Chapter 292 Annual summary
Chapter 292 – Annual Summary
In a short period of time, the Harland Territory could only walk on two legs.
On one hand, let the Chemical Research Institute continue to do research to separate various extracts from coal tar, while improving the condensation system to increase the efficiency of collecting coal tar. In addition the cultivation of natural dyes can’t be delayed, after all, chemical dyes can’t be produced for a while, and dyed cloth made from natural dyes can avoid the outflow of funds.
There were many people with very high incomes among the two hundred thousand or so freeholders in Harland’s territory. The luxury goods needed by the high-income people not being met would only result in an outflow of funds.
By the end of the year, Richard once again called the civil officials of the territory together to organize a financial meeting, the reason why he invited officials from other systems was mainly to give everyone a comprehensive understanding of the development of the territory.
Last year, Harland territory increased its population by 230,000 people, and this year the influx of people into the territory was around 70,000 people.
The stragglers who came in because of the plague numbered forty-six thousand, twenty thousand were serfs purchased at the commodity fair, and four thousand were the quality population who had voluntarily migrated to Harland’s territory.
Not counting the population brought in by natural reproduction, the influx of people in the last two years amounted to three hundred thousand people, almost accounting for about half of the total population.
According to this year’s statistics from the civil affairs department, Harland Territory already had a population of six hundred and sixty thousand, and this year’s fertility rate was around four percent. Even without purchasing indentured servants from the outside, Harland Territory’s natural population growth was more than twenty thousand people.
In these recent years Harland Territory had purchased over a hundred thousand serfs from the slave market, which was about a quarter of the slave trade market. Through Richard’s hands, about eight hundred thousand gold coins were sent to Duke Guise, the slavers.
Because of the strong demand in Harland territory, the slave trade expanded by a quarter, surpassing the population tax and turning into the most important tax for Duke Guise’s territory.
With a large increase in revenue every year, two years ago Duke Guise expanded his army by six thousand, purchased a large amount of armor, bows and arrows, and increased his weaponry by a hair, and increased his efforts to go to the Delong Kingdom to pillage.
Because of the large influx of population, this year Harland territory increased the intensity of land reclamation, reclaimed 400,000 acres of arable land, and successfully developed the potash rock mine, the large amount of potash fertilizer used, increased food production.
The annual grain production exceeded 225,000 tons, ushering in a bumper harvest.
But ninety-five thousand tons of these grains were the output of the free people, and with close to two hundred and thirty thousand free people in Harland’s territory, there were more than one million acres of land divided among the free people, which was already more than half of the total cultivated area. If it wasn’t for the fact that the freeholders planted a lot of cash crops, the grain output would have accounted for an even higher percentage.
Despite the huge increase in grain production, because the increase in population was too much, there was still no balance in agricultural production this year.
Livestock industry because of a sudden plague, similarly heavy losses, Harland territory official control of the pasture, the annual slaughter of only 600,000 head of sheep, a reduction of about half of the production.
The freeholders who raised sheep suffered even greater losses, because the capital was smaller, the ability to resist risk was lower, and when they encountered a sheep plague, the losses were almost unbearable.
According to the statistics of the animal husbandry department, folk may have died of more than a million sheep from the plague last year.
Such heavy losses have greatly dampened the incentive of the free folk to farm.
Before the plague, the official and private stock of sheep in Harland Territory was about three million heads, and three million heads could be slaughtered every year. After the plague, the number of sheep stocked and slaughtered were reduced by about half.
Farming is like that, the risk is very high.
Cattle and sheep are already livestock with less plague, raising chickens and pigs is even more risky, after a plague, the farm’s years of accumulation will be lost.
Of the 600,000 sheep that were slaughtered, the army consumed more than 100,000, officials, researchers, teachers, and factory management consumed a portion, and only about two-thirds could be placed on the market.
Moreover, this year’s grain balance is relatively small, and also need to store a portion of the sheep meat in the winter, sold in the market of the Black River Fort only 200,000 sheep, converted into gold coins about 20,000 or so.
Compared to previous years, the income from animal husbandry was reduced by two thirds, greatly affecting the financial income of Harland’s territory.
This year’s iron and steel industry, although there was no more war, but because of the increase of a large number of people, the domestic demand market was very strong, especially the real estate industry, the ability to drive the economy was extremely prominent.
The number of free people has increased by 100,000 in the last two years, and all of these people need to build their own houses. The demand for steel and iron increased greatly, even though Richard continued to lower the wholesale price of steel, the steel production of Harland Territory exceeded four thousand five hundred tons, bringing in forty thousand gold coins.
Compared to when the territory was first built, the price of steel fell to about thirty percent of the original price.
According to the current development speed of Harland’s territory, once the steam engine is applied in steel making, the output will usher in a surge, and then the price of steel will also usher in a huge drop.
Although the market for woolen products was not saturated, the production was reduced by about half due to the impact of the sheep plague. Because of the lack of production, the price of woolen products increased by forty percent, and this year’s revenue was only twenty-eight thousand gold coins, slightly worse than last year.
By the plague, many nobles who are prepared to raise sheep and manufacture woolen products suffered heavy losses, part of the nobles who do not have enough money decided to withdraw from this industry, the northern border has a lot less competitors, Harland territory monopoly of the market time may be a few more years of hard work.
The two pillars of Harland’s territory, agriculture and animal husbandry, are the major contributors to the tax revenue. In the first few years, the territory’s income and expenditure almost completely relied on these two legs of the road. Last year, although there was no balance in agriculture, the livestock industry brought 60,000 gold coins to the territory.
This year, the two legs of agriculture and animal husbandry that contributed greatly to the finances were lame, and the biggest contribution had been the tax revenue.
For the year’s 228,000 freeholders, there was a tax revenue of 57,000 gold coins from the field tax alone, and together with the revenue from customs duty, commercial tax, and real estate tax, this year’s tax revenue amounted to 75,000 gold coins, which was the territory’s largest revenue this year.
The growth of the brown sugar trade was also very impressive, with production increasing by about fifty percent over last year. As the brown sugar trees continue to grow taller and the brown sugar plantations continue to expand, the high rate of production growth will continue for a long time.
This year’s brown sugar production of two thousand two hundred tons, in order to digest the increased production capacity, Harland territory while expanding the domestic market, while continuing to reduce prices, to export to the outside. Not only did the Grand Duchy of Starnick double its exports, the Norland market also completely beat the honey, totaling a profit of around forty thousand gold coins.
This year, the magic crystal charging technology has improved, the efficiency has increased to about six percent, coupled with the construction of the mage tower in Fort William and the installation of the third set of magic crystal charging equipment, the annual revenue has increased by twenty-five percent compared to last year, which is converted into gold coins of about fifteen thousand revenues.
Magic crystals are a very important strategic reserve, Harland territory naturally won’t exchange magic crystals for gold coins. In addition to energizing magic props, these magic crystals are used for scientific research. This year’s luck was good, hunting a seventh-order magic crocodile, also caught a large group of iron horned horses, in addition to the bonus for the hunting team, Harland territory gained about twenty thousand gold coins of income.
The eyeballs of a seventh-order demonic crocodile could be refined into a magic eye potion, this potion’s effect was not as good as the life evolution potion, but it was equally helpful for sixth-order warriors to break through to the seventh-order.
Richard was already a Sixth Order Warrior, but he knew from the attribute panel that his accumulation was far from enough. The Magic Eye Potion could only be preserved for half a year, and in the end, this potion was traded out by Richard in exchange for a few precious magic minerals.
This year, the Harland Territory had introduced three commodities, the first was the Alchemy Bomb, two thousand of which were sold, bringing about twenty thousand gold coins of net income to the territory.
The second is soap, soap, Harland territory now has a large amount of animal fats that can’t be consumed, plus the territory has a salt lake mine that can produce a large amount of natural soda ash, the production cost of soap is lower, Richard didn’t sell it at a high price, this new commodity also brought sixteen thousand gold coins of pure income to Harland territory.
The third type is dyed cloth, dyed cloth is a luxury item in Grant Kingdom, the dyed cloth produced by Harland territory is only sold within the territory and the four northern provinces, the market size is small, only about six thousand gold coins of pure income.
Although Harland Territory was the first to invent highly distilled alcohol, it could only be sold in the internal market now. Even the market in the four northern border provinces had many competitors. This year, with the expansion of the domestic demand market and the expansion of the army, the market for liquor had increased quite a bit, and the profit reached about twenty-four thousand gold coins.
Because of the epidemic plague in the summer, the Harland Territory sold plague inhibiting drugs to the outside world, this year was also a very important income, except that by the time the drugs were developed, the plague was almost over, and this potion brought twelve thousand gold coins of income to the Harland Territory.
This spring, the new queen bee of Harland Territory hatched, the production of the Hemostatic Ointment continued to increase, although the selling price was reduced by twenty percent, the profit stabilized at around twenty-five thousand gold coins.
In addition to these two star medicines, Harland Territory also had burn ointment, anti-diarrhea medicine, painkillers and so on. This year, the sale of medicines in Harland’s territory brought in a profit of forty-five thousand gold coins. The drug trade, gradually became the fist industry of Harland Territory, an important income.
The threshold of this industry is very high, it is a typical high-tech industry, even if other people want to copycat, there is a very high difficulty, after all, the other big nobles, basically there is not much chemistry, medical foundation.
The transportation industry lost the military orders, four-wheeled carriage was also a large number of cottage goods to compete for the market, the total profit decreased by nearly forty percent, only eleven thousand gold coins of income.
Coal mine production exceeded 80,000 tons, the output increased by thirty percent compared to last year, the miners didn’t increase the number of people, the efficiency increased a lot, the net profit was handed over twenty thousand gold coins.
With the use of steam machinery, the output of the coal mine will increase dramatically in the next year, and the profit may be about doubled.
The number of freeholders has increased dramatically, driving the development of real estate. There are many chains behind real estate, masonry, cement, glass, furniture and so on, these industries involved in the downstream of real estate brought thirty thousand gold coins to Harland Territory this year.
The perfume industry remained stable, the market size was relatively small and there weren’t many competitors, the profit was relatively stable, around ten thousand gold coins.
With the expansion of schools and hospitals, the amount of paper used in Harland’s territory is getting bigger and bigger, and small industries such as book printing, paper manufacturing, and fruit products have brought in about ten thousand gold coins this year.
All in all, this year’s cash income of Harland’s territory is about 430,000 gold coins, an increase of 60,000 gold coins compared to last year, a growth rate of about 16%.
From the financial data, Harland’s territory’s industries were getting richer and richer, no longer relying on income from one or two commodities.
This year, there was a cash income of four hundred and thirty thousand and also a huge financial expenditure.
First of all is the military expenditure, with the development of time, the free people soldiers are more and more, this year the territory’s military payroll has been more than eight thousand people, the military payroll expenditure is about one hundred thousand gold coins or so. In addition to expanding the army by nine thousand people, logistically there is also a huge expenditure, just food, clothes and barracks construction cost seventy thousand gold coins.
Weapons and armor for the four thousand new recruits, warhorse pack animals, magic beast cavalry expansion and so on, adding up to another fifty thousand gold coins expenditure.
Richard raised the standard of disability and pension, and the pension has increased to about twelve thousand gold coins this year.
This year, two thousand auxiliary soldiers were expanded, although the treatment of auxiliary soldiers was lower, but the yearly cost of supporting the army for six thousand auxiliary soldiers was about twenty thousand gold coins.
Paramilitary forces such as intelligence and law and order, even though they were not expanded this year, also cost twenty-five thousand gold coins.
In addition the Harland territory is preparing to manufacture several hundred Scorch Ray Guns, it also needs to set aside a portion of blood steel and magic crystals, which will cost around twelve thousand gold coins.
Taking into account some of the logistical reception, intelligence buying and other expenses, this year’s investment in military expenses alone amounted to two hundred and ninety-six thousand gold coins, accounting for about sixty-nine percent of the financial income. The proportion was one step higher than last year.
Seventy percent of the fiscal revenue was spent on military expenses, resulting in a lack of funding for the education, medical, and civil affairs sectors, slowing down the pace of development. But to survive in the Northern Frontier, whichever lord needed to maintain the highest investment in the military.
With insufficient military power, the territory, no matter how well developed and affluent it was, would be fat meat in someone else’s mouth.
In addition to the huge military expenses, Harland Territory invested thirteen thousand gold coins in education and medical care this year.
The number of government officials increased by three hundred, and their salary expenses increased by twenty percent to twenty-four thousand gold coins. Government office expenses, financial subsidies, added up to about ten thousand gold coins.
Richard increased the investment in scientific research this year, and the territory’s research funding for magic and science has reached 20,000 gold coins, accounting for about 4.6 percent of the financial income.
Harland Mage Association’s financial statement this year is independent from the government department, more than a hundred mages, mage apprentices are all high income personnel, they add up to about four thousand gold coins in salary.
In addition this year the Harland territory also spent one hundred thousand gold coins to purchase twenty thousand serfs.
In total, there were four hundred and sixty-seven thousand gold coins spent in a year.
(End of chapter)