Golden Dragon: Six Thousand Years of Empire-Chapter 54: Riding You is Enough

"Most holy and benevolent Noah, your kindness is broader than the sky, your grace is longer than the mountains and rivers, may the earth forever remember your name..."

The farmers’ chants floated across the fields, and Tidel could clearly feel that the creature lying on his head became particularly cheerful in such praise.

"Noah!"

The young man spoke, his face, which had become increasingly steadfast with the passage of time, showing confusion,

"Do you know the possible consequences of your promise just now?"

"What consequences?"

Noah asked indifferently.

"You’ve set a precedent, what about the other slaves?"

Tidel, having mingled at the lower levels of society, had seen the evil of human nature even though he hadn’t sunk into the dust himself. Thus, in his eyes, the Golden Dragon’s kindness and generosity were not necessarily good things.

"What do you mean, what about them? Just do the same."

Noah answered without hesitation,

"The three hundred slaves under my name, as long as they’re willing, can continue to cultivate on my land after gaining freedom from slavery, and they only need to pay one-tenth of the land’s yield as rent."

"But there aren’t just those three hundred slaves on the family’s territory. You’re going to make them the envy of everyone, which could cause uncontrollable consequences."

"Oh, that, it seems you haven’t spent just two years outside for nothing."

Noah looked down at his humanoid mount and praised,

"For commoners, they’re not worried about the lack of resources but rather the uneven distribution of resources. If only the farmers under my name could receive this favor, it would naturally cause turmoil, even malignant events.

But if all the farmers on this land can enjoy the same grace, the situation you worry about naturally wouldn’t occur."

"Are you saying?"

Tidel’s face showed disbelief.

"Convince your parents to issue a decree so that all farmers only need to pay a tithe tax, then no farmers would feel jealous.

As for other taxes like poll tax, land tax, inheritance tax, tolls, market tax, minting tax, all sorts of messy taxes, reduce them if possible, abolish them if possible, the specifics, you need to discuss with your mother."

"This..."

The young man unconsciously stopped in his tracks, frowning, lost in thought.

"What? Do you think this is not good?"

Noah stretched out a furry cat paw and stirred the young man’s messy hair on his forehead.

"It’s not that it’s not good, it’s just..."

Tidel didn’t know what to say.

"It’s just that you haven’t seen such low taxes on other noble territories, right?"

"Right."

In the young man’s eyes, the family’s taxes on the commoners in the territory were already very low; the commoners likely only needed to pay about one-third to half of their annual income, but the Golden Dragon thought it was still not enough.

"So in my eyes, those nobles who only know how to exploit commoners are just fat mice and maggots. What, do you also want to be such a maggot?"

Noah sneered.

"Of course not, I’m just pondering, what kind of changes such tax enforcement would bring to the family territory?"

Tidel did his best to think, but it was hard for him to find a referable case in memory.

"First, let’s talk about the worst outcome. If the Augustus Clan’s entire territory implements a tithe tax, the Augustus family’s agricultural tax revenue will plummet in the short term."

"In the short term?"

The young man caught the point.

"Of course, after the tithe tax is implemented, as long as other taxes are not increased, the population in the territory will definitely enter an explosive growth phase. The desire for biological reproduction will necessarily explode with the enrichment of material conditions; this is a natural law."

Noah spoke seriously, the progress in farming methods, the improvement of productivity, are merely the basic factors for population growth. In fact, there’s another requirement, which is that the rulers should not be too greedy.

In some neighboring noble territories of the Augustus family, influenced by Noah’s Book, although there wasn’t a massive increase in food production, there was still some improvement compared to before.

But this extra produced food was all scraped away by the tax officials sent by the noble lords, and the common people’s lives remained as miserable as before, without any change.

The people are not wealthy, there are no spare food supplies at home, so naturally, the population cannot grow.

The reverse also holds true. Once a family becomes affluent, there’s no need for anyone to urge marriage and childbirth; having numerous wives and children becomes a natural result.

"Population explosion?!"

Tidel murmured, his eyes becoming bright, for he knew what the biggest problem currently troubling the family was.

Although the Augustus family’s territory had expanded many times compared to when it was under an Earl, the population did not grow alongside territorial expansion, making this problem more severe.

After his father’s promotion to Legend, many monsters were scared away; these monsters, after migrating, left behind a lot of fertile and rich land, but due to the lack of population to migrate, they could only be taken by some humanoid Wisdom Species that were friendly to humans.

"Not only that, your family will also have an unparalleled attraction to the refugees on other noble territories, perhaps within ten years, you’ll have to set up dedicated immigration officers because of this."

Noah spoke in a leisurely tone.

What he just said was not a sudden impulse, but a well-thought-out plan.

Primarily because he no longer held any hope for the nobles outside the Augustus family; counting on those maggots is a waste of affection.

In contrast, it would be better to focus efforts on the Augustus family; at least his foster parents, including his humanoid mount, would listen to his opinions and adopt them.

"What you said makes a lot of sense."

"Buying slaves to replenish population is only a stopgap measure, it cannot be a long-term plan. Comparatively, increasing the childbirth willingness of the territory’s existing people and attracting foreign populations to settle voluntarily is the key."

"Let’s go find my mother now!"

"No way. After finally coming down the mountain, who wants to go back now; if you want to go, you go, I’m not going." freёnovelkiss.com

Noah leapt off the young man’s head, turned back to look at Tidel,

"I’ve said enough; if you still can’t persuade your mother, then I can only question your ability."

"I’ll accompany you first."

Tidel sighed helplessly, making a choice without hesitation,

"Without my company, you wouldn’t run far, would you?"

Although it was an interrogative sentence, the young man’s tone was very affirmative, causing the Golden Cat’s pupils to slightly contract,

"Are you underestimating the courage of the Golden Dragon?"

"I know how much you cherish your life."

"Tch!"

The fur of the Golden Cat, shining under the sunlight, jumped back onto the young man’s head,

"Let’s go see the River Valley you often visit, I’ve always eaten the Pearls from there, but haven’t seen what the place of origin looks like."

"It’s a bit far."

"Doesn’t matter, since I have you."

Noah said indifferently, the smile on the young man’s face had no time to bloom before it froze,

"After all, I’m not moving, riding on you is enough."