The reason why Richard formulated the low tax policy was to promote the development of productivity and to hide wealth from the people.
Only when people live a prosperous life and have savings can they have consumption power and a market.
Whether a territory develops well or not depends on whether there is a market.
Otherwise, the brown sugar, liquor, and steel products produced will not be sold.
How to make profits without a consumer market?
Although the products in Harland territory have a certain monopoly, many of them are unique products, such as hemostatic ointment, brown sugar, etc.
But the market is under the control of outsiders. Once they block you, they can immediately expel you.
The Dawn Plane is not an earth where free trade prevails. Local protectionism here is extremely serious. As long as the goods produced by oneself are of high quality and low price, the lords will use violent means to prohibit the outflow of gold coins.
Market control in the hands of outsiders is very dangerous for a territory.
Only by cultivating the market yourself can you gain a firm foothold and promote industrial progress.
Nowadays, the main income of Harland Territory is actually from the sale of various commodities, and it does not rely heavily on taxation.
Richard believed that releasing water to raise fish and cultivate markets would be of great benefit to the economic development of the territory, so he formulated a lighter tax policy.
Richard has economic knowledge from his previous life and knows that there are many ways to collect taxes. Directly increasing taxes is the stupidest method, which can easily arouse the resentment of the citizens.
The best way is to enrich tax sources and add new types of taxes, such as tariffs, property taxes, business taxes, etc.
If there were 100,000 households in Harland's territory, the property tax alone would collect tens of thousands of gold coins every year, enough to expand the territory's army by a thousand people.
In addition, the territory can also specialize in supplies, such as salt, steel, and brown sugar, to earn profits from the territory's citizens.
When you are short of money, increasing the price of salt, brown sugar and other supplies by 10% can also greatly increase fiscal revenue.
After discussing the tax policy with Rogge, new taxes were added this year. Richard decided to allocate manpower to cope with the competition in the liquor market.
Richard from Black River Fort and Flame Fort will send additional manpower to attack Viscount Cisse's people selling liquor.
Since Viscount Cisse dared to send people to steal his wine-making process, Richard would certainly not let him have an easy time.
Although Richard could not launch a war to punish the Viscount of Cisse.
However, it is still feasible to send people on a small scale to attack important figures and important targets in the Viscounty of Cisse.
If Richard does not launch a retaliatory action, he may be despised by the nearby hereditary nobles. There will also be more and more commercial spies of all kinds, and the pressure on the intelligence department will become heavier and heavier.
More and more people will touch the interests of the Haaland family.
In order to ensure that the operation was foolproof, Richard and Sophia personally took charge. Although they would not personally participate in the attack, they hid behind the attackers to ensure the success of the operation.
In this attack on the Viscounty of Cisse, Richard carefully selected sixty people.
These sixty people basically come from the first, second, and Warcraft Cavalry squadrons. The number of professionals exceeds twenty, and the rest are advanced warrior students.
The soldiers participating in the operation all carried enchanted armor, including ten pieces of brute armor, ten pieces of light armor, thirty pieces of snake scale armor, and ten pieces of magic beast leather armor.
The light armor is the latest enchanted armor developed by Richard. The manufacturing idea of this armor is the same as that of the brute force armor.
You can release a light magic by consuming the fighter's fighting energy. However, the cost of making light armor is 20% higher than that of brute force armor.
In the army in Harland's territory, the number of brute armors has increased to thirty, and the number of light armors has also increased to ten.
The combination of brute armor and light armor has further improved the combat effectiveness of the First Squadron.
Although there are only sixty people, the raiding team is the elite of Harland's territory.
There were mainly two officers leading the team, namely Lost and Jennings.
Because according to Richard's observation, these two people are the most loyal to him.
Lost believed in the spirit of chivalry, and once he swore allegiance to Richard, he would basically never change his master. Because of Jennings' special experience, his loyalty to Richard also came from the heart.
Sending people to attack a noble lord is a serious crime. Once someone catches the evidence and reports it to the noble council, Richard will also be in big trouble.
Therefore, for this operation, we must select the people who are most loyal to the territory.
In order to prevent the mission from failing, Richard and Sophia also wore star necklaces to ensure that the mission would be successful.
Sixty people disguised themselves as mercenaries. Through Soros' old connections, they received a mission to escort a caravan and infiltrated the Viscount of Cisse.
Richard and Sophie disguised themselves as a traveling aristocratic couple, followed by several guards, and followed the caravan.
The weapons, equipment, and alchemical bombs used for the operation are all hidden in the bottle of starlight on Richard's body.
The Viscounty of Cisse is very close to the Flame Castle. Walking about six kilometers west from the Citadel of Flame, you will enter the territory of the Viscount of Cisse.
The Cisse family has been promoted to Viscount for more than thirty years. The previous generation of Viscount Cisse was a powerful eighth-level golden knight.
It's just that this old Viscount, who lived to be 116 years old, died of illness seven or eight years ago.
The current Viscount Cisse is his grandson Boy Cisse, who is sixty years old and a sixth-level knight.
Boy was not originally the first heir of the Cisse family, but because he was the strongest, he won the support of most members of the Cisse family. Instead, he forced several of his uncles and his elder brother to give up their inheritance rights and became the second viscount.
The inheritance of titles among nobles is often bloody.
Although the order of succession is important, one's own strength and influence are far more important than the order of succession.
For example, if William is old and must hand over the territory to Ron for inheritance, other members of the Harland family and officers in the territory will not agree.
If it is not handled properly, it will be a bloody conflict, Ron's whole family will be killed, and the elderly William will die unexpectedly, which is a very high probability.
When a person dies, he or she naturally loses the right to inheritance. In many cases, the succession of nobles is determined by internal intrigues and killings.
A shrewd and capable noble will handle this matter well while he is still alive, forcing the son who is higher in the order of succession to give up his inheritance rights, and designating the most capable child as the first heir.
Nobles who are old, frail, and dim in their later years often do not handle the succession well, and bloody conflicts will inevitably break out when they inherit the title.
The northern Xinjiang region is better, because due to the strong pressure of the orcs, internal fighting does not break out in many cases. For the nobles in the south, every succession of titles is almost always accompanied by swords, intrigues, and bloody killings.
Even for the Grant royal family, every succession to the throne is often accompanied by conspiracy and war.
Fortunately, Duke Brenner has been in charge for many years. He has enough prestige to suppress conflicts and no serious internal strife has broken out.
After arriving at Flame Castle, Richard did not look for his old comrades from the Eighth Battalion.
Seven years have passed, and Richard's old partner Diarra has become a fourth-level warrior and serves as the deputy captain of the Eighth Battalion.
Richard's old subordinate Dida also became a third-level professional and served as the captain of the first squadron of the 8th Battalion.
Ron is still serving in the 8th Battalion, and his professional level has been upgraded to the second level, serving as the captain of the 7th Squadron.
Although he has often exchanged letters with some old friends over the years, the relationship has been maintained very well. However, this operation was an attack on the Viscounty of Cisse, which was legally dishonorable. Of course, Richard would not expose his whereabouts in the Flame Castle.
Leave a handle.
The Cisse family has been in Gascoigne Province for hundreds of years and has offended many people due to various conflicts.
Even if you are attacked, as long as you are not caught, it will be difficult to find out for a while. Even if you find out clearly, there is a suspect, but it is still useless without evidence.