Lord Harland

Due to the intervention of the Holy Radiance Empire and the Kingdom of Harland, the civil war in the Kingdom of Delon has been going on for a year and a half. Now that both sides have strong supporters behind them, there is no way to tell the winner in a short period of time, and they have fallen into a stalemate.

However, King Anton has already begun to promote reforms, and his stamina is far greater than that of the rebels.

Judging from the balance of power between the two sides, King Anton already controls a population of 14 million, while the rebels only control a population of about 6 million. There is a huge gap in fiscal revenue between the two sides, and if it continues to be consumed for a long time, the rebels will most likely not be their opponents.

After all, without profit, Richard would not sell his blood to support Duke Marcel and other nobles.

Time has now entered the dawn calendar year 3284.

After more than thirty years of development, not counting the red moon plane, the total population of the Harland Kingdom has already exceeded 30 million.

The first is the native population. After two years of vigorous immigration, the population has reached 21 million. Among them, 18.5 million were free people and 2.8 million were indentured servants.

The cultivated land in the local area has basically been allocated to the four major provinces of Heihe, Central, Annes, and Vera. Unable to allocate public land. If the next generation of farmers wants to maintain a better life, in addition to migrating to border areas to reclaim wasteland, they can only find ways to develop in cities.

Otherwise, in two or three generations, the average cultivated land will decline rapidly, and the standard of living will also drop rapidly. There is a huge difference in the quality of life between five acres of land per capita and one acre of land per capita.

The land in the four provinces of Heihe has been distributed, and most of the cultivated land in the two major provinces of Eagle and Grotta has also been allocated.

The above six major provinces have basically been successfully developed, and the government no longer allows the reclamation of wasteland in principle.

In principle, indentured slaves purchased by the government are not allowed to be assigned to the six major provinces.

Rex Province is densely populated and will not accept foreign slaves to divide the land. Richard also has to find a way to move the excess population to the east coast and Puliland.

Now if you want to be a farmer and divide the land, you have to go to Pulilan to reclaim wasteland on the east coast. Reclamation is extremely difficult. Only indentured servants are willing to do this kind of life.

There are 18.5 million free people in the Harland Kingdom, and the income from agricultural taxes alone has exceeded 6.2 million. Adding in tariffs, business income tax, and real estate tax, the locally generated tax revenue is close to 10 million.

In addition to taxes, the Harland Kingdom's finances also include profits handed over by state-owned enterprises.

The first is the steel industry. With the commissioning of the Rikers Steel Plant, Harland Steel's steel output has exceeded 500,000 tons.

Because of the iron ore monopoly system, although the state-owned steel plants in the territory have suffered from big business problems and devoured a lot of profits, the fourteen steel companies in the Harland Kingdom still turned in profits of 600,000 gold coins this year.

After years of development, the internal relationships of major steel companies have become entangled, production efficiency has dropped a lot, and a large amount of profits have been swallowed up. Because major steel plants are riddled with problems, Richard has secretly made up his mind to abandon the steel franchise and support private capital in entering the steel industry.

Odaye, Immorton, and Rand took the lead and united more than 30 small businessmen to form an investment consortium. They spent a huge sum of 100,000 gold coins to obtain the exploration rights in the southern part of the East Coast Province. As long as iron ore is discovered, this consortium will invest in building steel plants to compete with state-owned enterprises.

The entry of private capital will greatly impact the profits of state-owned enterprises.

For example, in the flour manufacturing industry that Richard liberalized, factories run by capitalists such as Odaye and Immorton have won the competition and have a market share of more than 70%. Although the Harland Kingdom's market has expanded several times, the state-owned factories can only turn over hundreds of thousands of gold coins in profit, which is only equivalent to the level ten years ago.

However, from private flour processing factories such as Odaye, the Harland Kingdom can receive 300,000 gold coins in tax revenue. In terms of government revenue, efficiency is improving.

After the entry of private capital, they continued to compete with state-owned factories, and the surge in production capacity caused the price of flour to become lower and lower. This overall reduced industry profits and greatly improved the living standards of the people of the Kingdom of Harland.

In addition, private capital investment and the introduction of the patent bill also promoted technological progress and produced higher quality flour.

After ten years of piloting, Richard decided to slowly relax market restrictions and continue to support private capital.

The steel industry will be liberalized this year, and mechanical processing will be liberalized next year. Coal, textiles, soap, chemicals, real estate, and glass are all on Richard's open list.

As for the brown sugar trade, private capitalists were no longer able to compete with Harland’s brown sugar plantations. Planting brown sugar trees not only requires a large area of ​​land, but also requires the support of a magical plantation. The threshold for entry is actually very high. This year's brown sugar production has reached 48,000 tons, bringing Harland a profit of 340,000 gold coins.

Since two years ago, the brown sugar plantation has sold ripened brown sugar saplings to mountain people in the four provinces of Grotta, Eagle, East Coast and Priland.

After careful calculation, planting brown sugar trees, a cash crop, is five times more profitable than growing grain.

Even if there is no production in the first two years, brown sugar trees can be planted in barren mountainous areas, which is still very cost-effective for farmers.

The core reason why Richard sells brown sugar saplings to mountain people is to tilt resources towards mountainous areas and help alleviate economic poverty in mountainous areas. Currently, nearly 8,000 households and 40,000 to 50,000 poor people in mountainous areas have benefited from this policy.

Of course, the highest profit this year is from arms sales. If converted into gold coins, the profit from arms sales would exceed 3.5 million gold coins, but Harland used this profit to buy back 800,000 people.

Because of the outbreak of the war, the pharmaceutical business also brought a lot of profits to Harland's neck. Now Harland Pharmaceuticals has developed a variety of new drugs. Despite material restrictions, he was still able to turn in a profit of 500,000 gold coins to the country last year.

Coal production has increased to 3 million tons, and last year the territory handed over 300,000 gold coins in profit.

Coupled with the profits handed over by state-owned enterprises in industries such as wine, flour, textiles, soaps, machinery, real estate, glass, and perfumes, the local fiscal revenue of the Kingdom of Harland reaches as high as 13 million gold coins, surpassing the two kingdoms of Lane and Grant. times level.

After two years of development, not only the local fiscal revenue has increased significantly, but the development speed of the southern province of Rex has been even more astonishing.

As production resumed, Rex Province handed over 1.8 million gold coins in land tax alone. Coupled with commodity transit taxes, customs duties, and real estate taxes, the Rikers Province collected 400,000 in taxes. The factory invested two years ago began to make profits, and last year it handed over 200,000 gold coins. Overall, the fiscal revenue last year was as high as 2.4 million gold coins.

The fiscal revenue of 2.4 million gold coins is normally equivalent to three duchies.

Although the fiscal revenue is not low, the per capita tax burden in Ricks is about one-third of the local level. Of course, the actual living standards in Rex Province are far less wealthy than those in the mainland.

More than 95% of the 11 million people in Rex Province are serfs and can only maintain a very low standard of living. The remaining hundreds of thousands of freedmen were generally not very wealthy, and their spending power was not as good as that of the native provinces. Due to its low industrial capacity, the Harland Kingdom's exploitation of the residents of this province is actually very serious.

Although the morale of the east coast kingdom is slightly lower than a few years ago, the people of Rex Province are still in dire straits.

Eighty-eight percent of the Harland Kingdom is freedmen. If it weren't for the migration of 1.7 million people due to the war in the Delong Kingdom, there would be almost no indentured servants left in the country. After years of development in the local area, although the policy is the same as that of the Rex Province, the proportion of taxes borne by the people is actually very light.

The 18.5 million free citizens in the local area form the largest consumer market in the Dawn Plane. Even the Holy Glorious Empire, which has a population of one billion, cannot compare with the consumer population of the Harland Territory.

Finally, there is the territory of the Red Moon Plane. Although this territory is the largest in area, the Harland Kingdom does not value it. In recent years, it has been ruled by Ji Su. It can be said that the imperial power does not extend to the county.

The bureaucrats sent by the Kingdom of Harland can only extend their tentacles to larger castles.

The governance of local villages is basically entrusted to indigenous powerful groups and tax collectors.

Of course, the so-called local powerful factions and indigenous tax collectors are also a class supported by the Harland Kingdom. Most of them are the families of officers and soldiers and the surrendered nobles.

Although there are more than 6 million people in the Red Moon Plane, the tax revenue is not high. As of last year, it only collected 700,000 gold coins, which is far from enough for local garrison expenses.

In addition to the above three territories, the Harland family also has a duke and an earldom in the Grant Kingdom.

Among them, the duchy directly managed by William had 1.8 million people and an army of 50,000. The population of Earl Philip is 1.2 million, and only 10,000 local troops are left.

The income of Duke William is not high, and the finances are not enough to support the army. Earl Philip can breathe a sigh of relief, and can coordinate 200,000 gold coins for Duke William every year.

Despite this, the Duke of William still cannot make ends meet. Last year, the Rex Province of the Kingdom of Harland supported the Duke of William with 100,000 gold coins to prevent William from disarming.

Not counting the internal territories of the Grant Kingdom, the Harland Kingdom had a total fiscal revenue of 16.3 million last year, of which 8.46 million was from land tax, accounting for approximately 52% of the total fiscal revenue. Profits and taxes paid by state-owned enterprises account for 48% of total fiscal revenue.

Taken together, the Harland Kingdom has implemented a light tax policy on industry and commerce, and the overall burden is only about 8%.

In fact, based on the industrial and commercial competitiveness of the Harland Kingdom, the tax rate can be set at around 30%. But Richard did not want to increase the burden on the public and did not like inflation, so he did not change the tax rate.

Moreover, with the current financial revenue of the Harland Kingdom, it can easily suppress its competitors. The situation was not so bad that Richard needed to resort to force and increase fiscal revenue on a large scale to expand the army.

Judging from last year's data, the income from gold coins of the Harland Kingdom has been three times that of the Grant Kingdom. The income from Magic Crystal has also reached 140,000, which is about nine times higher than that of Grant Kingdom.

The Kingdom of Grant is considered a regional power among the eastern countries, but compared with the Kingdom of Harland, it is not a rival at the same level.

From the perspective of national strength, except for the slightly insufficient population, the Kingdom of Harland has already come far ahead.

Compared with a few years ago, although the Harland Kingdom's fiscal revenue has increased significantly, its expenditures have also increased a lot. Although it cannot be said to be beyond its means, there is not much fiscal surplus every year.

In the past two years, the Harland Kingdom has continued to slowly expand its military, with its total military strength reaching 310,000. Among them, the garrison in the Red Moon plane has been expanded to 100,000, the garrison in Rex Province has been expanded to 60,000, and the garrison in the local area has been expanded to 150,000.

In addition, the Earl of Philip also left 10,000 local troops, and the Duke of William also had an army of 50,000. Of course, these 60,000 troops rely on local finance and do not require much contribution from the Kingdom of Harland. In the past few years, they only coordinated three to four hundred thousand gold coins, but last year it was reduced to one hundred thousand.

The 310,000-strong army needs 3.6 million yuan in military pay every year, and the logistics expenditure also requires 700,000 yuan a year.

The money needed to expand the army by 40,000 and manufacture and purchase weapons and equipment totals close to 3 million. If divided equally over two years, 1.5 million will be invested in one year.

Coupled with the military system's annual disability and death pension of 250,000 gold coins, the annual cost of raising the army alone is as high as 6.05 million.

Of course, with the development of the economy, the proportion of military expenditure has dropped a lot, only about 37% last year. Five or ten years ago, military spending would have accounted for at least half of fiscal revenue.

In addition to military spending, government spending is as high as three million a year.

Last year, 600,000 gold coins were invested in medical treatment and education, and the investment in scientific research institutes and magic research departments exceeded one million.

In addition, there was an investment of about 2.6 million gold coins in infrastructure last year, and the fiscal balance last year was about 3 million gold coins.

Richard would not put the assets of three million gold coins in the treasury. Only when the gold coins flow can they create income for the territory.

Because a sum of gold coins had been accumulated in the treasury, Richard and Rogge discussed and decided to invest part of the remaining funds in the bank to expand the bank's capital and invest part in industrial projects.

In more than thirty years, the economy has developed to such a scale. Although the Kingdom of Harland has discovered many minerals, the precious metal reserves are no longer enough.

Since twenty years ago, the speed of coinage has been unable to keep up with the speed of economic development.

At that time, Richard began to implement the voucher system. After more than 20 years of preparation, Richard carefully maintained the credibility of banknotes.

In the past decade or so, with the extensive use of steam engines, mechanical processing technology has continued to advance, and papermaking and printing technologies have advanced by leaps and bounds, which has increased the difficulty of building cost-effective replicas. The foundation has been laid for the large-scale implementation of banknotes.

Since two years ago, the Kingdom of Harland has put a large amount of banknotes into the market, linked its exchange rate to physical gold, and implemented a gold standard system.

After nearly two decades of preparation, the issuance of banknotes did not cause turmoil in the market. Richard issued three million banknotes the year before last and four million last year.

This year, Rogge and Richard discussed and prepared to release money again. The banknotes put into the market will exceed 5 million.