Chapter 2461 Auction Colony

How can we resolve this looming crisis?

Frank VII and the cabinet ministers thought hard, after repeated debates, finally made up their minds, showed the courage of a strong man to cut his wrists, and proposed a plan aimed at solving the above two problems at the same time:

Sell ​​the empire's two colonies in the New World, Midgard and Alfheim, to the Kingdom of Kolas in the Far East to compensate part of the compensation for the defeat.

After receiving the proposal from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Empire, His Royal Highness Roland called the cabinet ministers to discuss behind closed doors.

Although most of the ministers believed that this was a god-given opportunity to expand the territory of the Kolas Kingdom and should not be missed, Prince Roland resolutely rejected this seemingly attractive proposal after careful consideration, and instead suggested that the imperial authorities publicly auction the land of the new continent. Two colonies, the proceeds from the auction of the colonies were used to repay the war reparations.

Why did the princes of the Far East refuse to take over the empire's colonies in the New World?

So far, Far Eastern officials have not given an explanation.

In the old world, most people couldn't figure out why His Royal Highness Roland would push away the "fat" that was presented to him and give up the over three million square miles of overseas colonies that were at his fingertips.

However, in the New World, when Qiao An saw this news on "Cloud Network", he couldn't help deeply admiring the vision and pattern of the prince of the Far East.

The colonists of Alfheim and Midgard had never sincerely obeyed the rule of their mother country, and they would not change their position and obediently pay taxes just because they changed to a suzerain country that was also far away across the ocean.

So far, the empire's investment costs in the colonies have far outstripped the benefits, and in the foreseeable future, the income and expenditure gap will only continue to widen.

Knowing that this was a loss-making business, the major colonial empires continued to pursue colonial expansion, mainly due to two factors.

The first is to ease the survival pressure caused by the surge in population since the Industrial Revolution, and use the colonies as "pressure relief pools" to alleviate the increasingly acute social contradictions in the local area by exporting immigrants.

The second is the hegemonic thought of advocating the expansion of territory. Regardless of the monarch or the parliament, most of the ruling classes in various countries today cannot restrain their ambitions to expand the territory they rule. The Prince of the Far East is just a special case. In fact, he has been under a lot of pressure in the country because of this, and has attracted a lot of criticism.

The imperial authorities did not want to sell the colonies unless forced to do so, but Emperor Frank had no choice but to accept Prince Roland's suggestion and announce the public auction of Alfheim and Midgard.

When the news spread, it immediately attracted the interest of the major powers in the Vales world. Feizhen, Hailan, Canaan and Baoshihua all participated in the bidding and started a fierce competition.

Perhaps because of private persuasion from the hard-core ally Kolas Kingdom, the Canaan Kingdom withdrew from the bidding in the second round, and the financially deficient Baoshihua Kingdom gave up the competition in the third round, leaving only Hailan and Feizhen to continue competing , and finally the Fizen Kingdom, which was determined to win, won the ownership of these two colonies.

In order to celebrate this victory, King George III held a grand banquet in the court of Avalon. The upper and lower courts of Feizhen and the social circles also generally believed that he had picked up a big deal, and achieved the success of ancient Feizhen without a single soldier. The long-cherished wish of the true king is to successfully unite Alfheim, Midgard and Jotunheim, monopolize the east coast of the New World, and establish a veritable "sun never sets" colonial empire!

The price that Master Fei paid for this was only 100 million gold pounds for the purchase of land. The fat land on the east coast of the New World is only priced at 30 gold pounds per square mile, and the empire also gave away more than 6 million residents living on this land for free. King George even optimistically believes that these 6 million subjects are potential taxpayers, and they should share his worries with the enthusiasm of loyalty and patriotism.

Unfortunately, the colonists on the other side of the ocean did not show the noble consciousness that George III expected.

From Alfheim to Midgard, "Royalists" and "Separatists" were deeply angered by the practice of auctioning off colonies by the imperial authorities.

The former believes that Emperor Frank and his mother country have betrayed their loyalty and been deceived and betrayed; the latter completely denies the legitimacy of this "auction", claiming that the land belongs to the residents on the land, and neither Emperor Frank nor King George They have no right to trade these free people as black slaves.

"People who love freedom don't need to worship Emperor Frank, let alone submit to King George. The best way to express protest is to support independence!"

Political leaflets and pamphlets are flying from the streets of Leyton Port to Midgard, and such gunpowder-scented slogans of independence have taken hold.

The protests from Alfheim and Midgard spread across the ocean to Fizen. In this small island country, the nobles and politicians of the upper class have always maintained an arrogant and indifferent attitude towards overseas colonies. The so-called "letting go" colonial policy is actually indifference, allowing immigrants who go to sea to fend for themselves.

Lord North, the current Prime Minister of the Fizen Cabinet, and his cabinet members initially learned of the protests from the New World, and did not take it seriously, thinking that it was just an inevitable pain in the process of transferring territorial ownership. It will take some time for the Mu to learn to face reality and improve their upbringing until they are worthy of the gift of fate--to become honorable subjects of Feizhen.

Prior to this, the North cabinet still had a thorny matter to be resolved, which was to raise the 100 million gold pounds used to purchase the colony.

As the most powerful colonial empire in the world of Vales today, the Feizhen family has a big business, a lot of expenses, and a tight financial situation. In order to pay for the huge sum of money to buy Midgard and Alfheim, they had to try to increase income and reduce expenditure.

Maintaining an empire requires costs. The huge bureaucratic system and naval fleet occupy most of the financial expenditure. Millions of ×× are needed for food and clothing. It is impossible to reduce expenditure. Your Excellency, the Prime Minister, can only find ways to "open source", such as... …and taxes.

The tax burden in Fiji is already heavy, and since the implementation of constitutional government and electoral system, the government that raises taxes in the local area must be unpopular, and will inevitably be disgraced and resigned in the end.

The "Party of Order" to which Lord North belongs has suffered this kind of loss before, and of course dare not repeat the same mistakes, so they can only find another tax base outside the homeland.

In the two newly purchased colonies of Midgard and Yalfheim, the garrison and administrative agencies have not yet completed the handover, and it is too difficult to collect taxes. Moreover, the local people are unstable. Asking them to pay taxes and pay for the purchase of land is like It is really not decent to force sheep to shear themselves, and to marry a daughter-in-law without paying the dowry and asking for a dowry.

Lord North and his cabinet are all decent gentlemen of noble origin, so they cannot rush to increase taxes on the two new colonies. After researching around the map, they found that the tax burden of Jotunheim is lower than that of other colonies. It is even more incomparable.

Well, Jotunheim, it's you!