Rise of Rurik - Chapter 1036

[Chapter 1036 The gift of tax exemption]

At the banquet, Kagan got drunk.

Rurik invited many nobles from the Novgorod region, including old Otto, a heavyweight task force.

Everyone called Kagan Khan in the habit of steppe people, and they all admitted that he was indeed the supreme ruler of Pecheneg.

When he was drunk, Rurik hung the crystal cup high and said: “No one can question the power of my brother Kagan. If anyone opposes him as the Khan of Pecheneg, I will attack with my troops. All attacks The behavior of my allies is tantamount to attacking Ross. Friendship forever!”

The aristocrats raised their cups and chanted “Auld Lang Syne”, they drank continuously, and the ale seemed to be endless.

Indeed, the Novgorod region, which has a large amount of grain, has the capital to squander grain to make wine.

In the long winter, it seems that only wine can warm people up quickly. Drinking is not only a personal preference, but also a means for local people to fight against the cold.

Kagan has already gone to do as the Romans do, he has already felt how cold the extreme north is, and lamented that there is no force capable of defeating Ross.

On the contrary, these northern beasts can go south to bite.

“To our eternal friendship!” Kagan stood up with his drunken body crookedly, but sat down suddenly without paying attention.

He grinned as he watched half of the wine spilled in the glass, and then drank it down.

There is ale and kvass, and flammable spirits.

Any liquor is intentionally added with some honey, and it becomes an original cocktail when it is stirred with a small stick.

The dinner party even made other dishes lose their splendor, and only the roasted whole lamb with so much oil attracted everyone’s mouth watering.

The banquet to send Kagan home was an opportunity, and then this opportunity Rurik just gathered the boyars of the manors around the lake into the city.

When these nobles arrived, the good news that was deliberately leaked in advance had already been spread by word of mouth and naturally reached their ears.

There is such a good thing?

Because of the great victory of the expedition, tax exemption for three years?

Didn’t you say that it is planned to be tax-free this year?

After that, the king wants to be tax-free for three years?

The good news is a bit too good. The public always repeats the “three-year tax exemption”. Boyar randomly grabbed someone’s fine print, and the respondent can only say “I also learned about it from my friends.”

Boyars dare not speculate whether such a good thing is true.

They hoped this was true, and the first thing they had been invited to come now was to see the resident Pechenegs home.

The banquet was not to confirm whether the rumors were true, they tried to keep calm during the banquet, and only when everyone was drunk did someone bring up the matter in a daze.

Everyone hopes that the king can publicly show that this is true, and immediately announce that all agricultural taxes from 841 to 843 will be exempted, that is, the tax will be restored from 844.

I saw Rurik shaking his head with a special smile on his face after drinking. He didn’t say anything, but he seemed to use this smile to acquiesce that it was true.

After all, there were a large number of nobles lying here and there in the banquet hall, and most of them were unconscious from drinking, which made the whole scene too rotten.

Old Otto also wanted to return to his old bravery, but unfortunately he was too old, and he couldn’t stand the body if he wanted to drink heavily.

It seems that I have been deprived of the right to drink by God, so I just have to have a few drinks.

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Now that the nobles have arrived in Novgorod by boat, there is no need to go back, because the traditional inland river trade route has been restored. As the largest residence in the kingdom, there is a huge consumer population around Lake Yinlmen, coming from the direction of Novorosburg The ships deliberately waited until the end of the spring snowmelt period, the Neva River and the Volkhov River finally became much more relaxed, and merchant ships began to sail one after another to Novgorod to unload and sell.

Leather goods, salt, bacon, and ironware from the north arrived one after another, and locals flocked to buy them.

Even if the king did not collect taxes, the boyars of the farms would always need silver coins.

The price of grain during the autumn harvest is extremely low, and most of them are willing to store grain until spring and sell it outside during the spring famine.

Due to the continuous expansion of farmland across the country, the weather in recent years is neither good nor bad.

Macroscopically, the production capacity of grain has been increasing, and Rurik has set the official grain sales price at ten pounds of oats or nine pounds of wheat for one silver coin. Grain is indeed the anchor of currency value.

The official selling price is so, and the official also holds a large amount of silver coins, copper coins and even gold stocks.

Even if grain can actually be used as ready-made currency, a sack of oats is often packaged at one hundred pounds, and the highest ratio is only ten silver coins.

In theory, they can indeed trade directly with merchants at such an exchange ratio, but the reality is that it is extremely unrealistic.

Any merchant likes metal currency that is light and easy to carry. Merchants from the north will never buy goods and then transport a ship of grain back.

As the leaders of the farm, the boyars have to fulfill many obligations to the villagers. If the kingdom collects taxes, they are taxpayers. If the villagers want to trade grain, they help the villagers to sell grain and earn a little profit.

Rurik fixed the official price for selling grain, and how much was sold each month was implemented by the standards set by him.

These grains are almost the commercial grain supply for the cities, and people outside the cities have no right to buy them unless there is a famine.

Anyone who tries to disturb it is guilty of the heinous crime, and will be sentenced to the death penalty of the blood eagle, although it has never been enforced.

Rurik has set a bottom line for the grain market, and based on the current situation of the Ross Kingdom, although the kingdom is huge, its population is still too small and distributed in several large plates.

Compared with the past era, commerce has indeed become more prosperous, but the bulk trading market of grain almost only pops up suddenly during the autumn harvest, and then quickly dies down.

Except for the autumn harvest period, the grain trading market was generally sluggish. Even if the boyars deliberately delayed selling grain until spring, they would not be able to exchange ten pounds of wheat for a silver coin.

It is precisely Rurik who is the largest grain merchant in the country, and he can buy them at a low price of one silver coin to fifteen pounds during the autumn harvest.

Whether it is the Vikings or the Slavs, as long as they are farmers and are eager to cash in their grain, they will sell grain to the king in exchange for money.

Over the past ten years, the royal family has accumulated enough reputation. As long as the farmer has the ability to transport grain to the royal family’s purchasing station, he can get the grain.

The kingdom then consisted of three large grain purchasing stations in Stockholm, Novorosburg and Novgorod.

In terms of its scale, Novgorod is the largest, and the city’s granary is also the largest in the country.

Therefore, each boyar had to consider the loss cost of his own food storage, and they lacked the storage technology capabilities of the royal family.

They have to quickly exchange a large amount of silver coins to buy other daily necessities. Even if they delay till spring plowing, they won’t be able to earn much more.

Taxation has never been the first means for the king to obtain a large amount of food from the people. The king is the largest businessman and a monopoly businessman, so he can use various necessities to exchange food from the hands of large grain holders. This is a rigidity for the royal family and the boyars. **.

“One silver coin for ten pounds of oats” is the foundation of the economic activities of the Kingdom of Ross, and the kingdom is indeed a grain-based country.

In fact, in Rurik’s view, since food is the foundation of life and a real currency, he has every right to issue currency based on food.

“I can print a batch of food vouchers. The cost of printing lies in the paper and ink. I can use it as a reward for some people, so that they can only use this kind of paper to exchange food from me.”

The earliest banknotes were indeed commercial drafts spontaneously produced by the people, and were later officially recognized as legal and endorsed by the government.

Is there a shortage of silver coins in Ross now?

not at all.

There is indeed an upper limit to Ross’s economic activities, and touching this upper limit is encountering shackles.

This is precisely the principle of “ten pounds of oats for a silver coin”. If the royal family cannot produce food equivalent to economic activity in some future crisis, or if the official food stock suddenly runs out, the crisis will break out. .

At present, Ross’s economic activities are developing normally. Since there is no crisis in the flow of traditional currency, there is no need to resort to paper money.

Not only that, although Ross’s expedition led to the defeat of many old warriors in the past, the “Marriage and Population Expansion Action” that started more than ten years ago has finally exploded with great power, and soldiers will not suddenly emerge with the king’s willpower , more than ten years ago, the preparations for a rainy day have caused thousands of twelve-year-old boys to sprout in the kingdom.

These boys were born in Rose’s wealth expansion period. They didn’t know what hunger was. On the contrary, they grew up eating wheat and fish, and their physical fitness was far better than their parents.

They have also learned basic cultural knowledge, and can understand paper orders written in the Latin alphabet, as well as any posted notices.

They can go to the battlefield with weapons, but if they can be given more time to wait, when they are fifteen years old, they will be better fighters.

According to tradition, even if a child is born on the last day of the year (the day before Hanukkah), as long as Hanukkah has passed, the kid is considered one year old, but in fact he is only two or three days old.

Therefore, a large number of boys who are counted as twelve years old are actually only eleven years old.

In 841, the second batch of 12-year-old children appeared on the scene. They were considered adults and had the obligation to defend Ross and expand their territory. They were more eligible to marry and have children. It determines their precocity to have such ability.

Of course, Rurik would not be so stupid as to really want twelve-year-old boys to enter the battlefield wantonly, unless it was a war where the country’s fate could not be fought and the country would be subjugated, just like the Battle of Gotland nine years ago.

On the contrary, Ross has created a relatively safe external space. It is not appropriate to recruit the existing standing army and the soldiers who have been disarmed and returned to the field from various banner teams. It is completely fine to defend the country.

Even if the civil war in the Frankish Kingdom is destined to be fierce, hasn’t Ross already joined hands with Denmark to send personnel to the Western world to deliberately disrupt the situation?

The main force of Ross does not need to participate, unless Ludwig of the Eastern Kingdom is really going to be beaten to the brink of subjugation by his elder brother Lothair.

As a result, the kingdom has a period of strategic opportunity, and the whole kingdom has to rest and recuperate.

The news of the so-called “three-year tax exemption” was indeed spread by Rurik. He could estimate the information of the people after the news spread, and the people were indeed discussing it happily.

Why tax exemption for three years?

According to the original plan, in 840, tax exemption was required to stabilize the confidence of the expeditionary army and the people in the rear. As a result, before the tax exemption order was passed back to their hometown, the industrious scribes had already finished paying taxes.

Tax-free nature must be fulfilled in 841.

But the kingdom did achieve a great expedition victory!

When Caesar held a ten-day triumphant ceremony in Rome, the people of Rome saw the majesty and glory of the army.

But what really made the people support Caesar was another benevolent policy-he asked the people of the city to eat and drink for free for a whole month.

In short, it is throwing money. If there is another way, it is to exempt the people from taxes.

Li Chuangsui played the banner of “three-year tax exemption” and received the response of the hungry people, and the defeated eighteen cavalry expanded to an army of two million refugees in just one year.

With some clear understanding of history, Rurik can realize the meaning of tax exemption, and the trace of romantic thoughts in his heart has not been destroyed by the ten-year expansion war.

In 842, tax must be exempted, which is equivalent to the feat of “Caesar invited the whole city to dinner”.

In this way, the tax exemption period has been exempted for two years, and then learn from the charitable deeds of the various Eastern dynasties when they were founded, and extend the tax exemption period to three years.

Since the main grain-producing areas directly controlled by the royal family in Ross are highly concentrated in the area around the Yinlmen Lake, the farms are villages, which are the basic social units for organizing grain production.

Each farm has boyar nobles equivalent to villages. Even if some boyars were domineering in the past, they are actually directly controlled by the governor of Novgorod, and the governor is directly responsible to King Rurik. , even if these boyars continue to domineering, and dare to refuse the king’s decree, the army will come to crusade in person, just like they have done in the past.

In fact, some privileges were naturally set up for Rurik, the immigrant settlement of the old Ross people, but they were treated equally in terms of agricultural taxes.

There are more than forty new and old Slavic farms around the lake. They are Slavs. Many people have known since childhood that the Russians among the Varyags who came by boat cannot be offended.

They are born with such a consciousness, and now they are relieved to be directly managed by Ross.

A large number of Ross people immigrated to the Lake District. Since they lived in the territory of the exterminated old Pine Needle Manor, they did not invade the fields of other manors.

They made a comparison. Pine Needle Manor was also a bully back then, and each farm had to offer sacrifices to them.

Now it is also offering sacrifices to the Ross people, but the Ross people have given everyone a lot of benefits, so that the grain production has increased a lot, and more grain is paid to the Ross people, and they keep more food for themselves.

Even if the majesty did not have any decree for tax exemption, the life of the various Slavic farms was still developing steadily.

After all, they hardly sent troops to expedition. Although they didn’t get any spoils, they also didn’t lose.

On the contrary, Boyar’s son, who was ordered to be a cavalryman (as a hostage), returned with a lot of spoils, and the boy became a hero of the whole village, a warrior recognized by King Ross.

The self-proclaimed Jianyong men in the village also followed suit, eager to have the opportunity to go to the battlefield to gain trophies and personal honor.

More than forty boyars were ordered to participate in the banquet, and each of them actually received the king’s delicious wine and barbecue hospitality, and they were extremely satisfied and grateful psychologically.

In fact, this was also a performance by Rurik, to make those boyars realize that even though they were forced to move their village from the forest to the lake to accept the rule of Ross, King Ross really did not treat them as outsiders.

Then let these boyars wake up after drinking, and after their spirits and spirits fully recovered, they were invited to enter the parliamentary court in the city collectively.

The parliamentary court was bustling with activity. It was widely rumored that the king was going to announce the tax exemption order. When talking about this matter, many people simply trembled violently with excitement, which could not be controlled by personal willpower.

Then when Rurik appeared noble and kind, all the boyars stood up one after another, roaring, stomping the floor and applauding, making a lot of noise by various means.

Rurik waved to them, but didn’t bother to repeat the polite words.

The governor Medved was present, and the supreme scribe Ella was also present, and the two stood on the left and right of Rurik. Only in this way, the wise men in the boyar had fully understood the meaning of the meeting.

Because of any taxation activities, the governor will send people to carry the agricultural tax in kind, and supervise the implementation, while the top clerk will send people to do the statistical work, and the written records will become all the vouchers.

Rurik said bluntly: “Have you heard the news? This king told you that everything is true!”

So the quiet scene just now boiled like boiling water.

He slapped the low podium vigorously and berated everyone to be quiet with a smile.

He also solemnly announced: “Last year was supposed to be tax-free, but something went wrong. Therefore, this year will replace last year’s tax-free! Also because the war was a great success, so gloriously worthy of tax-free. Next year will continue to be tax-free. Since it has been tax-free for two years, I will give you another one.” The tax exemption will continue in the following year. Three full years! This year is 841, and the tax exemption lasts until 843. When we collect the agricultural tax again, it will be 844!”

Rurik repeated the exact time to make sure that Boyar, who was hard of hearing, could hear clearly.

They cheered violently and praised the king for his wisdom, and praised the king with the best words in the Slavic vocabulary, “Slava” and “Skoin”, which together mean “glorious hero”.

The decree of tax exemption was first announced in Novgorod, and then it was carried out to the settlements throughout the kingdom.

So, now that the tax is exempted, what should the country’s expenses be?

There will be no fiscal deficit?

Because of the war seizures, and even the continuous blood transfusion of the metal smelting industry directly controlled by the royal family, if the wealth flowing into the national treasury is less than the huge war expenses, the wealth will indeed increase.

After all, only the agricultural tax is exempted, and the commercial tax and customs tax should still be collected.

What’s more, he calculated that the war of 840 had indeed become a trade war, and the Eastern Kingdom had completely opened its doors to Ross.

Ross now owns the best iron ore in Europe. It is a huge source of income for the kingdom at the current historical stage. It exports iron products to Saxony, Flanders, the Netherlands, Britain, and East Francia. The local geographical conditions determine that they really lack Iron, it is impossible to refuse good iron from the north.

In this respect alone, history returns to its normalcy.

Since the Kingdom of Sweden discovered a large iron mine, it began to export crude sponge iron or iron iron to the Holy Roman Empire.

Shinra craftsmen finished the iron work, and then learned steelmaking and hydraulic forging techniques in the fifteenth century, which made steel popular rapidly.

Shinra can do this, to a large extent, by relying on the annual transportation of Swedish iron ore, which is the millennium transportation.

Rurik didn’t do this intentionally, considering all aspects, selling iron products to Saxony and the Eastern Kingdom is the best solution to grab local wealth.

He is now in Novgorod, and he can be sure that Ross’s armed cargo ships will start to go around the Jutland peninsula to Hamburg, Rotterstad (Rotterdam) and Utrecht…

[End of this Chapter]