Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 521: The Prime Minister's Two Programmes

The envoy sent by Wang Ting soon arrived in the Royal City of Polyvisia, an old man who looked a little serious, about fifty years old, standard Mediterranean hairstyle, with that bitter and vengeful look on his face, as if everyone owed him money. His name is Don Baggiro. E. Davilid, Viscount of the Kingdom. He is said to be related to King Frederick I, whom His Majesty calls his cousin, and has been serving as deputy director and chief inspector in the Kingdom's Ministry of Justice.

Special Envoy Wang Ting also came with a regiment of security officers and soldiers to escort back to Wang Du the gold and silver reserves in the former treasury of the Kingdom of Nasri, valued at more than one million gold kroner. General Claude and General Bolognick held the usual reception ceremony and arranged a banquet to welcome him. What just made Claude feel a little strange was that the Viscount of Dombagiro seemed a little distracted, as if he was hiding something, and soon withdrew to rest under the pretext of a lot of alcohol.

The following afternoon, the parties began handing over, and Claude provided a list of the books and reserves of the seized treasury of the Kingdom of Nasri, indicating that he had not falsified them in that regard. The value of gold and silver coins and gold and silver ingots originally reserved in the treasury should be around 1.89 million gold kroner. According to the principle of the distribution of loot seized from the treasury, the overseas autonomous military regions can obtain 30% of them, and a further 20% will be set aside as local maintenance funds, which is about 50% to be handed over to the Royal Court.

Only Viscount Dombagiro withdrew his request to General Claude and Bolognick in private, hoping that this time he would bring back the gold and silver reserves valued at around 1.5 million gold kroner to solve the financial crisis in the Kingdom. You should know that the guard corps stationed in Wangdu has been in arrears for three months. Those Wangdu magistrates have been unpaid for six months for the longest time, and now the King's court relies on this money from the treasury of the Kingdom of Nasserley to renew their lives...

“No way, Wang Ting is so poor?” Claude was appalled.

Viscount Dombagiro explained to the two generals with a smile that last year the Allied army was presented to the mainland of the kingdom, and that the enemy had taken everything that could be taken away from the king when he withdrew, and had even destroyed all mining bases in the eastern part of the kingdom. When Frederie I and King Ting returned to the capital, they realized that all they had left was an empty shelf, nothing. I couldn't even find a curtain cloth in the palace, it was ruined by the enemy...

And the whole kingdom has gone through years of war, and the people have lost their lives, and the business brigade has not been happy. The taxes that Wang can receive can sustain a warm and unproductive life. Even with a better economic recovery programme, Wang Ting cannot implement it. Like those destroyed mineral resource mining bases in the eastern region, two of the large buried gold and silver mines require hundreds of thousands of dollars to be rediscovered before they can be mined, so that the gold and silver mines can be cast.

But the treasury currently has no money, Wang Ting can't help it, overseas autonomous territories have money, but Wang Ting has overpaid the taxes and contributions that overseas autonomous territories will pay in the next decade, and wants to overdraft the overseas autonomous territories council to quit. Overdrafts were fine during the war, but now that the war is over and you want to overdrain, you can't say it. The council says you can lend money to the king's court, but you have to pay interest.

Wang Ting doesn't care about borrowing money from overseas self-governments. Interest, though high, is not a high interest loan anyway. But the old-fashioned aristocratic power of the kingdom itself was unhappy, and they thought it was a deliberate attempt by the Overseas Autonomous Territories to expand their influence in the royal court. Wang Ting wanted to borrow money from them, and by virtue of their families, he could still provide millions of gold kroner. But they're really high-interest loans, eight out of 13, and they're also profitable.

Now His Majesty is angry, the Overseas Autonomous Leader says that borrowing money is actually the same as lending, interest is fine, it can be repaid in two years. But the old-fashioned aristocratic family gave out high-interest loans, profitable rolling interest, and it may not be possible to borrow these millions of gold kroner for a hundred years to clear up, it is just plausible. So borrowing money from overseas autonomous territories was unanimously opposed by all noble ministers, but borrowing money from old brand noble family forces. His Majesty is not a fool, he knew it was a pit and jumped in, so if he didn't have money, he didn't have money, so we all stood up.

This time Viscount Dom Baghiro, as Special Envoy of the Royal Court, came to transport this money, most urgently by the Prime Minister of the Kingdom, the Marquis Blancat. He hopes to be able to return around 1.5 million gold and silver reserves, which will solve the King's urgent need for eyebrows. Of this amount, 500,000 gold kroner is intended to be used to pay salaries and to stabilize the minds of members of the Guardianship Corps and civilian administrative officials under the jurisdiction of the Wang Du.

An additional KK 500,000 is ready to invest in Wangdu, repair business districts and road traffic damaged by coalition forces, and attract the return of business brigades to Wangdu. As long as commerce thrives, taxes on the treasury will start to increase, which is a good way to govern. The last half million gold and silver royal crowns are to be used for the construction of mineral resource mining bases that have been destroyed by the coalition forces. As long as those two large gold and silver mines resume production and mining, the treasury will be able to account for more than 100,000 gold and silver kroner each month, and the financial aspects will be much more liberal...

Viscount Dombagiro said very sincerely that the financial hardship facing the King had been placed before both General Claude and General Bolognick. Claude had some regrets, knowing that he should have sent troops earlier to harass the Allied Battalion, but at the very least, what could not be the name of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces? It is said that it was the Duke of the Kingdom of Hicks who so easily retreated back to the Kingdom of Hicks with the wounded soldiers of the Kingdom of Hicks and the goods scratched by the King. Losses, it is clear that the goods taken by the Alliance forces from the Kings are not small.

No wonder that guy was so generous that he left behind so many grass reserves and armaments in the coalition camp, as well as weapons and ammunition and everything, not to destroy or burn, just to make it easy for us to abandon the pursuit of their retreat horses. Obviously, the Duke understands that if he burns down these supplies, the Thunder Corps will not let go of their evacuated defectors, and will kill them all even if they chase them to the kingdom of Menbamak...

What a cunning guy, Claude didn't feel the need to go after them because he had left behind a fine coalition battalion and so much grass and armament, and weapons and ammunition. As it turns out now, the Duke took away so much property from the King when he left with the wounded, but now it's too late to regret it. Claude only thinks big...

“What are you thinking?” General Bolognick pushed Twicklord, knowing that he was distracted again: “I had just agreed to the request of His Excellency the Special Envoy to let him take away a reserve of 1.5 million gold and silver kroner in order to solve the financial difficulties of the Kingdom..."

“Rest assured that the Kingdom will not forget your loyalty and devotion. The Prime Minister had instructed me before I left, because the kingdom had no money to give the brave generals the reward they deserved, and he wanted to give you six months of mining rights for these seven small and medium-sized gold and silver copper mines in the Nasseri region. All mineral resources extracted in the last six months will only have to be handed over a third share of the royal court, and the remainder will be used to finance two regiments in your overseas autonomous military region.

You should be aware that the Kingdom's policy towards gold and silver mineral resources is basically seventy-three, seventy percent goes to the treasury, and thirty percent goes to private ownership. However, in the past six months, the King's Court will give you 70% of the distribution, which is an exception… "Viscount Dombagiro hurriedly throws away the compensation plan that was already in place.

There are seven small and medium-sized gold and silver copper mines in the Nasri region, which were the source of gold and silver reserves in the former treasury of the Kingdom of Nasri. As for copper mines, it is essentially the direct casting of copper coins at the mining base that causes them to be accounted for and put into circulation on the market. Claude looked at the seized books, which recorded that the seven small and medium-sized gold and silver copper mines could increase the income of the Kingdom of Nasri by about 1.4 million gold kroner a year.

One third of the 1.4 million gold kroner's mineral resources are around 400,000, leaving about one million to belong to the autonomous military region. However, it is only six months old and open-source, with a maximum entry of around KK 600,000.

“You guys are really good at fights. You don't have to pay for a black penny to sit around and take money for nothing. To give us these seven small and medium-sized mineral resources, we have to recruit miners, renovate machinery, equip them with refining equipment, and invest over 100,000 gold and silver crowns in order to extract these minerals.” Claude shook his head: "And why only six months, too short, at least a year. ”

Viscount Dombagiro also smiled bitterly: "To be honest, I would like to give you more time, but neither the Prime Minister nor I know what will happen in six months. Maybe these seven small and medium-sized gold and silver copper mineral resources will no longer know who they belong to by then, and we'll have to re-sign the mining agreement with the owners of these mineral resources...

As for giving you the right to exploit these mineral resources now, you should do so sooner rather than later, with more people, as much as you can dig. When the deadline is up, if we don't notify you, then you will continue to exploit. If these mineral resources are all dominated, they will not take over until six months have elapsed... "

Claude gets stranger and stranger: “There seems to be something else in this half-year period. Can you tell me what's going on? Or is Wang Ting going to sell all these gold and silver copper mineral resources in exchange for money? ”

“Forget it, you two are not outsiders, you are also the kingdom's newborn hereditary nobility, I'll tell you what's going on.” Viscount Dombagiro looked around and noticed that no one else in the room was relieved.

“Rest assured, no one dares to eavesdrop on our conversation.” General Bolognick gave His Excellency the Special Envoy a heartbeat.

“As such, Prime Minister Blancat submitted a programme for the revival of the Kingdom, which was unanimously adopted by the National Assembly, and even the Lords' Parliament considered that, if implemented, it would bring the Kingdom back to its peak in the shortest possible time and make it one of the most powerful countries on the Farea continent.

In this programme, Prime Minister Blancat hopes to introduce trains from overseas autonomous leaders, build railways, connect the entire eastern region by rail, and speed up the flow of goods and goods and facilitate the movement of people. Reconstruction of watercourses and irrigation systems throughout the Kingdom to ensure stable and productive agricultural production. Supporting and accelerating the development of manufacturing factories and commercial firms of all kinds of beneficial products to compete with commodities produced by overseas autonomous territories...

There is also the restructuring of the Kingdom's armaments, the updating of the equipment of the three major regiments, and the learning of new tactical tactics from the two major regiments in the overseas autonomous military regions, with a view to becoming a credible guarantee of force for the Kingdom. At the same time, a state-of-the-art Ironclad Ocean Fleet will have to be reconstituted to create a new Ironclad Battleship in cooperation with the Overseas Autonomous Territories to safeguard the interests of the Kingdom's ocean shipping and the security of coastal areas throughout the eastern region.

In addition, there are many details of various aspects of the development of economic restructuring and local adjustment taxes, which I will not go into first. The Kingdom Rehabilitation Programme is very detailed in its consideration of the current state of affairs and difficult circumstances in the Kingdom and offers various targeted solutions. Only one difficulty cannot be solved: the Kingdom's treasury is empty and there are no funds available to implement the programme.

The most conservative estimated cost of this Kingdom rehabilitation programme is also more than 50 million gold kroner. Prime Minister Blancat hoped that the implementation and implementation of the projects in the programme would be completed within five years, so that the best time for development would not be delayed. But what can we do without money, and the first year's investment is over 10 million gold kroner, where can we get this huge sum?

The Prime Minister decided that some of the projects in the decomposition programme, such as railways and trains, were the largest of these expenditures, that railway lines throughout the eastern region would require at least 20 million gold kroner in construction funds, and that Prime Minister Blancat would like to learn from the overseas autonomous territories, raise funds for railway construction in the private sector and issue railway shares.

However, there is also a major component of the programme, namely, the cost of the renewal of armaments and the cost of preparing the Ironclad fleet, which Prime Minister Blancat intends to issue State bonds at a progressive rate of 5 per cent per period, whichever is three, five, eight and ten years. For example, if you bought a 10-year national debt of 100 gold kroons, you could get 120 gold kroons in 10 years.

The Prime Minister hoped to raise 15 million gold kroner in armament-building funds from the issuance of State bonds, but his proposal to issue State bonds was ridiculed by many. A number of economic experts do not like the idea that interest rates are too low. One nobleman told the Prime Minister that he was going to do business with 100 gold kroner, and that if he did not earn more than 300 or 400 gold kroner in a decade, his business would fail, so the national debt was not attractive at all.

Even if Prime Minister Blancat raised sufficient funds to issue the national debt, there would be a shortfall of KK 15 million relative to the implementation of the Kingdom's rehabilitation programme as a whole. It would have been hoped that those shortfalls would have been covered by a rapidly growing economy and tax revenues in the coming years, but it was not possible to think about it, as the entire eastern region of the post-war period had been in a depression and had not been able to recover in a few years.

Because the Kingdom's rehabilitation programme, submitted by His Excellency the Prime Minister, was truly perfect and lacked any possibility of implementation due to lack of funds, Prime Minister Blancat was ridiculed by many nobles as a daydreamer. The reason this Kingdom Renewal Program was unanimously approved by the National Assembly and the Lordship Council is that everyone knows that there is no possibility of it happening at all, which is why they are too lazy to argue about spending their own saliva...

The unwilling Prime Minister secretly submitted another secret programme to His Majesty, which only a very small number of people knew. The contents of the programme are to recommend that the Kingdom re-establish its lord's feudal system, that is, the feudal system of territorial aristocracy, in return for the support and financial assistance of the kingdom's old-fashioned aristocratic family... "

“Wait, wait, wait, wait. Isn't it a regression of the kingdom's system to re-encapsulate the noble patrimony? It took six years of kingdom civil war before Wang Sterling IX won his final victory in order to abolish the hereditary territory of the aristocracy and restore the feudal system of the aristocracy of the territory.” General Bolognick and Claude face each other, and after a moment of resurrection, General Bolognick stood excitedly and interrupted the words of Viscount Dombagiro.

“No, no, no, General Bolognick, don't get me wrong, don't get so excited. The Prime Minister's secret proposal naturally makes sense to him, and with His Majesty's consent, you listen to me slowly.” Viscount Dombagiro showed General Bolognick to calm down and Claude stood up and sat down again with General Bolognick.

“Speaking of which, the Prime Minister's proposal for this programme would also like to thank the two generals and the two regiments of your Overseas Autonomous Corps for their battle, which destroyed the Kingdom's dead enemies, the Kingdom of Nasri and the Principality of Kanas, recovering all the land lost and reunifying the entire eastern part of the Kingdom. It was you who laid a solid foundation for the Kingdom's revival that led to the emergence of the programme to seal the hereditary territories of the nobility..."

Viscount Dombagiro pointed to the foot of his finger: “This is where the Prime Minister proposed to seal the patrimony of the nobility, not the kingdom itself. ”

Claude looked at the floor under the envoy's feet and realized, “You mean this Nasserley area? ”

Viscount Dombagiro praised the nod: “The Kingdom of Nasseri has always pursued a feudal feudal system of territorial nobility, and the people here are accustomed to being colonists and relying on the life of their lords. If we want to implement the four-civilian system of our kingdom in this region, it will take at least twenty or thirty years to invest heavily in civic education.

But the kingdom has no money, and the people of this region have always been hostile to our kingdom. In such circumstances, our kingdom's policy in this area, which is the same as that of the kingdom itself, is not a good thing, and makes it easy for the people here to be incited by their hearts to rebel against the insurgency or something. Those four frontier county military administrators who had been taken over from the Kingdom of Nasseri for more than a decade were similarly civil and had taught us our deepest lesson.

So, since the people here depend on the lords, we give them a lord, and the tranquillity and development of this territory will naturally be borne by these lords, which will also reduce the burden on our kingdom. The Kingdom will impose a one-size-fits-all system on these territories, impose 10 per cent taxes and contributions, and approve taxes for each territory on a 10-year basis.

In addition, the enclosed territory was granted only to hereditary nobles, with an equal area of territory according to the size of the title. If you are choosing your own territory, you will need to pay a selection fee before you can change your chosen territory. In addition, if the III nobility and honorary nobility also wish to acquire a hereditary territory, the royal court would be required to pay a fee for the promotion of the title to a hereditary nobility.

For example, if the Baron Emeritus wants to become a hereditary baron, he needs to pay 100,000 gold kroner to become a III baron, and then 200,000 gold kroner to be promoted from Baron III to a hereditary baron, so that he can acquire the territory of the hereditary baron that His Majesty has bestowed upon him. And you are both hereditary aristocrats of the kingdom, and you have direct access to the hereditary lands. But if you want to pick a good heritage territory, then you have to pay the land selection fee... "