When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 520 Market and Exchange
On December 12, the weekly meeting of cardinals before the emperor was officially held in the Holy Hall of Joan of Arc.

The six people who attended the meeting were Madeleine, the Minister of Truth, Sissi, the Minister of the Holy Treasury, Jeanne, the Minister of Exorcism, Boussac, the Minister of Evangelism, Martial, the Chief Judge, and Chilvis, the Abbot of the Monastery of the Holy Hoe and the Holy Scythe.

In terms of administration, these six people are basically the core of the Salvation Army's top leadership.

Seven people, including Horn, sat in a circle around an oval table, and on both sides were a row of long tables with a dozen privy monks recording the contents of the meeting.

"For the last time, vote by raising your hands."

At Horn's reminder, the cardinals raised their hands and passed the Markets and Exchanges Act with four votes in favor and two abstentions.

After instructing the Privy Council of the Holy Fathers to write the minutes of the meeting, Horne hammered the table twice with a small wooden hammer: "Then the two issues of the Markets and Exchanges Act of 1445 are officially passed."

As Horn expected, the issue was passed without much discussion.

The head of the Holy Treasury, Sissi, happily gathered the documents and asked the privy monks around her to organize them.

After all, this continued to lay the foundation for the authority and responsibilities of the Holy Court.

The main issue of this bill is how to collect taxes and trade in commodities.

The former is solved by the fixed stall fees in the market, and the latter is solved by the centralized exchange.

The market stall fee is easy to understand. It is a fixed tax not charged according to the goods but according to the stall and type.

For example, if it is a small stall selling agricultural products, then a lower stall fee will be charged. If it is a large stall selling livestock, then a higher stall fee will be charged.

If the goods include luxury goods such as high-end liquor and high-end leather goods, the stall fee will increase by a few percentage points.

The stall itself is free, and the stall fee includes consumption tax and infrastructure maintenance tax.

The higher the type of goods ranks on the consumption tax rate table and the larger the stall area, the more expensive the stall fee will be.

This does not mean that everyone has to rent a small stall, because the larger the stall, the more things it can accommodate and sell, and the higher the income.

How to strike a balance between costs and benefits is up to the vendors themselves.

They made their own decision, so even if they lost money, it couldn't be blamed on Horn.

If this method is implemented, the consumption tax evasion rate can be reduced to below 30%.

As for direct private transactions among the public, the number and share are too small, and collecting such taxes would result in costs greater than benefits. Just think of it as Horn's tax exemption policy for ordinary citizens.

As for the issue of commodity trade, Catherine had previously proposed the establishment of an exchange, but the other cardinals were taking a wait-and-see attitude, so Horn did not force it through.

Now that there are problems in commodity trade, he has picked up the exchange again, and naturally no one objects this time.

The predecessor of the exchange system was actually the merchant guild or the grocer's guild, which was considered Horn's old friend.

If it weren't for God's guidance, Horn might still be working as an accountant in the Grocers Guild.

So the first thing Horn did when he came to power was to abolish the grocers' guild. Outsiders said that this was to hide his history as a grocer's accountant.

Exchanges and bazaars are essentially both places for trade, but a bazaar is a C2C (individual sellers to individual buyers) model, while an exchange is a B2B (corporate sellers to corporate buyers) model.

To put it simply, the bazaar is Taobao, and the exchange is Alibaba.

Generally, when conducting large-scale commodity transactions, the flow of funds can easily reach hundreds of pounds, and everyone is very cautious for fear that the capital chain will break.

If you encounter a scammer at the market, you will at most be defrauded of a dozen or twenty dinars. But if you encounter a scammer dealing in commodities, losing all your money is considered good, bankruptcy is the norm.

Therefore, most merchants relied on guilds to trade, but Horn abolished the guilds' judicial power, so there was a situation where commodity trade had nowhere to go.

The exchange stipulated in the "Market and Exchange Plan" is the only legal place for commodity trading. Both parties must sign a contract and have it notarized. When the trade involves more than 200 gold pounds, both parties must pay a deposit to ensure the smooth progress of the trade.

If you breach the contract, the military police and the crusaders will be at your doorstep immediately.

Merchants save a lot of time and turnover is faster, so it should be okay to give His Majesty the Holy Grandson more stamp duty.

As for the stamp duty rate, it will be a percentage damage to wealthy transactions, but it will not exceed 1%.

Transactions involving no money are subject to a fixed tax, which is probably just a few dinars.

As Horn's gavel banged down, the cardinals signed and stamped the minutes of the meeting, and issues such as consumption tax and stamp duty were finally studied and decided.

Horn couldn't help but sigh in his heart as he sorted and categorized the relevant documents in his hands.

In this way, the local tax system has been established, and the central tax system in front of the emperor has finally been completed.

If the income of the future Salvation Army government is divided into two major categories: taxes and income from palace assets, then the tax system has finally been straightened out in these three months.

According to Sissi's estimation, the tax could provide Horn with a fiscal budget of nearly 2 gold pounds.

As for the income from the assets of the palace, since the current Salvation Army's banking system has not been established yet, it can only be managed vaguely as before.

It is estimated that the income from this part of assets can provide a financial budget of around 1 pounds.

The two combined can barely cover military spending, assuming there is no military expansion next year.

By next fall, we will know how much money this system can bring to Horn.

Horn was not in a hurry for the time being. After the two wars, he had collected another 7 to 8 gold pounds, and with the original money he had, he had about 10 gold pounds.

Since the Salvation Army currently has almost no income, it has to rely on these war spoils and bonds to support the operation of the government.

"Then let's move on to the next topic." Horn turned to the second page of the topic document in his hand and cleared his throat. "That is the topic of the new construction department. Who will be in charge of this matter? What do you think? Let's discuss it."

As Horn expected, several cardinals began to conflict over who should be in charge of the new department compared to the previous Market Act, which had clearer powers and responsibilities.

As expected, the final result was that it became part of the entire Imperial Council of Cardinals, with daily management duties being handed over to the senators.

So the Salvation Army Holy Arch Engineering Monastery was officially launched, and it was expected to recruit fifteen stonemasons and three engineering teams to be responsible for the design and construction of municipal buildings.

"Just like before, how about we conduct a pilot project and start with recruitment and the first batch of municipal reconstruction in Huilu Town?" Horn took out a pen and made a few marks on the paper, then raised his head and continued to ask.

Jeanna shook her head and said, "It's better not to. Huilu Town currently has a heavy task of manufacturing weapons and armor. A pilot project in Huilu Town will easily disrupt production."

"Then let's put it in Sour Melon Town, how about that?"

Several cardinals nodded in agreement. The town of Sour Melon was southwest of Fort Jeanne d'Arc, and a mortar road had been built in preparation for the Battle of Black Mountain, so it was relatively easy to transport building materials.

After these two issues were determined, a series of small issues followed, such as rejecting the Black Hats' application to change its name to the Black Crowns, and approving another grain purchase plan...

After the first two important topics, the last two are the finale topics.

"Have you read the letter sent from Hotam County? The Saint Sun Volunteers handed this issue to me, and we have to work out a charter.

In addition, Count Sechinger of North is expected to arrive in the middle of this month, and a response must be worked out.

I think these two things are the same thing and should be discussed together because it involves an important unresolved topic, the attitude towards Meliati. "

(End of this chapter)