Don’t raise unruly people in extreme cold weather

Chapter 482 Tax Package Changes
Thanks to Perfecto's efforts, the situation in the New World colonies was finally saved from complete collapse.

With the joint efforts of military control, the active cooperation of the workers' union, and civilian officials transferred from the North, the situation in the New World colonies was finally stabilized and order gradually began to be restored.

However, the serious impact of the governor's rebellion still caused heavy damage to the economy and people's livelihood of the entire New World colonies.

Especially before this, the Imperial Army was still fighting with the Revolutionary Army, which was also a devastation to the New World colonies themselves.

Now the entire New World has been divided into two by Perfecto. Half of it has been given to the revolutionary army to establish an autonomous region. Not to mention for now, the remaining half of the colony has many problems, and the people are almost living in misery.

In the previous war, in order to raise more troops, the former governor not only borrowed a large sum of money from colonial bankers and merchants, but also imposed heavy taxes on the people.

And now this money has been spent and turned into the five infantry regiments that have been crushed by the Steam Knights.

There is nothing much to say about this matter itself. As the governor of the colony, he raised funds to form an army to suppress the riots. This is a normal procedure and there is naturally no problem with it.

But the former governor did something that seemed very stupid to Perfecto. He mortgaged the tax farming rights of the New World colonies for ten years to the bankers, in exchange for enough funds to support the war.

Everyone who knows what tax farming is knows. Simply put, the government contracts the power to collect taxes to the tax farmer. The tax farmer is responsible for ensuring that the collected taxes are handed over to the government, but other than that, no one cares how much the tax farmer actually collects.

So it often happens that even though the government collects ten dollars in taxes, the tax farmer collects fifty dollars, gives nine dollars to the government, saying that the harvest was bad this year, and the remaining forty-one dollars goes into his own pocket.

Of course, such exaggerated tax collection is still quite exaggerated. Generally speaking, tax farmers will not really collect taxes like this. But there is no doubt that considering the cost and profit issues, tax farmers will inevitably collect higher taxes than the original taxes.

This undoubtedly increased the burden on ordinary people and also affected the morale of the people in the empire.

But these are not the most important things. The most important thing is that it will breed a privileged class that controls the local economy.

At first they might just seek economic benefits, but then they will start to make political demands, and later they will form their own armed forces to facilitate the collection of taxes...

In the end, they became the ones who controlled the country behind the scenes.

In the original world, they were generally called consortiums or oligarchs. The once legendary Rothschild, Skull and Bones Society, Seven Sisters and the like were all the result of the development of this type of people to the extreme, although they may not have started out by tax farming.

Precisely because of the experience of the original world as a reference, Perfect always remains wary of the bourgeoisie and businessmen.

And this is also in the interests of the feudal aristocracy that she represents, isn't it? The bourgeoisie always wants to seize power from the aristocracy.

As for the tax package system, if there is no doomsday crisis, Perfect may only consider how to strictly regulate it.

After all, collecting taxes requires a large number of professional tax officials and financial personnel. It would undoubtedly be a huge burden if these people were to rely on the government to train them.

After the land was contracted to the tax farmer, this part of the burden was undoubtedly borne by the tax farmer himself. This could also reduce the financial burden and government expenditure of the empire from the side, but the corresponding part of the burden was imposed on ordinary people.

But considering that tax farmers in France before the Revolution accounted for 40% of France's fiscal revenue, it is not impossible to say that this thing is useless. It is just that with the development of society, after various drawbacks of the tax farming system were exposed, it was a historical necessity that it was eliminated by society.

Of course, the tax-farming system was once popular in this world, and it wasn’t long before it was abolished.

The problem was not that big of a problem at this time, but it was very difficult for Perfecto to clean up the mess, because on the one hand, she could not allow the bankers to control the taxation of the New World colonies for the next ten years, and on the other hand, she could not deny the loan.

For Perfecto, the reason for not recognizing the loan was ready. As long as she insisted that it was a loan from the former governor, and the former governor had been identified as a rebel, she could directly refuse to recognize the loan.

She could even go a step further and label all these bankers as traitors and have them executed together.

But doing so would undoubtedly not help restore order in the New World colonies. Instead, it would further deepen the fear of the local people and even lead to worse consequences.

This is like a spring that has been stretched very tight. If you continue to pull it, it is likely to break.

Although severe punishments should be used in times of chaos, it also depends on the situation.

If all cities have fallen into chaos at this time, and even riots have occurred, then there is nothing to say, just raise your butcher knife and kill.

But now that the city has restored basic order, it is no longer possible to use more harsh measures.

Moreover, Perfecto was counting on these businessmen to contribute their efforts in the subsequent construction of the shelter, so he couldn't kill them all.

So, after careful consideration, Perfect decided to recognize the loan, but would not allow bankers to obtain tax farming rights.

After all, in the future doomsday winter, if these bankers gain control of the tax farming rights, it is hard to say that they will not develop into independent local separatist forces, or even further evolve into a situation that they do not want to see.

In particular, these bankers obtained the tax-farming rights for the entire New World colonies, rather than just the tax-farming rights for a particular city.

Therefore, with Perfecto's mediation or intervention, the colonial government's loan was changed from being mortgaged with ten-year tax-farming rights to being repaid with the colonial government's taxes within the next ten years.

The North will act as a guarantor for this loan.

With Perfectcot's intervention, the bankers knew how to stop while they were ahead. They quickly agreed to the change in the loan and later actively participated in the construction of the shelter and energy tower organized by Perfectcot.

After all, this thing concerns their own lives, and no one will joke about it.

(End of this chapter)