Chapter 419.
Chapter 419: Territorial Income
Paul rushed back to Lakewood as fast as he could after leaving the church in Port Fullan.
As soon as he returned to his office, before his butt was even warmed up, he immediately ordered someone to call Ford, the chief administrator of the Council of State, and Cecil, the Minister of Intelligence.
“My lord, what happened.” As soon as the two entered Paul’s office, they felt that the atmosphere was not quite right, the earl did not seem to be in a good mood, and it was better to be careful with their own words.
“Two.” Paul nestled himself in the chair, two hands intertwined fingers on the abdomen, the tone of speech sounded disconcerting.
“I overheard something bad in Port Fullan.”
What bad things?
Old Ford looked as normal, but the intelligence chief’s hairs shrugged, could it be that some key technology had been stolen, or that some of the army’s secrets had leaked out?
His head immediately flew and meticulously retrieved the recent work status, and there didn’t seem to be any mistakes.
That was what he hadn’t probed, and he who was in charge of intelligence work wouldn’t have to face the thunderous wrath of the lord, would he?
Paul’s next words put his mind at ease a little.
“Some of the soldiers we lost in the army had their relatives treated unjustly back home.”
Cecil was relieved that this was no longer within his purview.
It was Old Ford’s turn to get nervous.
“Lord Graiman, Heavenly Father can testify that the Council of State has provided generous pensions to the families of each fallen soldier exactly as you intended.”
Paul waved his hand and said, “I’m not doubting your work, but ……”
He glumly explained to the two what he encountered in the church in Port Fullan, then solemnly gave an order to the intelligence chief, “Cecil, I order you to investigate the situation in Totor Village within a month, I cannot tolerate such things as the families of those fallen soldiers having to be bullied by others.”
Old Ford and Cecil nodded heavily, “Please don’t worry, Lord Gleeman, we will get to the bottom of the situation there.”
“Alright, you guys go ahead and give me a result as soon as possible.”
“Farewell, Lord Gleeman.”
As the two turned to leave, they were suddenly called back by Paul.
“Wait, I suddenly remembered something.”
“What else do you want.”
“I’d like to find out about the living conditions of the clergy, especially the lower ranked kind.”
Paul’s mind recalled how that Fr. Hershey was dressed.
Old Ford and Cecil looked at each other, why did the earl suddenly care about such things.
“From what I know in my day-to-day life, the clergy seem to be quite privileged, like Anderson, Morrison and the others, and that Violette from Furlong Harbor, but that Hershey I saw, why did he look like he wasn’t very well off.” “That’s not unusual, Lord Graiman.” Old Ford explained to him, “A mere priest presiding over a country church, surely he does not have much money.”
Paul asked, “What, aren’t these country priests raking in the dough …… uh I mean treated very well?”
Old Ford replied rightfully, “That’s natural, you know the church is a hierarchical system, and although the country priests are the front line of collecting tithes, not many of them stay, not to mention most of them have families to support.”
“Hmm? Most still have families?”
“Yes, married with children.”
“Are there very few who remain celibate and dedicated to the Lord?”
Chief Steward Ford shook his head, “It’s not like a hundred percent of piety gets you material improvement, so just seventy percent is good enough.”
“Why not, as far as I know, don’t such people get better promotions in the church?”
“Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho, Lord Graiman.” Old Ford had a mysterious smile on his face and whispered an explanation to Paul.
“Theoretically, yes, but most of these country priests also come from commoner families, and basically stop there for the rest of their lives, and as for higher positions within the church …… those big families also have to give their second sons who don’t have the right to inheritance or… …or illegitimate children a good future. For example, that Hershey you just met, as far as I know comes from a noble family.”
Paul’s mind turned, these lower clerics might be a force to be reckoned with?
In that case, he looked to the intelligence chief, “Cecil, I have one more important task for you.”
“Please do as you wish, Lord Gleeman.”
“Secretly investigate the living standards of all the clergy within our territory, which can be roughly divided according to the upper, middle, and lower classes, as well as their respective ratios, the more detailed the various information, the better.”
Cecil froze for a moment, what did the Earl want with this information? But he habitually obliged, the Earl naturally had his reasons for doing so.
Paul then turned to Old Ford, the chief administrator of the Council of State and head of the Ministry of Finance, and asked, “How much do you expect our revenues to reach next year?”
Old Ford recalled the existing information he had on hand and summarized, “Lord Greiman, combining the taxes of Alda, Bairdin, and Emden as well as the various types of industries that you have handed over to the Council of State to operate, and converting all kinds of physical objects and currencies into the silver coin of Aldo, I estimate that it can reach 120,000 up or down.”
120,000 silver coins? Paul stroked his chin and pondered, if you take into account the economic income generated by the various forests, farms, workshops, mines and stores that Paul left to the Gleiman family, there must be a small quarter of a million Aldo silver coins, right?
He recalled his last life to see an estimate of the medieval rulers of Western Europe’s income of the post, the above will be the rulers of the countries of the annual income of the unified conversion into the Byzantine Nomisma, the first half of the 14th century, the King of England’s annual income of 60,000 pounds about 400,000 Nomisma about a Nomisma gold coin equivalent to the value of about 54g of silver, and this life of the Aldo silver coins silver content is about in the 24 ~ 25g or so, so a conversion down, then the King of England’s annual income is more than 860,000 Aldo silver coins, so the earl’s annual wealth at his disposal is almost equivalent to a quarter of the King of England in the 14th century more than?
Thinking about it is still quite exciting.
Of course, regarding how to distribute and use the tax revenue from Bairdings, Paul definitely had to listen to the opinion of Myron Garnard, who was still the lord of Bairdings, but Paul’s ally brother always supported his own decisions.
Looking at Paul who was deep in thought, old Ford and Cecil were a bit puzzled, the earl first inquired about the living standard of the lowly clergy, and then asked about the territory’s financial revenue, what is this about?
Both of them coincidentally thought of a possibility: the Count is not going to give money to those low-level clerics, right?
Haha, that’s impossible, if that’s the case, wouldn’t it be too much money burning his hands?
The two men again dismissed this ridiculous idea in their heads.
(After checking, in the first half of the 14th century, the King of England had an annual income of 60,000 pounds, an English earl’s guaranteed annual income was 1,000 pounds, and the richest Earl of Leinster had an annual income of up to 12,000 pounds, which was roughly 1/5th that of the King of England, and at that time, one pound contained 279.936g of silver. the protagonist, having originally owned an earl’s collar, had also taken charge of the Baildin, and had also annexed a far more than ordinary The main character had an earldom, but he also managed Bairdings, annexed Emden, which was far more than an ordinary earldom, and utilized all kinds of new technologies to develop his industries. After several years of development, his income could reach twice that of the Earls of Lancaster in the first half of the 14th century, which should not be too much to ask for.
(But I didn’t check how much area and population the Earl of Lancaster’s territory had at that time, the setting is not very strict, haha!)
(End of chapter)