World Development System
/ World Development System 275 206. Finance Minister Joel's Policy.
Minister Joel smiled as he immediately understood the intention of his majesty while the ones who objected earlier had rather pale faces when they saw the intention of his majesty.
Some of them thought as they heard King Lionheart, 'It seems the situation of Treasury is quite dire since his Majesty directed his intentions and asked Minister Joel to give his own narrative. As this Policy was written by him I doubt he will raise any cons and doubts about this proposal. It seems his Majesty too wants to pass this proposal.'
Minister Joel smiled with an understanding and spoke more freely, "My policy consists of multiple parts. Currently, I have divided it in 5 segments:
First is the construction sector, with that new item called cement from Sky, we can construct buildings and Infrastructure at a faster pace then what we used to do earlier. It would also be cheaper as compared to our previous methods. We already have a case study and results, I think all of us have already seen the results at Duke Rose's Ducky or even Marquis Steve's Pearl City. More Merchants have traveled to Duke Rose's Iron Rainforest and Pearl City because of the reduced traveling costs and improved safety from bandits which has inevitably attracted more merchants. It was only because of Duke Rose's southern domain's taxes from commercial activities that we are a bit afloat in the Imperial treasury. From Duke Rose's Duchy compared to the previous year's tax of 31.12 Million taels of gold, this year we received 121 Million tales of gold because of increased commercial activities that were related to the Construction sector. This has inevitably increased the average income of people and this has also encouraged many people to create their own businesses. The prices of Land there have increased by 3 times in Capital of Iron Rainforest and the Port City of Pearl has increased prices by 2.5 at borders to 3.5 times at the main square. With this trend, I think Pearl City will become the financial hub of Aelius in a few years rather than the Imperial city."
"Second is related to Health Care, I think all of you previously already heard the benefits of distributing medicines and competing with light magicians who charge exorbitant prices which is not affordable for commoners. This will also generate quite an income for all the nobles, ministers and the Royal Family. I think all of you already know your competitors (Radiant church). So as to compensate you guys, the Royal family will re-distribute the medicines that we received from Sky to the nobles and ministers to sell them in their own domains since we won't enough channels in other domains as compared to locals."
After hearing this, all the nobles and ministers regardless of faction smiled as they understood the intention of the Royal family while an Ambassador from the Radiant Church had a pale face he understood the scheme of Minister Joel, Minister Plato and King Lionheart. However, some nobles who were on very good terms with Radiant Church had conflicted faces as they would have a face-off with the Radiant Church but at the same time, they didn't want to let go of this gold mine in the healthcare sector.
When Prince Hector was again going to speak he was stopped by Duke Norman and his Assistant Alistair who understood the gravity of the situation. They understood that this was a face-off between Aelius, Sky and Radiant Church where Aelius and Sky were collaborating to suppress them.
Duke Norman meanwhile smiled as he never had a good relationship with the radiant church for decades since the Radiant Church had previously tried to poach his knights when he was fighting against his brothers for the title of the duke decades ago when his knights were suffering diseases which had cost him a lot.
Duke Norman spoke gravely to Prince Hector after watching his previous behavior, "Your HIghness please keep calm. You should let Lord Minister Joel complete his speech or it will be a very difficult situation for you. You wouldn't want to make Lord Minister Joel as your enemy and give him a chance to attack you. He has squeezed a lot of Powerful Nobles out of Imperial Court in the last decade who were against his economic policies. The only ones who have resisted and suppressed him completely are Prime Minister Hasse and Defence Minister Plato. Previously in the last War, Prime Minister Hasse never spoke a word on his approval or rejection of war which is what displays his foresight and also His Majesty's trust in his foresight after the conclusion of the war."
Alistair nodded as he heard Norman and spoke, "Minister Hasse had spoken privately that he always thought that Lord John was always provoking Prince Hector and Royal Family via greed which meant that Lord John was prepared for a fight for a long time and was just throwing bait after baits. In his opinion, Lord John had the support of Demons from the Fire Abyss Kingdom particularly the Bluesea clan. From his perspective, Demons wanted the Royal Family to use the Dragon knights to be away from the Capital so that they can launch a good attack from the west. And this was one of the reasons why His Majesty never moved the Dragon Knights even though he had his urges and last but not the least was Lord Eanred's Ominous vibes and his visions."
Meanwhile, Minister Joel continued, "The third is the most important collaboration is in the military. Previously we used to purchase expensive ships from Lord Fjord and State Industries who were satisfied with mediocrity and no innovations were made because of this. I think this competition would raise their competitive spirit between the State, Lord Fjord and Sky. Sky has agreed to sell ships to us which are faster by 1.5 times as compared to Duke Fjord's ships. In exchange, we have agreed to sell them some metal mines and some Common Magic Crystal mines. Later after the peace deal, we will also have an opportunity to deal with Mana restoring pills because of this deal not to mention reduced military costs at the borders at North since it will be managed by Baron Mendez."
After watching the silence, Joel nodded and continued, "Fourth is employment, through the above-proposed policies, it will create a lot of jobs in Aelius which will inevitably increase the consumption leading to increased taxes by businesses. Though you people may not understand it, however, it will increase a lot of business and a lot of Taxes. I will just give you one example, Duke Rose's Southern domain which has increased the prices of land by 1.5 to 3.5 times. The Land Taxes alone would increase by 1.5 times which is very good for us. And this was done only by the construction sector. You can read the whole policy to understand this point in-depth or it will take much of your time."
Minister Joel smiled sinisterly as he came to the main political point and spoke, "Fifth is if we refuse, we will be dragged back by 5 years because of the previous war and lose an opportunity to earn income in Medical Services. I think all of you understand my meaning. And last but not the least, here we have the list of names of prisoners of war which was given to us by Lord Taylor to Lord Luke. It was earned with a lot of difficulties by Lord Plato and Lord Luke to strike this deal and if rejected the prisoners might be working as slaves over there. I don't think any of you nobles would want your children in such conditions. By the way, General Endo too was captured while he was fighting Lord Blake unlike some General who ran away. All of the soldiers can be redeemed by family members, the list is separated according to Duchy, state, city, town and villages so it will be easier to find the kins. The families who can't redeem the soldiers will have the men who were captured work at Sky for 5 years. The families too can live with them in Sky if they don't have other sources of income and are on the verge of becoming slaves. Meanwhile, Lord John is buying people, not slaves at the price of 10 Gold Coins so this includes the families of soldiers who want to migrate to Sky for 5 years. I think with this deal, you guys can give a sufficient explanation to everyone in the domain while also pay compensation to families who lost their kin via this policy. And most importantly if we don't make this deal with Sky right now and ruin our relations then it would require 3-4 years just to recover from the previous war and my future policies for the next 10 years would need to be scrapped as we won't have sufficient funds I would most likely need to open up a lot of investigations to follow those previous policies. So Please decide Carefully now."
Hiss.....
A lot of people who were still bent on rejecting the proposal understood the underlying meaning of the last statement and the threat it posed when it came to investigations. First is that the Kingdom was doing this to combat the Radiant Church Politically and at the same time earn quite an amount of money while at the same time they can bring back prisoners who were captured in the war. And the second point, General Endo who was the brother of Queen Cecelia was in the list of prisoners.
King Lionheart smiled and nodded as he looked at Minister Joel and spoke gravely to other ministers, "As this policy is quite significant and holds the future of Aelius we don't have much choice as we must accept or reject this proposal today. All of you guys have 30 minutes for discussion. After this, we will decide on the approval or rejection of the proposal made by Lord Joel and Lord Plato."
At this time, Prime Minister smiled for the first time as he understood the pros and his Majesty's intention so he spoke immediately to give his stance, "Your Majesty, I would like to approve this proposal since it is for the betterment of everyone and it is also save the sons who fought previously, we can't let them down."
Minister Brandon representing Duke Sapphire Rose too smiled and spoke, "Duke Rose's Manor too would like to give their approval on the proposed policies given by Lord Joel and Lord Plato."
Finance Minister Justin of Duke BlackWolf too raised his hand as he spoke and furrowed his brows while looking at Brandon and Prime Minister who spoke before him, "This subject agrees on behalf of Duke Blackwolf to the proposal of Defence Minister Plato and Minister Joel."
This surprised a lot of people as they understood that Duke Blackwolf was trying to pacify Prince Lukavv while at the same time earning some brownie points from Minister Joel with whom they previously had conflicts when it came to taxes.
Some Shrewd ministers too followed the lead of Prime Minister, Minister Justin and Minister Brandon as they were anyway on the opposite faction of Prince Hector and Military.
Meanwhile, Duke Norman and some ministers on Prince Hector's faction had a conflicting face as they looked at those shrewd ministers and then at Prince Hector as they sighed and decided to give their approval, rejection, or abstaining after 30 Minutes of Discussion after looking at the intentions of other Ministers in their own faction.
Looking at this situation, Minister Joel smiled as he was quite satisfied with the reaction of Ministers as he got a lot of face in this session whether it came to Prime Minister, Queen Celelia's family, Minister Justin, Minister Brandon or other ministers.
Plato looked at Joel as he approached him and spoke, "You seem quite satisfied Minister Joel. What are your plans after 30 minutes?"
Looking at the few ministers who were previously objecting to his proposal, Joel smiled and spoke, "Well I was intending to expose and Impeach a few ministers who have done a lot of damage to Aelius. I cannot let them go, can I?"
Joel's Assistant understood as he called a bureaucrat for the show which would take place after the approval.
Minister Joel's Assistant took some documents from him and handed it over to a bureaucrat for the next session.
Plato understood his meaning and spoke, "Hahaha, True we can't let evildoers who harm the state remain in power, can we?"
Looking at the meaning of both the ministers, everyone in the factions of Minister Joel and Plato understood that the next hearing would create quite a storm in the political circles of Aelius.
Joel nodded and whispered to Plato, "Meanwhile, do you think that Prince Hector has made any contact with Prime Minister Hasse yesterday?
Minister shook and spoke, "Nope, we shouldn't be worried today. And after hearing this proposal even if he wanted to support him. He won't support the corrupt men in Lord Hector's faction at least as he has already understood the meaning of his majesty."
Chapter end
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