Chapter 74: War Tax
Chapter 74: War Tax
To have a large enough number of soldiers, is there any other choice other than expanding the army? To expand the army, naturally you need money.
The finances of the Republic of Hungary were teetering on the brink of bankruptcy from the time of its establishment.
The newborn government did not know how to manage the money, and the tax revenue collected with great difficulty was not yet warmed up in their hands, but was spent in a confused manner.
Kossuth was directly responsible for this problem, and it could be said that the newborn Hungarian republican government had already surpassed Austria in terms of corruption.
This problem can refer to the Republican government after the revolution, in the collapse of the old order, the new order and did not have time to establish the situation, there is no constraints after the officials in high positions became more unscrupulous up.
“Mr. Kosut, the government has already collected war taxes twice this year!” Margrave Loki reminded
Hungary’s taxes have always been independent of Austria, and during the period when the corrupt nobles controlled the government, there were messy taxes from time to time, and the people were suffering.
It was thought that after the independence, everyone would have a better life, but the reality was the opposite, without the “Austrian exploitation”, they had a more miserable life.
The new republican government gave more power to the local authorities, and it seemed to them that any elected government was a saint of integrity and honesty.
The truth is not always the same as the ideal, and Hungary has now learned from the Americans that not only does the central government have the right to collect taxes, but local governments can do the same.
To put it simply, the number of tax-collecting authorities has increased without any constraints, and officials have taken the opportunity to enrich themselves, and even certain community governments have set a whole bunch of messy taxes.
Of course, these messy taxes, the aristocrats do not need to pay, the capitalists also do not need to pay, the real pay for this is still the ordinary people.
But the war tax is an exception, the nobles and capitalists must also pay together, pay also even if, the problem is that they also collect so diligently, which makes everyone hard to accept.
How long has it been since the establishment of the Hungarian Republic? Even if you count the preliminary preparatory time, how can it be less than three months, right?
In such a short period of time, two war taxes were collected, and now a third war tax is to be collected, the enemy has not yet come over, it is going to be “expensive” to live.
Unlike capitalists, who can find ways to evade taxes, the main property of the nobles is land, which can’t be hidden in the open, so it’s not easy to evade taxes.
“Yes, Your Excellency the Marquis!”
“But the situation can’t be helped, according to the intelligence we’ve gathered, right now Austria is able to put as many as 400,000 troops into the war with us, while the National Self-Defense Army is still less than 300,000 troops.
What’s more, they are all well-trained regulars, while our army is just laborers who have just put down their hammers, or farmers who have lost their hoes, relying on nothing more than full-bloodedness.
The gap between the two sides is simply too great, without an equal number of troops, we have no chance of winning this war!” Kossuth argued forcefully
Well, the situation of the Hungarian National Self-Defense Army was, in fact, even worse than he said, because the average soldier was simply not full of blood.
There weren’t even as many as 300,000 of them, and the National Self-Defense Army was just a grassroots organization that didn’t have a strict jurisdiction below it, and the money that was left at the end of the day under the layers of deductions just couldn’t afford to feed that many people.
But there is no relationship, there is a policy from above and a plan from below, in this regard the capitalists are the most experienced, ear to ear under the bourgeoisie origin of the officers, quickly thought of the policy of plum in place of the peach.
In addition to recruiting a part of the people to support the facade, the rest of the people eat empty ring good, if the top inspection on the temporary pull people to fill the number. In any case, the top and bottom are all taken advantage of, no one dares to break this layer of windowpaper.
Of all the armies in Hungary, the only ones with any fighting ability are actually the student armies, who are the real revolutionaries, fighting for national independence. The rest, including Kossuth, were no longer mere revolutionaries.
“Mr. Kossuth, I think it is necessary for the government to disclose its financial expenditures, the republican government has just been in place for a short time, and you have spent what the Hungarian government would normally spend in a year!
If the Republican Government’s expenses are always this high, then perhaps you don’t need to wait for the Austrians to make a move, you’ll play the new government yourselves first!” Duke Leopold warned gravely
It was an embarrassing question, Kosut’s face was horribly gloomy, everyone knew that the new government’s financial overhead was high, in the past he had used the war as an excuse.
But the war hadn’t even started yet, and now the expenses were so high, what would they do if it did start?
International loans? Don’t dream about it, no consortium would dare to lend them money, it would mean borrowing without repaying, and Austria is one of the great powers, it won’t recognize the treaties signed by these chaotic parties.
Other than that, it’s just a matter of raising taxes. That’s not a good solution either. If you can’t solve the internal problems, no amount of money can fill the bottomless pit.
“Yes, the government can publicize its financial expenditures for everyone to monitor. But right now the finances are in trouble and we need a sum of money to get through the crisis.
This time the government will not take this money for nothing, we will use the mode of issuing debt rolls for everyone to subscribe to, with an annual interest rate of seven cents, and a tentative issue of 200 million rupiahs. (Contains 11.69 grams of silver)
If the debt rolls don’t sell, then we’ll just have to collect another war tax.”
Kosut still chose to compromise, right now he still needed the support of these people, without the cooperation of the nobles, trying to collect taxes would be complete bullshit, for this reason appropriate concessions were feasible.
Seeing that the representatives of the nobles present had a tough attitude, even the war tax, was temporarily changed by him into a war debt roll, preferring to bear high interest, Kosut was also unwilling to stimulate everyone’s sensitive nerves.
The Republic of Hungary was established from the very beginning to represent the interests of the emerging bourgeoisie, and just after independence, a series of decrees favorable to the economic development of the bourgeoisie were introduced, including the abolition of a series of exorbitant taxes that impeded the development of the economy.
These reform measures allowed the government to gain the support of the capitalists and at the same time greatly increased the pressure on the government’s finances; after all, the bourgeois economy could not be developed overnight.
The Kossuth government was inexperienced in governing and was advised to issue its own Hungarian currency. Having tasted the sweetness of issuing currency, the Republican government started to print money in an attempt to get out of the financial crisis.
Reality to Kossuth hard lesson, the hand does not have enough reserves, just rely on the credibility of the government to issue currency, naturally turned into a gorgeous scrap of paper.
After the failure of issuing currency, the financial crisis of the Republic of Hungary broke out, and from then on embarked on the road of no return of tax increase.
(End of chapter)