To Four Thousand Years Later

Lorenzo sighed deeply, and scratched his hair in distress.

During the days when Leonardo left Sardinia, his work became a lot heavier for no reason. However, those officials dared not take responsibility, and if they handed over the report vaguely, Lorenzo could not be like them, also be so vague. Please issue the decree again.

He knew in his heart that every order and every will of his would affect the lives of countless people. His words fall to the ground, and countless families may be complete or broken, happy or under the influence of Leonardo, Lorenzo is very cautious about the power he holds. He is clear about his division and knows what he can do.

Therefore, Lorenzo was unwilling to settle down, so he could only summon those officials who wanted to fish in troubled waters one by one, and asked them one by one, and compared them with multiple parties, so as to obtain real data and feelings. Only then did I realize how chaotic the bottom of Sardinia had become during the years when my father was seriously ill.

An army does not form an army, a family does not form a family, and a country does not form a country.

Except for the food bill, Sardinia has not had any new policies for several years. There is basically no flow of officials and nobles, and no one comes up or goes down. Businessmen have not been suppressed, managed or attacked, and they have been complicit with lower-level officials.

It has been more than three months since Lorenzo took over the government. During this period, he hardly stopped, always dealing with the troublesome government affairs accumulated by his father, and worked hard to rectify the whole country, but the progress was still slow. Every time he followed the vines and was about to clear a line, several other big nobles would jump out to stop him.

Even with a good temper like Lorenzo, he still has a lot of killing intent in his heart.

- He really realized that the capital and power accumulated by these nobles for a long time have hindered every change in Sardinia. For them, it would be best if everything remained the same, because that would mean that they were successfully encroaching on the Medici family. Times have changed.

Beiru said that in the past Sardinia imposed heavy taxes on agriculture, while low taxes were given to light industries to promote the development of industries, such as textiles, printing, and furniture production. But now, light industry has instead become Sardinia's main source of tax revenue-this is still under the condition that they still receive low taxes, and agricultural tax and income are no longer balanced.

Under such circumstances, it is natural to adjust the tax rate that has not been changed for 18 years, increase the tax rate for light industry, and lower the agricultural tax rate. In this way, the national income can be greatly increased, while the social environment can be made as fair as possible, and the tax burden of the poor can be reduced as much as possible. It can also reduce the large expenditure of agricultural subsidies caused by the food bill, allowing more funds to flow to the military industry. A rapidly changing situation.

But Lorenzo couldn't move at the first step.

He could not raise taxes on light industry.

He can reduce the waste tax, but not increase the industrial tax. Because most of those big factory owners are dependent on a big family, a considerable part of their income will fall into the hands of local taxation, that is, the local nobles. This tax reform, on the surface, is to rein in the money of the factory owners, but in fact it is to control the power of the local nobles. Of course, Lorenzo originally thought so. But when it was actually implemented, it immediately encountered great resistance. First, the great nobles wrote letters to Lorenzo one after another, expressing their dissatisfaction with the government affairs, explicitly or implicitly; then they began to encourage factories to lay off workers and force workers to protest. The local nobles took the opportunity to try to win people's hearts. Lorenzo knew in his heart that these factories cannot do without these workers. Now is the time when the market competition is the fiercest, and those factory owners who lose money in time will also ask the bank to borrow money, and will never lay off employees and remove equipment easily. Because they know that if there are fewer people, the efficiency will decrease, the logistics operation will slow down, and the competitiveness of the factory will immediately drop. So they are just putting on a show, forcing workers to speak up for them.

In order to prevent someone from backstabbing and not laying off workers but taking the opportunity to recruit workers, there must be someone behind them colluding to arrange that all factories will not accept workers in a short period of time, especially not to accept laid-off workers.

But the workers don't know this - in their view, this is that the Grand Duke raised taxes on industry, and they lost their jobs; so if the Grand Duke didn't raise taxes, they could go back to work and if Lorenzo If we really give up raising taxes on industry, then we can only continue to impose heavy taxes on agriculture, or raise taxes on other industries with moderate tax rates. But therein lies the problem. The bulk of the commercial and cultural industries are in the hands of the Lorenzo family, regardless of whether they receive taxes or not. The money still has to flow into their hands; but if taxes are collected, the industry will be suppressed. In today's Sardinia, the most developed industry is the square weaving printing and dyeing industry, followed by jewelry and leather chemical raw materials, and then the banking industry. However, the textile printing and dyeing industry, which is currently the most profitable, is still paying a low tax rate of 8%, and even some small companies have a tax reduction policy of 1% to 3%. This was the tax rate set 18 years ago. At that time " The "gout man" has just inherited the position of Grand Duke, and has not yet developed gout. He is planning to vigorously develop Sardinia's textile, printing and dyeing industries.

His goal in the first half was indeed achieved. At present, Sardinia's textile, printing and dyeing industry can be said to be the first in the world, accounting for the majority of export profits. But like the Teutonic king when Sardinia was founded, he fattened up the local nobles and big businessmen. Lorenzo wants to lower the agricultural tax to 11.5 percent and raise the tax on textiles to 18 percent. Raising the tax rate for the printing and dyeing industry to 15% is not much. It can even be said that the tax is low. But the nobles and big factory owners were very dissatisfied.

Of course, this is also because Lorenzo has just taken over government affairs and his contacts are not complete enough. Moreover, although the old Medici was seriously ill, he hadn't completely died yet, and Lorenzo's title of "Grand Duke" might not be true enough. But Lorenzo couldn't guarantee that after his father died, would the situation he faced really be better?

Or is it getting worse? The authority of the Medici family, in their generation, is only left to the extent that they can suppress two families at the same time. The Grand Duke's position almost exists in name only, no wonder his father pretends to be sick every day and ignores politics.

Ah, no tree, he is really sick.

Just because he was always on the hospital bed, maintaining such a state of accommodating and conceding, the other nobles couldn't let go of attacking him. After all, whoever makes the first move will definitely die; and the last benefit will not be obtained, and he will be backstabbed out by others.

As long as he doesn't express his opinions, he will be neutral for a day, and other people will try to curry favor with him, and he will not really attack the Medici family. But after Lorenzo took office, he wanted to be diligent, but he offended other nobles because of this. They secretly formed a faction and opposed Colorenzo's opinions calmly, so that his policies could not be pushed forward or implemented. Arguing with these nobles made Lorenzo feel exhausted.

He once again understood what Leonardo said when he first met him. And this kind of understanding is completely impossible to recognize in his identity as the son of the Grand Duke.

He originally hated his father's soft and slow temper, and once made up his mind that when he succeeded to the position of Grand Duke, he must clean up all the unpleasant things. Could it be that his father's approach was correct?

He wanted to ask Floros some questions, but he had an inexplicable instinct, and warned Lorenzo that he must come up with the answer to this question by himself. He sighed and rubbed his forehead as he walked into the garden to get some air. , but happened to see Leonardo, who was dressed in snow-white fur, getting off the carriage with a cane.

- He's back!

My brother is back!

He couldn't help showing joy, and shouted: "Leonardo! Leonardo!

"Good afternoon. Lorenzo."

What rang in his ears was still the familiar warm voice: "I'm back. Leonardo greeted him warmly, even though he didn't have the suffix of "Lord Duke" that he was tired of hearing these days, But Lorenzo could hear the strongest feelings and warmth from it. At that moment, the pressure in Lorenzo's heart was swept away.

The moment he saw Leonardo, he felt that all his worries, hardships, and hesitating difficulties had lost their weight and sharpness. There was nothing Leonardo couldn't do, he believed so firmly.