Don't Mess with That Dragon-Chapter 721 - 108: Industry and Commerce (Second Update, Seeking Subscription)
Over the years, the Blue Dragon Kingdom has vigorously developed its domestic railway network, having initially constructed a railway network system that nearly covers the entire nation, and even recently connected it to the Border Great Wall.
The great development of transportation infrastructure has injected unparalleled vitality into the industry's commercial sector of the Blue Dragon Kingdom.
Factories have sprung up around city outskirts, either due to geographical location or resource availability, gradually forming a clustering effect of primary industrialization, creating industrial mega-cities.
With the historical experience from the rise of many countries in Otherworld, those Blue Dragon Kingdom high-ranking officials who were trained and indoctrinated with knowledge, the trusted subordinates of Austin, naturally understand the rationale of a strong nation through industry and commerce.
Hence, in the development process, they provided the best conditions possible for the development of industry and commerce, clearing obstacles that might have been encountered.
Despite certain pillar industries related to national security remaining controlled by the Blue Dragon Kingdom.
And because of the still short rise of the Blue Dragon Kingdom, most of the magic technology is digesting the scientific concepts of Otherworld, combined with local characteristic extraordinary abilities, with more than ninety percent of knowledge patents being held by the Blue Dragon Kingdom.
But this does not hinder the rapid development of industry and commerce.
In Central Earth World, a feudal world with extremely rigid class structures, the merchant class is either those small traveling merchants who traverse mountains and ridges, always being cautious of thieves and beasts, without backing and without patronage.
Or they are big merchants leaning against certain great nobles, conducting various monopoly operations.
In other words, in Central Earth World, if you don't have patronage and bloodline, you basically can't grow into a big merchant.
The development of commerce is inherently suppressed by countless constraints.
When transporting goods, you need to guard against thieves and beasts on the road, and also deal with the tax barriers set up by different lords and nobles on their territories, the taxes paid when entering the city, and some black-hearted individuals might directly accuse you of being a thief or spy, killing you and seizing your property is not impossible.
Adding to that the vast rural areas, where many peasants don't even own their own property, besides the necessary salt, large-scale commerce has rarely had a foundation.
The nobles of the old world, rely solely on living off the land and water, basically living off the diligent labor output of the peasants.
In the old world, commercial and industrial activities are relatively scarce,
besides the large cities, the traces of commerce and industry are hardly seen.
But this does not mean that commerce and industry have no existence base.
Perhaps being repressed for too long in the old world,
or maybe due to various other reasons,
anyway, the industry and commerce of the Blue Dragon Kingdom, under deliberate official support, are increasing at an unbelievable speed,
and already, several years ago, the total economic volume of commerce and industry had surpassed that of agriculture by more than double.
Plus,
with the large output of high-quality industrial and commercial products by the Blue Dragon Kingdom, those novel things brought a new sense of freshness to the noble class of many surrounding countries still in the Middle Ages, suffering from a lack of entertainment.
This has cultivated a part of the comprador class with significant backgrounds for the Blue Dragon Kingdom, as well as many small traveling merchants traversing the depths of rural villages inside the country's belly for transactions.
The expansion and strengthening of the industrial-commercial class, and the market expansion uplift, further stimulat Furthermore, the rapid expansion and strengthening of the commerce and industry sector have excited the markets and fostered internal commercial growth.
Social transformations within the Blue Dragon Kingdom are unfolding with increasing enthusiasm.
Many farmers who once lived off the land are now laying down their hoes and heading to cities to earn a living, creating a large workforce of migrant laborers.
In today's rapidly developing commercial and industrial era, faced with heavily mechanized and large-scale production models, the small family-style small-scale agriculture economic model is increasingly insufficient, leading many to aspire to a better life in the cities, or for the sake of providing a better life for their families, leaving their homes to work.
Even though life in the Blue Dragon Kingdom is vastly different from the previous patchy life of hunger, as long as you put in a little effort, with farmland tax almost fully repealed, there are no issues with eating black bread at every meal.
But the question is, why eat black bread if you can eat white bread?
Why wear ten-year-old clothes if you can earn money to buy new clothes?
The desire for a better life is an inherent instinctive craving shared not only by Beastmen but also by other sentient beings.
In addition to the Blue Dragon Kingdom's official policy inclination and the guiding of official opinion, some surplus labor in rural areas is also leaving home to work in cities.
And this has resulted, during certain special holidays, in a return home phenomenon of migrant workers similar to Austin's former world's Spring Festival traveling wave.
The Otherworld version of the industrial revolution,
is unfolding on a grand scale with the development of the Blue Dragon Kingdom.
The vast commercial and industrial system is towering over the agriculture of the Blue Dragon Kingdom by more than tenfold.
Holding astonishing wealth, they naturally look down on the minuscule farmland tax revenue from newly occupied territories.
But the Blue Dragon Kingdom's government did not instantly abolish all farmland taxes in the newly occupied territories,
partly due to its effect in calming people's hearts.
A prisoner who has been mistreated in a cage for a long time, if one day a guard suddenly offers sumptuous food, would not think of it as good fortune, but rather suspect it as their final meal.
Such was the case with the peasants in the newly occupied territories.
From a young age to adult, and through generation after generation, they were taught that,
the land is not theirs; hence, paying taxes is inevitable, surrendering seventy to eighty percent of their harvest to noble lords, is a matter of course. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞
In the name of celebrating the integration of the new territories into its governance, the Blue Dragon Kingdom only charges a ten percent farmland tax on all the newly annexed areas among the peasants and free men, though unbelievable, yet falls within the normal range. Although the many peasants and free men of the new territory's hinterland find it incredible, after the village government confirmation by three, they would only kneel on the ground, calling out for the mercy of His Highness Austin.
But if this tax is abolished directly,
it would be akin to a shattering of worldviews!
It should be noted that for the majority of peasants and farmers, paying taxes is considered as normal as needing to drink water and eat food.
Once taxes are suddenly freed, such a move may quickly convert good intentions into trouble, easily causing confusion.
In any case,
charging only a ten percent farmland tax is enough to make these oppressed masses of peasants and the poor feel grateful.
And in fact,
it is indeed so.
Relying on this gradual step-by-step policy, not only did it prevent the broad peasants class of the old Three Kingdoms territory from being suspicious, but it also secured the hearts of the vast groups residing in rural areas.
Making them truly realize, they have already become citizens of the Blue Dragon Kingdom,
the subjects of His Highness Austin, who shines as splendidly upon the world as the sun!
