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Vol 05 Chapter 154: Post-War Processing I

「This should do it.」

I gazed at the king’s directly controlled fields where tomato seedlings were planted. A total of fifty seedlings had been planted.

For the time being, this amount should be enough for me and my family. Tomatoes are a staple in home gardening, so I know how to grow them.

However, since I don’t know if the tomatoes in this world are the same as the ones I’m familiar with, I’ll need to monitor their progress just in case.

「Still… the Kirisians used them as ornamental plants, didn’t they? How did you know they were vegetables?」

I asked Raymond and he responded immediately.

「You can tell by eating them, can’t you?」

…No, normally you wouldn’t put in your mouth something you don’t know. Even if they look just like tomatoes, I’d have a dog try them first before I ate them myself.

There is always the chance they are tomato look-alikes.

Raymond is quite the adventurer.

「Does Your Majesty know about this vegetable?」

「Yes, I do. There are many ways to use them.」

By the way, in my previous life, I had a slight tomato allergy, which made me dislike raw tomatoes. My tongue would tingle a bit. Though I never broke out in hives or had an upset stomach because of it.

For some reason, I had no issue if the tomatoes were cooked…

I’m not sure if this body has the same tomato allergy or not, but I don’t plan to eat them raw because I dislike them.

However…

「Tomato sauce, tomato ketchup, and dried tomatoes are all delicious. They are useful as ingredients and can be used in a lot of different dishes.」

「That’s great!」

Raymond looked a bit pleased.

But that’s about all there is to them. After all, they are just tomatoes.

Well, tomatoes grow better with less rain, and in the Adernian Peninsula, where summer rainfall is low, they might be an easy vegetable to cultivate.

「Well, we will talk about the tomatoes later. Let’s discuss our future plans.」

I need to summon my key retainers.

◇

「Now, the reason I’ve gathered you all here today is to decide on our future course of action.」

I looked around at the assembled retainers.

Raymond, Bartolo, Iarl, Ron, Roswald, Gram, Soyon, Lulu, Julia, and Tetra.

These are the members.

We share the ultimate goal of creating a country with a centralized government.

「In order to make effective use of the 1,000 Talents we gained this time, we need to decide on our priorities. The first and foremost issue is the matter of subject rights.」

In other words, it is the complete resolution of the strike problem.

「Subject rights, as I recall, include the rights of equality under criminal law and inviolability of private property, as well as the obligations of taxation and military service, correct?」

I nodded at Raymond’s question.

「Subject rights, literally, means that all the people will be my subjects and will only answer to me. …For the rights to apply to all the country’s people, we need to recover the control over all the lands from the patricians.」

Creating laws isn’t that troublesome. It’s just a matter of codifying the already existing customary laws.

The problem is spreading these laws and enforcing them throughout the country.

The patricians currently hold control over their lands and the right to command the people. We need to strip these away and place them under my control.

The Rosais Family has already returned their lands and the command over the people. We have a precedent.

The issue is how to compel the other Families to follow suit…

「Let’s obscure the details. Even if it’s just nominally, we need to get them to comply. …We’ve already made progress in persuading the Dibel Family.」

The Dibel Family has suffered the most under my regime. They’ve had much of their territory taken and have had to provide many soldiers to demonstrate their loyalty to me.

Their finances must be on the verge of collapse.

For now, we’ll promise to take on their debts in exchange for the nominal return of their lands and the command over the people. Once that happens, the Aris Family won’t be able to resist following suit. This will allow us to implement a unified tax system across the entire country.

「The problem is that they might see this measure as the king seizing all the lands for himself. The patricians dislike having their lands taken away. Father struggled with that too…」

Julia murmured.

That’s the issue.

If the royal power becomes too strong, it will provoke the patricians. Is there some clever pretext we can use…

「What about nationalizing the land?」

Tetra spoke up.

Nationalizing the land?

「If we divide Almus’s private lands into royal domains, national lands, and manors, it might work. The lands that the patricians have held for ages would remain as manors, and all other controlled territories would be treated as national lands. This would be separate from the royal domains. It should help reduce some of the resentment… I think.」

In other words, she is suggesting we separate the royal treasury from the national treasury.

It might cause some institutional confusion… but as a temporary political measure, it might not be a bad idea.

「What are we going to do with the newly acquired lands?」

Bartolo pointed out the issue. Lands gained through war—should they belong to the king or the country?

It’s a rather troublesome problem. Personally, I would prefer them to be the king’s property, but there would certainly be dissenters.

「Well, it’s fine if they are added as national land.」

「Is Your Majesty okay with that?」

Raymond tilted his head. He seemed puzzled by how easily I accepted it.

「It doesn’t make much difference even if they aren’t my private property.」

In essence, the royal treasury would be money I can use freely, while the national treasury would require the approval of the Senate or the patrician council to be spent.

In the end, I plan to convert all the patricians to nobles, move them to the capital, and make them work as senators. Once this is done, centralization will be completed.

Thus, there is no problem.

I don’t want to concentrate power in the hands of the king. I want to concentrate power in the central government. Distributing power to some extent allows for mutual checks and balances.

For now, that will suffice.

「In exchange, the king should have full control over the military. Military power speaks louder than words.」

「If that’s your thinking… I understand.」

Raymond seemed to accept my reasoning.

Now then…

「Regarding subject rights… the rights and duties of those with subject rights should be equal, except in political matters. We’ll fine-tune the specific laws later… The issue is with those who don’t want subject rights, and with foreigners.」

We can’t have a situation where the Kirisian merchants, for example, are exempt from our laws just because they are foreigners.

「I’ve actually thought about that as well. The idea of subject rights was mine after all.」

After saying that, I snapped my fingers. Alice, who had been waiting by my side, distributed documents to everyone.

Summarizing the contents of the documents, it looks like this:

Subject Rights

Duties:

• Direct Tax: Income tax
• Military Service: Conscription
• Indirect Tax: Sales tax

Rights:

• Protection by National Law
• Inviolability of Property
• Interest Collection: Limited to a maximum of 10%
• Prohibition of Debt Slavery (Bankruptcy allowed)
• Suggestion Box: Right to submit proposals

Eligibility Criteria:

• Adult males
• Licensed magicians
• Children born to parents with subject rights
• Individuals married to someone with civil rights
• Children of freed slaves
• Others granted subject rights by the king

Note: Land tax is nominally abolished, but a 10% land lease fee will be collected.

Citizen Rights

Duties:

• Direct Tax: 10% of income (regardless of agriculture or commerce)
• Military Service: Conscription
• Indirect Tax: Sales tax

Rights:

• Protection by National Law
• Inviolability of Property

Eligibility Criteria:

• All free people born on the Adernian peninsula and living in the territory of King Rosais’ Country (excluding those with subject rights)

Foreigners

Duties:

• Basically none.
• For stays exceeding one year, a poll tax (variable based on asset value)

Rights:

• Protection by National Law (with restrictions)
• Inviolability of Property (with restrictions)

Note: Depending on the situation, property confiscation may occur.

◇

「How does this look?」

I asked everyone.

They all seemed to be contemplating it with serious expressions.

Personally, I think it’s not a bad draft.

First, all the residents of King Rosais’ Country will be granted subject rights. Residents of Autonomous Cities will be granted limited subject rights.

Autonomous Cities are fully independent, excluding diplomacy and military affairs. Due to this, we cannot collect sales tax from them.

This is because the sales tax is used for their self-governance expenses. If we collect it, it would be effectively the same as forcing them to pay a tribute tax.

However, they will not be allowed to submit proposals to the suggestion box. Additionally, they will not be granted any future political rights that may arise.

Furthermore, residents of Allied Cities will not be granted subject rights. Instead, they will be granted citizen rights.

They will be granted protection under national law, property protection, and self-governance. However, they will have to pay taxes.

This will prevent the Autonomous Cities and Allied Cities from uniting against me

Autonomous Cities will develop a sense of pride from having subject rights, even if limited, and they will look down on the Allied Cities.

Allied Cities, on the other hand, will be burdened with the obligation to pay taxes, which will weaken their power and cause them to resent the Autonomous Cities.

And the one who benefits from all this is me.

Additionally, the leaders of the Autonomous and Allied Cities will be granted subject rights as an exception. By bringing these key figures to my side, I ensure their loyalty.

This is because it is always the intellectuals, the wealthy, and the political leaders who incite rebellions. Without political leaders, a rebellion is nothing more than a peasant uprising—just a riot.

And they incite the masses because they desire power. If we grant them power from the beginning, the incentive to risk a rebellion is greatly reduced.

Furthermore, the restriction of subject rights to adult males and those with a magician’s license is because of the obligation of military service attached to it.

◇

「Your Majesty, may I ask a question?」

「Go ahead.」

Ron raised his hand.

Feel free to ask anything. There might be flaws in the plan that we haven’t seen yet.

「Why did you change the name from land tax to land lease fee?」

「It’s because we have established special administrative districts within our country, such as Autonomous Cities and Allied Cities.」

It’s acceptable that Allied Cities pay taxes equivalent to or even greater than our citizens. The issue is with the Autonomous Cities.

After all, Autonomous Cities are granted extensive self-governance and are exempt from all taxes.

Of course, self-governance requires money, and they collect land taxes and commercial taxes for that purpose. Their burden is likely equivalent to or even higher than that of our citizens.

However, it is stipulated that the country will lay down infrastructure such as roads. This is necessary to ensure uniform infrastructure development.

But for many plebeians that doesn’t matter.

The idea that their money is used to build infrastructure on lands where people don’t pay taxes isn’t pleasant.

That’s why I changed the name.

This change alone should significantly alter their perception. It’s the magic of words.

「Any other questions?」

Roswald raised his hand.

「Uh, the land lease fee arises because plebeians rent land from the royal domain and national lands, right? …So, does that mean it doesn’t apply to lands owned by Autonomous or Allied Cities?」

「That’s correct.」

At first glance, it may seem that only the mainland residents will pay the land lease fee and be at a disadvantage… But the Autonomous and Allied Cities collect their own land taxes, so the burden remains unchanged.

Additionally, since I have confiscated some lands from Autonomous and Allied Cities as royal domains, if their residents use that land, they will pay the lease fee to me.

「Any other questions?」

I looked around. There didn’t seem to be any objections or further questions.

「Alright then, we’ll consider this settled for now. We’ll refine it later. Next…」

Shall we take on the military reform now?