Chapter 859 Tibian Noble Treaty (Part-2)
?859 Tibian Noble Treaty (Part-2)
The nobles' reluctance to pay the large land tax was of course something Alexander had anticipated.
No nobles wanted to pay taxes, including Alexander himself.
But since he was able to foresee that, Alexander was also able to have a great answer. New novel chapters are published on
He reasoned with them, "The 4% total land tax that I ask you to pay is less than half what your Zanzan peers have to give!"
"Just ask them how much they pay?"
"9 percent! 1 percent to me and 8 percent to His Majesty Ptolomy as tithes. Do you want to be like that?"
"I don't get what you are complaining about!" Alexander sounded incredulous.
And this comparison between the two groups quickly made the Tibian nobles pipe down.
Furthermore, Alexander also made sure to give the nobles cheap access to some of his products, such as iron, sugar, etc. like he had done prior, with the exact quantity determined by the amount of land they each controlled, both as a way to help them soothe over their loss and also as a way to tie them to his boat.
Thus ultimately the nobles relented, although not before extracting a three year tax free concession from Alexander.
This Alexander was happy to give as Tibias was already ravaged by war and needed much needed relief.
As it could be seen just how hard it was to make these nobles concede to just these conditions so the difficulty in making them acquiesce to the last point, i.e.- giving up half their treasury, could only be imagined.
But Alexander did manage to do it.
In preparation for this, he first had to get a rough idea of the wealth each noble might have.
And this meant knowing their financial history.
This was a tedious effort, especially given that Tibian did not have tiered nobility like Adhania, so he could not simply put a general 'tax' to each class of nobility like shordars (barons), talukders (viscounts), etc., and ask them to pay up.
Instead, Alexander had to learn the details of each and every individual noble to determine how much they could pay.
Something that would been impossible without Lord Theony's aid, insight, and resources, who opened his vast storage of tax receipts which had the record for each and every one of the noble's payments for the past decade.
So with those ten years' worth of value as a baseline, Alexander felt he was ready.
He called all the nobles to a large feast and before serving the food, made them sit around a few huge tables, and handed them a small piece of blank paper.
"Please write your name." Alexander had first instructed, followed by, "Please write the amount of gold you have in your treasury- all the coins, precious jewelry, stones, slaves, animals, etc. together."
This reveal immediately got a large reaction from the crowd, with many crying out in disbelief,
and Lord Theony struck the iron while it was still hot, pumping his fist and shouting,
"And all of us can be like that!"
"All of you should be aware just how lucrative all the new goods Lord Alexander has promised us. So by loyally serving him, we will be able to get more and more of them."
"That way not only will our economy surely flourish, but the total size of our economy will surely get bigger."
"We will be able to collect more and more tax revenue and within just a few years, we will be able to recoup all the money lost and make even more!"
"A rising tide raises all boats. And Lord Alexander is that tide. All of you would be foolish to miss it!"
By the time Lord Theony had finished, many previously reluctant eyes by now had flipped into little gems of smoldering ambitions and greed.
This speech was of course created by Alexander and recited by Lord Theony, with mostly truths but some great embellishments, such as the lie that all of them could be as rich as Thesalie.
That was not possible, as Thesalie was a unique case courtesy of its geography.
But still, it did the job.
Even though some nobles indeed guessed this was all just Alexander's marketing gimmick, and many even thought Lord Theony to be only a crony for Alexander by now, but still, many of the things, including the example he gave were indeed true.
This helped many short sighted men to see the demand from a new perspective, reasoning by siding with him, they would be able to indeed make a lot of money.
Best of all, they would have to only give 1% of that as profit to Alexander.
This was in much contrast to how they usually earned money, which was by getting around 1% of the value of the good in taxes.
Thus under Alexander, these nobles were allowed to earn many times more.
Hence although even then some men grumbled but ultimately had carts and carts of gold, slaves, animals, wine, and even food produce be sent to Zanzan city, the collection point for all these funds.
As for how much they sent and how they were prevented from simply lying, well that was where that small piece of paper and the arrangement in which Alexander declared the idea came in.
The sudden immediateness of the request made many nobles unable to come up with excuses beforehand, thus many were forced to reveal the amount.
And if they quoted too small a number or simply said that they could not recall the exact amount right now, Alexander would hand them a new value that he had estimated based on their previous year's tax payment.
And if they even then protested, Alexander threatened to send prospectors along with soldiers to their estate to verify their claim.
That usually got the message through as most nobles did not want a bunch of armed, belligerent men in their territories.
Let us say no to piracy! Don't take part in a crime! Don't patronize thieves!