The Duke of Windsor stared at the two opposites with a gloomy face.

"What did you say? The merchants ran away, why did they run, where did they go, what did they want to do?"

The two men swallowed a mouthful of spit in unison, looked at the Duke of Windsor cautiously, and then replied hesitantly, "Duke...... Lord Duke, the reason why the merchants ran away is probably ...... I'm afraid it has something to do with you......"

"What does it have to do with me?" the Duke of Windsor raised his eyebrows and said sharply, "What do you mean? Did I drive them away?"

The two officials in charge of the finances of the southern provinces of the Candela Empire smiled helplessly at the same time.

Recently, the merchants of the Southern Province have left the Southern Province one after another, and the main business point of their chamber of commerce has been changed to other parts of the empire, and if the reason is investigated, it is really the Duke in front of him.

The reason for this is actually very simple, that is, an order issued by the Duke - no items related to the New Flying Chamber of Commerce are allowed to enter the Southern Province.

In the second half of last year, after the Emperor changed his attitude towards the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce under the advice of the Imperial Minister of Finance, Minister Hastere, countless magical machines produced by the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce from the Duchy of Statein, the Kingdom of Lampari, and the countries in the southwest of the continent entered the Candela Empire.

Later, with the acquiescence of His Majesty the Emperor, the Candela Imperial Navy and the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce privately reached a cooperation agreement, and after the two sides jointly opened up a maritime trade route, a large number of goods from the Duchy of Stantin poured into the empire from the southern coast of the empire.

These products are not only the various magical machines produced by the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce and other magic machinery chambers, but also the various magical industrial products produced by the influence of the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce.

Because most of these goods are extremely cheap compared to the goods in the Candela Empire, and the performance is far superior. So it was a big hit within the empire.

For businessmen with a keen sense of smell. The business opportunities are self-evident.

So there is no need for the new flying chamber to spend too much effort. The merchants of the Candela Empire poured into the southern seaports of the Empire and the border between the southwest of the Empire and the Duchy of Norton like cats that smelled fish, so that they could grab some goods from the Duchy of Staten as soon as possible, and then ship them back to sell them for a good price.

Under the influence of this commercial trend, a ban issued by the Duke of Windsor before became particularly conspicuous.

This ban does not only prohibit the products of the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce, but all products related to the Xinfei merchants.

This "all". It included almost all of the goods that came from the Duchy of Stantin and from the Duchy of Norton to the Candela Empire.

Because of the current popularity of these products in the Candela Empire, there is hardly even one that is not related to the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce.

Even the only fruit that the Duchy of Stantin, which was able to import large quantities to the Candela Empire before, and which was only produced by the Duchy of Stantin, is now basically affected by the industrial manufacturing brought by the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce.

For example, all kinds of canned fruits, which are currently in high demand, are simply the products of the new magic industry system implemented by the standard Xinfei Chamber of Commerce.

In fact, the Duke of Windsor was not the only one in the Candela Empire who explicitly opposed such a large import of products from other countries, because they felt that it would have a heavy impact on the Candela Empire itself.

However, the others are at most against the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce, on the grounds that the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce supports the enemy country of the Ruerson Kingdom, which is considered an enemy of the Candela Empire, and of course the empire cannot cooperate with it.

The Duke of Windsor, on the other hand, simply objected to something related to the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce, and there were too many things designed.

Under the Duke of Windsor's repressive policy, any goods related to the New Flying Chamber of Commerce could not enter the Southern Province. This made the businessmen of the southern provinces, who smelled the business opportunities, very depressed.

Letting these businessmen ignore business opportunities is tantamount to making cats who smell fishy not moved. It's simply not possible.

But how dare ordinary merchants rebel against the Duke of Windsor, who is a one-handed man in the Southern Province, so the final result is that these merchants simply shifted their focus directly out of the Southern Province and moved to other places within the empire that were not opposed to cooperating with the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce.

In fact, in fact, these businessmen are just paying more attention to the business progress related to the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce now, not that they have completely abandoned the various businesses they already have in the southern provinces.

But now that this situation has been reflected, it has become as if the merchants had fled the southern provinces.

For the Duke of Windsor, the most intuitive embodiment lies in the financial statistics.

In April, the Southern Governorates conducted the usual fiscal statistics for the first quarter.

The results show that compared with the same period last year, the grain output of the southern provinces is basically the same, and there is no change in the fiscal surplus obtained from grain.

However, in terms of commercial tax revenue, there was a marked decline over the same period last year, and the decline rate reached as much as 13 percent.

Originally, this was nothing to the Duke of Windsor, because he was originally a typical traditional nobleman of the Sainz continent, and what he valued most was food.

If there is no problem with the food, he will not feel that there is a problem.

As for business, it's just a guarantee that there won't be any chaos.

However, when the first quarter financial report was submitted to the Imperial Treasury, the southern provinces were criticized by the Imperial Treasury.

According to the Imperial Treasury, the Southern Province was the second-lowest of the nine Imperial Provinces in terms of revenue in the first quarter, only slightly better than the Northeast Province, which had always been known for its barrenness within the Candela Empire.

Compared with the previous fiscal revenue of the southern provinces, at least in the middle of the empire, this is undoubtedly a significant decline.

Moreover, the southeastern provinces, which are adjacent to the southern provinces, and the Tural provinces, which are mostly close to the coast, saw their fiscal revenues rise sharply in the first quarter of this year, and the fiscal revenues of the Tural provinces even exceeded 38 million gold coins, far exceeding the mere 17 million gold coins of the southern provinces.

This creates a stark contrast, making the slight decline in the southern provinces even more striking than last year's.

The Duke of Windsor, who had suffered a lot of white eyes in the Imperial Treasury, was extremely angry about this. As soon as I returned to the Governor's Palace. A thorough investigation of the cause was immediately ordered.

However, the two finance officials in charge of the investigation gave the answer that "a large number of businessmen fled the southern provinces". Of course, he was extremely dissatisfied.

"Lord Duke...... In fact, the subordinates feel ...... Compared with the problem of commercial taxation, I think we should pay more attention to the problem of food at this time......" A financial manager hesitated for a moment, and craned his neck to propose a proposal.

"What?" the Duke of Windsor's eyes widened. "Do you want to sue me that even normal grain production is going to be wrong in our southern provinces? I tell you that the important spring harvest is coming soon, and if something goes wrong in this regard, don't say that you don't even think about it, even if I am in trouble!"

The two financial managers could only smile bitterly again. The treasurer who had just mustered up the courage to speak glanced at his colleague and motioned for him to speak too.

The other financial manager had no choice but to bite the bullet and say: "Lord Duke, it's not that there is something wrong with this, it's just that ...... It's just that we have found that if you change your mind a little, our spring harvest will go more smoothly, and maybe the autumn harvest will hopefully lead to a significant increase in grain production. ”

The Duke of Windsor was slightly stunned: "I can greatly increase grain production by changing my mind?" Are you kidding?"

"No, how dare we joke with you. The treasurer took a copy from his bosom and handed it to the Duke of Windsor. "Lord Duke, this is a report on the agricultural industry within the province that Baron Domingo has given us. Please take a look. ”

"Domingo, why didn't he bring it to me himself?" the Duke of Windsor looked at the two of them quizzically.

"This ......," the two financial managers looked at each other and smiled bitterly. "Baron Domingo says he fears that this report will provoke you. I didn't dare to come by myself, so please leave it to the two of us. ”

"Oh?" the Duke of Windsor glanced at the two of them. "Then aren't you afraid that I will be angry?"

The two treasurers smiled wryly again.

"We can't escape anyway. ”

Seeing the bitter expressions on the faces of the two, the Duke of Windsor snorted coldly, took the report, glanced at it twice, and his face immediately sank.

"It's these bullshit ideas again, no wonder he doesn't dare to come to see me!" The Duke of Windsor angrily threw the report directly to the ground, pointed at the two of them and scolded loudly: "Sue Domingo for me, if he still insists on introducing the farmland magic machinery of the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce, he won't appear in front of me again in the future! And the same goes for you two! Don't think I don't know what you're thinking, are you also like those merchants who only have gold coins, and want to force me to cooperate with the damn Xinfei Chamber of Commerce?

The two treasurers lowered their heads deeply, not daring to look directly at the Duke of Windsor.

They knew very well that the Duke was really angry this time.

The Duke of Windsor pointed at the two and scolded, and finally shook his arm.

"Get out!"

As if they had been granted amnesty, the two treasurers hurriedly bowed and quickly withdrew.

After both of them left, the Duke of Windsor was the only one left in the room, and he gasped for a moment and gradually calmed down.

After staring at the report on the ground for a long time, the Duke of Windsor hesitated, then picked it up and looked at it carefully.

This time, he was far more serious and focused than he had just looked.

It took him half an hour to read a report, and when he had finished reading the last page, he was silent for a long time, and suddenly let out a sigh, and his face instantly looked as if he were a teenager old.

"Is this the so-called change of the times?"

The Duke of Windsor let out another sigh and returned to the table and tugged at a rope that hung from the table.

A middle-aged man who looked like a housekeeper quietly appeared in the room.

"Sir, do you have any orders?" Unlike the others, the middle-aged man addressed the Duke of Windsor with a very quaint "sir".

The Duke of Windsor waved his hand: "Go and prepare, I'm going out for a walk." ”

The middle-aged man glanced up at the Duke of Windsor, a trace of surprise flashed in his eyes, but he didn't ask much, bowed his head in response, and quietly withdrew again. (To be continued......)