I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 516 An unexpected harvest

Joseph motioned for Goldmid to sit down on the chair and asked hopefully, "Did what I asked you to do pay off?"

Under the recommendation of Jeansonnet, he had met this British banker before - a greedy and cunning speculator, and also one of the top leaders of the General Association of Tax Farmers.

So, he promised Goldmid a huge profit and asked him to act as an insider to collect evidence of illegal activities of the tax farmers.

At this time, Goldmid said there was "good news", which was very likely to be something he had found out.

Goldmid spread his hands:

"Your Highness, you know, those guys are very cunning, and I have never been able to find any evidence of their illegal activities."

Joseph frowned immediately, and was about to say something when he saw the British showing a proud look:

"So I had no choice but to try to guide them to commit crimes. And I was lucky, they quickly accepted my advice."

Joseph was a little surprised: "Oh? What did you ask them to do?"

"This," Goldmid rubbed his hands and smiled, "Your Highness, you see, I have done more than you asked. Perhaps, in addition to the conditions we talked about before, you can meet some of my small requests."

"Please go ahead."

"I have a few friends who want to work in the financial department. I hope Your Highness can arrange some positions for them."

Joseph's face immediately turned cold.

These chaebols really want to extend their tentacles to the financial core of the country as soon as they have the opportunity, and then control the entire financial system step by step.

However, Joseph is not one of those politicians who are easy to fool - it is not yet the 19th century, and the financial control methods of the consortium are not yet mature. The Rothschild family's brilliant operation will not be displayed until 20 years later, but for him, these are all historical materials that he has read countless times.

So, as soon as Goldmid raised his butt, Joseph knew what he was going to do.

"I'm afraid this won't work," he rejected flatly, "French finances must be under the absolute control of the government."

He has already made it clear - I know you want to infiltrate the financial system, but don't dream.

Joseph continued: "But I can give you some benefits in other ways. For example, let your bank enter France to develop business, or introduce some high-quality investment projects to you. Oh, my friend in the UK recently mentioned a good project."

According to the previous agreement, Goldmid helped collect the black materials of the tax farmer in exchange for the Atlantic Insurance Company's fund custody. In other words, when the British buy insurance, they will first pay the money to his bank and then transfer it to France.

Atlantic Insurance can sell more than 500,000 pounds of insurance every year, which is more than 12 million francs. This money can bring him hundreds of thousands of francs of income just by passing through Goldmid's bank. At the same time, it can also improve the reputation of his bank.

Therefore, Goldmid agreed to cooperate without hesitation.

He also saw that the crown prince was very young and seemed to be easy to deceive, so he wanted to test it, but was rejected immediately.

He could only smile and nod: "Thank you for your generosity, Your Highness, I hope we can have more cooperation in the future."

Joseph did not comment and asked: "Now can you tell me what you did in the tax farmers' association?"

"Oh, yes, Your Highness." Goldmid said, "I suggested that they hide all the tax documents, and when they handed over to the government tax bureau, they handed over fake documents.

"They want to use these documents as a threat to continue to take on some higher-profit taxes. "

Joseph narrowed his eyes when he heard this. If there were no real tax documents, the tax bureau would probably fall into chaos soon once it started collecting taxes.

Not to mention anything else, the lack of records of arrears and prepaid taxes alone would be enough for taxpayers and tax officials to fight.

In addition, the tax amounts for land, factories, etc. would all have to be reassessed. The market tax collected based on experience would be a mess - this tax is roughly a fixed tax based on the size of your stall, and the new tax officer would definitely haggle with the vendors repeatedly.

It has to be said that this method is indeed very vicious. If the tax bureau is caught off guard, it will definitely be in chaos.

However, Joseph is not without a solution. For example, the first thing he thought of was - the documents are gone, but the people are still there.

Who is most familiar with these tax documents? It must be the tax contractor who hired Those "tax collectors" who are actually responsible for collecting taxes.

If the tax bureau finds that the documents it has received have serious problems and cannot collect taxes normally, then it can completely arrest thousands of tax collectors on the charge of "participating in tax fraud".

These people are living tax materials. Throw them into prison at night, handcuff them during the day, and follow the government's tax officials to collect taxes. Each time a problem is solved, the sentence will be reduced by 5 days. Within half a month, they will be able to organize the tax work of the whole country in an orderly manner.

Of course, now that Joseph knows that tax farmers always steal tax documents, the initiative has come to him.

Now, we only need to consider how to fix the evidence and use it to create the best situation for tax reform.

Joseph looked at Godmid again and said, "Do you know where the tax documents are stored?"

"Yes, Your Highness." The latter nodded proudly, "As the proposer of this plan, I am responsible for many links. The documents should be in several villas of Viscount Ford in the town of Antoine."

"Very good." Joseph ordered, "You go back first and pretend nothing happened. After you make sure all the documents are gathered, notify me immediately."

"Yes, Your Highness."

...

Five days later.

A large number of Paris police poured into the town of Antoine, and surrounded all the properties under the name of Ford and his family under the surprised eyes of the townspeople.

Then, the Intelligence Bureau began to search the house.

Because the target was clear, it didn't take much time to find a large number of tax documents, which filled more than ten carriages.

After the tax documents were sent to the French Tax Bureau, the Paris Supreme Court immediately issued hundreds of arrest documents, which were obviously prepared early in the morning and were just waiting to be stamped.

Then, with the cooperation of the police, the Intelligence Bureau agents from all over the country arrested almost all the heads of the tax farms for the crime of "forging tax documents".

The so-called tax farm is a tax agency established by the tax farmer, which has similar functions to the government's tax bureau. Most tax farmers do not serve as heads of the tax farming offices - they all pay the money and serve as the chairman of the tax farming offices, while the specific work of collecting taxes is done by a large number of "tax collectors" employed by them.