Chapter 2454: Wealth Circulation

Generally speaking, besides clearing forests, Adventurers spend most of their time doing odd jobs for lords, such as exploring ruins, searching for treasures, murder and arson, or trivial matters like finding lost pets for the relatives of a lord's followers.

However, many of these functions can be split among peacekeepers, soldiers, spies, and specialized archaeological teams.

Xia Duo has already prepared to gradually abolish the profession of Adventurer within his territory; after all, in modern society, there are peacekeepers, spies, mercenaries, and domestic service personnel, but who has ever heard of Adventurers?

Even if there are so-called expeditions, they are actually professional teams composed of experts from various industries, rather than being recruited randomly from ordinary people without professional backgrounds—that is not exploration, that is suicide.

After Xia Duo's explanation, Puman gained another layer of understanding regarding the existence of Adventurers. "If Lord Xia Duo hadn't said so, I would have thought the existence of Adventurers was indispensable!"

"It might have been in the past, but it certainly won't be in the future," Xia Duo said.

……

Leaving the town from the South District, Xia Duo and Puman were let through after only a simple inspection by the guards. It wasn't until they entered the countryside that Puman asked curiously:

"Does the Nan Jing side not collect city entry taxes?"

Just now at the town's south gate, he saw a merchant caravan enter the town, but the guards only performed a simple inspection before letting them through. Only then did he realize that there were no tax officials collecting taxes at the gate!

To this, Xia Duo's reply was, "There is no city entry tax here; even some small-time merchants don't have to pay transaction taxes. Only transactions conducted in the Trade District are subject to a certain tax based on the transaction amount."

"So that's how it is!"

Puman didn't know much about taxation, and for the time being, he couldn't see what kind of impact the tax policy here in Nan Jing would have. But from what he already understood, a fixed Tax Law was easier to make merchants and ordinary people feel at ease than taxes arbitrarily specified by tax officials.

……

After entering the countryside, Puman was once again surprised by the unique features of Nan Jing.

"What I saw in the sky earlier was actually true! Lord Xia Duo, is it necessary to build such a gravel road for every village?"

"Not necessary."

"Hmm?"

Puman initially thought he had misheard and was just about to listen to Xia Duo's profound theory, but upon realizing it, he found that what Xia Duo had actually said was "not necessary."

"Then why build them?"

"The previous roads were actually perfectly adequate. The reason for building these broken-brick roads now is, on one hand, that a lot of waste brick material was produced during the infrastructure maintenance process in the south, which can be put to good use. On the other hand, it's a long story."

Puman is not yet one of his own, and Xia Duo did not want to explain to him what it means to hide wealth among the people or what it means to provide work as a form of relief. These broken-brick roads in the Savile Territory are actually part of a large infrastructure project.

Infrastructure construction is one goal, and transferring wealth to the people of the Savile Territory is another. After all, after the development of the Daxia Territory, almost everyone had accumulated a large amount of wealth.

With the advancement of the integration of the two regions, the pricing of some consumer goods needs to be determined based on the income and savings levels of the south, but if that were the case, people in the north might find it difficult to afford them.

In essence, it is just raising the minimum income of the residents in the northern territory to keep it in balance with the south.

In the current era, the power of a Spellcaster is unparalleled, and this naturally includes production capacity; in other words, the bulk of social wealth is held in the hands of Spellcasters.

And the greatest Spellcaster in Nan Jing is Xia Duo; as long as he lets a little bit slip through his fingers, it is enough for the assets of the ordinary people at the bottom to multiply several times over.

But this wealth released is not gone forever; the value of wealth lies in its circulation. As the process of Magic Civilianization continues to advance, that wealth will be recovered through Civilian Magic Artifacts.

Of course, by then, Xia Duo will continue to find ways to increase the income of the populace to maintain this series of wealth circulation.

With this continuous circulation, although the people may not necessarily be able to save much, their overall standard of living is constantly improving.

This is what is meant by "creating a better life."

In Xia Duo's vision, precious metal currency will gradually transition into Credit Currency, and eventually, the attribute of currency will be dissolved, finally reaching a state of distribution according to need.

This is possible to achieve; the Red Heart Alliance of the Projection Plane has already demonstrated that possibility for him. Although it is not yet complete distribution according to need, it is very close.

……

Due to the good road conditions, Xia Duo and Puman soon arrived at the southernmost tip of the Savile Territory, which is also the northernmost section of the Daxia-Savile Passage.

Perhaps it was good timing; the two only waited here for a short while before seeing a Steam Car with a simple design clattering over from the distance.

Currently, there are only two Steam Cars running on this road, and these two are actually still experimental models. Only after all aspects are verified and perfected will the official version be launched, and then the quantity will be increased.

So, this car is currently a case of high demand and low supply. It is also thanks to the fact that it is currently in the verification stage that the experimental personnel on the car can decide whether to take passengers and how many to take.

Under Xia Duo's arrangement, he and Puman boarded the car amidst the envious gazes of a crowd, and they were the only two passengers on this trip.

Because Xia Duo and Puman were using disguises at the moment, the experimental personnel on the car did not recognize him. They simply introduced the Principles of the Steam Car and the precautions during travel, then stopped bothering them.

Compared to the new order of the Trade District, the country roads, and even the Magic Street Lamps on the main road that he had seen earlier, although Puman still had some things he didn't understand, they all fell within the scope of what he could comprehend.

But the Steam Car was different; it was completely beyond Puman's cognitive range. In his impression, no matter what kind of vehicle it was, to move, it had to rely on human power, animal power, or Magic.

Before today, he had never seen a vehicle like the Steam Car that could move automatically without any Magic elements and without relying on human or animal power.

This brought him great shock.

Even after hearing the explanation of the Steam Engine principles from the experimental personnel on the car, he still couldn't figure out why it could be like this.

Xia Duo, however, saw some clues and said meaningfully, "This is the Wisdom and power of ordinary people!"

"The Wisdom and power of ordinary people?"

Puman was shocked and asked subconsciously, "Was this Steam Car invented by ordinary people?"

"Yes!" Xia Duo gave an affirmative answer without hesitation.

Although the inventor of the Steam Engine, Xiluo, was a Spell Apprentice, and the other two who later participated in the invention of the Steam Car were also Mages, in front of a Great Arcanist like Puman, they were actually no different from ordinary people.

If it weren't for now, in a general setting, even if Puman had a certain level of recognition for ordinary people, he would not truly regard Apprentices or low-level Mages as people equal to himself.

But now, hearing that the Steam Car was invented by ordinary people, Puman felt that his worldview was about to be overturned. Although it was just a Steam Car that could move automatically, he could already foresee the broad Application prospects of such equipment that could automatically exert force.

It was just that what he couldn't accept was—this was actually invented by ordinary people?