There's no denying that calculation was right in the wheelhouse of Duke Rabon.

He originally came from a family of tax collectors for the Falan Royal Family.

Unlike the landed nobility or military knights turned new nobility, his father got his count title through the former king's favor.

Later, in the Battle of Windmill Lands, he served as the logistics officer and managed to secure the position of Quartermaster through connections with other bureaucrats.

After the battle, when settling accounts, the Royal Cabinet discovered that his office and rank didn't match, and they promoted him to Honorary Duke.

This move, however, angered the current Prime Minister Lorenzo.

No one knew better than him how Rabon manipulated his so-called mismatched office rank status.

When Charles VIII ascended to the throne and Lorenzo came into power, he immediately took action.

With a simple transfer order, Rabon was sent to the frontier as a struggling governor for ten years.

If Charles VIII hadn't recalled him, he would still be on the frontier cutting tobacco.

"Agriculture is the foundation of all industries but the least profitable." Casting aside his quill, Rabon began with mercantilism, "Raw materials have no inherent value; it's the industry that endows them with value. So whether a country is truly wealthy depends on commerce and industry!"

"What do you think of the Holy Alliance's commerce and industry?" Casani asked, naturally following up.

"Just from the 'Prohibition Order,' you can tell that their government monopoly and exclusive trade barely touch the boundaries we Falan reached a hundred years ago."

Rabon immersed himself in memories of a golden era, a period that, although criticized now, was the best time for tax collectors.

Coercing people to trade at specific markets at designated prices was the least mentally taxing.

These goods were then shipped overseas, sold to Leia, Norn, Falan, the Royal Court, and even resold by intermediaries to unknown hands across the sea.

Hence, tax collectors and the royal family amassed enormous wealth, which enabled a series of centralized reforms.

The Holy Father favored Falan.

He granted the Emperor of Falan a position to collect the lords' governance rights over cities continuously.

He also provided Falan with excellent seaports and the courage to venture out to sea, granting the Falan people an exceedingly prosperous trade income.

These two factors were indispensable in forging the current Falan Kingdom under monarchical rule.

After the Battle of Windmill Lands, the Falan Kingdom gave them sixty years!

In sixty years, has anyone surpassed Falan?

Returning to the present, business is indeed much harder than it was a century ago.

Rabon shook his head, straightened his posture, and said, "Look, what's the Holy Alliance's commercial tax called? Consumption tax, right?

Alright, you just look at how much the consumption tax is, and you'll know."

Taking out paper and pen, Rabon began scribbling more calculations.

"A single ry Court Barracks of the Holy Alliance could yield 30,000 in consumption tax, including seven counties of Shattered Stone Plain and three counties of Black Snake Bay.

Say there are 30,000 people in each county capital, with the Thousand River Valley centered on textile dyeing, Shattered Stone Plain on wool, and Black Snake Bay on sugar and spices.

The New Five Counties don't have much of an industry to speak of, so I'll just count it as half, and we'll calculate generously..."

After filling three large sheets of draft paper, Duke Rabon exhaled with satisfaction and gave a number.

"150,000 gold pounds."

"Doesn't seem right, does it?" With this number in hand, Casani questioned, "The trade volume for sugar and spices alone is in the millions; how could the consumption tax be only 150,000?"

"Nonsense, consumption is consumption; you need money to consume." Duke Rabon glared, "Including the newly conquered lands, the urban population of the Holy Alliance barely reaches 200,000 households; who's doing the consuming?"

Casani still felt something was off, so he started calculating along with the draft paper.

Duke Rabon's mathematical skills were indeed remarkable, easily calculating figures that would take Casani most of a day.

Precisely speaking, the Falan Court is more competitive than the Leia Court.

If you haven't got any special skills, what king would reward you?

Unlike the Leia nobility, the nobility of the Falan Court relies entirely on the king's rewards to survive.

Sitting next to Casani, Rabon softly remarked, "So what if they sell sugar and spices? If there's no supply on the provider's end, you can't buy it even if you have money!

When the Holy Alliance runs out of stock, they can only come to Falan to buy it. After buying it in Falan, it becomes Falan's money again."

Maximizing exports while minimizing imports is the cornerstone of the Falan mercantilist school.

Duke Rabon is a devout follower of the mercantilist school.

Casani looked up; after his own verification, it was indeed 150,000 gold pounds.

Even this figure was as high an estimate of the Holy Alliance as Duke Rabon could endeavor to produce.

He just couldn't shake the feeling something was amiss—how could the Holy Alliance, with its vibrant trade and exchange, generate only 150,000 gold pounds in consumption tax?

"Listen, listen." Rabon tugged at Casani's sleeve, signaling him to listen to the speech on stage.

"Over four years, we've established 800 dispersed rural workshops and centralized town factories, and only the South Mangde County's spinning mills have increased by 220..."

"...Almost every Priest Town is paired with associated sawmills and market stalls..."

"...Over four years, pharmacy clinics have covered 82% of Priest Towns, while primary education covers 100%..."

"...The town literacy rate increased from 20% to 60%..."

Rabon couldn't help but laugh: "A little mathematical trick, did you hear? Increased to, not increased by, it actually just increased to around 30%.

Watch the show; those representatives are sure to use this for attack soon."

The frontier had similar representative bodies; composed of lawyers and notaries, the citizen representatives were exceptionally difficult to deal with.

Usually, it was Duke Rabon being harassed by these representatives, but this time he could finally watch others suffer.

At this point, the report reached the topic he was most concerned with—consumption tax.

"...The Holy Alliance's three core cities, ry Court Barracks, Long Embankment City, and Celestial Maiden City, have collected 80,280 gold pounds in consumption tax..."

"See!" Duke Rabon thumped the draft papers on the table, "A difference of only 6,000 gold pounds from my calculation."

"...For the twenty-one county capital cities, the total consumption tax was 83,125 gold pounds..."

Rabon slapped the solid wood table making a loud noise, so much that he couldn't help but want some wine to celebrate.

Seeing Casani still frowning at the draft papers, Rabon's sense of achievement was cut in half.

If he couldn't make an impression on this Casani and catch the eye of Charles VIII's current favorite, how could he make a political comeback?

"Casani, stop counting. Listen, is it like I said, a total of 160,000 gold pounds, just short by 10,000?"

Duke Rabon had no choice but to lower himself, egging Casani to assist him.

"Oh, oh." Casani put down the draft papers and was about to speak when Qianqian's voice reciting the report interrupted him.

"...103 Priest Towns, a total of 89,760 gold pounds in consumption tax..."

The movement of Duke Rabon's head was so loud, even Casani heard a crisp "crack!"

"What, what, what?" Rabon spun his head around to the scribe he'd brought along, "How many towns, what's the consumption tax?"

"103 Priest Towns, 89,760 gold pounds in consumption tax."

Duke Rabon continued to question, "Do you know roughly how many people are in each Priest Town?"

The scribe didn't know, but Casani had an impression: "From my memory, the smallest had seven to eight hundred, the largest two to three thousand; averaging just over a thousand per Priest Town."

"Fake, this consumption tax is fabricated." Duke Rabon insisted, "103 Priest Towns, averaging just over a thousand people; let's say 28,000 households.

For 28,000 households to have 89,760 gold pounds in consumption tax, that's like 3.2 gold pounds per household, equating to a consumption of 10 to 32 gold pounds a year!

28,000 households consuming 10 to 32 gold pounds a year, even counting in the wealthy merchants and transporters, doesn't yield such an outrageous figure!"

Casani felt the numbers didn't add up either, 28,000 households with 10 to 32 gold pounds of consumption each.

Everyone's wealthy? Yet the towns he saw, while well-equipped, hardly seemed rich to that extent...

"Ah!" He slapped his forehead suddenly, "I understand now!"