I Became A Black Merchant In Another World-Chapter 290: Comparison and Incitement (4)
Surviving for a long time requires good social skills.
No matter how talented someone is, if they go against this principle, they will not last long.
Just like how Zhao Zilong, after seeing Cao Cao eat chicken rib bones, foolishly gave the order to retreat.
"Reducing taxes is fine, but it's better to avoid making enemies among the nobles as much as possible."
Whether in politics, business, or a job, no matter what you do, you will inevitably make enemies.
This is as certain as water flowing from top to bottom.
Why? Because capitalism, or simply put, the way we live, ultimately means taking from others to survive and live a prosperous life.
According to the unspoken contract of society, we don’t carry guns or knives, but...
We have already stepped over countless people to get to where we are.
‘Resources are limited, and even breathing can be seen as a competition.’
"Simply by living, a person inevitably makes enemies. But there’s no need to go out of my way to create enemies. I shouldn’t turn people into enemies who don’t need to be enemies."
Humans are social creatures.
To be more precise, they create groups such as family, workplace, and nation to survive against the enemies that attack them.
Why? Because just breathing alone causes too many enemies for one person to handle.
But should I increase the number of nobles who oppose me?
That’s reckless and irrational thinking.
‘Those I can keep on my side, I will keep on my side.’
"The Duke has allowed the meeting. Please come inside."
Upon entering the Duke’s office, Duke Visconti greeted me with calmness.
"Welcome."
Usually, when we meet, he would talk about showing off his great-grandson between Erica and me in the next two years, giving me all kinds of burdens. But since this is a business matter, he didn’t start with the great-grandson talk.
He knows how to separate work from personal matters.
Once the business is done, I’m sure he’ll start with the great-grandson stories.
"Thank you for allowing the meeting. The reason I came today is because I noticed that His Majesty is planning to implement a shocking policy."
It was I who first suggested lowering the taxes to the Emperor.
So, if it were leaked that I, Count Rothschild, suggested raising taxes, I would become the enemy of all the nobles.
I’m not a heavenly being, so I can't just live freely with everyone as my enemy. If I make enemies of all the nobles, it will be impossible to handle...
Fortunately, the Emperor would never want to be mentioned as a hidden power broker, nor would he want to become one.
He won’t ever reveal that he came up with this policy after consulting me.
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"So, what is this policy?"
"It’s a decree to reduce the tax burden on serfs from 60% to 50%. Once it is announced, the nobles will have no choice but to comply."
"That’s insane. You’ve managed to increase the available budget by reducing corruption, but my retainers have been pushing for more taxes to fill the gap. And now you want to reduce taxes?!"
Reducing taxes is not always a good thing.
One example of this can be seen in Joseon.
Joseon made efforts to reduce the taxes on its people through various systems like the Daedong Law, Yeongjeong Law, and Gyeongyeok Law.
As a result, Joseon became a country with some of the lowest tax rates in the world at the time.
But the outcome was disastrous.
Even though the Daedong Law allowed local specialties to be converted into rice, inflating the prices by 6-8 times, and the system reduced corruption among local officials, it wasn’t without problems.
However, after implementing tax reduction policies like Yeongjeong Law and Gyeongyeok Law without solid follow-up plans, Joseon gradually turned into a hellish place.
"Reducing taxes might be acceptable, fine, fine!"
The Duke continued to vent his anger.
"But interfering with the nobles' long-established privileges is one thing, but reducing the taxes on the serfs by 10%... What are we supposed to do? How do we make up for the lost revenue?"
It’s not an important point, but in my Rothschild territory, we impose very low taxes on the serfs.
In other territories, 60% of the harvest is taxed, but in ours, it’s only around 30%.
Even with the revenue from our business and other sales, we’ve made a substantial profit, so there’s no need to touch the money from the serfs.
"We can’t make money out of nothing, but there are other ways to raise funds."
If this were a world without the gold standard, we could have resorted to extreme measures like printing money at the territory level when funds were short.
Even without the gold standard, if the noble house had absolute trust, we could issue a piece of paper that says ‘1 gold coin’ to use in place of actual gold coins.
The essence of money isn’t precious metals, it’s trust.
But in the Toscana Empire, if we tried that, I guarantee within five years, we’d be facing a great depression worse than the global one.
"We can collect taxes from the merchants. Honestly, taxing one merchant brings in more than taxing 20 serfs, right?"
"They’re already squeezing bribes out of traders under the guise of land rents and making loans without proper interest or repayment terms. It’s practically just extortion."
"Why complicate it? Just get the accountants involved and audit the ledgers. We’ll be able to calculate the rough revenue and income. Haven’t you felt their power firsthand, Duke?"
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In the Toscana Empire, the most powerful public official is the high court official.
Especially judges, even if their title is low, are so powerful that they regularly receive bribes from the higher-ups.
This is because accounting and audit teams are still unknown in the Empire.
Honestly, in modern times, the most powerful officials are those who manage finances.
Even the Japanese military, who used to dismiss civil servants, would have their division commanders conduct inspections just to show respect when an official from the Ministry of Finance visited.
Why was that?
Because once the audit was done, without the proper budget allocation, even the most elite officers in Japan could be immediately dismissed.
"Indeed, the accountants you brought were impressive."
"Next year, the first batch of accounting graduates from Rothschild University will graduate."
"Is it possible to graduate after just one year?"
The university was founded only about a year or a year and a half ago, so there certainly aren’t any students who have completed the entire undergraduate course yet.
"We’ve been admitting promising young traders from all across the country into the university, and we’ve focused on teaching them civil and criminal law, accounting, and auditing for one year to prepare them for the profession."
"I see, you’ve taken action because you expected a shortage of accountants."
"I can guarantee their abilities. Once they start, with the help of other certified accountants, auditing the merchants' books and imposing taxes will be no problem."
After we conducted an audit of the books of the Visconti territory, the status of accountants has soared.
The only university with a specialized accounting program is Rothschild University...
But the competition for accounting admissions is higher than that of law or theology departments, which are traditionally studied by nobles.
Considering the fact that law and theology are regarded as prestigious subjects by the aristocracy, it’s easy to imagine how high the status is.
‘Some nobles even suggested political marriages to bring accountants into their families.’
"We can collect 5% or up to 20% of the merchants' revenue, and that will make the taxes on the serfs irrelevant."
I know from experience with bribes.
Merchants routinely pretend they’re giving away 70-80% of their profits to us while secretly paying 5-10% in taxes.
This is a common practice among merchants.
If we collected 20% of their income under the Emperor's decree, they would go crazy with greed.
"If things don’t go as I’ve said, I’ll join the military right now."
The Duke sighed.
"If I make a bet with you on this, I’ll definitely lose. Fine, when the newspaper is published, I’ll gather the nobles and try to convince them with this proposal."
