plumnovel #487 - Administrative system of the Papal States
#487 - Administrative system of the Papal States
“Achoo!”
Harkin's loud sneeze interrupted Horn's speech halfway through.
Seeing everyone looking at him, Harkin laughed awkwardly, "Sorry, sorry, couldn't hold it in."
Horn chuckled, "It's September already, and the weather is indeed getting cooler. Remember to wear more clothes, everyone, and don't catch a cold."
This was Horn's first routine meeting after returning to Jeanne d'Arc Fortress from Autumn Dusk Island.
And this meeting, which would announce the new tax system, had become the biggest topic in the Holy Light Papal State these past two days.
"So, everyone agrees with the proposal to rename Kush Territory to Red Maple Township, right?" Horn asked, looking up as he put the documents in his hand aside.
"Agreed."
"I agree first."
"I freaking agree too much!"
Looking at the silly smile on the face of the Holy Maiden Jeanne, probably no one dared to voice disagreement at this moment.
"Okay, then this proposal is concluded. Let's move on to the next item: 'The 1445 Church Mendicant Order Bureaucratic System Reform Plan.'"
The opening was the same as usual, with some insignificant minor issues, and the highlight was usually at the end.
The bureaucratic reform plan, ranked second to last, was definitely a heavyweight.
With the current internal and external situation, Horn knew that they could not establish a constitutionalist system, and could only choose an absolutist, centralized system.
He originally thought he was not knowledgeable enough and wanted to entrust the task of establishing a centralized system to specialized scholars.
But Horn discovered that the scholars didn't understand what centralized power meant at all, and the suggestions they put forward were a mess.
Some suggested local councils, or appointing village chiefs to manage each village, or even turning back the clock and making the heads of hundred-households hereditary.
In the end, Horn was stunned to find that they simply didn't know how to establish a centralized system.
Even the Kingdom of France, which claimed to be a monarchy, had not yet fully completed a centralized system.
Great, now Horn, a food delivery guy, had become a political scholar.
After all, in this era, no one knew more about centralized power than him.
There was no other way but to do it himself, and thus the current plan was born.
Horn always believed that the first step in any so-called political reform was to govern the officials.
No matter how good the laws were, if the executors below were incompetent, it would only lead to three results:
Formalism, lip service, and over-execution.
The Holy Light Army was currently able to carry out effective administration, first because the territory was small, and second because Horn had a group of brainless and obedient junior officers.
Of course, there was also his own great prestige and the propaganda effect of Armand's Ministry of Truth.
But this meant that Horn was a charismatic leader, like a Great Khan on the grasslands.
The entire country was glued together by him. If he died or lost his political ability, then the Holy Light Army would collapse in a few years.
This was actually a common problem of most peasant uprising armies.
So, what Horn brought out was this specially modified version of the bureaucratic system, turning the government into a machine rather than a reflection of a certain person.
"The first point of this new plan is the division of administrative regions, which is closely related to our newly introduced bureaucratic system." Sitting at the back of the round table, representatives of governments at all levels on both sides listened attentively on the benches.
"This bureaucratic system is very simple to explain. Let's take Kush Territory, uh, Red Maple Township, as an example…"
According to the current household registration book survey, each hundred-household district has about 450-600 people. Red Maple Township currently has 512 hundred-household districts, with a population of about 200,000.
Originally, these hundred-household districts were directly managed by Jeanne d'Arc Fortress, and the hundred-household districts and towns were on the same level.
But as Horn's territory increased, the government team was becoming overwhelmed.
Red Maple Township had 200,000 people, Iberia Township had 180,000 people, Golden River Township had 250,000 people, Dog Fox Township had 150,000 people, Shuanghe Township had 320,000 people, and Great Marsh Township had 50,000 people.
Currently, the territory belonging to the Holy Light Army is 32,000 square kilometers, with a population of nearly 1.2 million.
Managing the 200,000 people in Red Maple Township was already exhausting Horn, and now it had increased sixfold, definitely exceeding the administrative capacity of the current Holy Light Army government.
Therefore, the first step of this "1445 Bureaucratic Reform Plan" was to subdivide administrative divisions and establish Priest Orders.
The so-called Priest Order is a Deacon Order composed of itinerant monks from several hundred-household districts, responsible for the political and economic work of the entire region, and electing a prior.
For example, if a Priest Order has jurisdiction over 70 hundred-household districts and 1 town, then there are 8 itinerant monks.
The superior order promotes 1 prior from the 8 itinerant monks. The promoted prior no longer travels to the various hundred-household districts, but resides permanently in the Deacon Order to preside over daily work.
His 10 hundred-household districts will re-elect or be appointed a new itinerant monk by the Papal Palace.
These 9 people form the main administrative force of a Deacon Order.
Of course, this does not mean that they rely solely on these 9 people to complete Horn's decrees, after all, a Priest Order governs thirty to fifty thousand people.
The Priest Order will set up a church for administration, usually in the town, and hire assistants themselves.
In addition to presiding over daily work, the prior can also nominate officials to the superior order, such as scribes, finance officers, and judicial officers.
These officials are only responsible for assisting in daily administrative work and are assistants.
The actual decisions are voted on by the itinerant monks' meetings, and any decision must be voted on at the meeting.
Each Priest Order will also send two or three secretary monks from the Holy Father Society.
They do not participate in any administrative work, but only do one thing, which is to record each meeting and make a copy to be sent to the Papal Palace and the superior order.
If something goes wrong in the future, this meeting record is an important certificate for assigning blame.
In this way, the 512 hundred-household districts of Red Maple Township become 7 Priest Orders, and the 180,000 people of Iberia Township become 487 hundred-household districts, 6 Priest Orders.
What Horn had to manage changed from 999 hundred-household districts to 13 Priest Orders.
However, this is not the end. All the Priest Orders of a township must also form a Township Order.
Taking Iberia Township as an example, the priors of the 6 Priest Orders and 1 appointed Priest Chief will form a Township Order.
The Priest Orders are responsible to the Township Order, but the Township Order cannot appoint priors, only itinerant monks and officials.
The Pontifical Privy Council can appoint priors.
The Township Order is responsible to the Pontifical Privy Council, but the Pontifical Privy Council cannot appoint Priest Chiefs, only monks and township officials.
Horn can appoint Priest Chiefs.
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In addition, the Holy Father Society, the Holy Maiden, the Pontifical Privy Council, the Cheka, and all the armies are all responsible to Horn alone.
In the future, if Horn has to manage multiple counties, there may be county-level orders.
"…In this way, the division of the bureaucracy is clear." In the focused gazes of everyone, Horn raised his fingers one by one, "Itinerant Monk - Prior - Priest Chief - Pontifical Priest - Cardinal."
Since the bureaucracy is only formed by appointments from the Holy Light Army government, the elected heads of hundred-households or town heads are not within the bureaucracy.
If these grassroots officials and officials perform well, they can be nominated by their superiors to enter the Autumn Dusk Island Holy Father Academy.
After graduation, they are automatically granted the status of Robe Monk, similar to the Sword Monk status of the officers.
They, like other Holy Light Army nationals, are all monks.
It's just that the former is responsible for administrative work, and the latter is responsible for military work.
"Your Majesty, but I would like to ask, what is the difference between this and before?" Hakuto couldn't help but raise his hand and ask.
This was also the question of most people present. The original Holy Light Army government system was quite good, why replace it?
Horn smiled slightly: "In the past, we would propose a plan, for example, to build canals throughout the township, which area would build what, and which area would make what.
Okay, everyone takes their tasks and goes to do it… What do you think?"
"What's wrong with that?"
On the contrary, the other attendees were surprised.
"That would be too rigid. A township is okay, but what about a county? What about the entire Thousand River Valley?" Horn tapped the table with his knuckles. "At that time, I would have to listen to reports all day, and it would take a day just to issue orders!"
"You can appoint governors to each township," someone suggested loudly, "and let them decide these things."
"Foetentes soni, stulta verba (Ancient Elvish)," Catherine couldn't help but whisper aside.
"Are you not afraid that he will betray us and start a civil war with us?" Busak stood up and shouted towards the source of the voice.
"We can send people to supervise him, can't we?"
"Then how can we guarantee that the people supervising him won't be co-opted?"
"Or we can send more people and let them check and balance each other."
People were throwing out suggestions in a mess again, but Horn had already discussed most of these issues in the Pontifical Privy Council, so they were refuted by the cardinals one by one.
"Silence! Silence!" Thomas shouted, banging the table with a wooden hammer, forcing the crowd to quiet down again with his status as the Holy Great-Grandson.
Horn slowly continued to speak:
"You have all discovered the old drawbacks. Now listen to the new process.
I propose a strategy, and if the Pontifical Privy Council thinks it is feasible, it will pass it and issue it to various departments to formulate specific feasible decrees.
After the decree is issued, the Pontifical Privy Council breaks it down into task targets and assessment indicators for the Township Orders and issues them. The Township Orders then break it down again and issue it to the Priest Orders.
For example, if I propose developing agriculture at the beginning of the year, the Pontifical Privy Council thinks it should be completed in three years.
Then the first year will focus on developing water conservancy and issue water conservancy as an assessment indicator to the Township Orders.
The Township Orders will then propose to build an irrigation canal throughout the township and issue tasks and indicators to the Priest Orders.
Then the itinerant monks of the Priest Orders will break it down again, and when it comes to each head of hundred-households, the task will become a small section of the irrigation canal built by them.
At the end of the year, the Pontifical Privy Council inspects the results of the Township Orders, the Township Orders inspect the results of the Priest Orders, and the itinerant monks inspect the results of the heads of hundred-households.
In this way, the specific decision-making power, that is, 'how to do it?', is delegated to the local level, and we are only responsible for deciding 'what to do?', greatly reducing decision-making errors and workload.
If things are done well, promote. If things are not done well, demote.
It's that simple."
"Your Holiness is wise!" After thinking for a while, the many high-level officials present nodded one after another.
But in the midst of the praise, Sisi frowned. He keenly discovered the most critical point.
He looked at Catherine on the side, but found that Catherine was looking at him meaningfully.
Sisi hesitated for a while and stood up:
"But Your Majesty, where do the people come from? How is the money managed?"