Volume 4 Chapter 148 Hot spring city
“It seems like you’ve also noticed this problem.” Seveni nodded towards Xu Yi, “This means that this problem is already very serious, it can’t be delayed any longer.”
“Delayed?” Xu Yi slightly knit his brows, “What? Is it difficult to change it?”
When he saw the crowded gates outside Anvilmar City, Xu Yi had wanted to talk about cancelling the city entrance tax.
But when he entered the city, without even having time to see Still, he had been found by the messenger sent from the royal palace who informed him that her majesty wanted to meet him immediately.
It was a good thing that Xu Yi had many things to discuss with Seveni. He had Liz, Linda, and Agnes bring Freya where he had agreed to meet Still and entered the palace with the messenger to see Seveni.
When he saw Seveni, Xu Yi immediately told her about what he saw when he entered the city and proposed to Seveni that she cancel the obsolete thing like the city entrance tax.
Seveni agreed with him, but now there seemed to be some problem.
“Of course.” Seveni spread her hands looking helpless, “The gate taxes are an important source of revenue for the cities of the kingdom, so to get rid of them would naturally draw in opposition from many people.”
Xu Yi slightly knit his brows, looking a bit confused.
“What age is this? Cities still depend on gate taxes as their main revenue?”
Seveni rolled her eyes at Xu Yi, “Of course it’s not like Banta City where they have a tax revenue of over two million gold coins each year, would they need to worry about something as trivial as the gate taxes? Let me tell you, according to the kingdom’s financial reports, in the thirty seven cities of the Lampuri Kingdom, the annual taxes for half of those cities are less than two hundred thousand gold coins. For those cities, they can collect over fifty thousand gold coins a year from the gate taxes, so of course it’s very important.”
Xu Yi couldn’t help shaking his head, “The kingdom is putting Banta City as an example, but they aren’t learning from it and operating on the same poor traditions. What are those city lords thinking? Seveni, isn’t this supposed to be your duty as the queen? They are all cities of the Lampuri Kingdom, you can’t favour and discriminate between them.”
Seveni gave a soft snort and slightly pouted her lips like a little girl.
“You think that I don’t want all the cities in the kingdom to be as prosperous as Banta City? But this takes time. Then again, the situation in each city is different. For the few cities in the northwest province, because the terrain is complicated, it’s hard to build a road there and it is hard to transport there. If it was you, would you be willing to invest in a factory there?”
Xu Yi could only shake his head.
As a merchant, he would choose the method with the greatest benefits.
To invest in a factory in the mountains of the northwest province where it was hard to transport, it would cost several times more to invest there than in other cities, so of course he wouldn’t do this kind of losing business.
“So even if I want to change the situation of the kingdom, I can only do it slowly.” Seveni looked at Xu Yi, “Isn’t this what you used to say to me?”
Xu Yi touched his nose. He didn’t touch politics and he wasn’t the king of the Lampuri Kingdom, he naturally didn’t need to care about the matters of the Lampuri Kingdom.
“But it isn’t like there isn’t a solution for this problem.” Xu Yi suddenly changed the topic, “Take the city entrance tax, if there would be opposition if it was implemented in the entire kingdom, why not just choose a few places first.”
“Choose a few places?” Seveni looked at Xu Yi with a confused look.
“Do you remember how I hoped that his majesty Lampuri Thirteenth would make Banta City a special economic zone?” Xu Yi asked.
“Un, that idea wasn’t bad, but it’s a pity that the kingdom changed and it couldn’t be implemented. I had considered if we could enact this plan, but I’ve put it aside for now.” Seveni said.
“It’s different from before now. I wanted to make Banta City a special economic zone to make it easier for me to make some reforms in Banta City. Now that the entire kingdom is under your country, why do you need to force out a special economic zone? Of course this plan can be used to change the city entrance task, so you need to pick a few cities first. You should have these cities eliminate the tax and experiment with them.” Xu Yi said.
“I understand your meaning.” Seveni nodded, “If the effects of the experiments are good, then the other cities don’t have a reason to oppose. But what the results aren’t good? Moreover, even if the results are good, there are some cities that don’t have the conditions to eliminate the taxes, what do we do?”
“It’s very simple, you just have to force out this reform when the time comes. As for those that don’t have the condition, they can be like the cities in the western province, they can receive special subsidies from the kingdom’s finances.”
Xu Yi described a feasible plan to Seveni based on the various reforms made on earth.
Although he wasn’t clear on the details of how to implement it, he didn’t have the talent for this to begin with and he only needed to give the general outline.
After Seveni heard these general plans, her eyes lit up and it was clear she had an answer in her heart.
“Moreover, just with the subsidies from the kingdom, it wouldn’t let those poorer cities change their condition. So I suggest that we find another solution for those cities and increase their tax revenue, that is the key thing.”
Seveni looked at Xu Yi, “You say it so easily, but if there really was such a good method, I would have used it already.”
Seeing the ghost of a smile on Xu Yi’s face after she said this, Seveni had a thought, “You already have the solution, right?”
Xu Yi revealed a faint smile, “This is only a crude thought, it can’t be considered a solution.”
“It doesn’t matter, tell me about it?” Seveni had an interested look on her ace.
Xu Yi gave a soft cough before slowly speaking.
“Since different cities have different conditions, we shouldn’t be limiting each city to be like Banta City, developing only with the magic machine industry. After all, other than the magic machine industry, there are many other industries that can earn money.”
Seveni was surprised.
Hearing the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s chairman Xu Yi talking about other industries, this really surpassed her expectations.
“For example…..Basaru City. When I passed through there last time, I found that Basaru City didn’t have any rare resources and because there are many rivers and mountains, the terrain isn’t good, so it’s very limited for development. But it does have a valuable resource.”
“What resource?” Seveni asked this while thinking about what resources Basaru City had, but she couldn’t think of anything worth mentioning.
“It’s hot springs.”
“Hot springs?” Seveni slightly knit her brows, “I heard that there are many natural hot springs in the mountains near Basaru City and it feels very good soaking in them, but what use does that have?”
“Of course there is a use.” Xu Yi raised his voice in an exaggerated manner, “The hot springs are not just good for attracting tourists, they are also a good geothermal resource. If it can be used wel, we can build a hot spring city in Basaru City that would attract many tourists. Because of the rich geothermal resources, Basaru City only needs to do a few things to meet this requirement.”
“Hot spring city?” Seveni knit her brows in thought for a while before nodding, “This is a pretty good idea, but it will require a lot of initial investments, so there is a problem……”
Lowering her head to think, Seveni found that it wasn’t a problem that could be solved in a short period of time. She put it aside for now and asked Xu Yi, “Then what about the cities in the northwest? That place doesn’t have any rich hot springs and the terrain is worse than Basaru City, what methods do you have to change this?”
Xu Yi laughed, “Dear your majesty, actually as long as you’re willing, even if the terrain of the northwest cities are bad, there’s still a way to make a path to connect their transportation lines.”
Seveni gave a sigh and shook her head, “No. I’ve had the Amrit Chamber of Commerce explore that area and chairman Cruise personally told me that their company couldn’t do a thing. Even the Amrit Chamber of Commerce couldn’t do this, I think that this is impossible.”
Xu Yi laughed, “That is because chairman Cruise never discussed this with me before. If he knew that our company was about to develop more efficient and more powerful construction magic machines, I believe that he would definitely take back those words.”
Seveni looked at Xu Yi and she felt angry and found it funny.
“In the end, you were just here to sell me your company’s new products? Chairman Xu, if you have the time to develop these new magic machines, then I want to ask when will you be able to deliver the hundred Magic Airships I ordered from your company? With those hundred Magic Airships, there wouldn’t be any terrain that could block me, right?”
“This……” Xu Yi revealed an awkward smile, “Your majesty, the Magic Airships are very limited and they aren’t as strong as you think. As for when they can be handed over…..Our company is increasing our production capacity, I believe it won’t take long to give you an accurate answer.”
Seveni gave a cold snort and didn’t keep asking Xu Yi.
Xu Yi wiped his sweat and decided to put this topic aside first. He dug in his chest and took out a small book which he handed over.
“When I entered the city, I saw many different types of Magic Cars at the gate and suddenly thought of a problem. I recorded it in this book, your majesty, please take a look.”
Seveni of course didn’t believe that this book was something that Xu Yi had just made, but seeing how serious it was, she took it with a nod.
When she opened the cover, she found that the first page had large characters on it that said – The important role of energy standardization in the magic machine industry.