Mage? Spell Engineer!

On the stage, Duplesi sat upright, Necker stood holding the charter, and the tallest and most distinguished chair was empty.

The participants in the audience whispered among themselves and speculated on the reason why His Majesty the King could not come. Others booed Necker over the gold mine.

Duplesi and Necker knew that His Majesty the King was accompanying the Queen to see the rare beasts given by Istany.

The red prime minister also speculated that Charles XVI was probably just looking for an excuse not to go on stage. He would go to the side hall, hide somewhere to observe the situation of the meeting of dignitaries, and appear at a critical moment (what the king thought).

"Convening such a meeting today is actually a long-standing evil in the kingdom that is difficult to eliminate. Fortunately, His Majesty the King has an enlightened sacred heart and is supported by the people. Fortunately, all the princes are loyal to His Majesty and to the country promised by God. May we work together to fulfill God's destiny. , Your Majesty has entrusted us with the obligation to make the kingdom prosperous forever."

The opening remarks were similar to those a hundred years ago. Although few of these people had heard it, they still couldn't help but yawn.

Necker finally got to the point: "The danger to the kingdom is nothing more than finance and taxation. The more the kingdom's authorities spend, the lower their income. Since I took office, I have been struggling to maintain it with the Prime Minister.

"But if we want to completely solve the crisis, we can only summon all the public to work together and contribute to the country. Now I and the Prime Minister jointly propose a proposal, and I ask you to vote on whether you agree to it item by item."

Du Plessis stood up, and his first proposal was simple and straightforward: cancel all tax-free privileges in the kingdom!

The meeting broke out into an uproar. This article was not even discussed rationally, but was rejected unanimously with abuse.

Du Plessis calmly accepted this result, and he came up with a real proposal: the kingdom should abolish the salt tax and gate tax, impose a unified transaction tax and stamp tax, resume the collection of service tax from nobles, priests and mages, and a new war tax .

The nobles were still dissatisfied: "Now that the mainland is at peace, why should we impose a war tax?"

Du Plessis explained: "Whether or not to levy a war tax is not determined by whether there is peace or not. On the contrary, whether the peace can be maintained is determined by whether the kingdom can maintain a standing armed force."

"Aren't there paladins? If they can't protect the kingdom, then why does the church collect tithes from farmers?"

The bishop in the audience couldn't listen anymore. He saw that the person questioning him was a sword-wielding noble: "The Paladins have their own duties. Of course we will stand up when the kingdom is in danger and defend the land blessed by God, but we cannot be fully counted on. . The number of Paladins is limited after all, and the kingdom is vast. How can we only rely on the power of the church? Have you forgotten the glory of your ancestors galloping on the battlefield? Is your sword just a decoration?"

The secret ballot began, and the priests' representatives and the priest's assistants jointly tallied the votes under the supervision of the palace representatives and the chancellor. With the blessing of supernatural power, the statistics were quickly completed. Tie vote against and for!

The surprising coincidence made the discussion more intense.

Du Plessis understands that equal tax payment cannot be achieved overnight. The differences now at least mean that there are still people who support him. He said that he can temporarily shelve his proposal and finally vote again. Attendees agreed that it was not that they really wanted to vote, but that the longer the meeting went, the more time people in attendance would have to connect.

Finance Minister Necker, who "played badly" with paper money and should have shown weakness, did not emphasize Du Plessis's new tax plan, but demanded the cancellation of various rights of the nobles present. This includes canceling their privileges to occupy mountains and forests, returning one-third of the arable land in the countryside that was occupied by lords to public land, and giving serfs permanent management rights.

The permanent management rights of serfs means that feudal lords have the right to dispose of the property of serfs. In particular, they can deprive the children of serfs from inheriting property and transfer it to themselves.

An angry noble stood up and said, "You might as well abolish the serfdom system!" What's amazing is that it was not the sword-wielding nobles with vast lands who said this, but the newly promoted nobles wearing robes.

These people finally obtained noble status, but became furious when they found out that the royal family wanted to cancel the privileges.

"Yes, this is exactly what we are going to do. A hundred years ago, the covenant between your ancestors and His Majesty the King's ancestors has stated that all people in the Holy Kingdom are God's people and are governed by the king on behalf of them. Everyone enjoys equal rights. Rights and Responsibilities of Birth, Death and Taxation.

"In this case, if you want all people to bear tax obligations equally, you must first give them equal rights, instead of depriving them of their personality and freedom, and producing for you as slaves without paying taxes."

Du Plessis smiled and added: "But I must correct that many of the public here have not shouldered their due tax obligations."

A monk representative in the audience stood up and spoke: "Your Majesty, Archbishop, you must remember that the church and the nobility have spent huge sums of money to redeem our current and future land tax and twenty-one tax. Moreover, the church has agreed with His Majesty to pay for it every year. One-twentieth of the Crown Debt.”

As soon as this statement was made, everyone in the meeting agreed, and they all started to criticize how the prime minister could accept the money but not admit it.

Necker was satisfied that Du Plessis was opposed. In his observation, the nobles were all opposed to the prime minister, and the bishops were half and half. The archbishop's supporters should be the clergy representatives.

As for the two voting masters, the mage, both have poker faces and have not expressed their opinions yet. But since the vote can be tied, it means that these mages agree with the tax increase!

"Please allow me to propose the next motion." Necker was eager to use the meeting to solve the current financial collapse, and had no time to speculate on the intentions of the mages: "Unfortunately, due to the scandal of the mining company, I see that our currency has also been affected. I will propose a new plan here."

The new plan is similar to Du Plessis in terms of taxation. They both focus on increasing transaction taxes and stamp duties to expand input, but the focus is on reorganizing the tax collection bureau and establishing a collection agency directly under the king, which will issue a new version of banknotes based on the tax base. .

The new gold lang will be exchanged with the old currency two to three to re-count the royal debt. The move will write off two-thirds of the royal family's debts.

Coupled with the current devaluation, Necker can only rely on the gold he absorbs to pay off the royal debt in advance and transfer the credit guarantee of the currency from gold to taxation.

"I don't agree!" Some of the nobles in robes are tax collectors. This is an act that cuts off their financial resources, but it has become acceptable in the eyes of others. The fact is that due to the collapse of the market, banknotes are now depreciating. At least Necker has come up with a method that can stabilize the currency and stop the loss without burdening his own class with all the royal debt.

But how much tax to add, how to add it, and how to set up the "direct tax agency", everyone sitting in the hall has their own plans.

An unexpected voice from Necker appeared. It was the Grand Master of Kano who spoke. His voice was blessed by magic and easily drowned out the noise of all discussions: "If the tax bureau directly under the royal family guarantees and issues new coins, it will happen again today." What should I do?"

"Master Master, today's situation is a completely unexpected scandal that destroyed market confidence. It is not the fault of the currency issuer. As long as we take reasonable measures to end the panic, everything will be fine."

Cano ignored the Finance Minister's quibble: "In order to avoid the threat to private property caused by the excessive currency, I propose that the currency issuance agency needs to be independent, and go further than the Supreme Court of Arbitration, and accept extensive supervision from all walks of life!"

He came up with Rorschach's bad idea.

The plan from the Tower of Stars mage made other people's eyes brighten. Everyone was fed up with the royal family's days of throwing coins. They gave the archmage warm applause and started a heated discussion.

Only Necker's face grew darker.