Chapter 990: The Value of a Fief (Part II)

"King, if there is a tax exemption, doesn't that mean they can do whatever they want on our own land, while we don't receive any of the revenue we should be getting?"

The preceding groundwork had already been laid, and it was clear that the two of them had basically accepted this arrangement; now it was just a matter of making more detailed arrangements for this policy, so this tax exemption policy was also to be expected.

"Let's put it this way: the land you are living on now all belongs to me, Baifeng. You are living on my land, so you need to pay taxes to me. However, in order to give you more motivation to clear wasteland, I will grant you a tax exemption or a tax reduction for the first few years, so that you can live a little better and clear more land."

This has already been implemented in several towns, and the results have been very good.

Now, applying it to your two fiefs is obviously feasible as well; the only difference is that the person collecting the taxes has changed from me to you.

This is also my suggestion to you. If you two are unwilling, you can go ahead and collect them; I will represent Huaxia and return the portion that should be paid to Huaxia, and you can just collect what belongs to you."

These two were not fools, and without even consulting each other, they hurriedly refused: "No, no, King, we won't collect this tax after all. What should be exempted will be exempted, but for how many years should it be exempted? Also, according to what you just said, we have to pay you taxes because we live on your land, so why do they have to pay a portion of taxes to you when they live on our land?"

"Because those people from the Suiren Clan are only living on your land, but that does not mean they are your population. No matter how high your Nobility is, you cannot claim the population as your own jurisdiction; the population belongs to me.

However, Slaves are yours. If you have your own Slaves clear wasteland, then the grain grown on your land naturally does not need to be taxed by me.

Also, for tenant farmers, if you hire tenant farmers to plant and produce, you likewise do not need to pay me taxes; you only need to provide the tenant farmers with enough grain. Only those who survive and live on your land need to pay taxes to both you and me. If people who originally lived on your land abandon their land and come to places like Huaxia City to survive, then they need to pay taxes to me and no longer need to pay taxes to you.

There is one more thing: in order to ensure that the people living on your fief can be as free and comfortable as those here in Huaxia City, your fief can also allow them to buy and sell land themselves. Once bought, it becomes their own asset, though they will still pay a portion of taxes to you as before.

But correspondingly, you no longer have the power to drive them away, change them at will, or seize their land. If they are only farming and have not purchased the land, they should pay you rent instead of taxes, because their existence is like that of tenant farmers who do not own their own land.

The people migrating over this time can be considered as having purchased farmland from you, because for them to clear the land and cultivate its fertility, it requires a huge amount of energy and time. If you hired tenant farmers to do it yourselves, you might not even be able to recover the costs. Tell me, isn't that so?"

The people from the Secretariat were recording frantically because they felt that Baifeng's speech this time was very important, containing too much information, and it would certainly have a clear influence on the general direction of Huaxia's future development.

The others were also nervous; this small-scale experiment would almost determine the future development trend, and how much wealth they, as people with fiefs, would be able to earn in the future would all be determined by this policy.

But now, Ben and Yishang had no choice. Could Baifeng really change his policy for the sake of their experience and thoughts? Would he be able to send the people of the Suiren Clan to a more remote place for their sake?

This was completely impossible. Ben and Yishang needed to have a broader perspective; for the sake of Huaxia's future, they had to make a decision now. If they refused now, they would be refusing their own future.

So, when Baifeng fixed his gaze on them to ask, the two of them could only answer repeatedly: "King, we agree. We are willing to let them live on our fiefs. As for the other policies, let them just be the same as in Huaxia City."

Baifeng clapped for them and immediately said, "Mm, good. Then let us thank you two on behalf of our soon-to-arrive clansmen."

Everyone started clapping loudly at the same time, and Ben and Yishang also started clapping with strange expressions on their faces. They seemed to have understood today's meeting, and yet they seemed not to have understood it. But he had one advantage: he could go find Baifeng at any time, or Yulong, to ask them carefully about what exactly was going on and whether it was a good thing.

He was a person from the Secretariat and had grown up accompanying Yulong and the others; Yulong should give him that much face. He couldn't understand this matter himself, but Yulong had a good brain and would definitely be able to explain to him clearly whether this matter was good or bad.

Nervous, he glanced in Yulong's direction. Yulong was also looking at him and even gave him a playful wink, which meant that this was definitely a good thing. Thus, Yishang was now truly smiling happily.

"Let me explain one more thing to you two, regarding what you just asked: for these new clansmen, we must achieve a tax exemption for the first year, and starting from the second year, gradually collect taxes until the fifth year, when we reach our normal Huaxia tax level."

Liangji suddenly asked a question: "King, you said that these people from the Suiren Clan, if they don't understand what tax is and feel they don't want to pay it, and then become dissatisfied with our Huaxia, what should we do?"

As soon as Liangji said this, several elders started to laugh, but many young people did not understand why they were laughing. However, Yishang knew this; he was better than the young people in this regard, which was that they were people who had truly come from the era of savage, wild tribes, so they had experienced a lot and were better than the young people who relied purely on imagination to understand wild tribes.

Sanxin explained with a smile: "They don't pay taxes because they don't have such good policies and systems. They don't understand what tax is, but that doesn't mean they don't have to give things to the Tribal Chief and the Leader. They even have to give more, to the point where even having enough to eat themselves is a problem."