly let out a sigh, and his face instantly seemed to have aged by more than ten years.
"Is this the so-called change of the times?"
The Duke of Windsor sighed again, returned to the table and pulled a rope hanging from the table.
A middle-aged man who looked like a housekeeper appeared quietly in the house.
"Sir, do you have any instructions?" Unlike others, this middle-aged man addressed the Duke of Windsor using the simple "Sir".
The Duke of Windsor waved his hand: "Go and get ready, I want to go out for a walk."
The middle-aged man raised his head and glanced at the Duke of Windsor. There was a trace of surprise in his eyes, but he didn't ask any more questions. He bowed his head in response and quietly retreated out again. (To be continued...)