Chapter 184: Breaking Down Oresfall’s Finances
Chapter 184: Breaking Down Oresfall’s Finances
The two guards standing outside looked at each other in total surprise.
"We apologize, Sir." one guard said quickly, bowing his head. "But our Lord has recently just left for Marquis Draven’s territory."
The guard gestured toward the mansion.
"But we do have our soldiers, our generals, and even our Financial Manager currently inside." the guard offered politely. "Would you like to meet any of them instead?"
"Well, bring me your Financial Manager then." Roderick commanded.
The guards nodded. One of them immediately rushed into the mansion.
He came back out a few minutes later, and Cassius followed right behind him.
Cassius slowed down once he got near the main gates. He dropped into a bow before standing back up with a smile glued to his face.
"We are incredibly glad to have you, Sir Financial Minister." Cassius greeted.
"Well, I am glad to be here." Roderick said flatly. "And I am here to personally investigate the claims that you made in your tax reports. Could you please show me how your whole territory works?"
Roderick crossed his arms.
"And I would also like to see your storage areas." Roderick added. "Where you said that you place or store all of your iron and food."
"Sure." Cassius nodded without even a little bit of hesitation.
Cassius just nodded and took the lead.
They walked for a while, and soon they ended up right in front of a giant warehouse that had a few guards standing in front.
Roderick followed Cassius inside. And immediately, once he entered the dim building, Roderick saw everything right there.
There was iron. A massive, ridiculous amount of iron stacked in neat, towering piles.
Roderick walked up to the nearest stack. He placed his bare hand directly on the iron ingots.
"Wait." Roderick frowned, rubbing his fingers together. "This thing is coated with oil."
"Well, that is to prevent the iron from rusting." Cassius explained. "It also helps keep the iron in good condition while it sits in storage. We keep the oil coating on while transporting it to the buyers too."
"Okay." Roderick nodded in approval. "What about the grains and the other things?"
"Well, right here." Cassius gestured to the other side of the massive warehouse.
Roderick looked over. Multiple thick burlap sacks were piled high, filled entirely with different types of grains. They were basically just sitting there waiting to be processed. There were also massive barrels overflowing with fine flour.
"We order fresh vegetables and greens from neighboring territories." Cassius informed the minister. "But we only do it on specific dates to control the market flow. We do not have any fresh stock right now. But some will be delivered soon, probably the day after tomorrow."
Cassius pointed out the door.
"As for the meat," Cassius continued. "We get animals delivered alive here. We butcher them here and process the meat right here in the territory itself. It helps immensely with keeping things incredibly cheap. And it also helps us provide fresh meat to the people without having to worry about the meat spoiling on the road."
Cassius smiled like a true merchant.
"We just kill the animal when we actually need more meat." Cassius said. "And we sell it directly to the people."
Roderick nodded silently, soaking all of the information in.
"Please follow me." Cassius offered.
He took Roderick back to Adrian’s mansion. He walked inside and led the minister straight into his private office room.
Cassius walked over to a heavy cabinet and grabbed a thick stack of papers.
"Everything is filed right over here." Cassius said. He handed the heavy stack directly to Roderick. "This details exactly how we manage our finances."
"Okay." Roderick took the papers.
He sat down on a comfortable wooden chair and started reading.
And the financial breakdown was basically brilliant.
Roderick read through everything quickly and summarized the entire thing in a few seconds.
’So.’ Roderick thought, his eyes scanning the papers. ’This Baron buys all of the raw iron from his people at eighty percent of the market rate. And then he turns around and sells all of this iron to other territories at one hundred percent, or even more. So he is making a decent profit.’
Roderick flipped to the next page.
’This is definitely more like a private business instead of taxation.’ Roderick analyzed. ’He is directly buying the goods from the people, and since he publicly set his export taxes at an insane fifty percent... if the people actually wish to bypass him and directly sell their iron to outside buyers, they would end up making much, much less money after taking the tax hit.’
Roderick could not help but smile.
’This is a brutally good strategy.’ Roderick admired. ’He is making a great use of his legal ability to tax his people. Even though it is more like he is using the tax threat to force them into a private monopoly rather than actually collecting tax money.’
It was a genius method in his eyes.
’And the food.’ Roderick read the import logs. ’Every single bit of money that they gain from selling all of this iron... all of it goes straight into buying food and paying the people for their manual labor jobs.’
Roderick knew that since most of the jobs in Oresfall were basically massive construction projects, Adrian had to pay out a huge amount of wages.
’And it is not just that.’ Roderick realized, flipping to the real estate section. ’Since the entire territory is legally under Adrian’s name, all of the huge housing blocks that he is building... all of the rent that he takes from the citizens... that is also a direct profit.’
He was basically using the exact same money he paid them in wages to take it right back in rent and food sales, which went towards the soldiers’ and knights’ wages since knights didn’t have to pay rent. The rent of the regular citizens covered the holes.
But there was still quite a bit of money left over for the citizens to save, which kept morale incredibly high.
’This man.’ Roderick thought in awe. ’I do not know whether it is the Baron, or this financial manager sitting right in front of me. But whoever planned this out... they are incredibly smart.’