Volume 3 Chapter 86 New agricultural base
With Seveni’s special approval, Xu Yi didn’t have to leave the Falling Star Manor early in the morning the next day.
But he still followed his normal biological clock and woke up at around six. He carefully moved away from Still beside him who was still asleep and pushed aside the surprised Vivian, Liz, and Linda aside as he personally made breakfast. Then he personally served it to Still who only woke up at eight.
“Xu Yi, normally people who’ve done something wrong would be this attentive. Could it be that you’ve done something to wrong me?” Still had a warm smile as she looked at Xu Yi, she couldn’t help following up with a smile towards Liz and Linda standing behind him, “Could it be that you broke your promise in the end last night and went to find Liz and Linda when I was asleep…..”
“Eat your breakfast and don’t speak nonsense.” Xu Yi put the spoon in Still’s mouth and blocked it.
Still revealed a faint smile. With Xu Yi’s care, she slowly enjoyed the rare breakfast that Xu Yi personally made.
While taking care of Still, Xu Yi also discussed the matter that he discussed with her last night.
Because of Still’s actions last night, Xu Yi felt that she must have been having strange thoughts that didn’t match her personality because she was trapped inside the Falling Star Manor for this long.
So in order to solve this problem, Xu Yi seriously considered it and decided to agree to Still’s request of continuing her work from before.
Although Still hadn’t completely given up her work because of her insistence, she had strictly controlled her work load, causing Still to be bored almost every day.
Now that it caused Still to have these random thoughts and it wasn’t good for Still’s body or mind, Xu Yi decided to ease up on these limitations. He was discussing with Still how she could work more, while also deciding how she would get enough rest.
Still had seriously considered this problem before, so when Xu Yi proposed this idea, she was very happy while also seriously discussing this with Xu Yi.
The two of them were both smart and they didn’t have any contradictions, so they were very happy to discuss this and it didn’t take them long to reach a decision.
According to Xu Yi and Still’s agreement, after Still had been pregnant for three months, she could return to her job and act as the representative for the various other races working in the Lampuri Kingdom.
As the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s influence grew, the companies in Banta City and many other cities gradually accepted hiring other races to work in their company.
According to Still’s current stats, other than the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, the other companies had more beastmen than dwarves and there were over a thousand of them that had been hired.
The dwarves followed behind them with over three hundred people, most of them being hired as magic mechanical engineers.
The least was of course the elves, only reaching no more than twenty people.
When faced with the other race workers, the Lampuri Kingdom’s Royal Parliament had opposed this at first.
But now, the Royal Parliament began accepting them. They were controlling them from Still’s New Moon Chamber of Commerce, while also relaxing their restrictions, starting to allow other races with labour cards to live the same lives as humans in the Lampuri Kingdom.
“Speaking of this, most of the other races in the Lampuri Kingdom are entering other companies for work, right?” Xu Yi said, “They can be said to have begun entering human society, but the other countries on the continent will definitely be different from our Lampuri Kingdom. Have you ever considered going to other countries to recruit other races?”
“Other countries?” Still slightly knit her brows, “We can’t avoid the people in those countries, right?”
“It doesn’t matter, let the other races working in our company contact them first, we won’t meddle. Look, didn’t Camby and the other contact a Rudson Kingdom dwarf tribe just a while ago? They said that they were planning to have those dwarves move to Banta City and to let me consider receiving them. The dwarves moving is not something that human countries will care about, so we need to take care of this right now. Otherwise when the other countries realize the value of other races, it might be hard to do this in the future.”
“Un…..This worry is right.” Still nodded, “At least I know that if the Frestech Chamber of Commerce lacks dwarves, most of our production would stop.”
“So that means that we need to dig out as many as we can right now. You have to know, human resources are more important than any other resources.”
He discussed this with Still while enjoying breakfast together. When they finished their breakfast, the sky was already halfway in the sky.
When Xu Yi arrived at Koror Village, he found that a group of people were already waiting there.
“Hey, chairman Xu, I heard that you were at home with your wife and that’s why you’re this late, right?” Seeing Xu Yi who came this late, chairman Cruise said this while laughing.
There was a wave of goodwill laughter mixed with a hint of complication that made Xu Yi give an awkward laugh before he saw Seveni standing in the middle of the group.
Seveni looked up and gave Xu Yi a somewhat proud smile. She looked up at the sky and announced, “Alright, since chairman Xu is here, then I will announce that we will officially open Banta City’s new agricultural base!”
With Seveni’s lead, the representatives of the company, including Xu Yi all dug the ground a few times. Then the magic machines that the Amrit Chamber of Commerce had already prepared came forward, digging out the land that had already been set apart.
As the demonstration of business and agriculture coming together that Seveni had announced before, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s canned fruit factory in Koror Village had received plenty of attention and advertisement.
After agreeing with the other companies in the city, Seveni represented the City Lord Manor to create a new agricultural development base near Koror Village.
This new agricultural development base was like the canned fruit factory, developing the mix of business and agriculture in Banta City. It would raise the value of the agricultural goods and increase the income of the normal farmers.
This idea was the experiment that Seveni had for Banta City’s future development.
If it was used in the entire Lampuri Kingdom, it would be too advanced.
Because the Lampuri Kingdom’s grain yield had been increasing, but it wasn’t enough to support them yet.
The kingdom’s other cities had headaches on solving the problem of feeding their citizens, but Banta City was already changing the structure of farming itself, improving the lifestyles of the farmers. This really was a big difference.
Because of Banta City’s actions, there was a large stir at the Royal Parliament.
There were many members of parliament that said if Banta City was this relaxed, why didn’t they first help the other locations of the kingdom develop their agriculture first?
For example, after Banta City proved the uses of the fertilizer, why didn’t they focus on producing more of it?
Isn’t it much better than some strange mix of agriculture and business that couldn’t be relied on?
As for a small portion of the members, since Banta City was developing well now, they should let Banta City develop independently. They shouldn’t do the same as when Count Stagg was the City Lord, causing Banta City to greatly regress.
Although there were fewer people who approved of Seveni’s actions, because Count Stagg’s actions had greatly affected Banta City when he was City Lord, there wasn’t much confidence behind the opposition.
Not to mention that the king had indicated his stance. Since Banta City was a special economic zone, it should stay as a special place.
As for whether the effects were good or not, they would just wait for the results.
The final result was that they gave Banta City a goal.
Banta City wanted to be special? Fine.
But since you want to be special, you have to give a special result.
According to the final decision of the Royal Parliament, when reports were taken at the end of the year, Banta City’s harvest yield and tax revenue had to be at least 30% higher compared to last year. Otherwise, they would revoke Banta City’s designation as a special economic zone.
“Hei, should I say that those nobles are too inexperienced or they’re giving up on their IQ because they are so set on their ways?” Xu Yi shook his head. He gave an appraisal without any mercy at the Royal Parliament’s decision, “30%? Humph! This year’s fall harvest is already out, don’t they know that it’s more than 50% higher than last year?”
“They don’t really care about grain yield, the reason they made this request was to limit me into putting my energy into developing business.” Seveni shook her head as she explained, “The key point is tax revenue. They think that if I can’t do better than when Count Stagg was City Lord, this doesn’t explain anything.”
“Is this an excuse for Count Stagg?” Xu Yi gave a cold snort, “But aren’t they looking down on our Banta City too much? If it wasn’t for Count Stagg, last year’s tax revenue in Banta City would have been over a million gold coins. The amount handed over would have been more than the past two years combined. As for comparing this year with last year? He, he……”
Seveni saw Xu Yi’s cold smile and she didn’t mind it. Rather she felt it was funny as she asked, “Then confident chairman Xu, how much do you think our Banta City will hand over in taxes this year?”
Xu Yi reached out a hand and said in a certain voice, “At least five hundred thousand and that’s not including my Frestech Chamber of Commerce.”
Seveni revealed a surprised look, “Although I have confidence in meeting the requirements of the Royal Parliament, but five hundred thousand…..and that’s not including your Frestech Chamber of Commerce, isn’t that too exaggerated? Doesn’t that mean that our Banta City had a tax revenue of over one and a half million gold coins?”
Xu Yi gave a confident smile. He pointed at the construction of the agricultural base that was beginning, “Your highness, how about we make a bet? Do you believe that just the Cantona Chamber of Commerce alone has surpassed over two hundred thousand gold coins when it comes to tax revenue?”
Seveni slowly shook her head, “Although I don’t know the exact amount, the amount of taxes that the Cantona Chamber of Commerce paid shouldn’t be over a hundred thousand gold coins. Right now there’s only four months left before the end of the year, how could it surpass two hundred thousand?”
“You don’t believe me?” Xu Yi reached his hand out to Seveni, “Then dear Lord City Lord, should we make a bet?”