The Eagle of Eastern Europe

Chapter 420 Inventory of Acres

Now all European countries are discussing one thing: When will the Bartland family rule Europe?

Throughout history, no family has ever been so powerful. The son is the heir to the Roman Empire, the consul of Novgrod, the elector of Brandenburg, and the Duke of Normandy, and the daughter is a queen and duchess. Whose family is it? Can children hold high positions? So many people are paying attention to Constantinople to see what the Roman emperor does.

What ambitions can our Emperor have? He just wants to keep the family going for a long time. To achieve this goal, the Roman Empire had to be governed well.

The Senate experienced the most serious quarrel in its history. Mircea suddenly announced that a national inventory of acres would be carried out and taxes would be levied according to the fertility and output of the land. This made the nobles who owned a large amount of land feel that their money bags were about to be emptied, and they wanted to kill the person who proposed this matter to pieces.

"Your Majesty, this matter needs to be considered in the long term. A hasty investigation will make the foundation of the empire unstable."

This time all members of the Senate came to discuss the bill. Agricultural Officer Osborne agreed with this proposal, which would be a great help to agriculture.

But some nobles still disagreed. After all, this was their lifeblood.

"I said, what are you afraid of? Your Majesty is doing this for the longevity of the empire, not for the interests of some people."

A representative of the blue faction ridiculed those who opposed it, which made the green faction people unable to stand it.

"You think you are the only one who cares about the empire. Do you know the consequences of doing so? How can those local nobles give up? Will they create difficulties for the government's decrees, will they rebel, and will they refuse all cooperation? These are all It’s something to consider.”

"What is the empire? I think you want the empire to be like Ottoman, right?"

This directly angered the members of the Blue Faction, who quarreled directly in front of the emperor.

"What are you talking about? Of course I am doing it for the future of the empire. I need to replenish the treasury now to prevent some people with ulterior motives from embezzling the treasury."

"Humph, I don't know who is the sinner. Go to Ancyra, Antioch, Yerevan, and Trebizond. The land there does not need to be cultivated. It is not enough to rely solely on the strength of farmers. If you want to recover quickly, you have to cede some economic rights to others. Make some people rich, and they will promote the local area with tenfold returns.”

Mircea was watching from above. He felt that such a quarrel would allow him to understand more about the attitudes of both parties.

"Ha, then you don't know that once some people get rich, they will find ways to take advantage of legal loopholes. Tax evasion, concealment and failure to report are still trivial matters. What is even more terrifying is colluding with local officials to cause harm to one party. Can you be held responsible?"

"You always talk about filling the national treasury. Let me ask you, do you know what the empire's revenue was last year?"

“1,586,258 lei”

"What about expenses?"

Finance Minister Baptiste solved the problem for him.

"The total expenditure of the empire last year was RON 1,442,597."

"That's it. The national treasury is currently very abundant. Your statement is totally untrue."

The green faction is proud of themselves, but they forget that people engaged in industry and commerce are better at talking and poking holes in people's hearts.

"Who would think that the money is too much, and this can identify a group of borers and why they oppose the inventory of the fields. They think they are superior to others, and even the emperor does not look down on them."

The green faction had had enough of the blue faction's slander and verbal attacks, and the representative yelled.

"The emperor rules the empire with the nobles, not with you commoners."

This directly shocked many people, because half of the people working on it were from civilians or businessmen, which also meant that they were not qualified to discuss the governance of the country here.

"Are you blackmailing His Majesty? Are you planning to rebel?"

"I knew you didn't have good intentions."

"Come quickly and arrest him. There must be an accomplice."

The quarrel eventually turned into a farce, and Mircea stopped everyone with a sullen expression. And he drove out the rude representative. Regarding the land inventory bill, Mircea decided to implement it first in Wallachia and Moldova. These two places have the most fertile land and there must be a lot of land reclamation.

However, this also shows that the political differences in the country are getting wider and wider, with bickering in the House of Commons often lasting a day, covering everything from the economy to the military. They can only do this, after all, it is an advisory body, not a voting body.

Naturally, the proposed land inventory led to quarrels. The blue faction teamed up with other factions to deal a fatal blow to the green faction, while the green faction was not to be outdone and mobilized their own connections to fight back.

The landed aristocrats and big landowners planned to exert pressure through campaigns. In their view, the emperor still needed them to govern the place. The bureaucracy would not last long. When something happened, the officials would not be able to handle it. for myself.

The Roman Empire had seen everything, and it was an old tradition to stop land annexation. It could be traced back to the reforms of the Gracchi brothers. Basil II severely cracked down on large landowners and protected small farmers, which made the empire regain its luster.

Therefore, such laws Mircea must be implemented, which is also good for population growth.

Mircea issued an order the next day to start operations in Wallachia and Moldova, and encouraged landless farmers in the Balkans to go to Anatolia and gave them preferential policies.

Faced with the emperor's weakening, the landed aristocracy had almost no recourse. Apart from collecting money and having some control over the serfs, they could not form an army, recruit soldiers, or go to Luo with their swords to have a bitter confrontation with the emperor. Their only military option was to go Serving in the emperor's army, he changed from a land ruler to an officer and landowner under the emperor.

Of course, there are still some nobles and landowners who can take advantage of loopholes to obtain large amounts of land. For example, in new territories, the government basically does not control the purchase for development. There are also colonies where you can buy land as long as you have money. Although there are restrictions, they are very loose compared to those in the country.

For example, in Ceylon, a landowner purchased 1,000 acres of land at one time and would purchase a lot more land after the development was completed.

In India, the East India Company was the largest purchaser of land. They can easily turn the land and the farmers on it into their own private property, especially in the south.

In the northern region, land purchases are still carried out around the port of Kamil. They also hired many people to work for their cities. A large amount of cotton and flax began to be grown, and food was imported from other places. If landowners wanted to leave their hometown, purchasing land overseas was a good way.

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