plumnovel #522 - Markets and Exchanges
#522 - Markets and Exchanges
December 1st, in the Holy Proclamation Hall of Joan of Arc Castle, the weekly Imperial Privy Council meeting was officially convened.
The participants included Madeleine, the Truth Speaker; Xixi, the Holy Treasury Director; Jeanne, the Exorcism Director; Boussac, the Gospel Director; Martial, the Judgment Director; and Chilvers, the Abbot of the Holy Plow and Holy Sickle Monastery.
In terms of administration, these six people were basically the core of the Salvation Army's high command.
Seven people, including Hohen, sat around an oval table, while on both sides were rows of long, narrow tables with a dozen or so privy monks recording the meeting's contents.
"One last time, let's vote by raising hands."
At Hohen's reminder, the cardinals raised their hands, passing the "Market and Exchange Act" with four votes in favor and two abstentions.
After instructing the privy monks of the Holy Father Society to write the meeting minutes, Hohen tapped the table twice with a small wooden hammer: "Then the two items of the 《1445年集市与交易所法案》(《1445年集市与交易所法案》: 1445 Market and Exchange Act) are officially passed."
As Hohen expected, this proposal passed smoothly without much discussion.
Xixi, the Holy Treasury Director, happily gathered the documents and asked the privy monks around her to organize them.
After all, this further solidified the foundation of the Holy Treasury Court's powers and responsibilities.
The main purpose of this bill was to solve the problems of how to collect taxes and trade in bulk commodities.
The former was solved by setting fixed stall fees for the market, and the latter was solved by establishing centralized exchanges.
Market stall fees are naturally easy to understand, which is to collect fixed taxes based on the stall and type of goods, rather than the goods themselves.
For example, a small stall selling agricultural products would be charged a lower stall fee, while a large stall selling livestock would be charged a higher stall fee.
If the goods include luxury goods such as high-end wines and high-end leather goods, the stall fee will increase by a few percentage points.
The stall itself is free, and the stall fee includes consumption tax and infrastructure maintenance tax.
The higher the ranking of the commodity type on the consumption tax rate table, and the larger the stall area, the more expensive the stall fee charged.
This does not mean that everyone has to rent small stalls, because the larger the stall, the more things it can accommodate and sell, and the higher the income.
How to achieve a balance between cost and income is up to the merchants themselves.
The decisions they make are their own responsibility, and if they lose money, they cannot blame Hohen.
According to this method, the consumption tax evasion rate can probably be reduced to below 30%.
As for direct private transactions among the people, the quantity and share are too small, and collecting this kind of tax would be more costly than beneficial, so let's just treat it as Hohen's tax exemption policy for ordinary believers.
As for the issue of bulk commodity trade, Catherine had previously proposed establishing an exchange, but the other cardinals were taking a wait-and-see attitude, so Hohen did not force it through.
Now that there are problems with bulk commodity trade, he picked up the exchange again, and this time no one objected.
The predecessor of the exchange system was actually the merchant guild or the grocer's guild, which can be considered Hohen's old friends.
If it weren't for Heavenly Father pointing him out, Hohen might still be working as an accountant in the grocer's guild.
So the first thing Hohen did when he came to power was to ban the grocer's guild, and outsiders said this was to hide his history as a grocer's accountant.
Markets and exchanges are essentially places for trade, but a market is a C2C (customer to customer) model, while an exchange is a B2B (business to business) model.
To put it simply, a market is like Taobao, while an exchange is like Alibaba.
Generally, when conducting large-value commodity transactions, the flow of funds often amounts to hundreds of gold pounds, and everyone is cautious, fearing a break in the capital chain.
If you encounter a scammer in the market, you will be scammed at most a dozen or twenty denarii. If you encounter a scammer in bulk commodities, it is good if you lose everything, and bankruptcy is the norm.
Therefore, most merchants rely on guilds for trade, but Hohen abolished the judicial power of the guilds, which led to a situation where there was nowhere to go for bulk commodity trade.
The 《集市与交易所方案》(《集市与交易所方案》: Market and Exchange Plan) stipulates that the exchange is the only legal place for bulk commodity trade, and both parties must sign a contract and have it notarized.
When trade involves more than 200 gold pounds, both parties must also pay a deposit to ensure the smooth progress of the trade.
Once there is a breach of contract, the military police and the Guardian Army will immediately arrive at your door.
Merchants save a lot of time costs, and the circulation speed is faster, so it's no problem to give His Holy Grace a little more stamp duty, right?
As for the stamp duty rate, it is a percentage damage for wealthy transactions, but it will not exceed 1%.
Transactions with no money are subject to a fixed tax, which is probably a small amount of a few denarii.
As Hohen's small wooden hammer fell, the cardinals signed and stamped the meeting minutes, and the issues of consumption tax and stamp duty were finally studied and decided.
Sorting and categorizing the relevant documents in his hand, Hohen couldn't help but sigh in his heart.
In this way, the local tax system has been established, and the central tax system of the Imperial Court has finally been tested and completed.
If the future income of the Salvation Army government is divided into two major categories: tax revenue and palace-owned asset income, then the tax system has finally been straightened out in these three months.
According to Xixi's estimate, tax revenue can provide Hohen with a fiscal budget of nearly 20,000 gold pounds.
The most ⊥ new ⊥ small ⊥ said ⊥ in ⊥ six ⊥ 9 ⊥⊥ book ⊥⊥ bar ⊥⊥ first ⊥ hair! (This sentence seems to be an advertisement or unrelated content, so I will translate it literally. Most ⊥ new ⊥ small ⊥ said ⊥ in ⊥ six ⊥ 9 ⊥⊥ book ⊥⊥ bar ⊥⊥ first ⊥ hair!)
As for the income from palace-owned assets, since the Salvation Army's banking system has not yet been established, it can only be managed vaguely as before.
This part of asset income is estimated to provide a fiscal budget of around 10,000 gold pounds.
The sum of the two is barely enough to cover military expenditures, and this is based on the premise that the army will not be expanded next year.
By the autumn of next year, we will know how much wealth this system can bring to Hohen.
Hohen is not in a hurry for the time being. After two wars, he has collected another 70,000 to 80,000 gold pounds, bringing the total to around 100,000 gold pounds including the original amount.
Since the current Salvation Army has almost no income, it has to rely on these war spoils and bonds to support the operation of the government.
"Then the next agenda item." Turning the agenda document to the second page, Hohen cleared his throat, "That is, the agenda item of building a new department. Who should be responsible for this matter? What do you think? Let's discuss it."
As Hohen expected, compared with the previous 《集市法案》(《集市法案》: Market Act), which had relatively clear powers and responsibilities, the cardinals began to conflict over who should be in charge of the new department.
And the final result, as expected, became that it belonged to the entire Imperial Privy Council, and the daily management duties were handed over to the elders.
Thus, the Salvation Army's Holy Arch Engineering Monastery was officially launched, and it is expected to recruit fifteen stonemasons and three engineering teams to be responsible for the design and construction of municipal buildings.
"As before, let's conduct a pilot program first. How about recruiting and carrying out the first batch of municipal renovations in Gray Furnace Town first?" Making a few marks on the paper with a pen, Hohen raised his head and continued to ask.
Jeanne shook her head: "It's best not to. Gray Furnace Town currently has a heavy task of manufacturing weapons and armor. Piloting in Gray Furnace Town will easily disturb production."
"Then let's put it in Sour Gourd Town, how about that?"
Several cardinals nodded in agreement. Sour Gourd Town is southwest of Joan of Arc Castle, and mortar roads have already been built for the Black Mountain War, making it relatively easy to transport building materials.
After these two agenda items were determined, there was a series of small agenda items, such as rejecting the Black Hat Legion's application to rename itself the Black Crown Legion, and approving another grain purchase plan...
After the two important agenda items at the beginning, the last two items were the final agenda items.
"You have all read the letters sent from Hotam County, right? The Holy Son's Volunteer Army has handed this issue over to me, and we have to discuss a charter.
In addition, Earl Sechinger of Northumbria will arrive in the middle of this month, and we have to discuss a response to this as well.
I think these two things are the same thing and should be discussed together, because this involves an important unresolved topic, the attitude towards Moria.