Chapter 119 The Stubborn Duke

The Duke of Windsor stared at the two opposite with a gloomy expression.

"What do you say? The merchants have run away? Why? Where? What do they want?"

The two subordinates swallowed a mouthful of spit, looked at the Duke of Windsor cautiously, and then replied hesitantly: "Duke... Your Excellency, the reason why the merchants ran away is probably... probably related to you..."

"It's related to me?" The Duke of Windsor raised his eyebrows and said sharply: "What does this mean? Could it be that I drove them away?"

The two officials in charge of the financial affairs of the southern province of the Kandela Empire showed helpless bitter smiles at the same time.

Recently, merchants in the southern provinces have left the southern provinces one after another, and changed the main business points of their chambers of commerce to other parts of the empire. If the reason is to be investigated, it is really the Duke in front of him.

The reason for this is actually very simple, that is an order issued by His Excellency the Duke - not allowing any items related to the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce to enter the scope of the southern province.

Following the second half of last year, His Majesty the Emperor changed his attitude towards the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce under the advice of Minister Hasteri, the Minister of Finance of the Empire, and there were countless new members from the Principality of Standing, the Kingdom of Lampari, and countries in the southwest of the mainland. The magical machines produced by the Fei Chamber of Commerce entered the Kandela Empire.

Later, with the acquiescence of His Majesty the Emperor, the Candela Imperial Navy reached a cooperation agreement with the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce in private. After the two parties jointly opened up a sea trade route, a large amount of goods from the Principality of Standing flooded in from the southern coast of the empire. inside the empire.

These products are not only all kinds of magic machinery produced by Xinfei Chamber of Commerce and other magic machinery chambers of commerce, but also various magical industrial products produced by Xinfei Chamber of Commerce.

Because these products are extremely high-quality and cheap compared to most of the products in the Candela Empire, and their performance is far superior. So it is very popular in the empire.

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

So there is no need for Xinfei Chamber of Commerce to spend too much effort. The merchants of the Candela Empire flooded into the southern seaport of the empire and the junction of the southwestern part of the empire and the Principality of Norton like cats smelling fishy smells, in order to be able to grab some goods from the Principality of Standing in the first place. Goods, then shipped back and sold for a good price.

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

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

This "all". It almost includes most of the goods from the Principality of Standing and from the Principality of Norton that entered the Candela Empire.

Because almost none of these products that are currently popular in the Candela Empire are not related to the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce.

Even the only fruits produced in the Principality of Standing that the Principality of Standing could import in large quantities to the Candela Empire before are now basically deeply influenced by the industrialized manufacturing brought by the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce.

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

In fact, the Duke of Windsor is not the only one in the Candela Empire who clearly opposes such a large amount of imports of products from other countries, because they feel that this will have a major impact on the Candela Empire itself.

But other people are at most opposed to the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce. The reason is that the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce supports the Luerson Kingdom, an enemy country. It is regarded as the enemy of the Candela Empire. Of course, the Empire cannot cooperate with it.

The Duke of Windsor simply opposed everything related to the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce, and there were too many things designed.

Under the high-pressure policy of the Duke of Windsor, any goods related to the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce cannot enter the southern province. This made the merchants in the southern provinces very depressed when they smelled business opportunities.

Letting these merchants ignore business opportunities is like making a cat that smells fishy smell indifferent. It's simply not possible.

But how dare ordinary merchants resist the Duke of Windsor, who can be said to be overwhelming in the southern provinces, so the final result is that these merchants simply shifted their focus out of the southern provinces and moved to other countries within the empire. They are not opposed to cooperating with the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce. The place.

In fact, to be honest, these merchants are just paying more attention to the business progress related to the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce now, not to say that they have completely given up the various businesses that they had in the southern provinces.

But now that this situation is reflected, it looks like merchants have fled the southern provinces one after another.

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

After entering April, the southern provinces conducted financial statistics for the first quarter as usual.

Statistics show that compared with the same period last year, the grain production in the southern provinces is basically the same, and the fiscal surplus obtained from grain has not changed much.

However, in terms of commercial taxation, it has dropped significantly compared with the same period last year, with a drop of as much as 13%.

Originally, this was nothing to the Duke of Windsor, because he was a very typical traditional nobleman of the Sainz continent, and the most important thing was food.

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

As for business, as long as there is no trouble.

However, when the financial report for the first quarter was submitted to the Ministry of Finance of the Empire, the southern provinces were criticized by the Ministry of Finance of the Empire by name.

According to the explanation given by the Ministry of Finance of the Empire, the financial revenue of the southern province in the first quarter ranked second to last among the nine major provinces of the empire, only slightly better than the northeast province in the Candela Empire, which has always been known for its barrenness.

Compared with the previous financial revenue of the southern provinces, it would at least rank in the middle of the empire, which is undoubtedly a significant drop.

Moreover, the fiscal revenue of the Southeast Province, which is adjacent to the Southern Province, and the Tular Province, which is mostly close to the coast, has risen sharply in the first quarter of this year, and the fiscal revenue of the Tural Province has even exceeded 3,800. The huge amount of 10,000 gold coins far exceeds the mere 17 million gold coins in the southern province.

This creates a stark contrast to the slight decline in the southern provinces relative to last year.

The Duke of Windsor, who had suffered a lot of stares at the Imperial Treasury, was extremely angry about this. After returning to the Governor's Mansion. Immediately order a thorough investigation of the cause.

However, the two financial officials who were mainly in charge of the investigation gave the answer that "a large number of businessmen fled from the southern provinces". Of course it made him very dissatisfied.

"Your Excellency...in fact, my subordinates feel that...compared with commercial tax issues, I think we should pay more attention to food issues at this time..." A finance manager hesitated for a moment, then shrank his neck and made a suggestion .

"What?" The Duke of Windsor stared. "Don't you want to tell me that our southern province even has problems with normal food production? Let me tell you, the important spring harvest is coming soon. If there is any problem in this area, don't say that all of you Don't think about it, even I'm in trouble!"

The two financial managers could only smile wryly again. The finance manager who mustered up the courage to speak up just now winked at his colleague, signaling him to speak up too.

In desperation, the other financial manager could only bite the bullet and said: "Your Excellency, it's not that there is any problem in this area, it's just... It's just that we found that as long as you change your mind a little, our spring harvest will be improved." It’s going more smoothly, and there may be hope for a substantial increase in food production with the autumn harvest.”

The Duke of Windsor was slightly taken aback: "I just need to change my mind to greatly increase food production? Are you kidding me?"

"No, how dare we make fun of you." The financial officer took out a document from his pocket and handed it to the Duke of Windsor. "My lord, this is a report on the agricultural industry in the province that Baron Domingo dragged us to you. Please take a look."

"Domingo? Why didn't he bring it to me?" The Duke of Windsor looked at the two suspiciously.

"This..." The two finance managers looked at each other and smiled wryly. "Baron Domingo said that he was afraid that this report would anger you. He dared not come by himself, so please the two of us."

"Oh?" The Duke of Windsor squinted at the two of them. "Then you are not afraid of my anger?"

The two finance officers 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 after flipping through it, and his face sank immediately.

"It's these bullshit ideas again, no wonder he dare not come to see me!" The Duke of Windsor angrily threw the report directly on the ground, pointed at the two and cursed loudly: "Tell Domingo for me, if he still insists If you introduce the farmland magic machinery from the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce, don’t appear in front of me again in the future! And the two of you are the same! Don’t think I don’t know what you are thinking, are you the same as those merchants who only have gold coins? , Want to force me to cooperate with the damn Xinfei Chamber of Commerce? Ah? Isn’t it?”

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

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

The Duke of Windsor pointed at the two of them and cursed, then shook his arm for the last time.

"Get out!"

The two financial officials saluted quickly as if they were pardoned, and quickly retreated out.

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

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

This time, he was far more serious and focused than before.

It took him half an hour to finish reading a report, and after turning over the last page, he was silent for a long time, and suddenly sighed, his face seemed to have aged ten years in an instant.

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

The Duke of Windsor sighed again, returned to the table and pulled a rope hanging from the table.

A middle-aged man with the appearance of a housekeeper quietly appeared in the house.

"Master, do you have any orders?" Unlike others, this middle-aged man called the Duke of Windsor a very simple "Master".

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

The middle-aged man looked up at the Duke of Windsor, a trace of surprise flashed across his eyes, but he didn't ask any more questions, he bowed his head in response, and quietly retreated out again. (To be continued..)