Volume 4 Chapter 148 - Hot spring city (1/2)

“It seems like you’ve also noticed this problem.” Seveni nodded towards Xu Yi, “This means that this problem is already very serious, it can’t be delayed any longer.”

“Delayed?” Xu Yi slightly knit his brows, “What? Is it difficult to change it?”

When he saw the crowded gates outside Anvilmar City, Xu Yi had wanted to talk about cancelling the city entrance tax.

But when he entered the city, without even having time to see Still, he had been found by the messenger sent from the royal palace who informed him that her majesty wanted to meet him immediately.

It was a good thing that Xu Yi had many things to discuss with Seveni. He had Liz, Linda, and Agnes bring Freya where he had agreed to meet Still and entered the palace with the messenger to see Seveni.

When he saw Seveni, Xu Yi immediately told her about what he saw when he entered the city and proposed to Seveni that she cancel the obsolete thing like the city entrance tax.

Seveni agreed with him, but now there seemed to be some problem.

“Of course.” Seveni spread her hands looking helpless, “The gate taxes are an important source of revenue for the cities of the kingdom, so to get rid of them would naturally draw in opposition from many people.”

Xu Yi slightly knit his brows, looking a bit confused.

“What age is this? Cities still depend on gate taxes as their main revenue?”

Seveni rolled her eyes at Xu Yi, “Of course it’s not like Banta City where they have a tax revenue of over two million gold coins each year, would they need to worry about something as trivial as the gate taxes? Let me tell you, according to the kingdom’s financial reports, in the thirty seven cities of the Lampuri Kingdom, the annual taxes for half of those cities are less than two hundred thousand gold coins. For those cities, they can collect over fifty thousand gold coins a year from the gate taxes, so of course it’s very important.”

Xu Yi couldn’t help shaking his head, “The kingdom is putting Banta City as an example, but they aren’t learning from it and operating on the same poor traditions. What are those city lords thinking? Seveni, isn’t this supposed to be your duty as the queen? They are all cities of the Lampuri Kingdom, you can’t favour and discriminate between them.”

Seveni gave a soft snort and slightly pouted her lips like a little girl.

“You think that I don’t want all the cities in the kingdom to be as prosperous as Banta City? But this takes time. Then again, the situation in each city is different. For the few cities in the northwest province, because the terrain is complicated, it’s hard to build a road there and it is hard to transport there. If it was you, would you be willing to invest in a factory there?”

Xu Yi could only shake his head.

As a merchant, he would choose the method with the greatest benefits.

To invest in a factory in the mountains of the northwest province where it was hard to transport, it would cost several times more to invest there than in other cities, so of course he wouldn’t do this kind of losing business.

“So even if I want to change the situation of the kingdom, I can only do it slowly.” Seveni looked at Xu Yi, “Isn’t this what you used to say to me?”

Xu Yi touched his nose. He didn’t touch politics and he wasn’t the king of the Lampuri Kingdom, he naturally didn’t need to care about the matters of the Lampuri Kingdom.

“But it isn’t like there isn’t a solution for this problem.” Xu Yi suddenly changed the topic, “Take the city entrance tax, if there would be opposition if it was implemented in the entire kingdom, why not just choose a few places first.”

“Choose a few places?” Seveni looked at Xu Yi with a confused look.

“Do you remember how I hoped that his majesty Lampuri Thirteenth would make Banta City a special economic zone?” Xu Yi asked.

“Un, that idea wasn’t bad, but it’s a pity that the kingdom changed and it couldn’t be implemented. I had considered if we could enact this plan, but I’ve put it aside for now.” Seveni said.

“It’s different from before now. I wanted to make Banta City a special economic zone to make it easier for me to make some reforms in Banta City. Now that the entire kingdom is under your country, why do you need to force out a special economic zone? Of course this plan can be used to change the city entrance task, so you need to pick a few cities first. You should have these cities eliminate the tax and experiment with them.” Xu Yi said.

“I understand your meaning.” Seveni nodded, “If the effects of the experiments are good, then the other cities don’t have a reason to oppose. But what the results aren’t good? Moreover, even if the results are good, there are some cities that don’t have the conditions to eliminate the taxes, what do we do?”

“It’s very simple, you just have to force out this reform when the time comes. As for those that don’t have the condition, they can be like the cities in the western province, they can receive special subsidies from the kingdom’s finances.”

Xu Yi described a feasible plan to Seveni based on the various reforms made on earth.

Although he wasn’t clear on the details of how to implement it, he didn’t have the talent for this to begin with and he only needed to give the general outline.