When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#489 - The nature of this administrative system

"Actually, it's not a small amount. Besides the agricultural tax, we also have consumption taxes and various tariffs."

Regarding the income of the Papal Curia, the Sacred Treasury has actually made estimates.

The Papal States' central government must have an annual income of 50,000 gold pounds to ensure a balanced budget.

Although Horn has been advocating the concept of a benign deficit, the most advanced ideas of this era only believe in balancing income and expenditure.

Although the Pope's power is infinite, Horn still tries to use this authority sparingly to forcibly subdue.

Every time he uses his personal authority, it is a drain on the government's authority.

It can be used in critical moments, but it's better to use it less in non-critical areas.

As for the central government's income, in addition to agricultural taxes, it also comes from several other areas.

The first is the palace-run workshops. For the workshop industries left over from the previous wealthy merchants and lords, Horn adopted two strategies.

Either follow the original tribute system, giving the Salvation Army a portion of the profits each year, but the Salvation Army will participate in the operation.

Or redeem them, raising a sum of money at once for the Salvation Army to buy out the ownership of the workshop.

The main purpose of both is to raise military expenses.

Especially the latter point, which turned many city managers of lords into workshop owners, and also turned many small rural landlords into workshop owners.

The second is tariffs, stamp taxes, and consumption taxes.

This inevitably leads to the upcoming regulation of markets and urban commercial districts.

At this time, people exchange goods, unlike later generations where there are specialized merchants who go to the countryside to collect them, collect them and put them in farmers markets or supermarkets to sell.

But there are specialized markets in certain areas of the countryside, and they are not held every day but once every ten days.

Traveling small vendors and farmers will bring grain, cash crops, and agricultural products to the market for sale.

The original markets were basically controlled by priests and ruffians, and often had to pay protection fees.

Even for private transactions, firstly, it is not cost-effective to run so far to sell two eggs, and secondly, there are fewer cases of being afraid of being cheated or engaging in petty tricks.

Horn wants to take advantage of this.

The Priesthood must send night watchmen and Guardian Army to supervise the markets, maintain order with public claim, but must pay consumption tax and stall fees based on the goods entering the market.

And the towns and cities are divided into specialized vegetable market streets and commercial districts, and consumption taxes and tariffs are collected through the supervision of raw materials.

That is, the government provides public services and security, and insures merchants, farmers, and vegetable vendors in exchange for their payment of consumption taxes.

As for bulk commodity transactions, Horn will set up exchanges in county-level capital cities such as Jeanne d'Arc Castle.

The exchange will also charge stamp duty to both parties, and charge fees in the transaction.

Horn believes that merchants will easily accept the stamp tax, which is a small price to pay for big gains.

Because the Salvation Army government is about to legislate to confirm that any contract without a stamp will not be accepted by the court and can only be mediated out of court by a notary.

Of course, there is also a baptismal consecration tax from alchemical products.

The baptism tax is essentially whitewashing black market stuff. With the Pope's blessing, it can be freely sold.

Since Horn is currently only collecting urban consumption taxes in a few large towns, such as Jeanne d'Arc Castle, Sour Gourd Town, and the Holy Armory.

So they don't know how much tax they can get if they implement it in all towns and villages, but according to Sissi's conservative estimate, including agricultural taxes, they can collect more than 10,000 gold pounds a year.

"Then how should the Centurion District operate? I mean, we still don't understand the Sacred Treasury of the Centurion District." At this time, a Centurion Chief representative stood up and couldn't help but ask.

The Centurion Chief has reason to be confused about this.

When Horn was dividing the land, he divided the mountains, forests, lakes, ownerless wasteland, etc.

But the right to use these lands has always belonged to the Centurion District, and all the faithful in the Centurion District are free to use them.

Logically speaking, if the villagers make money on the land, it should belong to them, right?

"Let's take a specific example to make a metaphor... what's your name?"

The Centurion Chief nervously squeezed his hat: "My name is Gontare, Your Majesty, from the Motonie Centurion District."

"Very good, what special land resources do you have there?" Horn snapped his fingers and asked.

"There is a forest in our Centurion District that can produce very good hardwood. Many furniture carpenters come to buy the hardwood in our Centurion District," Gontare said stutteringly.

"Have you ever thought about opening a sawmill in the Centurion District?" Horn saw Gontare sweating profusely and didn't know what to say, smiled slightly, and then said.

"Suppose, we open a sawmill on your Centurion District land, what should be the first step?

That is to apply to the Priesthood to lease or purchase the right to use the land to build the sawmill. This money will be shared by the Priestly Order and you.

Don't be surprised, because building a sawmill in that area may not be a matter for your Centurion District alone, but for the entire Priesthood.

Okay, the sawmill is open, ready to find wood to saw, then you have to contract a forest farm, right?

Who to contract with? Isn't that you? Everyone in your Centurion District.

The contract fee is determined by yourselves, this is the second fund, completely owned by you.

So who does this fund belong to? Is it distributed equally?

That is obviously wrong, because this money is a drop in the bucket for some people and is not needed, but it is a life-saving straw for others.

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This money should be put into the Sacred Treasury, shared by everyone, mainly used to help poor families, build water conservancy, reclaim farmland, build roads, and other places that can be shared by everyone."

Looking at Gontare's enlightened expression, Horn smiled.

This is just the micro-level action of this plan, which gives the local area a certain degree of autonomy while ensuring the authority of the central government.

As for why this system was established, there is a reason.

Under external military pressure, the confederation or federal system that meets the current era cannot work.

Horn needs to quickly mobilize resources, focus on developing industries, equip professional bureaucrats and standing armies to defend against potential war threats.

This means that the power of the representative body (Senate) is not allowed to override the power of the Pope, and Horn needs to simultaneously hold executive and legislative power.

Then, if the Salvation Army is formally established, it must be an absolutist bureaucratic country, which means that it must be a large government.

But the common problem of large governments is bureaucracy, and bureaucrats become rigid and corrupt even faster than the Eight Banner children.

Horn does not expect them to not be rigid or corrupt, that is the innate defect of the bureaucracy.

He only asks not to be rigid and corrupt so quickly, first ensure survival.

So Horn must introduce competition and a market-like environment, while ensuring the authority of the central government, turn the government into administrative contractors.

When it comes to flexibility and not being rigid, who can compare to contractors?

The various Priestly Orders and rural Priestly Orders have become like large companies with subsidiaries participating in market competition.

It's just that the indicators they compete for are called political achievements, and the profits they get are called power.

Horn issues a task to the general contractor (rural Priestly Order), and the general contractor gives the task to the subcontractor (Priestly Order).

The Pope doesn't care how they complete it, only cares whether they have completed it.

In extreme cases, Horn may not even need to give money, only give decrees and time.

As long as the monks in the Priestly Order still want to progress, they must use the finances in their hands to do things well.

Horn doesn't even care how the money in their hands is spent, it doesn't matter if they embezzle some, but they must get things done.

Whether or not they are corrupt only determines whether they are dismissed or hanged after things are not done well.

"You all understand the specific situation." Horn sorted out some documents in his hand, "If there are no problems, then you will start the pilot in the 23 Centurion Districts near Jeanne d'Arc Castle according to the 'Plan'."

The people present looked at each other and found that no one spoke again.

Then, under Armand's leadership, everyone stood up together and bowed in unison, answering: "Yes, Your Majesty."