king.

All the way to inspect the disaster situation, the bear boy never laughed.After this wave of natural disasters, Hudson suffered heavy losses, and Bear Stearns' losses were not small.

Because most of the territory is in the downstream area, the tumbling flood swept down, whether it was the raging pasture or the raging farm, they all turned into a swamp country.

Looking down from the sky, you can also see busy crowds rushing to harvest the soaked wheat in the rain.

In the farming era, no matter how severe the production reduction was, as long as the grain in the field was ripe, there was no reason not to take it back.

The situation on the ranch was not much better. The animals were rescued, but due to continuous rainstorms, the stored forage was no longer enough, so they just chose to slaughter the animals.

Seeing his milk source being slaughtered and made into jerky, Bear Stearns couldn't feel better.

On the other hand, Maxim was in a very good mood at the moment, watching the jokes between Hudson and Bear Stearns unscrupulously.

Investment is risky, and you need to be cautious when entering the market.

Agriculture has never been an industry that makes quick money. Natural disasters not only reduce food production, but many water conservancy projects have also been forced to rebuild.

This wave of losses this year alone will require Hudson and Bear Stearns to work hard for several years before they can make up for the losses.

In contrast, Maxim's business is more lucrative and risk-free.

During the estrus, he lived in a daze for a period of time, and millions of gold coins were recorded in his account.

Calculated purely based on the income from farming, in the case of good weather, the mountain leaders will have to work for several years.

Only Maxim has the ability to make money from his waist, and no one else can envy him at all.

Looking at the continuous statistics of losses, Hudson's heart is bleeding.According to the estimates of the agricultural department, the mountainous areas can at most keep [-]% of this year's autumn grain.

Hudson can also accept a simple reduction in grain production for one season.

After all, their own territory was opened up from the swamp, and it has always been a place with abundant rain.Under flood disasters, it is normal for the losses to be greater.

What is troublesome is the post-disaster reconstruction work. There are tens of thousands of houses in the entire mountainous area that need to be rebuilt, and several water conservancy projects need to be overhauled, and more than a dozen of them have been devastated.

The loss of roads and bridges is also not rare.

In addition, it also exposed the problem of soil erosion in the mining area.

Everything costs money.The exact extent of the damage will not be known until after the rainstorm is over.

The only consolation is that Hudson is not the only one who is unlucky, and most of Aslant has suffered from natural disasters, nothing more than a different way of presentation.

……

In the Emerald Palace, Caesar IV is currently busy making personnel adjustments.Having learned the lesson of the tragedy of the Falcon royal family, he decided to replace all the palace guards and city guards with "his own people".

The strongest fortresses are always breached from within.

The Falcon Kingdom is a typical example. The rebels were able to quickly take over the capital because part of the city guards also participated in the rebellion.

The palace quickly fell, and the new nobles in the palace guard also cooperated from inside and outside, and opened the palace door to let the enemy in.

The biggest feature of the nobles' infighting is knowing the current affairs. Seeing that the general situation is over, the remaining city guards and palace guards don't bother to resist.

There are only a few diehard loyalists of the royal family who really fight to the last moment.

When Henry V realized the problem, it was too late, and he could only be taken away by the royal masters who guarded him.

It's a pity that his life was not good. The royal master was entangled by the rebels just after he acted. Henry V died before he left the palace.

With the lessons learned from the past, Caesar IV also became more cautious when employing people.

The situation of the Palace Guard was not bad. In the era of Caesar III, only the royal family's cronies were recruited, and ordinary local nobles had no chance to enter.

The situation of the City Guard Army is more complicated. It has always been a gilded place for the children of nobles, and the relationship inside is intricate.

Even if you are a king, Caesar IV will have nothing to do with the city guards for a while, and can only continue to exchange blood.

"This is the disaster report from various places. So far, thirteen provinces have requested tax relief and allocation of disaster relief funds!"

The words of the prime minister, the Grand Duke of Newfoundland, pulled Caesar IV out of the power struggle.

The replacement can be done at any time, and no nobles will rebel in a short period of time, but the disaster is imminent.

After receiving the public relations, a few thin pages seem to weigh as much as a thousand pounds.

Although there are only thirteen families requesting tax relief and allocation of disaster relief funds, there are only more than 20 provinces in the kingdom that need to pay taxes in full.

The rest are either completely tax-free or pay a symbolic amount.

What's worse is that the thirteen provinces are mostly located in the south-central part of the kingdom, and they are the financial and taxation centers of the Alpha Kingdom.

If their taxes were reduced or exempted, life for the Kingdom would be difficult.

In the agricultural era, the governments of all countries depended on taxation extremely high.

The financial gap of tens of millions of gold coins, what to use to fill the hole?

Looking carefully at the report, Caesar IV was surprised to find that many royal leaders were also in the disaster area.

Only then did he vaguely remember the official document sent by the minister a few days ago.I was just busy with personnel adjustments and didn't deal with it in time.

It seems too unreasonable to refuse directly.

In the year of the catastrophe, the royal government didn't say anything, and couldn't justify it.

Promise is even more impossible!

Just reducing and exempting taxes will cause severe damage to the kingdom's finances, not to mention the allocation of disaster relief funds.

What's more, the area affected by the disaster is so wide. If the request of these thirteen provinces is agreed, most other provinces will follow suit.

Such a funding hole might bankrupt the kingdom's finances.

"Marquis Delgado, what do you think of this matter?"

Caesar IV asked the Minister of Finance.

It is inconvenient for me to be a villain, so I can only push the Minister of Finance to top the tank.Anyway, in the past, projects related to money were rejected, and most of them were done by the Ministry of Finance.

The number of offended people is too many, but everyone doesn't care much about it.

After all, everyone knows how bad the kingdom's finances are.

"Your Majesty, this matter is still a bit complicated.

The scope of this disaster is so wide that it is rare to see it in hundreds of years.

Logically speaking, the royal government should reduce taxes and provide assistance to local nobles.

But now we have no money financially, we have more than enough heart, but not enough power! "

Marquis Delgado politely refused.

The art of language cannot change the final result, and lack of money will always be the biggest killer.

Among the ministers of the kingdom, the one who is most afraid of packing up and going home is Marquis Delgado.

Everyone knows that this is a mess, no matter who is doing the job, it is just tearing down the east wall and repairing the west wall.

The worst thing is to compare with your predecessor, if you are not careful, you will be infamous all over.

In case the kingdom's finances really go bankrupt during the term of office, the Minister of Finance will be the biggest blamer.

Maybe, at that time, the head will be borrowed to quell public anger.

Among the great nobles, no one is interested in this hot position.Some of the small and medium nobles were eager to try, but no one dared to let them go.

After all, in the eyes of those with vested interests, putting a fool in the position of finance minister is the greatest irresponsibility to the kingdom.

"Prime Minister, what do you think?"

Caesar IV continued to ask.

Looking at the king he raised with his own hands, the art of emperor became more and more proficient, and the Grand Duke of Newfoundland also had mixed feelings.

For the royal family, the better the king, the better; but for the prime minister, it's just the opposite.

After all, kingship and prime ministership are inherently opposites.Whenever the king is strong, the power of the prime minister will inevitably be weakened.

However, the Grand Duke of Newfoundland has made outstanding achievements and has a great influence in the court. It is not something that Caesar IV can suppress if he wants to suppress it.

The mature application of the king's and emperor's art actually means that his resignation time is not far away.

"Your Majesty, do everything according to your ability!

In my opinion, taxation is within the scope of financial capacity, and it can be reduced or exempted as appropriate.

Disaster relief funds can also be distributed according to the actual situation. "

The answer given by the Prime Minister, the Grand Duke of Newfoundland, was a bit muddy, but for the current Alpha Kingdom, this was already the best choice.

The biggest advantage of the tax package system is that no matter what happens, someone will pay the tax.

The Royal Government can choose to reduce or exempt taxes, but there is no obligation to reduce or exempt taxes.

Giving something symbolically is actually taking care of the face of all parties.

Caesar IV frowned slightly, obviously this was not the answer he wanted.

If possible, he is more willing to use this as an opportunity to promote the reform of the kingdom's tax system.

Unfortunately, the prime minister did not understand what he meant.In other words, he thought of it, but he didn't want to cooperate with his actions.

There is no strong support from within the government. With the wishful thinking of the Ministry of Finance and the support of the king, the probability of success is too low.

Refer to the previous reforms of the Kingdom, all of which were strongly promoted by the government and supported by some local power factions.

The current situation is obviously different. The reform of the tax system is actually cutting the flesh of the nobles.

The royal government got more, and the noble lords naturally got less.With no money in hand, what do they use to raise soldiers?
You must know that in order to expand the army and prepare for war, the number of banquets held by the Kingdom has been greatly reduced in recent years, and the various extravagant hobbies that were popular in the aristocratic circle in the past have now disappeared without a trace.

It's not that everyone's core has changed, it's because the aristocratic group has become too involved.

Incapable waste is basically dead.Nine out of ten of this group of lords have been on the battlefield.

Having witnessed the bloodshed on the battlefield with my own eyes, if I don't know how to expand the army and prepare for war, then I really have a brain problem.

Compared with the strengthening of the kingdom's military strength, everyone is more willing to see their own armed forces grow stronger.

When it comes to the utilization rate of funds, when the money is in the hands of the kingdom government, it is not necessarily comparable to the noble lords.

"Then let's do this first!"

Caesar IV said rather disappointedly.

Deep in his heart, he once again strengthened his determination to strengthen the kingship.

……

The small episode in the capital will soon dissipate.The confrontation between the king and the prime minister is a top secret.

The nobles and lords affected by the disaster are busy organizing production and self-help at the moment.

In many places, noble lords have come to the front line to supervise and command in person. At this time, the benefits of the usual well-trained are reflected.

Trained serfs can basically understand the orders of noble lords and obey them.

Serfs who have not received training are relatively dull.But they know how to learn from their companions and work together, and they can barely keep up.

Even knowing that production reduction is a foregone conclusion, everyone is still busy trying to save themselves in order to reduce losses as much as possible.

In fact, it is not cost-effective to risk your life to save yourself in many cases.

But at this moment, the positions of all the nobles and lords were astonishingly unanimous, and they tried their best to get back food during the natural disaster.

Hudson is no exception.Well aware of the importance of food in disaster years, while doing disaster relief, we did not forget to organize people to harvest it.

In order to keep the rain-soaked wheat, Hudson used Maxim as a fire-breathing tool.Rely on physical heating to avoid germination of rye.

Due to the huge amount of work, during the actual operation, a lot of rye was roasted directly by Maxim, and some of the rye became coke.

In line with the principle of not wasting, the roasted rye became the food of orc slaves.

The locals live a life of eating fried wheat and boiled wheat flour.

In a calamity year, some food is good, so no one will be picky about the taste.

After the storm, there is finally a rainbow!

The great flood came quickly and receded quickly.On the third day after the rain stopped, everything gradually returned to normal.

However, the disaster brought by the flood stayed behind.The post-disaster reconstruction has slowly kicked off, and Hudson no longer needs to personally intervene in these tasks.

Government departments, agricultural departments, transportation departments and other relevant agencies have come up with corresponding plans and put them into action.

……

"My lord, affected by the catastrophe. Many depositors came to withdraw their deposits in advance, and there were queues of people in front of many outlets.

In just one week, deposits at NEDB fell by 800 million gold coins, accounting for 5.00% of our cash reserves.

The fact that the Near East Development Bank can survive does not mean that other small local banks can also survive.

According to the current development of the situation, the following post-disaster reconstruction is likely to trigger a wave of runs! "

Rudolph reported with a solemn expression.

Relying on the strong endorsement of a group of shareholders, the Near East Development Bank has not encountered a run since its establishment.

Of course, the banks are also doing very well.With the advantage of scale, whether it is operating income or profit, it is unsurpassed among similar commercial banks in the kingdom.

There is a saying in the outside world that the Near East Development Bank beat all the banks in the North Continent.

Without exaggeration, the Near East Development Bank, which has the first-mover advantage and seized the best customer base, alone accounts for [-]% of the profits of all commercial banks in the North Continent.

Except for this giant, all commercial banks are regional banks, and they simply do not have the ability to expand their business outlets to the entire Northern Continent.

No matter how small a bank is, it has some influence on its own one-third of an acre of land.

Most of these commercial banks have problems in their management, and they are almost novices in terms of risk control.

In order to compete with the Near East Development Bank, they not only lowered the loan interest, but also offered deposit interest.

Relying on these means, it has gained a place in the market competition.However, hidden risks have also been buried. Once a run is encountered, it is only a matter of time before these small banks with insufficient reserves go bankrupt.

Originally, eliminating competitors is a good thing for the Near East Development Bank, but panic will be passed on.

Once a large number of small commercial banks go bankrupt and are unable to pay depositors' funds, the Near East Development Bank will inevitably be affected.

If market confidence cannot be stabilized, no amount of cash reserves will be able to withstand endless runs.

"It is ordered that in the next period of time, all commercial loans handled must go through the strictest review.

If it is possible to reduce loans, then reduce loans as much as possible.

However, depositors' deposits must be paid in a timely manner.As long as it follows the process, it will be issued in full.

If big customers want to withdraw money, then sell assets to them.After this turmoil, many people will definitely default on their debts, so they should be looking for buyers in advance. "

Hudson said without changing his expression.

There's only so much he can do.The Near East Development Bank is no longer a baby. After leapfrog development in recent years, it has never received a bonus, and it has accumulated a lot of industries.

It is also a good choice to sell part of the cash now.As long as this turmoil is overcome, the signboard of the Near East Development Bank will become even louder.

With the reduction of a large number of competitors, the power of "money" in the future will be even more limitless.

For a while, Hudson didn't know whether to be happy or worried.

Now it depends on how much the shareholders behind these small banks support them.If there is the full support of the great nobles, they may be able to survive this storm.