Herald of Steel

859 Tibian Noble Treaty (Part-2)

The nobles' reluctance to pay the large land tax was of course something Alexander had anticipated.

No nobles wanted to pay taxes, including Alexander himself.

But since he was able to foresee that, Alexander was also able to have a great answer.

He reasoned with them, "The 4% total land tax that I ask you to pay is less than half what your Zanzan peers have to give!"

"Just ask them how much they pay?"

"9 percent! 1 percent to me and 8 percent to His Majesty Ptolomy as tithes. Do you want to be like that?"

"I don't get what you are complaining about!" Alexander sounded incredulous.

And this comparison between the two groups quickly made the Tibian nobles pipe down.

Furthermore, Alexander also made sure to give the nobles cheap access to some of his products, such as iron, sugar, etc. like he had done prior, with the exact quantity determined by the amount of land they each controlled, both as a way to help them soothe over their loss and also as a way to tie them to his boat.

Thus ultimately the nobles relented, although not before extracting a three year tax free concession from Alexander.

This Alexander was happy to give as Tibias was already ravaged by war and needed much needed relief.

As it could be seen just how hard it was to make these nobles concede to just these conditions so the difficulty in making them acquiesce to the last point, i.e.- giving up half their treasury, could only be imagined.

But Alexander did manage to do it.

In preparation for this, he first had to get a rough idea of the wealth each noble might have.

And this meant knowing their financial history.

This was a tedious effort, especially given that Tibian did not have tiered nobility like Adhania, so he could not simply put a general 'tax' to each class of nobility like shordars (barons), talukders (viscounts), etc., and ask them to pay up.

Instead, Alexander had to learn the details of each and every individual noble to determine how much they could pay.

Something that would been impossible without Lord Theony's aid, insight, and resources, who opened his vast storage of tax receipts which had the record for each and every one of the noble's payments for the past decade.

So with those ten years' worth of value as a baseline, Alexander felt he was ready.

He called all the nobles to a large feast and before serving the food, made them sit around a few huge tables, and handed them a small piece of blank paper.

"Please write your name." Alexander had first instructed, followed by, "Please write the amount of gold you have in your treasury- all the coins, precious jewelry, stones, slaves, animals, etc. together."

This sudden and very personal request naturally made all the nobles taken a bit back at first, but seeing this Alexander only revealed in a very breezy tone that betrayed the gravity of his speech,

"To celebrate my annexation of these lands, I require all of you to pay half of your treasury as tribute."

"That is my reward- a once in a lifetime deposit."

"And this payment will ensure that none of you are ever attacked."

Alexander's implicit threat was apparent, as he very shamelessly threatened the nobles with war if they did not pay.

Before he added sweetness to the spice,

"But rest assured my lords, I will not simply pocket your funds."

"They will all be reinvested for your betterment."

"It will be used to build new infrastructure such as roads, bridges, irrigation canals, to pay for a bigger army for increased security, to build a proper navy and in general, to increase the overall prosperity of the country."

And Alexander did truly mean it when he said this- as he intended to start some very large projects building projects to develop Tibias.

As for whether the nobles truly believed that, or only thought that Alexander was trying to swindle them out of their money, they kept those thoughts to themselves.

Gven Alexander threatened to destroy them if they did not pay, they instead all obediently decided to cough out what was asked of them.

They were also able to comfort themselves when Lord Theony stood up in support of Alexander, saying,

"My fellow lords, do not be sad. It is only money. Remember!It is tradition for the defeated to be sacked. So as the victor, it is only natural for Lord Alexander to demand tribute from us. I would even say that he was generous for not asking for even more." Lord Theony exaggerated, before reinforcing the threat in a hidden way,

"Recall! Many noble houses have lost much more. Many houses have been totally wiped out! Many would prefer to pay this money if they could reverse that."

This was said to try and squash any suicidal, rebellious thoughts some of the noble might have, by reminding them of their family, as the slightly plump man who had gained weight over the last few weeks, then put his now chubby hands on his chest to emphasize,

"I too have given the Lord my treasury. And I have given nine tenths, 9/10 of it!"

"Why so much!"

"Because I believe! I believe in what the Pasha said. I believe that this money will be put to good use."

"Like the lord said, the money will be used to better the infrastructure of the country and boost the economy."

At this point Lord Theony then paused to take a look around the room to observe the attention of the crowd, and found most of the men staring intently at him, ears perked up.

Thus bolstered by this encouraging sight, the fine moustached man continued this time pointing his fingers toward a window,

"And you do not have to look far to see evidence of that."

"Recall the pristine road that now exists between Thesalie and Zanzan. I will tell you something many of you might not know!"

"The taxes earned per month in that city is now 1 million ropals! All because of that road! All because goods from Zanzan can easily get to Thesale."

This reveal immediately got a large reaction from the crowd, with many crying out in disbelief,

and Lord Theony struck the iron while it was still hot, pumping his fist and shouting,

"And all of us can be like that!"

"All of you should be aware just how lucrative all the new goods Lord Alexander has promised us. So by loyally serving him, we will be able to get more and more of them."

"That way not only will our economy surely flourish, but the total size of our economy will surely get bigger."

"We will be able to collect more and more tax revenue and within just a few years, we will be able to recoup all the money lost and make even more!"

"A rising tide raises all boats. And Lord Alexander is that tide. All of you would be foolish to miss it!"

By the time Lord Theony had finished, many previously reluctant eyes by now had flipped into little gems of smoldering ambitions and greed.

This speech was of course created by Alexander and recited by Lord Theony, with mostly truths but some great embellishments, such as the lie that all of them could be as rich as Thesalie.

That was not possible, as Thesalie was a unique case courtesy of its geography.

But still, it did the job.

Even though some nobles indeed guessed this was all just Alexander's marketing gimmick, and many even thought Lord Theony to be only a crony for Alexander by now, but still, many of the things, including the example he gave were indeed true.

This helped many short sighted men to see the demand from a new perspective, reasoning by siding with him, they would be able to indeed make a lot of money.

Best of all, they would have to only give 1% of that as profit to Alexander.

This was in much contrast to how they usually earned money, which was by getting around 1% of the value of the good in taxes.

Thus under Alexander, these nobles were allowed to earn many times more.

Hence although even then some men grumbled but ultimately had carts and carts of gold, slaves, animals, wine, and even food produce be sent to Zanzan city, the collection point for all these funds.

As for how much they sent and how they were prevented from simply lying, well that was where that small piece of paper and the arrangement in which Alexander declared the idea came in.

The sudden immediateness of the request made many nobles unable to come up with excuses beforehand, thus many were forced to reveal the amount.

And if they quoted too small a number or simply said that they could not recall the exact amount right now, Alexander would hand them a new value that he had estimated based on their previous year's tax payment.

And if they even then protested, Alexander threatened to send prospectors along with soldiers to their estate to verify their claim.

That usually got the message through as most nobles did not want a bunch of armed, belligerent men in their territories.

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