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Chapter 44 - Economics is a Must for Politicians
The day after I came home, we had a family meeting to discuss my career path.
The first thing they asked me was what I wanted to do, and I answered honestly.
Papan seemed surprised.
“You want to develop the Ravenna region?”
“Yes. The royal family is urging you to start the development as soon as possible, right?”
Brother Baldassarre looked surprised.
“That’s true, but …… You have no experience in governing. So it’ll be difficult to start a development project from scratch. The officials won’t listen to you, they’ll do whatever they want and you’ll fail. I’m putting you in charge of me. So I’ll go.”
The trouble with the Scala family’s rule stemmed from the fact that they had been resettled here ten years ago.
Originally, the area was ruled by two aristocratic families.
The two aristocratic families played a big game together.
If you add up the territories of both of them, you get a huge increase over the original territories.
Of course, the royal family had an ulterior motive for the increase, even though they had no great achievements.
The image of the city is that of two towns merged into a city.
The bad thing is that different towns have different governance practices.
It’s a feudal society, so it’s highly unique.
In terms of intervals before reincarnation, it’s like combining two countries into one.
It is more difficult than a merger of banks or companies.
The administrative systems are completely different.
If you centralize the governing system immediately after reincarnation, it will become dysfunctional.
If you pull it to one side, one side will get frustrated.
If you make it completely new, both sides will be confused.
That’s exactly what the royal family wants, as the Scala family is getting in the way.
They would use the chaos in their territory as an excuse to reduce the number of seals.
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In order to avoid confusion for the time being, they decided to rule according to their own customs.
The two brothers were in charge of their respective old territories.
With Papan making the overall decisions.
They take turns to make sure that neither of them represents the other’s interests.
Still, the problem persisted.
The original lords didn’t get along well, and there was constant fighting on the borders of their territories.
One of the negative effects of this is …….
The roads that connect the towns between the borders are not drawn in straight lines.
When it comes to bridges, they are desperate to have them built closer to them.
The toll tax on bridges belongs to the town closest to the bridge, which causes even more trouble.
As a result, they’re busier with interest adjustment than political affairs.
As in Japan, there are no clear administrative divisions.
The problem is accelerated by the unclear division of districts based on towns and villages.
“No. I have a plan to alleviate the hardships of my brothers. I would like you both to rule the current territory of Scala.”
Papon nodded his head.
He seemed to have understood my intentions ……
“Alfred. Have you come up with a solution to the boundary problems and other issues that are causing so many problems?”
Papan has entrusted my two brothers with political duties in order to train his successors.
My family is strict about that.
If you are a foolish son, you will be thrown out of the house.
“The two of you should consult with each other and rule together”, was Papan’s instruction.
In the beginning, we had no choice but to divide and rule.
Now that the situation has stabilized, there is no need to do so.
Sensing this, the various officials are now scrambling to protect their vested interests by making the problem even bigger.
The two brothers, who are exhausted from coordinating their interests, have their hands full dealing with the problem.
That’s exactly what the officials want.
I glanced at Brother Amilcarre and coughed and cleared my throat.
“I think Brother Amilcarre should be the one to make the decision on the entire territory.”
Brother Amilcarre was surprised.
“Alfred! Do you want to kill me!”
“You’ve got two separate districts, and there’s a lot of waste. I’m sure your father and the others are keenly aware of the need to unify them. I think now is the time to do it.”
I can be released from hell ……
I guess that’s what he thought.
Brother Baldassarre clapped his hands.
“Oh! That’s it! That’s wonderful!”
I glanced at Brother Baldassarre.
He immediately averted his gaze.
But let me tell you something.
“So, it’s Brother Baldassarre’s turn. You should rip out all the rights to the bridges that belong to the city. I think it’s better if you take care of them from the perspective of the entire territory. Inevitably, there will be a reorganization of the governance structure. We should aim for the efficient governance structure that was originally conceived.”
Brother Amilcarre clapped back with the same line.
Oh! That’s it! That’s wonderful!”
Brother Baldassarre’s face became full of despair.
“You …… Do you hate me so much?”
The two of them continue their natural comedy.
Papan is trying not to laugh.
He quickly gave a small cough and cleared his throat, and then returned to his serious face.
“You can’t simply peel off the rights. If they resist, it’ll end up with a mess.”
“They resist because they think they will lose out. By reducing the taxes imposed on cities, we can compensate them with the same or higher income as before.”
Papan’s eyes sharpened.
“Hmm. Where would you make up for the loss of revenue?”
Yes.
This is all idealism.
“We’ll collect the toll tax. Then we’ll make sure the roads and bridges are the quickest to get there, to improve the efficiency of logistics.”
“That’s not enough to make up for the loss of revenue.”
I dared to put on a confident expression.
If you look anxious here, they won’t listen to you.
“In the short term, yes, it will.”
Papan’s face became thoughtful.
“In the long run, as logistics become more convenient, tax revenue from the city will naturally rise. In the long run, this is a positive thing. However, there’s no point if our family’s finances go bankrupt before it becomes a plus. How many years do you think it will take for our income to recover?”
This is another possible question I anticipated.
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I had already made a rough estimate.
“Five years.”
Papan suddenly leans forward.
Half of it is interest.
Half of it is suspicion, like, “What is this guy talking about?”
“Only five years? What kind of magic is that?”
I suppose it’s so magical that it doesn’t seem real.
“Then the key is the Ravenna region.”
Papan furrowed his brow.
“If the revenue comes from Ravenna Region, we’ll be in the red for 20 years. How can that be five years?”
Normally, yes.
If it’s normal, that is.
“We should be able to get some traction in about three years. I think there’s a lot of valuable resources in that area for trade.”
“What exactly do you expect to find there?”
This is where it all starts.
I have to bluff a little to get them to listen to me.
“Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve been poring over maps and documents in father’s study. The mountains and offshore islands of the Ravenna region were volcanoes according to old lore. And there is a high probability of crystal deposits near the former volcanic mountains. Even if there’s no crystal, there’s probably plenty of ore lying around. I can assure you of this.”
In this world, crystals are useful as materials for rare ornaments and magic items.
In other words, it is traded at a high price.
Before reincarnation, it was similar to rare metals.
It’s very expensive and in high demand.
“A vein of crystal? I’ve never heard of it.”
“Yes. There was a small one in the Apostle’s records. He wasn’t very interested in underground resources, though. So he knew about it.”
The reason why he knew is a lie.
It’s just knowledge I had before my reincarnation.
When I was a kid, I visited a volcano on a field trip, and I was strangely impressed by the explanation.
I was curious to find out what I could get out of it.
At that time, I thought it was a stupid idea to get rich from it.
There are many crystal veins in volcanic areas.
Volcanoes are a treasure trove of minerals.
I’m not going to mention this, though.
So, if you mention the name of the apostles, they will believe you unprincipledly.
And if I say that I heard it from teacher, no one will doubt me.
Authority is a useful thing.
Therefore, I decided to make good use of it.
“Once Ravenna was leveled and the mines were operating, the profits would be enormous. Even if we can’t get crystal, we can get enough iron and copper. Our country doesn’t have many of those kinds of resources.”
Papan was using the Abacus in his head.
Politicians are disqualified if they don’t understand economics.
Papan is known for his ability and can calculate his income and expenses.
Brother Amilcarre shook his head in concern.
“I understand about your dream of the future. And that you have your own reasons for them. We can’t afford to lose sight of our feet. We all know that optimizing the administration is beneficial. But, you see …… The idea of merging two separate administrative district is very controversial. At worst, it could lead to sabotage. I’m so tired of the cunningness of the officials ……”
That’s what I’m assuming, of course.
But for us, it’s our family’s treasured sword.
In other words, they have personnel rights.
It is a feudal society, so there is no pursuit from the media.
Forcible measures are possible.
Let’s take full advantage of the advantages of this society.
I smirked.
“So here’s the thing. As the Ravenna region develops, we will announce a reorganization of the administrative structure. I wonder which officials will be sent to the inconvenient frontier.”
I’m not taking them with me.
If I take such useless people with me, it won’t do any good.
Brother Baldassarre folded his arms and pondered.
“But …… It’s true that the development of the Ravenna region will increase our expenditures. At a time like this, people will object, saying, “It’s dangerous to reorganize an existing organization”.”
Officials who protect their vested interests are like wild animals who defend their territory to the death.
“I think we should just ignore it as an established fact. It’s no use talking to someone who can understand you but can’t talk to you. In any organization, there are always people who want to reform. We can just rely on them. Those who are supportive of the reform will stay here and work on the reform. If they don’t, we can threaten to transfer them to the Ravenna region. Even so, some of them will be dismissed, but we can just say that we are over capacity. We don’t inform them of the entire transfer. The remaining officials won’t know the whole picture.”
The Scala family is a great aristocratic family.
So naturally, we have a large number of officials.
But there are a lot of parasites in the family that is only called officials.
I had an evil smile on my face and my family was unsympathetic.
Even Kiara’s eyes darted.
It’s sad.
I can’t help it, so let’s continue ……
“There are many people who create unnecessary jobs even today. I think there are quite a few officials who are very corrupt. This is a good opportunity to clean them up. Let’s go for it. It will be refreshing. I’m sure that will cut down on a lot of spending.”
Brother Amilcarre shook his head.
“I know that there are corrupt officials. But if we reduce the number of people, the organization will not be able to run.”
Brother Amilcarre was exhausted.
He doesn’t seem to have time to reassign officials.
You’re being manipulated by the officials so that you’ll have your hands full just dealing with the current work.
“The number of officials you actually need is about two-thirds of what you have now. I think there is extra officials and they were turning in useless documents. They’re just pointlessly creating more work for my brothers.”
Brother Baldassarre made a disgusted face.
“That’s true, but…”
“With the consolidation of the administrative districts, the number of officials needed will be considerably reduced. As I said earlier …… Aren’t there some promising young people who aspire to reform?”
Even in the Northern Song Dynasty, with its bloated bureaucracy, there were reform demons like Wang Anshi.
There are young reformers with burning ideals everywhere.
The question is how to pick them up and protect them.
Brother Baldassarre shook his head with a sigh.
“Yeah. The opinion is up. Frankly, I don’t have time to think about it.”
The current situation is hell.
Even though they know that …….
They don’t have the energy or courage to change the organization to get out.
It’s like being a corporate officer on a bicycle.
Papan chuckled when he saw my brothers slouching.
“It’s a radical view, but it’s a good opportunity. We have a lot to think about. Let’s take a break and then we can continue.”