In fact, the tax requirements issued by various countries to their lords are not an order, but a... business.

In Pendor Continent, matters like national taxation are quite serious.

Because it represents dominion.

A country that truly and completely owns a piece of land and people is called a "country." Whether it is a kingdom, a principality, or a county, only when a country is established and recognized can the land be fully owned. This can be understood as having complete ownership.

, and its symbol is that you no longer have to pay taxes to anyone.

As for lords who are loyal to others, no matter how high their title is, they can only have the right to use their territory.

They are both counts, but Count Mettenheim and Count Leon are two completely different concepts.

Mettenheim is an independent county. Count Guderian and his men have complete ownership of Eisenberg Island, while Leon and his friends currently only have the right to use its territory.

The reason why it is called the right to use is because taxes still need to be paid to the superior lord.

This is like a kind of rent, or like a management fee that the branch company needs to pay to the group company.

Li Ang's superior lord is the king, but although the king does not have to pay taxes to others, he is not actually the owner of the entire kingdom.

Because building a country cannot be accomplished by one person - it requires the efforts of many people.

Therefore, a country does not actually belong to the king and his family, but is shared by all nobles and belongs to the nature of a group company.

The nobles merged their own companies into the group to jointly occupy a larger market and benefit together. This nature is no different from that of ordinary group companies.

The king is the chairman and general manager of the group company, and the nobles are all shareholders and branch heads. In fact, everyone is a noble lord, and there is essentially no distinction between superior and inferior.

However, the chairman and general manager will promulgate the company's decisions on behalf of the board of directors and lead everyone's work, which is a matter of different powers.

The lords acquired new land and population through colonization or war, thereby gaining more territory, which was like the branch's business growing.

As a result, some branches have become more important and have a higher proportion of voice within the group, but they are still affiliated with the group; no matter how strong their wings are, the bosses of branch companies still serve in the group.

Since you hold a position in the group, you should of course obey the group's management and perform your work obligations as agreed.

Probably the biggest difference from ordinary companies is just that the work content is slightly different...

These tasks are to respond to the war and complete tax collection.

The lord's title is different, and the standards for responding to war are different.

According to the regulations of the Kingdom of Lions, when the country issues a recruitment order, the baron must provide ten to forty knights or corresponding troops depending on his ability; the earl needs to provide forty to eighty knights, which is a war obligation.

Specific standards will have specific requirements based on the scale of the war.

According to the current situation of the Lion Kingdom, one knight generally has five to six soldiers - the number of knights in the Lion Kingdom is relatively large among all the countries in Pendor Continent.

In other words, when the country encounters a war, a baron must lead at least 50 people to fight, and a count must lead at least 200 people to fight.

Of course, nobles can also take the initiative to improve work standards - a baron can also lead one or two thousand people to take the initiative to fight for the country's territory. This is an additional investment by the branch in order to obtain more shares and voice.

War is the most important job, just like a core project. Everyone knows that if the core project is not done well, the company is likely to suffer huge losses or even go bankrupt...

Another important job of the lords is to collect taxes, which falls within the scope of daily work, and is generally similar to the logic of branches paying operating and management fees to the group headquarters.

A group company must have a lot of operating expenses, and of course the operating expenses of the entire group cannot only be borne by the general manager's company alone, each branch also needs to bear part of it.

Just like a general group company, the group CEO represents the board of directors

Set corresponding tasks, and most of the time this task will definitely be discussed with the senior executives.

Everyone will discuss their respective tasks based on the budget, and then each branch will complete it on time - the same goes for national taxation.

If the branch owner cannot pay the management fee on time, the group headquarters can certainly question his sincerity and ability, and may try to replace him or replace him - if that is possible.

Of course, if the person in charge of the branch office has objections to the management fee limit, they can indeed renegotiate.

In fact, when the kingdom's tax official comes to announce the tax standards, they are negotiable. This is not issuing an order, but bargaining.

This is also the reason why the tax official announced the standards half a month before the harvest period, just to discuss a reasonable plan with the local lords.

Business is all negotiated.

It's just that transportation is not convenient these days, so it's impossible to summon all the lords to Lion City for a meeting, so the tax officials usually go to each territory to negotiate.

Of course, you always need to be confident when negotiating. If you really can't reach an agreement in the end, you still have to pay the management fees that should be paid. You can't lose your territory, right?

At least nominally, the amount of national tax should indeed be subject to state arrangements.

However, the amount of national tax is only a total amount requirement. Just like the group gives a task target to the branch, then the branch will of course issue targets to each business department.

In fact, most lords did the same thing, apportioning the total tax amount to the various knights under their command, and setting tasks for the knights. After all, the wool comes from the sheep.

It's just that when apportioning, the lords will also add the local tax amount, and usually some more.

On the one hand, raising taxes will offend my knights anyway, so I might as well just add a little more. Anyway, there is no difference in the degree of dissatisfaction among my knights if an increase of 20% or an increase of 28% will make them unhappy...

On the other hand, when issuing targets, there will always be room for leeway, lest your subordinates fail to complete the tasks and you will suffer losses...

Therefore, when it comes to specific tax collection in the Knights' Territory, the tax quota becomes very heavy, and the further down it becomes, the more it becomes a mandatory order. When it reaches the grassroots level, there is basically no need to talk about it.

Knights do not consider national taxes or local taxes. They collect them together. For them, this is to fulfill the lord's request.

The tax rates in the territory originally have fixed standards. Random changes can easily cause unrest. Common taxes are usually poll tax, agricultural tax, commercial tax, etc.

But in order to increase the total amount, the knights will add many types of taxes in the name of the king and lord, and sometimes in the name of the goddess...

For example, war tax, goddess tax, sacrificial tax, road and bridge tax, fertility tax, feces and urine tax, chicken and duck tax... everything is included.

Of course, most knights are not stupid. They still have to live in the same village with the common people in the territory, and they still need reputation.

And they are the ones who directly face the civilians...

Therefore, they will describe all taxes as the wishes of the king and superior lords, indicating that everything is a requirement from above and has nothing to do with them. If there is a problem, they can go to the king and the lord...

As a result, those who gained a bad reputation were "cruel kings" and "greedy nobles", and most of the knights "acted out of help"...

The common people will also hate the king and superior lords more.

The reason why the knights want to increase taxes is similar to the logic of the nobles. The taxes will be raised anyway and the common people will be dissatisfied, so they should simply be more harsh and keep more for themselves.

In other words, when national taxes increase, local taxes will increase even more - once for the lords, and again for the knights.

Just like when the performance tasks of each company fall to various executive departments...

The task indicator given by the group is originally 100, but it will be increased to 200 for branches, 400 for departments, and 800 for employees.

But what was actually given to the group was still 100...

Therefore, there will also be a leverage phenomenon in taxation:

When the national tax is only

When collecting 5% of the per capita annual income of civilians, the total tax that civilians need to pay accounts for about 50% of the annual income, that is, local taxes account for 45%;

When the national tax reaches 10% of the per capita annual income of civilians, the total tax paid by civilians will account for 75% of the annual income, and the proportion of local taxes rises to 65%;

When the national tax rate reaches 25%, even if the common people use all their income to pay taxes, it will still not be enough...

The national tax will act like a lever to leverage the final tax.

5 dinars per capita is roughly equivalent to 25% of the per capita annual income of Pendor civilians.

Most territories would not accept this kind of tax, nor would they dare to accept it - experienced lords knew what would happen.

But Li Ang himself is not short of money, and the new territory he obtained is a relatively wealthy place like Changhe Town. It is not surprising that the kingdom's tax officer will ask him for a higher tax amount, so the lord has no intention of bargaining with the price to avoid unnecessary trouble.

.

He also has the ability to pay taxes without greatly increasing the burden on civilians.

But White Deer Castle is different. The border area is responsible for the country's security... The kingdom actually requires five times the heavy tax on such a place. This is indeed rare.

The tax officer couldn't do anything to blackmail him before the tax amount was determined. After all, Marbert could go to Lion City to negotiate the price directly with the king. He didn't need to pay attention to the tax officer until a consensus was reached.

"White Deer Castle is also taxed so heavily... Is this what King Ulric meant? To impose heavy taxes on the eastern region? What effect will this have? Let the lords go to the Lion City to negotiate with him.

?This will only ruin his own reputation..."

The lord also felt a little baffled. This tax quota is not a mandatory order, so why should it set such a high price to make people angry?

"Who knows... Maybe His Majesty is short of money. Maybe he thinks there will be no foreign enemies at the moment... I heard that the amount of taxes you receive in Changhe Town is also very high, right?"

Malbert was quite well-informed. He shook his head and gestured with his palms: "It's also five times as much as before?"

"That's right, five times... So, he is really short of money..."

Li Ang shook his head. It seemed that the king had set a tax rate of five times for everyone in the eastern region. This was obviously intentional. Several lords in the eastern region happened to be newly changed fiefdoms, and their footing was not yet stable...

Malbot sighed: "But I heard that you have already subscribed... In this case, it would be inappropriate for me to reject this tax amount..."

"Malbert, I will accept this kind of tax just because I can afford it..."

Li Ang understood what Marbert meant. If he accepted this high tax, I'm afraid many lords in the eastern region would have to accept it - his status was different, and many lords in the east would regard him as a weathervane.

!

"Yes, you can afford it, but I can't afford it... If I accept this amount of tax and ask my subordinates to collect it accordingly, I'm afraid I won't survive more than a month. So, I will transfer the territory to you at this time.

The king and the House of Lords should agree to raise taxes..."

Marbert took out a document from his arms: "This is the transfer agreement."
To be continued...