Viscount Turnis, the tax collector of the royal capital, chased after him from behind, and he first saluted Judy, who looked displeased, "Beautiful Lady Judy, I'm sorry to disturb you. ”

Victor patted the little hand on his arm and said gently, "Honey, you go back first." I'll look for you later. ”

Judy turned her anger into joy, gently rolled up her skirt and returned the salute to Tenes, swaying lightly at her willow waist and leaving. Watching the slender and graceful back board the carriage, Tenis praised from the bottom of his heart: "What an excellent beauty." ”

Praising the companion of a nobleman is not frivolous, but a compliment. Victor smiled and said, "Tenis, I was just planning to visit you sometime. ”

Tenis was embarrassed. Victor was his business partner, and he should have been the first to visit the door to fulfill the friendship of the landlord, but it was very rude to come forward to greet him until now. Fortunately, nobles have always been thick-skinned, and Tenis explained sincerely: "My friend, no one will bother you until Prince Edward returns. With my current qualifications, I don't dare to act willfully at such a moment. If you are rude, please forgive me. If I miss this opportunity today, I'm afraid you won't even have time to talk to me. ”

Prince Edward returns safely, and the political situation in Gambis is settled. As the representative of the House of York, Victor will inevitably be warmly entertained by the nobles of the royal capital, and various banquets will follow, and he really may not have time to meet with Tenis alone.

Victor looked at the sky and said with a smile: "I can understand your difficulties, but it's not early, I have an appointment with the beauty, and the dinner will be waived." Why don't you go to the trade zone and talk while we go. ”

Tenis was overjoyed and summoned the carriage with him. The two men boarded the carriage, and the driver shook the reins, and the open-top carriage headed for the inner city.

There were no shops in the aristocratic district of Brinor, and the noblewomen and ladies of the royal capital did not have the habit of shopping and leisure. When they want costume jewelry, they will summon top designers and tailors to come to their homes to make tailor-made, and daily necessities are naturally purchased by housekeepers. This habit allows Victor not to go shopping with his woman, which is a lot less troublesome and less fun.

"Tenis, I have always wondered how the annuity I need to pay every year is so high? The annuity of the marquisate is not 20,000 gold soles, right? Such a large sum of money really makes me very difficult. Victor complained to Tenis.

Tenis was stunned and asked, "You paid the 20,000 annuity yourself?"

Victor's heart moved, and he nodded silently. Tenis pondered for a moment and said, "According to the kingdom's annuity system, the lords of various places have to pay 20% of the property of the territory and a fixed amount of gold coins every year. The fixed tax paid by the viscounty is 3,000 gold soles, and the tax you pay 20,000 gold soles is not only higher than that of the marquis。。。。。 The dukedom is only 15,000 gold soles. ”

"How can this be?!" Victor was shocked and angry, 20,000 gold sol is not a small amount of money, if it wasn't for the windfall from that hapless assassin, he really wouldn't have paid this much money, but the annuity is paid every year, and the windfall will not be there every year.

"Don't worry. Tenis shook his head with a wry smile and explained: "You should have heard of a saying, the vassals of the vassals are not my vassals! Therefore, the kingdom can only levy annuities from the independent lords, and the property paid by the lords refers to the lord's own income, which does not include the twenty percent of the lord's income, and does not include the own income of the family vassals. In this way, the lord will not be able to pay the multi-year gold at all. But even so, the lords everywhere are still trying to avoid paying the annuity. It was common practice to canonize vassal lords and vassals. ”

"The York family is a prime example of this. Most of the lords of the Centaur Hills were vassal lords of the House of York, and they did not have to pay an annuity directly to the kingdom, but only offered fifty percent of the property to the House of York. This meant that, with the exception of the Duke of York, the kingdom could only collect 10% of its property from other vassal realms, and they did not have to pay a fixed tax. The Duke of York then returned 20% of the offerings paid by the vassal lords through subsidies. So as to achieve the purpose of tax evasion. ”

"We don't have much to ......do about this kind of practice of the Great Lord," Teniston paused and sighed: "Actually, what the kingdom wants most is to collect the products of each territory, including grain, ores, high-quality wood, animal tendons, herbs, spices, leather, linen, cured meat, etc., and the kingdom does not care much about fixed taxes. In order to urge the lords of the localities to pay for the goods, the kingdom stipulated that any lord who could not pay the goods in full would be fined ten times. ”

"I really didn't pay any property...... You also know the situation of Randall, you can't even be self-sufficient, so there is property to pay?" Victor spread his hands and asked with a twinkle in his eyes: "But even if you are fined ten times, you won't ask for 20,000 gold soles, right?"

"My friend, you won't deliberately omit purple cane wine and jaggery sugar, will you? As for coffee and snow sugar, I didn't collect them at all!"

Tenis said with a smile: "The value of the purple cane wine is amazing, and the share of the purple cane wine sold by the Marquis of Sophia is only half of the payment to the kingdom. The kingdom calculates your penalty based on the total trade in purple cane wine. ”

"That's not as much as 20,000 goldsols!" Victor was silent for a moment, and threw out a sentence firmly.

"It's really not so much!" Tenis nodded, and said with a straight face: "The main reason is the kingdom's financial difficulties! According to the original vote of the Senate, the York family guarded the hills, and the kingdom exempted it from twenty years of annuity. But it doesn't include Randall, because you're not a vassal lord of House York. So ......"

"So, I'm paying taxes to the kingdom for the whole Centaur Hills and Sophia's Chamber of Commerce in disguise?" Victor pointed to his nose, looking like a wronged man.

"Uh...... If the York family pays the annuity normally, the kingdom can receive at least 150,000 gold soles worth of refined iron with only the refined iron ore resources in the Centaur hills. Now, with a fine of only 20,000 gold soles, the kingdom has made a big concession. Tennis euphemistically said that he had given a discount, and then shook his head and smiled: "I just didn't expect that you were paying this money alone...... Of course, this is your housework, and I can't leave it in my beak. ”

Victor was speechless, and the reality was that he was paying for his predecessor and incumbent. Well, according to Chinese tradition, paying for your own woman is not a great thing. The hateful thing is that Sylvia didn't snort from beginning to end, and just put him inside, which annoyed Victor a little.

Considering that he also concealed the matter of the Mithril Mine, Victor's mind was much more balanced. As for Sophia, after all, she is his former lover, his nominal wife, and now she is facing a difficult situation, and she doesn't know whether she is alive or dead, and Victor can't care too much.

"Is it too late for me to join the House of York?" asked Victor expectantly.

Since he can't deal with his own woman, he can only dig the corners of the kingdom, although there is little hope.

Sure enough!, Tenis exclaimed, exaggeratedly, "Well, you're now a registered independent lord! and...... Fame spreads!"

"Are the kingdom's finances in trouble?" Victor looked left and right, and duly changed the subject.

"It's really stressful. Tenis said solemnly: "Since the Centaur Hills encountered an ant plague, the kingdom has been actively preparing for war. The northern counties settled 150,000 displaced people at a time, registered all of them, and trained 80,000 militiamen and 8,000 soldiers from them. Coupled with the upgrading of the equipment of the various legions, the Minister of Finance no longer dares to go out...... Lord Marquis Goron sent people to squat at him every day......"

Victor shook his head with a heavy face, sighed deeply, and said nothing.

The Gambis family had a big business and a lot of expenses, so it was not surprising that they were in financial difficulty. The Marquis of Goron couldn't squeeze a few taels of oil even if he chopped the Chancellor of the Exchequer. However, this dilemma is not impossible to solve. The kingdom has no money, but the lords and nobles have money! Even the freedmen who have been doing business for generations are rich, let alone the big families that have been passed down for hundreds of years? As long as the kingdom uses annuities as a guarantee, issues treasury bonds, and pays interest, it can solve its urgent needs. But Victor is never nosy.

I won't tell you, I won't tell you! With all the wealth of the people concentrated in the hands of the royal family, who else can the Free People's Chamber of Commerce make money? It's good that you are poor and I am rich!

Before they knew it, Victor and Tenis had arrived at the trade zone. By this time, it was getting late, most of the shops had closed, and the carriage drove directly to the door of the Tenis family's shop.

Seeing Tenis with his distinguished guests, the shop manager hurriedly beckoned the man to open the door and lit a thick butter candle, Victor walked into the shop, and found that the shelves were full of luxury goods, amber, beeswax, honey, precious stones, spices, high-quality leather goods, exquisite handicrafts, etc., but there was no coffee.

"Why don't you have coffee and snow sugar?" asked Victor with a frown.

"No coffee. Tenes said slowly: "The coffee and snow candy you sold me were divided up halfway through." Every time the family caravan passed through a territory, those lords had to take a cut, and they didn't want money, just coffee. When the caravan arrived in the royal capital, there was not much coffee left...... All kinds of personal contacts, all kinds of door-to-door requests, I can't resist it!"

"The coffee trade has cost you money, and you're not going to do it again?" asked Victor with a smirk.

"No, I need to buy more coffee, even if it's a little higher. Tenis said earnestly.

"Isn't that a bigger loss?" said Victor, noncommittal.

"Truth be told, coffee has a fire element affinity. It is a very rare drink that can help us scholars refresh their spirits and clear their minds. Although I lose money in the coffee business, the favor is priceless. I hope you can increase the share of the coffee trade, I can increase the price by 20 percent...... If it goes any higher, I can't help it. Tenis said with a wry smile.

Randall Collar Coffee can produce up to 8,000 pounds a year, Victor gives Tenis 200 pounds of coffee per year at 5 gold soles per pound, and Chebman's share is 300 pounds per year at 4 gold soles per pound. In the market, coffee is purchased for 40 gold soles per pound, but it is basically not sold. And Victor, Tenness, and Count Chebman didn't make much money on coffee, and Tenness was even losing money. All of this was expected by Victor.

How could coffee make money through the normal trade channels and through the layers of exploitation by the lords? Victor sold coffee to the two families at a low price and in limited quantities, just to raise the value of coffee and spread the reputation of coffee in knightly circles and scholars' circles. Strictly speaking, the value of a smuggling channel is much higher than that of any cargo.

The channel Victor is already under construction, but the terminal is just as important, and the terminal of private goods is, of course, the black market. The town of Pinewood, which is under the Chipman Territory, is considered a black market, and now it is time to build a black market in the royal capital as well.

"It's getting dark, let's go back. Victor looked at the steward and his men standing beside him, turned and walked out of the shop.

Tenis's heart moved, and he followed. The two got into the carriage, and as they drove to a secluded place, a breeze blew up, and Victor's thin voice reached Tenis's ears.

"I say, listen. ”

Turnaround turned his head silently, and Victor continued, "The coffee trade makes you lose money, not the way of friends. I have a suggestion...... I'll give you twice as much coffee, but the extra coffee costs 18 gold soles per pound, and you can ask the caravan's steward to try to carry it, for example, in the walls of the caravan. After the coffee is transported to the royal capital, you will try to sell it at a high price, and it is better to cultivate an agent among the freedmen in the outer city, so that you will not offend your colleagues and lords along the way, and you will also be able to profit from it, and you will not have to lose money and earn favors......"

Victor's whispering was like a devil's temptation, which made Tenis's heart pound.