When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 962 Consumption Tax

It must be said that calculations are something that falls within the Duke of Labang's forte.

He was originally from a family of tax farmers in the French royal family.

Unlike land nobles or military knights who became new nobles, his father obtained the title of earl through the reward from the previous king.

Later, in the Battle of Windmill Field, he served as the logistics chief and, with the help of other bureaucrats, got a position as the chief quartermaster.

After the war, the royal cabinet discovered that Laban's title was inverted, so they made him an honorary duke.

But this offended the current Prime Minister Lorenzo.

Others may not know, but doesn't he know how Labang's so-called inverted position and title came about?
When Charles VIII ascended the throne, Lorenzo, once in power, began to issue orders.

With just one transfer order, Labang was sent to the frontier, where he served as a miserable governor for ten years.

If Charles VIII had not remembered him, he would still be cutting tobacco on the frontier.

"Agriculture is the foundation of all industries, but it is the least profitable." Throwing away the quill, Laban spoke of mercantilism. "Raw materials themselves have no value. It is the handicraft industry that gives them value. Therefore, whether a country is truly rich depends on industry and commerce!"

"What do you think of Shenglian Industry and Commerce?" Casani asked naturally.

"From the perspective of the Alcohol Prohibition Act, this kind of government monopoly has already reached the level of what happened in France a hundred years ago."

Rabon was lost in memories of a golden age, a time, now reviled, when tax farmers had the best of times.

Forcing people to sell in special markets and at special prices is the most brainless option.

These goods are then shipped by sea and sold to Leia, Norn, Faran, the Royal Court, or even sold to unknown alien species across the sea through middlemen.

Therefore, tax farmers and the royal family accumulated huge amounts of wealth and were able to carry out a series of subsequent centralized reforms.

The Holy Father loves Fran.

He gave Frank the title of emperor in order to continuously consolidate the lords' power over the cities.

It also gave the Franks a favorable seaport and the courage to go to sea, allowing the Franks to have extremely prosperous trade income.

Without either of these two points, it would be impossible to establish the current absolute monarchy of the Kingdom of France.

After the Battle of Windmill Land, the Kingdom of France gave them sixty years!
In sixty years, has any of them surpassed Fran?

Back to reality, business is much more difficult than it was a hundred years ago.

Rabang shook his head and sat up straight: "Look, what is the commercial tax of Shenglian called? Consumption tax, right?
OK, you can tell by looking at the consumption tax."

Taking out a pen and paper, Labang started writing and drawing on the paper again.

“The Holy Union’s Holy Equipment Court is estimated to have 3 in consumption tax, including the seven counties of Gravel Plain, the new five counties, and the three counties of Black Snake Bay.

Let's say we have 30,000 people in each county seat. As for the industries, Qianhe Valley is mainly engaged in textile printing and dyeing, Gravel Plain is mainly engaged in wool, and Black Snake Bay is mainly engaged in sugar and spices.

There is no decent industry in the new five counties, so I will assume it is half, let’s calculate it more broadly…”

After writing densely packed draft papers for three days, Duke Laban heaved a sigh of relief and gave a number with satisfaction.

"About 15 pounds."

"Isn't that right?" Kasani asked with this figure in mind, "The trade volume of sugar and spices is over a million pounds, but the consumption tax is only 15?"

"Nonsense, spend, spend. You can only spend if you have money." Duke Labang glared, "Take the newly conquered land, the population of the Holy Alliance city is less than 20 households, who will spend?"

Casani always felt something was wrong, so he slowly started to calculate according to the draft paper.

The Duke of Labang was indeed quite good at math. He easily calculated a number that took Cassani half a day to calculate.

To be precise, the court of Farlan is more complicated than the court of Leia.

If you don’t have any special skills, which king will reward you?
Unlike the nobles of Leia, the nobles of the Fran court all relied on the king's reward to survive.

Sitting next to Kasani, Labang was calm and composed: "So what if they sell sugar and spices? There is no stock on the supply side, and there is no money to buy!
What if Shenglian doesn’t have the stock? Can’t we just buy it from Fran? If we buy it from Fran, it will become Fran’s money.”

Maintaining exports as much as possible and reducing imports is the foundation of the French mercantilism school. The Duke of Laban is a loyal believer of the mercantilism school.

Cassani looked up and after his own calculation, it was indeed 15 gold pounds.

Even this number is Duke Labang's overestimation of the Holy League.

But he always felt something was wrong. With the prosperous trade and circulation of the Holy Alliance, how could there be only 15 gold pounds in consumption tax?

"Listen, listen." Labang tugged at Casani's sleeve, signaling him to listen to the speech on the stage.

"In four years, we have built 800 new decentralized factories in rural areas and centralized factories in towns, and 220 new spinning factories in South Mound County alone..."

"...Almost every priestly town has a sawmill and a charity market..."

"… In four years, 82% of the priestly municipalities have been covered by pharmacist clinics and 100% of the priestly municipalities have been covered by primary schools…"

"…the average literacy rate in towns and cities increased from 20% to 60%…"

Labang couldn't help laughing: "A little math trick, did you hear me clearly? It didn't increase to, it actually only increased to about 30%.

Just wait and see, the representatives will definitely use this incident to criticize us."

The frontier also had similar representative bodies, and the citizen representatives, who were composed of lawyers and notaries, were particularly difficult to deal with.

Usually it was Duke Labang who was harassed by these unruly representatives of the frontier people, but this time he could finally see others suffer.

At this point, the report also reached the part that he was most concerned about - consumption tax.

"...The three core cities of the Holy Alliance, Holy Equipment Court, Long Dike City, and Tiannv City, have a consumption tax of 80280 gold pounds..."

"Look!" Duke Laban patted the draft paper on the table, "It's only 6000 pounds different from what I calculated."

"...Twenty-one county cities, total consumption tax 83125 gold pounds..."

The wooden tabletop was slapped with his hands, making a loud clacking sound. Duke Laban even wanted to have some wine to drink.

Looking at Casani who was still frowning at the draft paper, Laban suddenly felt that his sense of accomplishment was half gone.

How could he return to politics if he didn't make a deep impression of his ability in front of this Cassani, this little favorite of Charles VIII?

"Casani, don't count it. Listen, is it the same as what I said? The total is 16 gold pounds, only is short."

Duke Laban had no choice but to kneel down and remind Cassani to take over and support him.

"Oh." Casani put down the draft paper and was about to speak, but was interrupted by the sound of Sissi reciting the report.

"...103 priestly towns, with a total consumption tax of 89760 pounds sterling..."

The Duke of Labang twisted his body so violently that even Cassani could hear a clear “click!”

"What, what what?" Labang turned his head and looked at the scribe servant who came with him. "How many towns, how much is the consumption tax?"

"103 priestly municipalities, excise duty 89760 pounds sterling."

Duke Laban continued to ask: "Do you know how many people there are in each priest town?"

The scribe didn't know, but Cassani had an impression: "As far as I can remember, the number ranged from seven to eight hundred to two to three thousand. On average, there were more than a thousand people in a priest town."

"It's fake, the consumption tax is fake." Duke Laban insisted, "There are 103 priest towns, with an average of just over a thousand households, so I'll count them as 28000 households.

你28000户能有89760金镑的消费税，相当于每户有3.2金镑的消费税，相当于一年10到32金镑的消费！
28000 households spend between 10 and 32 pounds a year, even if you include the wealthy merchants and transporters, there is no such outrageous figure! "

Casani also felt that the number was wrong: 28000 households, with each household spending between 10 and 32 pounds.

All of them are rich? Besides, although the town he saw had good facilities, it was not so wealthy...

"Ah!" He slapped his head suddenly, "I understand!"

(End of this chapter)