save the bachelors

Chapter 4490 [Beckett Takes the Throne]

In addition to the "Stone of Destiny", Xiang Nan believes that the second most important thing is the "Fire of Purification".

It is a sacred artifact stolen by the East India Company from a Persian Zoroastrian temple. It is said to be the holy fire passed down by the good god Ahura Mazda. It has been burning for thousands of years and has not been extinguished until now.

The most important ability of the Purifying Fire is that it can purify people's sins. As long as people stand on the Purifying Fire and honestly confess their mistakes, these sins can be forgiven.

Xiang Nan believes that this is a very good practice method, which can be practiced together with the crystal meditation method of the Praiser/Betrayer.

The third most important is a magic book from the Spanish Inquisition.

It turns out that from the 15th to the 17th century, a vigorous witch-hunting movement broke out in Europe. At that time, Pope Innocent VIII issued an edict demanding the arrest of all wizards, witches and pagans.

Spain is a Catholic country with extremely devout beliefs, so it established the Inquisition as soon as possible to try heretics such as wizards, witches and pagans.

So much so that in the 17th century, when other countries had already relaxed religious restrictions and accepted Protestantism, Spain still stubbornly insisted on opening the Inquisition.

This can also be seen in "Pirates of the Caribbean 4". The Spanish soldiers clearly found the fountain of youth, but they destroyed the altar of the fountain on the grounds that "only God can give people eternal life."

When the Inquisition tried these heretics, they asked them to record all their witchcraft and magic as evidence of their guilt. Eventually, all these witchcraft and magic were compiled together to form this "Book of the Devil."

The Inquisition believed that the book would lead people astray, so they prepared to send it to the Holy City of the Vatican to be burned. However, the ship carrying the book was looted by the East India Company.

Eventually, the Devil's Book became part of the collections of the East India Company.

As for the Mountain of Light diamond stolen by Angelica, it is numbered B-025 and is a treasure stolen from the Mughal Palace in India. It is said that this diamond is the third eye of Lord Shiva, and if you put it between your eyebrows, you can hear the teachings of Lord Shiva.

……

For more than a month afterwards, Xiang Nan studied these magical items and also used crystal meditation to develop the power of his mind.

During this period, news of the East India Company theft spread like wildfire.

The huge loss of one million pounds could not be concealed at all and quickly caused a sensation throughout the UK.

The investors of the East India Company were very dissatisfied, especially the great nobles, who gave their money to the East India Company in the hope that it would make money for them.

They relied on tens of thousands of pounds in dividends every year to live a life of luxury and debauchery. But now the loss of millions of pounds has caused the East India Company to face a serious crisis.

Not only is it impossible to distribute dividends this year, there is even a risk of bankruptcy, causing all the funds previously invested to be wasted. How could the nobles tolerate this, so they rose up to protest.

These nobles had status, power and fame in Britain, many of them were ministers, parliamentarians, judges and bishops. Even King George II himself was the largest shareholder of the East India Company.

He was also very dissatisfied with his losses, so he ordered a thorough investigation of the East India Company to find out whether the money was really stolen or embezzled by some corrupt officials.

This move also led to a major reshuffle of the East India Company's top management, and many senior executives were sent to prison. After all, although the money was really stolen this time, some people did have dirty hands.

This time, he was not able to avoid the incident and was sent to prison by the angry nobles. …

What Xiang Nan did not expect was that Carret Beckett was not only unscathed in this turmoil, but also took the opportunity to rise to power, being promoted from manager to company director, greatly enhancing his status.

No matter how capable he was before, he was just an employee. After becoming a director, he became the boss and had considerable say and autonomy.

It turns out that the reason why Calvert Beckett was able to rise to the top was not only because he was not greedy or possessive, but also because of his bold style and ruthless character, which made his performance the best among many managers.

Now that the East India Company has encountered a dramatic change, the big money owners behind the scenes are eager for the company to recover as soon as possible. At this time, Beckett, who has always performed well and escaped unscathed in this strict investigation, naturally became the first choice of the money owners.

If his qualifications were not so low, he could have been promoted higher, and even become the chairman of the East India Company. It was for this reason that Beckett was very motivated.

As soon as he took office, he issued several orders, requiring local chief executives to significantly increase taxes and requiring local garrisons to crack down on pirates and suppress local rebellion.

The increased taxes include port taxes, navigation fees, berthing fees, loading and unloading fees, not to mention transaction taxes, import taxes, tobacco and alcohol taxes, stamp duties...all kinds of taxes.

According to Xiang Nan's calculations, if the new tax is levied, the tax that merchants need to pay will more than double the previous amount. As a result, the price of goods will naturally rise.

But this will make ordinary people suffer. They can only afford to buy less goods with the money they earn, so they can only be forced to tighten their belts and reduce unnecessary expenses. Merchants will also lose money if they cannot sell their goods.

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In order to survive, people had to find other ways, such as merchants smuggling goods into ports, and people also traded on the black market, so as to avoid high taxes.

But the cunning Beckett had anticipated this and he actually defined all smuggling and black market trade, whether by sellers or buyers, as "piracy" behavior.

Once they were caught, they would be charged with "piracy", and the punishment for "piracy" was hanging.

Just like what happened at the beginning of "Pirates of the Caribbean 3", any merchant or resident who dared to trade on the black market was defined as a "pirate", and as a result, thousands of people were hanged, so that there were not enough cemeteries.

……

When Xiang Nan saw this, he admired Beckett's ruthlessness. He was simply forcing people to death.

He would certainly not carry out such a cruel order to hang the desperate civilians. Governor Weatherby was also very dissatisfied with such an order.

"The East India Company is simply crazy. Which merchant would dare to come and trade with such high taxes?" he complained to Xiang Nan.

Xiang Nan nodded.

Merchants are all after profits, and they go wherever the taxes are low. Port Royal has such high taxes that merchants who come here to trade don't make any money at all.

Without merchants, Port Royal would not be able to collect taxes and sell goods, and Port Royal would be doomed to decline. By then, he would probably be done as governor.

(End of this chapter)