Volume 4 Chapter 89 - Prestige of a king (1/2)

Volume 4 Eric took a deep breath and closed his eyes to rest for a minute before opening them again. He picked up the towel that had been soaking in a bucket of ice cold water and slapped his face twice, trying to refresh himself before continuing to review the documents.

After forcefully stopping Duke Stagg from sending the second army to deal with Kolebo City last time, it was like Eric had understood something. He had a new understanding of the political matters from before and was processing them with a different opinion.

He relied on Duke Stagg much less and unless there was anything important, he wouldn’t call on Duke Stagg at all, spending most of his time on his own decisions.

Of course, he would still consult the other ministers for their opinion, while also reading to increase his own intelligence. He even left the royal palace and mixed in among the people to understand them

In short, he invested himself more and more into the role of the king, while also feeling the glory and pride of a king.

Of course, that also meant he deeply felt the pressure.

Learning more about politics, Eric regretted the decision he made before more and more.

Based on the various data, the worst mistake he had made was not keeping the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.

Half the year had passed and the Lampuri Kingdom’s tax revenue hadn’t even reached a million gold coins yet.

Based on this trend, by the end of the year, the kingdom’s financial revenue might just be over a million and it definitely wouldn’t pass one and half million gold coins.

Compared to the previous years where it was at least two million or even last year when it surpassed three million, the Lampuri Kingdom was now much more poor.

Eric was more familiar with politics, so naturally he knew the reason for this.

When the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was here, two thirds of the kingdom’s tax revenue came from the magic machine industry represented by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.

Just Banta City alone paid over a million gold coins in taxes each year, which was almost comparable to the Lampuri Kingdom’s previous yearly tax revenue.

It had to be said, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce played a vital role in this.

But since the Frestech Chamber of Commerce left the Lampuri Kingdom, most of the magic machine companies in Banta City and the Lampuri Kingdom left the kingdom. This caused the magic machine industry’s influence in the Lampuri Kingdom to drop, which naturally also dropped the tax revenue.

Of course, this was also related to the ten companies that controlled the magic machine industry.

According to the stats, those ten companies had been suffering losses because of the poor industries, so the taxes they paid were quite pitiful.

But Eric knew in his heart that although the magic machine industry had been affected by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and the other companies leaving, if it was said that they were losing money, it was impossible to say anything else.

According to Eric’s private information, just the Rockefeller Chamber of Commerce had earned profits of over two hundred thousand gold coins last month.

But last month the Rockefeller Chamber of Commerce reported to the business department that they lost over seventy thousand gold coins. So not only did the Rockefeller Chamber of Commerce not have to pay over eighty thousand gold coins in taxes like they should have, they even received a special subsidiary of thirty thousand gold coins.

With this, the Rockefeller Chamber of Commerce had earned close to twelve hundred thousand gold coins.

As for where the extra twelve hundred thousand gold coins went……

Every time he thought of the Stagg Family behind the Rockefeller Chamber of Commerce, Eric couldn’t help feeling anger in his heart.

“Those damn worms!” Eric cursed in his heart before giving a helpless bitter laugh.

Although Duke Stagg was very friendly to him on the surface during this time, not opposing any suggestions that he had and carrying out his every order, Eric knew that his control over the kingdom right now was still far from enough.

While he wasn’t strong enough to deal with the conservative nobles led by the Stagg Family, Eric could only endure.

Before this, the only thing he could do was take back the power that was his from Duke Stagg’s hands bit by bit.

“Kou, kou, kou.”

There was a knock on the door.

Eric looked at the door and couldn’t help smiling.

Duke Stagg had finally learned that he needed to knock to come in.

“Come in.” Eric said.”

The door was softly opened and Duke Stagg walked in.

“Your majesty.” Duke Stagg gave Eric a bow, “Do you need something to suddenly summon me?”

“Un, I just wrote a decree, take a look.” Eric handed over the paper that hadn’t even had its ink dried yet.

Duke Stagg took it and deeply knit his brows as soon as he took a look.

This decree was aimed at the magic machine industry management department.

The content summarized was that Eric wanted to reform the department, he wanted to inspect all the companies managed by the department once again.