King

While inspecting the disaster situation, the naughty child never smiled. After this wave of natural disasters, Hudson suffered heavy losses, and Bear Stearns' losses were not much smaller.

Because most of the territory was in the lower reaches, the rolling floods swept down, and both the Xiongxiong Pasture and the Xiongxiong Farm were all turned into a swamp.

Looking down from the sky, you can still see busy people harvesting wheat that has been soaked by water in the rain.

In the farming era, no matter how serious the reduction in production was, as long as the food in the fields was mature, there was no reason not to take it back.

The situation on the pasture was not much better. The animals were rescued, but due to the continuous heavy rains, the stored fodder was no longer enough, so they chose to slaughter the animals.

Seeing his own milk being slaughtered and made into jerky made Bear Stearns feel bad.

On the contrary, Maxim on the side was in a very good mood at the moment, looking at the jokes of Hudson and Bear Stearns unscrupulously.

Investment is risky, so be cautious when entering the market.

Agriculture has never been an industry that makes quick money. Not only is food production reduced during natural disasters, but many water conservancy projects are also forced to be rebuilt.

This year's wave of losses alone will require Hudson and Bear Stearns to work in vain for several years before they can make up for the losses.

In contrast, Maxim's business was more profitable and risk-free.

In heat, if you live in a daze for a while, you will earn millions of gold coins.

Calculated purely based on the income from farming, under good weather conditions, the mountainous territory will be busy for several years.

Maxim was the only one who had the ability to make money from his own pocket, and no one else could envy him at all.

Looking at the constant statistics of losses, Hudson's heart was bleeding. According to estimates from the agricultural department, mountainous areas can retain at most 40% of their autumn crops this year.

Hudson can also accept a simple reduction in grain production in one season.

After all, our territory was carved out of a swamp and has always been a land of abundant rain. It is normal for losses to be greater during floods.

The trouble is the post-disaster reconstruction work. There are tens of thousands of houses in the entire mountainous area that need to be rebuilt, and several water conservancy projects need to be overhauled. Among them, more than a dozen water conservancy projects have suffered devastating blows.

Damage to roads and bridges was also numerous.

In addition, the problem of soil erosion in the mining area was also exposed.

Everything costs money. The exact extent of the damage will not be known until the rainstorm ends.

The only good thing is that Hudson is not the only unlucky one. Most of Aslant has experienced natural disasters, but the way they are presented is different.

…

In the Emerald Palace, Caesar IV is currently busy making personnel adjustments. Learning from the tragedy of the Falcon Royal Family, he decided to replace all the palace guards and city guards with "his own people."

The strongest fortress can always be breached from within.

The Falcon Kingdom is a typical example. The rebels were able to quickly capture the royal capital because some of the city guards also participated in the rebellion.

The palace fell quickly, and the emerging nobles who were also members of the palace guard cooperated with others and opened the palace door to let the enemy in.

The biggest characteristic of nobles fighting among themselves is that they know the current situation and see that the situation is over. The remaining city guards and palace guards are too lazy to resist.

Only a few diehard loyalists of the royal family actually fought to the last moment.

By the time Henry V realized the problem, it was already too late, and he could only let the royal masters guarding him take him away.

It's a pity that his life was not good. He was entangled by the rebels just as he was acting as a royal master. Henry V died before he could leave the palace.

With the lessons learned from the past, Caesar IV also became cautious when employing people.

The situation of the palace guard is not bad. In the era of Caesar III, only royal cronies were recruited, and ordinary local nobles had no chance to enter.

The situation in the City Guards is complicated. It has always been a gilded place for noble children, and the relationships there are complicated.

Even though he was a king, Caesar IV had no choice but to constantly exchange blood for the city guards.

"This is a disaster report from various places. So far, thirteen provinces have requested tax reductions and exemptions and the allocation of disaster relief funds!"

The words of the Prime Minister, the Grand Duke of Newfoundland, pulled Caesar IV out of the power struggle.

The replacement can be carried out at any time, and no nobles will rebel in a short time, but the disaster is imminent.

After taking over the PR, the few thin pages seemed to be as heavy as weight.

Although there are only 13 companies requesting tax reductions and exemptions and allocating disaster relief funds, there are only a total of more than 20 provinces in the kingdom that need to pay taxes in full.

The rest is either completely tax-free or requires a nominal payment.

What's worse is that the thirteen provinces are mostly located in the central and southern parts of the kingdom and are the financial and taxation centers of the Alpha Kingdom.

If their taxes were really reduced, the kingdom would be in trouble.

In the agricultural era, governments around the world relied on taxation to a surprisingly high degree.

What can we use to fill the financial gap of tens of millions of gold coins?

Looking at the report carefully, Caesar IV was surprised to find that many royal leaders were also in the disaster area.

He vaguely remembered the official document sent by the palace minister a few days ago. I was just busy with personnel adjustments and didn't deal with it in time.

To refuse directly would seem too unkind.

In the year of great disaster, the Royal Government did not show any expression, which is unjustifiable.

Promising is even more impossible!

Just reducing taxes will cause serious damage to the kingdom's finances, let alone allocating disaster relief funds.

What's more, the area affected by the disaster is so wide. If we agree to the requirements of these thirteen provinces, other provinces will probably follow suit.

Such a capital hole might bring the kingdom's finances to bankruptcy.

"Marquis Delgado, what do you think of this matter?"

Caesar IV asked the chancellor.

If it is not convenient for me to be a bad person, then I can only push the Minister of Finance to take the blame. Anyway, when money-related projects were rejected in the past, most of them were done by the Ministry of Finance.

The more times you offend people, the more people don't care about it.

After all, everyone knows how bad the kingdom's finances are.

“Your Majesty, this matter is still a bit complicated.

The scope of this disaster was so wide that it has rarely been seen in hundreds of years.

Logically speaking, the royal government should reduce taxes and provide help to local nobles.

Unfortunately, we don’t have the money now. We have more than enough ambition but not enough power! "

Marquis Delgado declined politely.

Language arts cannot change the final result, and lack of money is always the biggest killer.

Among the ministers of the kingdom, the one who is least afraid of packing up and going home is Marquis Delgado.

Everyone knows that this is a mess, no matter who is in charge, the job is to tear down the east wall and mend the west wall.

The worst thing is that you have to compare yourself with your ex. If you are not careful, you will get a lot of infamy.

If the kingdom's finances really go bankrupt during his term of office, the finance minister will be the biggest scapegoat.

Maybe, he might even have to borrow his head to quell public anger.

Among the great nobles, no one was interested in this hot position. Some among the small and medium-sized nobles were eager to try, but no one dared to let them go.

After all, in the eyes of the vested interests, putting a fool in the position of finance minister would be the greatest irresponsibility to the kingdom.

"Prime Minister, what do you think?"

Caesar IV continued to ask.

Looking at the king he had raised with his own hands, he became more and more proficient in the art of kingship, and the Grand Duke of Newfoundland also had mixed feelings.

For the royal family, the better the king is, the better; but for the prime minister, it is just the opposite.

After all, royal power and prime minister power are inherently opposites. Whenever the king becomes strong, the power of the prime minister is inevitably weakened.

However, the Grand Duke of Newfoundland had outstanding achievements and had a very great influence in the court. Caesar IV could not suppress him just because he wanted to.

The mature use of the king's imperial skills actually indicates that his resignation is not far away.

“Your Majesty, do everything according to your ability!

I think taxes should be within the scope of fiscal capacity and can be reduced or reduced as appropriate.

Disaster relief funds can also be distributed based on actual circumstances. "

The answer from the Prime Minister, the Grand Duke of Newfoundland, was a bit muddy, but for the current Alpha Kingdom, this was the best choice.

The biggest advantage of the tax farming system is that no matter what happens, someone will cover the tax.

The Royal Government may choose to reduce or reduce taxes, but is not obliged to reduce or reduce taxes.

Giving something symbolically is actually taking care of everyone's face.

Caesar IV frowned slightly, obviously this was not the answer he wanted.

If possible, he would prefer to use this as an opportunity to promote the reform of the kingdom's tax system.

Unfortunately, the prime minister did not understand what he meant. In other words, I thought of it, but didn't want to cooperate with his actions.

There is no strong support within the government. With the wishful thinking of the Ministry of Finance and the support of him as the king, the probability of success is really low.

Referring to the previous reforms in the Kingdom, they were only successful due to the strong promotion of the government and the support of some local powerful parties.

The current situation is obviously different. The reform of the tax system is actually cutting the flesh of the nobles.

The royal government takes more, and the noble lords naturally get less. If they have no money, how can they support their troops?

You must know that in order to expand the army and prepare for war, the number of banquets held by the kingdom has been greatly reduced in recent years. Various extravagant hobbies that were popular in noble circles in the past have also disappeared without a trace.

It’s not that everyone’s core has changed, it’s that the aristocratic group has become too involved.

Waste without ability is basically dead. Now, nine out of ten of these lords have been on the battlefield.

Having witnessed the bloodshed on the battlefield, if you don’t know how to expand your army and prepare for war, then you are really out of your mind.

Rather than strengthening the kingdom's military strength, everyone would rather see their own armed forces grow.

When it comes to fund utilization, when the money is in the hands of the royal government, it may not be as good as the noble lords.

"Then let's do this first!"

Caesar IV said quite disappointedly.

Deep in his heart, he once again strengthened his determination to strengthen the king's power.

…

The small episode in the royal capital quickly dissipated. The confrontation between the king and the prime minister is a secret belonging to the highest level.

The noble lords who were affected by the disaster are all busy organizing production and self-rescue.

In many places, noble masters have appeared on the front line to supervise and command in person. At this time, the benefits of ordinary training are reflected.

Serfs who have received training can basically understand the orders of the noble masters and obey them.

Serfs who have not received training are relatively slow. However, they know how to follow their peers and can barely keep up.

Even though they know that production reduction is a foregone conclusion, everyone is still busy trying to save themselves in order to reduce losses as much as possible.

In fact, many times risking your life to save yourself is not cost-effective.

But at this moment, the position of all the noble lords was surprisingly unanimous, and they tried their best to retrieve food from natural disasters.

Hudson is no exception. We are well aware of the importance of food in disaster years. While providing disaster relief, we also do not forget to organize people to harvest it.

In order to protect the rain-soaked wheat, Hudson pulled Maxim as a fire-breathing tool. Rely on physical heating to prevent rye from sprouting.

Because of the huge amount of work, during the actual operation, a lot of rye was directly roasted by Maxim, and part of the rye became coke.

In line with the principle of not wasting, the roasted rye became food for the orc slaves.

The residents lived a life of eating fried wheat and boiled wheat flour.

In the year of disaster, it is good to eat some, so naturally no one will be picky about the taste.

After the storm, there is a rainbow!

The great flood comes and recedes just as quickly. On the third day after the rain stopped, everything gradually returned to normal.

However, the disaster caused by the flood remained. Post-disaster reconstruction has slowly begun, and Hudson no longer needs to personally intervene in these tasks.

Government departments, agricultural departments, transportation departments and other relevant agencies have all come up with corresponding plans and put them into action.

…

"Your Excellency, we have been affected by the disaster. Many depositors came to withdraw their deposits in advance, and there were queues of people in front of many branches.

In just one week, deposits at the Near East Development Bank fell by eight million gold coins, accounting for five percent of our cash reserves.

The Near East Development Bank's ability to survive does not mean that other small local banks can also survive.

According to the current development of the situation, it is very likely that a run will occur during the subsequent post-disaster reconstruction! "

Rudolph reported with a solemn expression.

With the strong support of shareholders, the Near East Development Bank has not experienced a single run since its establishment.

Of course, the performance on the banking side has also been outstanding. With the advantage of scale, whether it is operating income or profit, it is the best among similar commercial banks in the Kingdom.

There is a saying among the outside world that the Near East Development Bank beats all banks in the northern continent.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Near East Development Bank, which has the first-mover advantage and the best customer base, alone accounts for 90% of the profits of all commercial banks in the Northern Continent.

Except for this giant, all commercial banks are regional banks and simply do not have the ability to spread their business outlets to the entire northern continent.

No matter how small a bank is, it has some influence on its own one-third of an acre of land.

The management of most of these commercial banks has problems, and their control of risks is almost at a novice level.

In order to compete with the Near East Development Bank, they not only lowered loan interest rates, but also offered deposit interest rates.

Relying on these means, we have gained a place in the market competition. But the hidden risks have also been buried. Once they encounter a run, it is only a matter of time before these small banks with insufficient reserves go bankrupt.

Originally, eliminating competitors would be a good thing for the Near East Development Bank, but panic will spread.

Once a large number of small commercial banks go bankrupt and are unable to repay depositors' funds, the Near East Development Bank will inevitably be affected.

If market confidence cannot be stabilized, no amount of cash reserves can withstand endless runs.

“It is decreed that in the coming period, all commercial loans handled must undergo the most stringent review.

If you can reduce lending, then reduce lending as much as possible.

However, depositors’ deposits must be paid out in a timely manner. As long as the process is followed, the amount will be paid in full.

If big customers want to withdraw money, then sell assets to them. After this crisis, many people will definitely default on their debts, so they are looking for buyers in advance. "

Hudson said without changing his expression.

There's only so much he can do. The Near East Development Bank is no longer an infant. After leaps and bounds in recent years, it has not received a single dividend, and it has also accumulated a lot of industry.

Selling part of the money now is also a good choice. As long as we survive this crisis, the Near East Development Bank's brand will become even louder.

With a large number of competitors reduced, the "money" power in the future will be even more unlimited.

For a moment, Hudson didn't know whether to be happy or worried.

Now let’s see how strong the shareholders behind these small banks are in supporting them. If there was full support from the great nobles, they might be able to survive this storm.