Darkstone Code-Chapter 941 - 939: Actually...

Why seek foreign investment?

Actually, the rationale for seeking foreign investment is quite simple: use other people’s money to create tax revenue for the local treasury and provide jobs for local residents. The profits that companies achieve for themselves are another matter.

An economic society’s functioning doesn’t mean that just because everyone has money, it is necessarily good. Money needs to be in motion.

When companies make money, they pay part of it as taxes and part of it as wages—this represents a form of movement.

Taxes promote urban development and construction, while wages provide residents with a livelihood guarantee. This money will flow back into other aspects of the social economy.

People don’t create money nor hoard it in large amounts; they are simply the transporters of money—this is an ideal economic structure.

Wealth performs its due function abundantly at every level, benefiting each stage due to the flow of wealth.

To get these foreigners to leave their wealth in the Federation, creating tax revenue for the Federation and providing job opportunities for Federation residents, you need to persuade them—this is the purpose of investment solicitation.

However, the Federation has a "record," with numerous multinational companies like Henghui collapsing due to various Federation investigations.

To do business well in the Federation, you definitely need your own interest representative.

No one will speak for another person for no reason, much less serve him because he has provided so many jobs or tax revenues. He must convey benefits for someone to speak on his behalf.

Conveying benefits constitutes a job-related crime.

Some of these companies perhaps just happened to collapse amid political struggles, while others may have sparked political struggles to bring them down.

In any case, during the Great Depression, about fifteen percent of Members of Parliament were implicated in various benefit conveyance cases.

Some barely got through and have now retired or taken local positions, while others didn’t make it and are now contemplating life in prison cells.

The Federation’s "record" also makes many foreign investors hesitant. What if something similar happens when they later want to withdraw their investments?

Once the impression is bad, restoring it becomes very hard.

In the car, the young Count and Lynch continued discussing investments and the market in the film industry. Currently, the Federation’s film industry is very booming but not yet fully saturated.

With just one hundred thousand bucks, you can invest in a film, with a high chance of making money, encouraging more and more people to enter this industry.

Unexpectedly, yet within reasoning, an industry tightly related to films is also rapidly developing, which is film distribution chains.

"If you want to invest, I suggest you invest in film distribution chains."

The young Count repeated quietly, "Distribution chains?"

"Is there anything special about them?"

Lynch explained, "If you want your film to be released and make money, you must have enough distribution chains to provide you with long screening times."

"The more time and sessions they provide, the more tickets you sell, and the higher your box office revenue will be."

"You have to share a significant portion of the money with them, but if you own some distribution chains yourself, your profits would be greater. Meanwhile, if others’ movies screen on your chains, they also have to share profits with you."

The young Count seemed to not quite understand, "A distribution chain is like an old crook, am I right?"

"You could say that."

Lynch wasn’t fooling him, for his mother’s sake—this isn’t a curse or an insult.

The film industry will continue to thrive, and when social formations evolve to a certain stage, cultural entertainment will occupy an increasingly large proportion of society.

Sociologists and related scholars might say this is the inevitable result after productivity increases and labor is freed. Actually, this is just a new method by the ruling class to spiritually enslave the lower classes.

Rather than saying something displeasing like, "Leaving our rule will get you torn apart by savages, but living here means paying taxes and accepting exploitation," it’s easier to get them to spend money on accepting mind-bending core thoughts.

This way, conflicts vanish, and contradictions dissolve. People pay a dollar to enjoy the joy a movie brings while also more firmly reinforcing the impact of the film’s core on them.

A positive attitude towards life, don’t complain about your current circumstance, working hard might not bring success but not working hard definitely makes you a failure...

See, the content remains the same, but once transformed into films and mainstream ideas, everyone can easily accept it.

In this world, is there no real, pure entertainment?

Of course, there are those films with no plot, shot in a simple studio by a few people within a few hours, offering pure joy.

The actresses, with pie-filled faces, won’t tell you enduring is pleasure; the exhausted actors won’t tell you proper venting benefits physically and mentally. They just do it, then it finishes.

Simple, joyful, no grand theories—this is true art.

Crossing races, cultures, ideologies... and almost all things that might become "barriers," even some animals can understand what those people are doing.

Doesn’t this also qualify as art?

During their conversation, the motorcade reached the hotel. They would stay here for two days, then head to Laridemo.

When checking in, the young Count suddenly requested a suite change, which the hotel did not refuse. After his aides checked all the rooms, he seemed relieved.

"Lynch, I’m planning to settle my mother in the Federation...," said the young Count, tugging at the collar of his tie, his face bearing a fatigue unbecoming of his age.

Lynch was somewhat surprised, "What happened?"

The young Count didn’t hesitate much to reveal some secrets; he felt that Lynch, as a Gafura noble, had the right and the channels to know these things.

"Lately, the atmosphere at home has been tense; there are some differences between his Majesty the Emperor and the Prime Minister on some issues."

With financial power in hand, the Prime Minister’s power expanded unprecedentedly. The Emperor had faced opposition from the Prime Minister multiple times in the Imperial Palace.

He wanted to remove the Prime Minister, but the ministers disagreed. If he forced it, the Emperor might face an embarrassing situation—having no one to serve him.

In Gafura, the Imperial Family’s power is indeed the strongest, but it’s important to note that, in essence, the Gafura Imperial Family are also nobles, just with an additional royal title.

Many small nobles fear the Imperial Family, but some large nobles, whose history might be even longer than the Imperial Family’s, are not much less fortified than the Imperial Family in terms of foundation.

One or two might not match the Imperial Family’s strength, but banding together, even the Emperor has little recourse against them.

The Prime Minister is unwilling to relinquish financial power, and the Emperor can’t force him to resign, so they currently maintain a precarious balance.

After the Prime Minister consolidated his power with other ministers, he began to truly wield the power of the Prime Minister.

Recently, His Majesty the Emperor wanted to propose a reform plan, subtly aiming to restrain ministers’ and the Prime Minister’s powers, but it was opposed by the Prime Minister.

Apparently, the two even argued in the Emperor’s study, and ultimately, the proposal fell through.

Since then, everyone has felt the antagonistic atmosphere between the Noble Group and His Majesty the Emperor. This change is significant for great nobles but disastrous for small nobles.

If they side with the great nobles, when the Imperial Family regains power in the future, the Imperial Family won’t be able to handle the great nobles but can easily settle accounts with the small ones.

If they side with the Imperial Family... now, the Noble Group wields the greatest power; such foolish decisions could embarrass them.

The young Count’s visit with a trade mission to the Federation this time to commercially explore is, in fact, a fallback plan should political struggles erupt.

Listening to the young Count intermittently and somewhat incoherently recount the development of the entire affair, Lynch vaguely felt that the clues he had planted earlier were taking effect.

Before returning to the Federation from Gafura, he had a meeting with the Prime Minister, during which he mentioned a very special system: Monarchy Constitution.

The current Gafura rule couldn’t keep up with the times. If a country’s and a nation’s future are entrusted to one person, it’s undoubtedly playing with the fate of the whole country and nation!

No one can single-handedly, with their intellect, energy, stamina, and expertise, confront the whole world!

Even the Lord might not manage, let alone the Emperor of Gafura.

Thus, the best solution is for the Emperor to relinquish some power, but would the Emperor do that?

This is the contradiction, and the contradiction is beginning to escalate.

On the flip side, a Prime Minister without power remaining in the position for decades, treated as a mascot, couldn’t possibly be uninterested in power.

That’s just his way of concealing his true intentions. Once he gains power, he will retaliate against the suffering and torment he endured.

Just like the Prime Minister is doing now, directly opposing the Emperor’s ideas and opinions.

Lynch stared at the young Count; the young Count felt Lynch’s gaze tickling his scalp, forcing a couple of awkward chuckles, "Alright, alright, I know I can’t fool you..."

His expression turned a bit more awkward; the things he mentioned truly could significantly harm the small nobles, but the young Count wasn’t a small noble anymore.

Besides, even if he needed a fallback, there’s no reason to send his mother to reside in the Federation; it doesn’t make sense.

Even if he sided wrongly, future reckonings wouldn’t harm him or his family—that’s the noble’s baseline.

So the real reason he made his mother move to the Federation surely wasn’t those he mentioned; he hid the true reason.

His scalp suddenly felt itchy; he scratched it, "Actually..."