Province Issues [1]

The Kaiser's party was something which was very important to me. After all I would be meeting the other dukes and duchesses of Germany. For some reason this party is held annually and it's a public holiday for all. I wouldn't have been that eager to attend the party because I simple could have checked the brat's memories through the help of the system. Come to think of it, I rarely use the system. Anyways back to the topic, this brat didn't even attend the Kaiser's party since he was 6 years old. Well, the trauma of losing both of your parents is terrible but I could not use information about 5-7 year old brats for future reference. Looks like retirement ain't that easy. On viewing his previous records, this brat trained in Krav Maga, Systema, Muay Thai, Taekwondo, Kyokushin, Karate, Wrestling, Jiu Justsu, Wushu, Judo, Kung-Fu, Jeet Kune-Do and Boxing. For a moment I thought, was this the supreme reincarnation of Bruce Lee? If then, I am really sorry Supreme Reincarnation of Bruce Lee for stealing your reincarnated body. Looks like the Cat did some mysterious changes to the world. But what exactly did it want? Entertainment?

Hah!

This is getting even more troublesome. The more I think about it the more mysterious this world is. I am teleported to this place which surprisingly has no intelligence agency and I am going to form one from no where and that too within a year.

To make an intelligence division I needed trustworthy men or even women alike. Moreover I also need men with influence and connections. Those who worked as gangsters and mafioso were also important as the intelligence received by the underworld organization were very delicate. Anyway, my main priority is to investigate and know what's happening in my province.

"Hey Ash!"

A soft voice woke me up from my deep thoughts.

"Yes, Eva. What do you want?"

She stared at me for some reason though, not something that was meant to be on guard.

Is she curious about something?

"You are acting strange since morning."

This made me concerned. I raised an eyebrow.

"The butler said that young master was acting different than usual today. So, are you really okay? Do you want some medical attention?"

I was left gaping at her.

"There was a lot of things going on, I had to kick some of it out of my head"

That should evade the topic. Eva calmed down and walked towards the door.

"You know what? You looked more handsome than usual today." With that she closed the door with a loud bang. I could hear her loud hurrying footsteps even from my office.

Eh? What's up with her? Well whatever.

"Otto"

"Yes, Sir"

"Bring me a report on the economic and finance sector of Hanover"

"Yes, Sir."

Within a few minutes Otto arrived with a bunch of papers and placed it on my deck. What the hell?

"Here is the report, Sir. These are all the reports from the year 1898 to 1909."

"I see"

"And also, the Finance head wants to meet you, Sir."

Finance head? Seems like he was excited to meet the young heir after he got up from madness and wanted to view the finance reports.

"All right. Tell him to meet me once I am done reviewing these reports."

"Yes, Sir."

With that Otto walked out.

Stretching my hands, I glanced over the thick pile of papers on my desk. Seems like these reports would not finish even after it's dawn. It was 10 minutes past 10 in the night as I drank a cup of tea. Sitting down on my chair, I reviewed the titles on the reports.

Hmm? What's this?

There was a report which was relatively new and was placed in a neat file which mentioned 'Production and Supply of Natural Gas in Hanover'.

This was interesting. I decided to take a look at the report because it was thin and wouldn't take much time. After an half an hour read, the contents left me stunned. I decided to quickly go through the rest in order to relate this report.

It was already dawn as I had finished reading and summarizing the reports. It was definitely worth the time as these files had given a good view of the socio-economic and financial sector of Hanover. To summarize it, from the past 13 years, the economic and financial policies laid down by my father was used till date. And what was even more surprising was this system was good enough for Hanover to step on profits. The only downside was there was too many complexities and the underworld organizations wasn't taken into consideration.

Since Hanover Dukedom was the only province to produce gas in the entire country, my father had designed the policy so that he could profit from the various taxes levied in different provinces.

In short, if any province collects tax based on natural gas distribution and supply within its' province, then they have to pay 80%of the tax collected to the Hanover Treasury and the rest 20% can be kept for themselves. This policy was itself was ridiculous but my father somehow managed to 'force' the other provinces to accept this policy. After a year passed by the profits that arrived for each province was immeasurable. The provinces bought as much as natural gas as they could to generate more revenue. This fuelled the Hanover Treasury with lot of money. With the invention of Air Balloons and Airships, Natural Gas became pricier per year since aerial combat gave a huge advantage on battlefield. As for the citizens of Hanover there were different taxes. The nobles aka Government Officers were levied a tax of 10% of their total revenue and the daily workers would have to pay 15% of their total revenue by the end of the month. As of Foreign export the tax levied was from 15-20%, depending upon the distance from Hanover and diplomatic relations with the German Empire.

Hmm?

Wait. This was definitely intriguing.

On seeing what was written on the file of 1908, I opened up a map of Europe with the current knowledge of resources each country produced.

My fingers slid to a small nation neighbouring Hanover.

The Netherlands.