Rise of Rurik Chapter 1036

At the banquet, Kagan was very drunk.

Rurik invited many nobles from the Novgorod region, and even Old Otto, a heavyweight mission town.

Everyone called Kagan Khan in the habit of the steppe people, and they all admitted that he was indeed the supreme ruler of Pecheneg.

Drinking to the point of excitement, Rurik hung the crystal cup high, and advocated: "No one can question the power of my brother Kagan. If anyone opposes him being the khan of Pecheneg, I will raise my troops to attack. All attacks My ally's actions are equivalent to attacking Ross. Friendship lasts!"

The nobles held up their glasses of various colors and shouted that the friendship would last forever, and they kept drinking, and the ale seemed to be inexhaustible.

It is true that the Novgorod region, which has a lot of grain, has the capital to squander the grain to make wine. In the long winter, it seems that only wine can warm people up quickly. Drinking is not only a personal preference, but also a means for locals to fight against the cold.

Kagan had already done as the locals did, and he had already felt the chill in the extreme north, lamenting that there was no force capable of defeating Ross. On the contrary, these giant beasts from the north can go south and bite at will.

"To our eternal friendship!" Kagan staggered and stood up with his drunken body, only to sit down again without noticing. He smiled as he watched the wine glass half spilled and drank it again.

There are ale and kvass, and flammable spirits. Any liquor is deliberately added with some honey and mixed with a stick to make the original cocktail.

The banquet even made other dishes lose their charm, only the sizzling roasted whole lamb attracted everyone's mouth.

The banquet to send Kagan home was an opportunity, and then it was the opportunity for Rurik to gather Boyar of the estates around the lake into the city.

When these nobles arrived, the good news that was deliberately leaked in advance had already been passed down by word of mouth and naturally spread to their ears.

Is there such a good thing? Because of the great victory of the expedition, tax exemption for three years?

Didn't you say you plan to be tax-free this year? Your Majesty, after that, he has to be tax-free for three years?

The good news is a little too good. The public always repeats the "three-year tax exemption". When Boyar casually grabs a person to have fine lines, the respondent can only say "I also learned about it from a friend."

Whether such a good thing is true, the Boyars dare not speculate. They hope this is true, and their first priority now is to see the Pechenegs home.

The banquet is not to determine whether the rumors are true or not. They tried their best to keep calm when the banquets were staggered. Only when everyone was drunk would someone be dizzy and bring it up.

It is hoped that the king can publicly declare this to be true and immediately announce the exemption of all agricultural taxes from 841 to 843, that is, the restoration of taxes from 844.

I saw Rurik shook his head with a smile characteristic of drunkenness. He didn't say anything, but with this smile he seemed to tacitly acknowledge that there was something wrong.

After all, a large number of nobles were lying in the banquet hall, and most of them were unconscious, making the whole scene too corrupt.

Old Otto also wanted to return to his old bravery, but unfortunately he was too old, and he couldn't stand it if he wanted to drink heavily. It seems that he has been deprived of the qualification to drink hard by God, so he has to have a few drinks.

Since the nobles arrived in Novgorod by boat, there is no need to go back, because the traditional inland trade routes have been restored. As the largest residence in the kingdom, there is a huge consumer population around Yinermen Lake, coming from the direction of Novorossburg. The ships deliberately waited until the end of the spring snowmelt period, the Neva and Volkhov rivers finally became much more relaxed, and merchant ships began to sail to Novgorod to unload and sell goods.

Leather goods, salt, bacon and ironware from the north arrived one after another, and locals flocked to buy them.

Even if the king does not collect taxes, the boyars of the farms will always need silver coins. The price of grain during the autumn harvest is extremely low, and they are more willing to store grain until the spring, and then sell it to the outside world during the spring drought.

Due to the continuous expansion of farmland across the country, the weather in recent years may not be good or bad. Macroscopically, the production capacity of grain has been increasing, and Rurik set the official grain selling price at ten pounds of oats or nine pounds of wheat for one silver coin. Grain is indeed the anchor of currency value.

The official selling price is like this, and the official also holds a large amount of silver coins, copper coins and even gold stocks.

Even if grain can actually be used as ready-made currency, a sack of oats is often packaged in a hundred pounds, which is a maximum of ten silver coins. In theory, they can do transactions directly with merchants at this exchange rate, but the reality is that it is extremely unrealistic.

Any merchant likes metal currency that is light and easy to carry, and merchants from the north will never buy goods and then ship a load of grain back.

As the leaders of the farms, the Boyars have to fulfill many obligations to the villagers. If the kingdom collects taxes, they are tax preparers. If the villagers want to sell the food for trading, they help the villagers to sell the food to earn a little benefit.

Rurik fixed the official price for selling grain, and how much was sold each month was determined by the standard he set. These grains are almost the commercial grain supply for the cities, and people outside the cities have no right to buy them unless there is a famine. Anyone who tries to disturb it is guilty of the greatest sin, and will be sentenced to the blood eagle, though never enforced.

Rurik set a bottom line for the food market, and based on the current situation of the Rus Kingdom, although the kingdom's territory is huge, its population is still too small and distributed in several large plates. Business has indeed become more prosperous than in the past, but the large-scale trade market for grain is almost only suddenly raised during the autumn harvest, and then quickly died down.

Except for the autumn harvest period, the grain trading market was sluggish as a whole. Even if the Boyars deliberately delayed selling grain until the spring, they could not achieve the high price of ten pounds of wheat for one silver coin.

It was Rurik who was the biggest grain merchant in the country, and he could buy it for the low price of fifteen pounds for a silver coin during the autumn harvest.

Whether it is Vikings or Slavs, as long as they are farmers and are eager to cash in their food, they will sell their food in a big way to exchange money from the king.

For more than ten years, the royal family has accumulated enough credibility that as long as the farmer has the ability to transport the grain to the royal family's purchasing station, he can get the grain.

The kingdom then consists of three large grain purchasing stations, in Stockholm, Novgorod and Novgorod. In terms of its size, Novgorod is the largest, and the city's granary is also the largest in the country.

Therefore, each boyar has to consider the consumption cost of storing food by themselves, and they lack the storage technical ability of the royal family. They need to exchange a large amount of silver coins to buy other daily necessities as soon as possible, and even if it is delayed until spring plowing, they will not be able to earn much more.

Taxation was never the first method for the king to obtain a large amount of grain from the people. The king was the biggest businessman and a monopoly businessman, so he could exchange all kinds of necessities for grain from the big grain owners. Just***.

"One silver coin for ten pounds of oats" is the foundation of the economic activities of the Rus Kingdom, which is indeed a grain-based country.

In fact, in Rurik's view, since food is the foundation of life and a real currency, he has the full right to issue money based on food.

"I can print a batch of food exchange coupons. The cost of printing is paper and ink. I can use it as a reward for some people, so that they can only use this paper to exchange food from me."

The earliest paper money was indeed a commercial bill of exchange that was made spontaneously by the people, which was later officially recognized as legal and officially endorsed for its credit.

Is there a silver coin shortage in Ross now? not at all. Ross's economic activity does have a ceiling, and touching that ceiling is shackled. This is precisely the principle of "one silver coin for ten pounds of oats", which would break out if the royal family was unable to produce the equivalent of economic activity in a future crisis, or if official stockpiles of grain were suddenly depleted.

At present, the economic activities of Rus are developing normally. Since there is no crisis in the flow of traditional currencies, it is not necessary to resort to the practice of paper money.

Not only that, although Ross's expedition caused many old soldiers to break down, the "Marriage and Population Expansion Operation" that started more than ten years ago finally broke out with powerful force, and the soldiers would not suddenly appear with the will of the king. Precautions made more than ten years ago have led to the emergence of thousands of twelve-year-olds in the kingdom.

These boys were born in the period of Ross's wealth expansion, they do not know what to starve, on the contrary, they grew up eating wheat and fish, and their physical fitness is far better than that of their parents. They have learned the basics of culture again, and can read paper orders in Latin alphabet and understand any posted notices. They can go to the battlefield with weapons, but if they can wait a little longer, when they are fifteen years old, they will be better warriors.

According to tradition, even if a child is born on the last day of the year (the day before Hanukkah), as long as Hanukkah is over, the kid is one year old, but in reality it is only two or three days old. So a lot of boys who are counted as twelve are actually only eleven.

In 841, the second group of twelve-year-old children made their debut. They were already considered adults, and they were obliged to defend the territory of Russia. They were more qualified to marry and have children. In fact, children of Nordic descent, regardless of gender, genetics. It is determined that their precociousness has such an ability.

Of course Rurik wouldn't be stupid enough to let a twelve-year-old boy go into the battlefield, unless it was a war that would kill the country after all the gambling, like the battle of Gotland nine years ago.

On the contrary, Ross has created a relatively safe external space. The existing standing army and soldiers from various flag teams are disarmed and returned to their fields. It is not appropriate to recruit them to take the initiative to expedition. There is absolutely no problem in defending the country.

Even if the civil war in the Frankish kingdom is doomed to intensify, hasn't Ross and Denmark joined hands to send personnel to the Western world to deliberately disrupt the situation? The main force of Ross does not need to be involved, unless Ludwig of the Eastern Kingdom is really going to be beaten to the brink of subjugation by his elder brother Lothair.

As a result, the kingdom got a period of strategic opportunity, and the entire kingdom had to recuperate.

The news of the so-called "three-year tax exemption" was indeed spread by Rurik. He could estimate that after the news spread, the public was indeed discussing it happily.

Why is it tax-free for three years? According to the original plan, in 840, tax exemption was required to stabilize the confidence of the expeditionary army and the people in the rear. As a result, the industrious scribes had already finished collecting taxes before the tax exemption order was passed back to their hometown. The tax exemption must naturally be fulfilled in 841. But the kingdom did achieve a great expedition!

When Caesar performed a ten-day triumphal ceremony in Rome, the people of Rome saw the majesty and glory of the army. But what really made the people support Caesar was another virtuous policy - he invited the people of the city to eat and drink for free for a whole month.

In short, it is to throw money. If you put it another way, it is tax exemption for the people.

Li Chuangsui used the banner of "three-year tax exemption" to get the response of the hungry people, and the army of refugees swelled from the defeated Eighteen Cavalry to two million in just one year.

With some clear knowledge of history, Rurik was aware of the significance of tax exemption, and the romantic idea in his heart was not destroyed by the decade-long expansion war.

In 842, it must be tax-free, which is equivalent to the feat of "Caesar invites the whole city to dinner". This has been tax-free for two years. Let's learn from the righteous deeds of the Eastern dynasties when they started, and extend the tax-free period to three years.

Because the main grain-producing areas of Rus directly controlled by the royal family are highly concentrated in the surrounding Yinermen Lake area, farms are villages, and they are the basic social units for organizing food production. Each farm has boyar nobles equivalent to villages. Even if some boyars used to be in the past, they are actually under the direct control of the governor of Novgorod, and the governor is directly responsible to the king Rurik , even if these boyars continue to do good, if they dare to refuse the king's decree, the army will come to crusade in person, as they have done in the past.

In fact, some privileges are naturally established for Rurik, the immigrant settlement of the old Rus, but they are treated equally in terms of agricultural taxes. There are more than 40 old and new Slavic farms around the lake. They are Slavs. Many people know that the Russ among the Varyags who come by boating are untouchable. They were born with such a consciousness, and now they are relieved to be directly managed by Ross.

A large number of Rus immigrated to the Lake District, and because they lived in the territory of the slaughtered old pine needle manor, they did not invade the fields of other manors. They made a comparison. Back then, Pine Needle Manor was also a little bully, and each farm had to make offerings to them. Now it is also for the Rus people, but the Rus people have given everyone a lot of benefits, so that the grain production has increased a lot, paid more grain to the Rus people, and kept more grain for themselves.

Even if the king did not have any tax-exempt decrees, the days of the Slavic farms continued steadily. After all, they hardly sent troops on expeditions, and although they didn't get the spoils, they also didn't lose. On the contrary, Boyar's son, who was ordered to be a cavalryman (hostage), came back with a lot of loot, and the boy became the hero of the whole village, a warrior recognized by King Ross. The men in the village who boasted of being brave also followed suit, eager to have the opportunity to go to the battlefield to get trophies and personal honor.

More than 40 Boyars were ordered to participate in the banquet, and everyone actually received the king's wine and barbecue hospitality, and they were extremely satisfied and grateful.

In fact, this was also a performance by Rurik, to make those Boyars realize that even though he was forced to move his village from the forest to the lake to accept the rule of Rus, King Rus did not treat them as outsiders. .

So let these boyars wake up after drinking, and after they are fully recovered, they are invited to enter the parliamentary court in the city.

It was lively and lively in the parliamentary court. It was rumored that the king was about to announce the tax exemption order. When talking about this, many people were so excited that they trembled violently, which was beyond the control of personal willpower.

So when Rurik appeared noble and kind, all the Boyars stood up one after another, roaring, stomping the floor and applauding, making a lot of noise by various means.

Rurik waved to them, not bothering to repeat the polite words.

The Governor Medvet was present, and the top scribe Ella was also present. The two stood on the left and right of Rurik, and only the smart people in Boyar had fully understood the meaning of the meeting. Because of any taxation activities, the governor will send people to carry the physical agricultural tax and supervise the implementation, and the top clerk will send people to do the statistical work, which will become the proof of everything in the form of written records.

Rurik said bluntly: "Have you heard the news? This king tells you that everything is true!"

So the scene that was just quiet quickly boiled like boiling water.

He slapped the low podium vigorously, scolding everyone for being quiet with a smile.

And solemnly announced: "Last year should be tax-free, but there were some problems. Therefore, this year will replace last year's tax-free! Also because of the great success of the war, it is so glorious to be tax-free. Next year will continue to be tax-free. Since it has been tax-free for two years, I will send you another one. 2019, and the year after that continues to be tax-free. Three full years! This year is 841, and the tax-exemption lasts until 843. When we collect the agricultural tax again, it will be 844!”

Rurik repeated this again and again for the specific time to ensure that Boyar, who was behind his ears, could hear clearly. UU reading www.uukanshu.com

They cheered wildly and praised the king for his wiseness, using the best word in the Slavic vocabulary, "Slava" and "Skoyn", which together means "glorious hero."

The tax exemption was first announced in Novgorod, and then carried out to settlements throughout the kingdom.

So, since it is tax-free, what about the state's expenses? There will be no fiscal deficit?

Because of the seizure of the war, and even the continuous blood transfusion of the metal smelting industry directly controlled by the royal family, if the wealth flowing into the treasury is less the cost of the huge war, the wealth will indeed increase. After all, only the agricultural tax is exempted, and the commercial tax and customs tax should be collected or collected. What's more, he calculated that the war of 840 had indeed turned into a commercial war, and the Eastern Kingdom had completely opened the door to Ross. Rus now has the best iron ore in Europe. It is a huge source of wealth for the kingdom at the current historical stage. It exports iron products to Saxony, Flanders, the Netherlands, Britain and East Frank. The local geographical conditions determine that they are indeed lacking. Iron, it is impossible to refuse good iron from the north.

In this alone, history returns to its formality. Ever since the discovery of large iron ore in the Kingdom of Sweden, crude sponge iron or iron iron has been exported to the Holy Roman Empire. Shinra craftsmen will iron and finish, and then learn steelmaking and hydraulic forging techniques in the 15th century, making steel rapidly popular. Shinra can do this, largely relying on the annual transportation of Swedish iron ore, which is a thousand-year transportation.

Rurik didn't do this on purpose, considering various considerations, selling iron products to Saxony and the Eastern Kingdom was the best solution to grab the local wealth. He is now in Novgorod, and it is certain that armed cargo ships from Rus will begin to circle Jutland towards Hamburg, Rotterstad (Rotterdam) and Utrecht...

Chapter end