Chapter 164: taxpayer system

The small debate that occurred at the meeting was considered to be over, and everyone continued to discuss other issues.

"So, Hansel, is Wang**'s team interested in our canned food and salt?"

"Uh...My lord, due to limited time, I only got in touch with the quartermaster under the command of the princess, but from his attitude, the canned food is very suitable for their needs."

"How many cans can they buy?"

"I didn't talk about it in such detail at the time, but Her Royal Highness has about 8,000 people, so the demand should be very large."

Paul asked with some doubts: "What do you mean when you said that you only contacted the quartermaster of Her Royal Highness?"

Hansel explained: "Not all the troops still stationed in Jingyao are directly commanded by Her Royal Highness, but the troops under the command of each general solve the military supply problem alone."

Paul understood that although these armies were all loyal to the same target, the soldiers were well-served and there was no unified logistics system, which was very common in the armies of the old era.

"So we have to talk to those generals one by one."

"Master Greiman, I have a proposal. Please organize businessmen and factory owners to go to the capital and let them find sales by themselves."

"Trade delegation?"

"Trade delegation? Good name. Organized in the name of the Lord's Mansion, I think those merchants and factory owners will definitely participate enthusiastically. After all, it is very easy to do things under the banner of nobles."

Paul agreed with the proposal very much, and he kept nodding.

"This is a good idea. We should cultivate the 'wolf nature' of these businessmen and let them find opportunities and fight on their own. Otherwise, it will definitely not be a big climate."

Hansel echoed, "My lord has a good opinion."

Paul patted the table: "Okay, I will leave this matter to you, the 'agricultural director', haha! Oh, besides canned food, such as porcelain and paper, the merchants who make these things also bring more, wait until With the opening of the sea route, we directly ship it to the south for sale, so there is no need for second-hand traffickers to scrape another layer of oil and water."

Hansel put his right hand on his chest and assured Paul: "I will start organizing this right away."

"But..." Hansel immediately raised a question: "Can our production keep up?"

"After I came back, I visited several factory owners in Huxin Town, not only canned food, but also paper mills and porcelain factories. These are very popular products. According to their reports, they only need to meet the current orders and the production capacity It’s already stretched.”

"That's a problem, so I'm going to let the new refugees find work in the factories instead of farming in the fields. You'll have to tell the factory owners in Arda and Bairdin to come Recruit people from the refugee group. I don’t want to keep these refugees in vain, I have to let them work and create value.”

"Yes, my lord."

Paul suddenly thought about it, he looked around everyone and said: "Everyone, in order to alleviate the problem of insufficient production capacity, I have another idea - to exempt a group of serfs in the Greiman family from slavery. This is what I think, with the 'harvest' With the use of machinery such as machines, the family’s existing arable land does not require so many people, so we simply exempt them from slavery, let them choose jobs to support themselves, and ease the labor shortage problem in the factory by the way.”

This is reasonable, and no one expressed any objection. Besides, this is the lord's own property, so there is no need for others to talk about it.

"Not only that, but I will issue a decree to encourage those landlords and gentry to take the initiative to release the serfs at home, let them work as workers, and then take the initiative to use the family money to invest in various emerging industries."

There was silence for a while, seeing that the people in the room were about to die, Paul immediately added:

"Of course, just encouragement, just encouragement, just encouragement, important things are said three times. I don't intend to set any specific goals or targets, lest the officials below take chicken feathers as arrows and invade the local area in order to ask for credit .”

Only then did everyone recover, Paul breathed a sigh of relief, and continued: "For those who take the initiative to release serfs or invest in emerging industries, I will give certain tax relief."

Manager Ford twisted his beard and said: "It's a good idea to supplement the factory's labor force by releasing serfs. But if you promote this through tax cuts, I'm afraid it won't have much effect."

Paul was very surprised: "Why?"

"Because those landowners and squires who owned large numbers of serfs ... were often the 'tax-payers' in their own villages?" explained Steward Ford.

"'Taxpayer'? What do you mean?"

"Uh... the so-called tax contractor means a tax contractor. The lord entrusts a prominent person in a certain place to be responsible for collecting various taxes in this place, and sets a certain amount of indicators. The tax contractor must complete If this amount index is not met, he has to use his own property to make up for it, and then pay the lord's tax amount. Correspondingly, if the tax collected exceeds the amount set by the lord, then the remaining wallet Taxpayers can stay and pay themselves."

General Manager Ford pointed out the reason why Paul's policy was not effective: "In fact, how much tax to collect is determined by the taxpayers themselves. The more they collect, the more they keep. Think about it, collect a little less for themselves. How much power can the tax at home have on them."

Paul jumped up from his seat all of a sudden, "Is this how our territories collect taxes?"

Manager Ford was taken aback by the earl's reaction, "For the lord's residence like Huxin Town and the large town of Fuland Port, the lord's mansion directly sends tax officials to collect taxes, but in most rural areas, the taxation is very low. It was contracted out to the local squires."

He was very surprised, hasn't everyone been doing this for thousands of years? Why did the lord react so violently? He seemed very unhappy.

He didn't know that now Paul had 10,000 alpacas galloping past him, not to the boss himself, but to this **** tax system.

It turns out that I didn't know that there was such a problem, that if I couldn't meet the tax quota, I would use my own money to make up for it? Don't be kidding, can those landlords and old money have this awareness? Even those who have this awareness have been eliminated by history long ago.

Paul could figure out with his **** that these so-called taxpayers must be under the banner of the lord, desperately exploiting the peasants underneath, and after taking out a sum of money to deal with the errands of the lord's mansion, the rest of the money was spent Throw it all in your pocket.

The earl is very heartbroken, partly because of the peasants who were overcharged and kept in the dark, but what is even more heartbreaking is that the overcharged money did not go into his pocket.

Paul announced: "I will issue a decree immediately to abolish the taxpayer system. From now on, the Government Council will send people directly to the countryside to collect taxes!"

Old Ford hurriedly stood up, waved his hands repeatedly and said, "Master Earl, please think carefully!"

"Huh? Why? Didn't I give them the power to collect taxes? Can't it be taken back?"

"Uh... In theory, that's right, but..."

Manager Ford thought about what to say, and slowly began to persuade: "Many taxpayers have been passed down from generation to generation. Before the Greiman family was entrusted here, they controlled this project in various villages. You have been in power for a long time. If you act rashly, it may...may cause...the place is not peaceful. I am not afraid of one or two, but I am afraid that they will unite and cause trouble."

Hearing what the boss said, Paul was very depressed. Isn't this a bunch of bosses, and his "strong dragon" can't suppress them?

Army Battalion Commander Bryce shot up the case: "My lord, the First Battalion of the Army is waiting for your dispatch at any time. You can safely and boldly take back the power of the taxpayers from those gangs. If anyone dares to resist the order, the Army He must be taken out and executed by cannon."

A few days ago, the navy stole the limelight by destroying all kinds of pirates, which made Bryce, the army leader, very upset, and immediately jumped out to fight when he saw the opportunity.

Paul nodded to Bryce with relief, but fortunately the army was on his side.

But he still stretched out his hand to signal Bryce to sit down first, and asked Ford Manager: "Is this kind of tax collection very common?"

The old manager replied: "Yes, this is an unwritten system that has existed since the ancient Bella Empire, and it is still used by the lords of most countries. Oh... the city-states around the corner bay may not be like this. Do."

"I really don't understand which nobleman invented this weird way of collecting taxes."

The old manager actually didn't understand why the lord felt weird. In his opinion, it was all normal, but he still replied:

"There are various reasons for the formation of the tax system. Some new lords have just arrived and must rely on local leaders to support their rule. The tax system is a kind of cooperation. Some lords are extravagant and owe a large amount of debt or urgently need to borrow money. If you don’t have money, you have to use tax collection rights to repay debts or mortgages.”

Paul thought depressingly: "It seems that strengthening the centralization of power is the kingly way. Huh! A serfdom system, a tax subsidy system, two mountains on top of my head, that's all, I will endure it first, and then I will be tougher. Pick them up slowly."

He waved his hand weakly: "Okay, then I won't bother about anything. But the decree encouraging the release of serfs is still to be promulgated, and it is better than nothing. Manager Ford, if Ladi Xiaojie is not here, you can help me draft a decree." share."

"Yes, my lord."

Manager Ford secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the lord did not mess around.

In fact, as the head of government affairs, he is also happy to see the abolition of the taxpayer system, and the government affairs council will be responsible for the direct taxation in the territory, but this matter has to be done slowly and cannot be rushed.

"That's right, everyone!"

Paul suddenly thought of something, and asked everyone, "Many of you here have many fields and serfs in their homes?"

Everyone looked at each other and admitted, "Uh... yes, my lord."

People like Manager Ford, Bryce, Cecil, etc., as well as many heads of the Government Administration Council, many of them belonged to the "landlord class" and naturally owned many serfs.

Everyone was nervous for a while, could it be that the lord wants to set an example for himself?

Paul laughed, waved his hands and said, "Everyone, don't be nervous, I won't force you to release the serfs."

Only then did everyone feel relieved.

"However, if you plan to take the initiative to release the serfs, it's not just a tax reduction. After all, you will get more rewards after serving the Greiman family for so many years."

Everyone's eyes lit up, who would make things difficult for Li Yi.

Paul raised his voice and said, "I declare! Anyone who works for me, if they take the initiative to release the serfs at home, they can obtain a corresponding proportion of shares from the property under the name of the Gleiman family."

Whoa! The people in the room suddenly became enthusiastic.

The profits of the factories established by the Earl are obvious to all. With his current financial resources (including taxes), he can support a standing army of more than 2,000 people, which was unimaginable before. The Patriarch of the Man family will definitely drop his jaw when he sees it.

Now, the Earl wants to give them a part of the shares? This is simply a good thing like a pie in the sky.

Although this needs to be exchanged by releasing the serfs, they have heard Paul say that the farm model he advocates is to cultivate the land by hiring 'agricultural workers'~www.readwn.com~ That is to say, after the serfs are released, they spend Hire some people with a little money, and you can continue to plant your own land, but you can get a lot of income from the earl's factory.

It's just that I don't know how much the "corresponding proportion of shares" in the large population can correspond to.

Seeing everyone's longing eyes, Paul showed a satisfied smile.

"Everyone go back and think about it first. If you are interested, come to me."

He really needs to think about it, including himself. He has to find some time to think about how many shares correspond to how many serfs. If the price is too high, he will feel heartbroken.

In short, the meeting continued with enthusiasm.

Hansel stood up and said, "My lord, I have another proposal. According to the information I found in the capital, next spring, the main army of the kingdom will go south to suppress the rebellion."

"Well, so what's your proposal?"

"Once a war starts, their demand for iron—more specifically, for weapons—will definitely increase dramatically. Shall we also seize this opportunity?"

Paul had mentioned to him about increasing the output of steel before, but it seems that there is no plan recently, but Hansel has been thinking about it all the time, and this is related to his future.

Paul also remembered his previous plan: "You are right, with the iron mine in Bairding, we can indeed start to increase the production of steel. However, the manpower in this area is also a problem."

Hansel proposed: "Then how about I write to the office stationed in the capital and ask them to focus on recruiting blacksmiths and miners?"

Paul agreed: "Yes, and we need to adopt new smelting technology."

With the new smelting technology, he suddenly had a lot of ideas in his mind.