"The agrarian reform in the Far East was not carried out in a hurry, but before it was preceded by the laying of the foundations, for which we carried out agrarian reform, nationalized all undeveloped land resources in the territory, and established state-controlled collective farms on the premise of abolishing them. Serfdom emancipated the labor force that had been bound to the landlord's estate, and could freely choose to go to the city to beg for a living or join the collective farm, become an agricultural worker, and receive corresponding remuneration and even share rewards according to their own labor performance. ”

"It is not enough to mobilize the peasants, we are also working closely with the druid communities in the Far East to improve the soil, breed good seeds, prevent pests and resist natural disasters with the help of druid skills and natural magic...... Through this series of technical means, agriculture in the Far East has been rewarded every year, and the yield of cereals per mu has reached new highs. ”

Roland did not deliberately hide his secrets, and told the ins and outs of the take-off of agriculture in the Far East. In fact, it is impossible for him to hide his secrets, after all, the rapid development of agriculture in the Far East is well known, and it has long been thoroughly studied by the think tank teams of various governments, not to mention that Palatina and others have just visited the Far East not long ago, and even if he has half a lie, it will be exposed on the spot.

Frank listened to Roland's story, smiled and nodded frequently, and then admitted that Roland's strategy was deeply in line with his heart, and he was enlisting the support of the Mill cabinet, intending to follow the example of the Far East to carry out reforms in the territory, and the first slash was to cut at the "serfdom" that had long been out of fashion. He had been hesitant to abolish serfdom for fear that the abolition of serfdom would cause social unrest, as conservatives threatened: serfdom was the foundation of the empire's social stability, and that its abolition would lead to chaos in the country, and that uncontrolled exiles would flock to the cities and become outlaws who would disrupt social order.

Now listening to Roland, Frank finally finds an argument to refute the conservative intimidating rhetoric:

"The reforms in the Far East inspired me to abolish serfdom and at the same time to form state-owned farms, where the emancipated serfs would be provided with a job, so that they would not break into the cities and become a threat to social stability."

"I admire Your Highness's insight." Roland complimented casually.

Frank was in high spirits, and then asked Roland another thorny problem: "Tell me in detail how you carried out land reform in the Far East, I need some feasible suggestions to change the current situation of serious land annexation in the Empire, if all the fertile land is occupied by the landlords, and the state does not have sufficient arable land reserves, what will I do with my hands to create state-owned farms and house those emancipated serfs!" ”

This question needs to be answered carefully, Roland straightened up, and said with a straight face: "Your Highness, the Far East is vast and sparsely populated, and land annexation is not serious, so it is suitable to implement a relatively tough land nationalization policy, but the situation in the empire is different from that of the Far East, large landowners, big nobles and high-ranking clergy occupy most of the fertile land in the country, these vested interests are huge and intertwined, and ordering them to hand over the land will inevitably provoke strong resistance, and once a bloody conflict breaks out between conservatives and reformers, the foundation of the empire's rule will also be impacted!" Therefore, according to the humble opinion of the lower authorities, the imperial authorities must not follow the example of the Far East in carrying out a policy of rapid land reform, but can only adopt more moderate means to solve this problem step by step. ”

"That's right!" Frank slapped the table, his eyes were filled with heartfelt emotion, "Just because you persuaded me not to follow the cruel land reform policy of the Far East, it shows that you are really good for me, Brother Roland, I want to toast you!" ”

Roland raised his glass to thank His Royal Highness the Crown Prince for his kindness, and then drank it all. I thought that Frank was a man of temperament, and if it weren't for the fact that the two sides were on different positions, they could really make friends.

"Roland, we are friends after drinking this wine, and you have to tell me as frankly as a friend what measures you would use to carry out land reform in my position without causing social unrest." Frank's eyes sparkled and he looked at Roland expectantly.

Roland put down his glass, pondered for a few seconds under the gaze of Frank and the reformers, and then looked up and smiled, his eyes full of confidence.

"Your Highness, if it were to be up to me to draft the land reform plan of the Assanian Empire, I would start by amending the tax law, and change the existing 'land rent tax' to a 'marginal incremental progressive tax rate' under the premise of abolishing serfdom and opening up the free sale of land."

"Now that serfdom has been abolished, large landlords can no longer rely on serfs to cultivate their fields, and most of them themselves do not have the skills to run and manage large farms, and leasing their land to others for cultivation will become a common phenomenon in society."

"The 'land rent tax' is to tax this part of the agricultural products taken away by the landlord, and its characteristic is that the tax burden falls completely on the landlord, and the more land rent the landlord collects, the more land rent tax needs to be paid, and the landlord has no way to pass on this burden to the lessee, so the collection of land rent tax will not affect the market price of agricultural products."

After a brief introduction to the "land rent tax", Roland went on to explain his plan for tax reform.

"The so-called 'marginal incremental progressive land rent tax', to put it bluntly, means that the more land you occupy, the higher the land rent tax rate that needs to be paid, such as 10% land rent tax for 1,000 mu, 20% for more than 1,000 mu to 2,000 mu, 30% for more than 2,000 mu to 3,000 mu, and so on."

"We might as well suppose that there are two landowners in the provinces, Ivan and Pierre, who rent their fields to others for cultivation and collect a part of the crops as rent. Suppose Mr. Ivan owns 1,000 acres of land and Mr. Pierre has 3,000 acres, then Mr. Ivan only needs to pay the land rent at the rate of 10%, and Mr. Pierre's land is divided into three equal plots, the first plot of land is taxed at 10%, the second plot is taxed at 20%, and the third plot is taxed at 30%...... Through simple calculations, it is not difficult to find that this marginal tax rate means that Mr. Pierre has to bear a higher tax burden than Mr. Ivan, and that the disguised punishment of land annexation for excessive land occupation is precisely the purpose of the introduction of a marginal progressive land rent tax. ”

"Now our Monsieur Pierre is caught in a dilemma: paying the marginal rent tax has reduced his income sharply, and he cannot pass on the tax burden to the tenant, so he has to choose between paying the heavy tax and selling part of the arable land. If Monsieur Pierre was a man of reason, he would normally prefer the latter. Roland asserted confidently.