After a series of tosses, Stennis breathed a sigh of relief and finally succeeded in renewing his life.

Debt has been reduced to just 30 percent, eliminating the deficit for the first time in more than a dozen consecutive quarters.

Although it is still very difficult, such as the lack of an army, the public facilities in the territory are almost zero, the management system is in chaos, and there are three guys in the castle who eat and drink for nothing, but at least there is hope, although the future is unpredictable, but it is not just a dead game.

As a result of this cut off of the taxes to be paid, after paying off part of the debt, he finally had a little money left in his warehouse, which was filled with the grain handed in by the peasants and the output of his own fields.

It seems that this era is still dominated by the payment of taxes in kind, and Stannis is well aware of the disadvantages of this method of paying taxes, and there is a lot of loss and greasy in the intermediate links, so it is time to implement a whip law like Zhang Gelao.

However, the premise of the implementation of a whip law is the premise that there is a large amount of convertible currency, but Stannis has traveled for so long that he has not even seen a single penny in kind, and the lords are like this, let alone the peasants who are confined to their own land, and the exchange of goods is still the most primitive barter, and there is no need for money at all.

Fortunately, however, there is still an economically vibrant area in his territory.

After the last time the little fat merchant Albert was released and preached a series of preferential policies to him, the number of merchants passing through his territory had increased fivefold, and there was always a constant stream of caravans on the road, and their arrival made the open space in front of the castle lively.

Stannis patrolled with Korodov behind his back, and because he had no money, his promise to build a barracks for his knight chief could not be fulfilled, which also caused the latter to follow him all day long, and Stannis was annoyed by him.

"Good day, honorable lord!" a little fat man jumped in front of him actively, it was Albert, and he saw the lord at once with sharp eyes.

Stannis smiled and nodded at him as well, it looks like this guy is doing a good job of publicity.

"I didn't expect there to be so many businessmen. "Stannis thought the economy of this place was a stagnant pool.

"And that's just a small part of it, and more of my compatriots are coming here after hearing the good news that they don't have to pay. ”

Stannis smiled, and more and more fish were caught in his nets.

"By the way, what are you selling all the time?" he asked curiously.

The little fat man gave him a strange look, "My lord, don't you know? Now the merchants of the entire eastern territory are desperately buying grain and transporting it to the north!"

"North, is there anything big going on there?" Stannis still didn't know.

"The Empire is at war with the Republic of Rhodok!"

[Rhodok Republic], the recently completed unification of Northern Rhodok is competing with the empire for the hegemony of the Western Continent, and the two major forces are repeatedly tugging on the South Rhodok line.

"No wonder, it turned out to be a war, and it was really a good opportunity to make a lot of war money. Stannis nodded in realization, and then he looked at the fat merchant with bad intentions: "Then you have made a fortune!

As soon as the money was mentioned, as if it was going to kill the Lanana people, Albert hurriedly cried and became poor, "Where to make a fortune, there are robbers and robbers everywhere along the way, and every time you go, you have to pay half of the protection fee alone, which is not bad, even if it is transported there, if you encounter a greedy quartermaster who forcibly levies it in the name of the empire, you will directly lose all your money." ”

"Such an exaggeration, the public is more bandit than a bandit. "Stanis, on the contrary, felt that his lord was a little out of place, and it was no wonder that his men were going to rob caravans all day long.

"That's right. Then he thought of something, "How do you trade with my villagers? I don't think you have any coins with you." ”

Albert seems to have been thinking about this for a long time, "We can't help it, because your peasants only accept things in exchange for their food and materials, so we have to bring a bunch of daily necessities to exchange with them every time." Sometimes they didn't have enough food to exchange for our goods, so they would take a random amount of green fir wood to make up the amount, but we would not accept it and fence us off and wouldn't let us go. ”

"What the hell is the green flock!" Stannis had heard of purple shirts, fir, and spruce, and this was the first time he had heard of such a thing, could it be the seed of the old green pine family next door?

"A tall tree, very hard, suitable for building a house and making a bow. ”

"Oh yes, these logs are big and worthless, what's the use of us taking them!"

"That's a real nuisance. Stannis rejoiced.

"Not really!"

Stannis pretended to be thoughtful, and then said what he had already conceived, "In this way, when you go down to collect food, you will only pay them." ”

Albert's face was embarrassed: "We are very welcome, but your gang of people are ...... The unpretentious farmer did not accept our coins, which they called 'shiny gadgets'. ”

Stannis waved his hand without mind, "It's okay, I'm going to issue a decree today, stipulating that those peasants can only use coins to pay taxes in the future, so that when they sell things to you, they can only collect coins!"

As soon as his words fell, the scholar Romon did not know where to come out, and he exclaimed as he had been prepared, "This is absolutely unacceptable, Your Excellency!"

Stannis was taken aback by him, "Where did you come from, old man!"

Maester Romon did not answer him, he waved his hand and began to shrug in an alarmist voice, "Your Excellency, this is the rule of the first lord of Justiine: 'Accept only the things that his subjects have painstakingly planted with their hands, and keep them away from the greed that comes with money', your wise ancestors have long recognized wealth as a source of depravity. ”

Stennis pursed his lips disdainfully, obviously because everyone was so poor to implement this system! Unexpectedly, there are also reactionary forces in this world who hold the 'immutability of the law of the ancestors', represented by the old man in front of him.

Bachelor Romon was still babbling about feeling good about himself, quoting scriptures, up to the country, down to the people's livelihood, anyway, he had a point.

Stennis yawned and finally said, "If you agree to pay taxes in the currency, I will restore your 'pension for the elderly over seventy'." ”

"I'm in favor of paying taxes in money, and paying taxes in kind should have been thrown into the dustbin of history a long time ago. "The great bachelor, who is accustomed to seeing the wind and making the rudder, immediately changed the direction of the wind.