Outworld: Rise of an Industrial Empire

Three days later, the situation in Tide City and Merlin City was all presented to Su Zheng.

In the conference hall, Su Zheng called Chris and Lei Ming, and He Jing was also on the side.

Discuss the situation of the two cities and the situation of Suxin City.

First of all, after comparing the three city-states, Su Zheng finally knew what the frog at the bottom of the well was! Su Zheng really did not expect that the city lord could be so rich.

In fact, there is not much difference between the three cities, all of which are about 300 square kilometers.

However, there is a huge difference in the population of the territory, with only more than 5,000 people in Suxin City, more than 20,000 people in Tide City, and more than 10,000 people in Merlin City.

The per capita income of the population in the city-states between the three cities is also about the same, but Teide City adopts a mandatory tax, that is, a fixed tax per capitation, and each head is 80 copper coins, which leads to some people who only have more than 100 copper coins per year almost half of their income has to pay taxes, and their lives are miserable.

And Merlin City, like Su Xincheng, pays taxes at the same rate, but Su Xincheng is only 10%, while Merlin City is 22%.

The tax revenue of Tide City is more than 1.2 million copper coins a year, as well as the income from food and the industrial income of the Ted family, and Su Xincheng cannot compare with this at all.

The annual tax revenue of Meilin City is about 400,000 yuan, which is twice the population but five times the income of Suxin City.

Tide City is a compulsory fixed tax in the countryside, and each person has to pay 3,000 catties per year, which is for each person, not for each household. As long as the children in rural families reach the age of 16, they have to pay taxes, which is equivalent

to the output of 10 mu of land! In the era of backward productivity, the output is not fixed, and it is not necessarily possible to reach 300 catties per mu every time, and even the output is only 100 catties from time to time.

Therefore, the average rural population of Tide City cultivates more than 30 acres of land per person, otherwise it is difficult to feed a family, and there must be some food in the family, otherwise in the event of forced expropriation or a catastrophe, they will have to flee and become homeless.

The total cultivated land of Tide City has reached 150,000 mu, and the annual tax grain exceeds 1.5 million catties.

In addition, there is a move in Tide City that surprises Su Zheng, that is, for those who do not cultivate by themselves, but rent out the cultivated land, they will pay half of the tax and grain per mu, plus transaction taxes and other taxes.

Such small landlords have no surplus grain to use hired farmers, and free folk small landlords can't even use slaves, slaves don't even have to flee to Suxin City, Tide City allows black households to settle down directly, so it actually curbs the land annexation of small landlords, and there are only barons and viscounts landlords in the countryside of Tide City, relying on the exploitation of slave farmland.

The fundamental purpose of this policy was to consolidate the interests of the aristocracy and to curb the development of the freedmen and wealthy merchants.

.

"At present, there are about 17.03 million copper coins at the disposal of Tide City, and countless other gold, silver and jewelry, with a total value of more than 30 million, and 4 million catties of grain are hoarded in the grain depot.

There are still 700,000 yuan in the account of Meilin City, and 610,000 catties of grain are hoarded in the grain depot.

After Chris finished excitedly, he shook his head helplessly and smiled:

"This Merlin City has transferred the Earl's private property, and it has left us much more than our city has emptied out of its family now." "

The funds of Meilin City reported by Wu Chengwei are still after Wu Chengwei and the Huang family transferred a large amount of wealth, and the little money that Xiao Jing gave to Su Zheng is comparable to Su Xincheng's net income for 20 years.

Su Zheng looked at the data and couldn't believe it, he emptied his family and used all his pants, which was not as high as the tax of Tide City for a year!

The high tax set not only made the income of the city lord's mansion higher, but also the productivity of the common people could be higher.

The rural population of Suxincheng is about 1,000 people, and the farmland is only more than 10,000 acres, on average, each person cultivates 13 acres of land, which can feed one person after tax, and it is more than enough, and there is no need to worry about forced expropriation and natural disasters, compared with 30 acres per capita in Tide City and 25 acres per capita in Meilin City, it is directly less than half.

The income of the urban population is the same, although it seems that the average income of civilians is about the same, but don't forget that there are almost no unemployed people in Suxin City, and the beggars in Ted City have even formed different forces, which means that the gap between the rich and the poor is very large, and the income of civilians is much higher than the average.

.

"What, I'm excited? If Su Xincheng also uses the tax method of Tide City, the income will be at least several times that of now.

He Jing leaned into Su Zheng's ear and asked, Su Zheng sneered when he heard

this, and said: "I don't care about collecting money by scraping people's fat and people's ointment, Chris, this year's winter harvest, all the farmers in Ted and Merlin City don't have to pay taxes, ah.... In this way, the three cities will be together, and they will not have to be harvested, and they will not have to be harvested next autumn.

Residents of the city will be exempted from taxes until next fall, as well as miscellaneous taxes such as transaction taxes. "

With so much copper coin income, Su Zheng has already blossomed, and he was so provoked by He Jing, Su Zheng directly waved his hand and exempted all the taxes.

"Yes!"

"Your Highness, what should the army of Ted City do?" Thunder

Ming asked, the number of troops in Ted City is so large that they were once enemies, they can't be fully trusted, and the Ted family is still in Ted City, no one dares to guarantee that these troops will not obey the orders of the Ted family.

"Hmm... It is enough to replenish the army of Merlin City, and the army of Teide City is completely canceled, but it is also possible to use them and let them help the peasants with the winter harvest, just to promote our policy. "

.

.

After the policy is formulated, the rest just needs to be handed over to Chris to implement it. Then Su Zheng asked several people to leave the council hall, leaving only himself.

Su Zheng looked at the map hanging on the wall and fell into deep thought.

At present, we must focus on a direction of development, whether to organize a modern army first or to carry out industrialization first.

Su Zheng originally studied the purpose of the flintlock pistol, because Su Xincheng was too small, and he had to expand a few cities before industrialization, so he needed to strengthen the army first and then expand.

But now that Tide City and Merlin City have been directly obtained, there is a certain population base, and the surrounding city-states are now divided a lot, so Su Zheng can have one more choice.

If the flintlock pistol is skipped and industrialization is carried out first, then the productivity in the territory will rise in a straight line, and when the factory is established, Su Zheng can even directly start to engage in the assembly line of metal cartridge shells, and develop yellow powder, smokeless gunpowder and nitroglycerin, which can not only produce more high-tech weapons, but also produce weapons and equipment more quickly.

And if we first engage in military science and technology and form a group of flintlock pistol armies, this will first delay a lot of time, after all, it is time-consuming and laborious to build by hand, and after the steam engine is industrialized, it is still necessary to develop guns with a higher level of technology, so the guns and cannons that were originally made are equivalent to a waste, which is a waste of resources and a waste of time.

Directly stepping over the flintlock pistol and directly getting a new weapon after the industrial system is created, then you can save a lot of time.

But industrialization is not something that can be completed in a few days and half a month, it takes a few months or even a year or two, after all, all science and technology need to be lit up by Su Zheng himself, and after making the drawings, he has to train professionals, which is not achieved overnight.

Whether it is the design work of Su Zheng or the manufacturing work of craftsmen, it will take up other resources, including materials and time, which will seriously squeeze the development of military science and technology.

.

After thinking about it, Su Zheng still planned to make a gun first, but it was a compromise, the flintlock pistol was about to be designed, so first design the flintlock pistol, and then let most of the craftsmen build the flintlock pistol, and the cannon and grenade did not need to be upgraded, just use the crude one.

When the time comes, some craftsmen will be left to assist themselves in making things like steam engines, and when they have almost designed a steam engine, they can stop making flintlock pistols, and then go all out to manufacture and apply steam engines, and then use steam engines to make steam engines, expand and reproduce, and realize the industrial revolution.