Province Issues [2]

"Otto!"

"Yes, Sir!"

"Get me a report of Amsterdam's gas dealings."

"A report on foreign gas supply?"

"Yes. Tell the Finance Head to get the report before he meets me."

"Yes, Sir. I will inform him right away."

The thick files were done and I had already grasped a proper view at the Yearly Reports. The Finance Head could explain some things properly before I take any action.

"Sir, he is here."

With that Otto opened the door and allowed a lanky man wearing a suit and tie rushed in. It looked as if he was rushing in to capture the train. After a few moments he calmed down as I offered him water and ordered him to sit.

"Good Morning, Sir!"

"It's all right. You didn't have to rush in so early in the morning."

"Thank You, Sir."

Though he was lanky and looked weird, his calm demeanour was something else. He had a short nose and a thick moustache but due to his work he had too much wrinkles which made him look like a 'Very Stressed Employee under a Very Harsh Boss'. Well that's for later as I hardly cared how he looked like. It was good to see that he was smiling under such circumstances.

"Sir, I guess you must have been reading the reports since last night."

"Yes, I have and be at ease. I ain't overtaxing you with much work."

"Ah! Sorry about those Sir." He said as he touched his forehead with a calm smile.

"So, have you bought the report I had asked about?"

"Yes, Sir. Here it is.", as he handed over me a thin file.

I took a quick review on the report. Lucky for me, the report was short and concise, so I hadn't have to refer to many things. It took me a few minutes to understand what was written in it. The report explained more about Amsterdam's newly discovered Natural Gas field. Situated next to Hanover dukedom, Holland was a neutral nation and was profiting heavily as it supplied gas to other nations at a slight lower price than Hanover's. As I had expected, it was severely hampering Hanover's Economy.

"So, why did you want to meet me, Mr. Kief?"

Kief Schmidt, Finance Head of Hanover, Current Treasurer of Hanover Treasury, 42 years old and had a family of 3, his wife and 2 sons. He was a genius in handling finance as he could manage to make profits as the then Young Duke of Hanover was incapable of understanding finance at his age. From the looks of it, he was a honest man and sincerely loved Hanover. He would be a good addition to the Intelligence Division. But for some time I decided to observe him before recruiting.

"Sir, I am really glad that you have been slowly getting to the Duke's work.".

He expressed his words with such demeanour made me satisfied that I finally got a good assistant. Honestly, I would have been promoting him to be my personal Secretary as I had too much work to cope up with. But for now I decided to let him live with few work as possible. As soon as he gets promoted I would dump all the work on him. A large grin appeared on my face. Mr. Kief lost his normal demeanour as he looked at my Devilish smile. Had he heard what I was thinking , he would have fainted on the spot.

"Well, I woke up today only to find out that I have been dodging my responsibilities. So, I am taking actions to cope up with 13 years of work."

Well, honestly I would dump all the work as you get promoted, so I have to let you live freely for this year.

"I see. Sir, I originally came here to discuss about the new finance policy to be laid down this year."

"Go ahead."

He passed me a thick file which was as heavy as a 5 kg dumbbell. My face twitched on seeing it. But Mr. Kief had such a warm smile that made me faint. Looks like I have to hear his thoughts for another 3 hours. As it is, I was too exhausted but this was an important matter, so I had to stay awake the whole time.

Keeping a smile on my face I told him to go on.

"As you know, Sir, that Amsterdam's been gaining huge profits from it's newly discovered gas field. This has been hampering our gas exports a lot. So I think we should raise the tax levied on the Officers by 2% and for the commoners by 3%. We also have to decrease the foreign exports tax by 4% to counter's Holland's Gas Export price and lure in customers.....Blah Blah Blah...."

Mr. Kief talked on for about 3 hours as he laid out all the different policies. Honestly it was quite good but the multiple taxes made it difficult for me to understand. I didn't like it but had to leave that to Mr. Kief to deal with it. The citizens won't like the increasing taxes on them but it was the best way to manage revenue.

Once Mr. Kief was done explaining, i sent him off to ingest things properly. What intrigued me more was the factories. Since every factory was a property of the Kaiser, the factories only took workers who could do proper jobs they were assigned to. The workers were paid a daily wage of 50 pfennig and the Supervisors/Officers were paid 30 Papier marks per month. This made the government job a rich profession. It was quite weird because no government job would give you so much money but that's how it worked in Germany. Moreover this was the average pay. The payrates varied from province to province. In Hanover, a daily worker was paid 1 Mark a day and an Officer was paid 50 Marks a month. Due to this, people flocked Hanover to apply for a government job every quarter in other words they apply every 3 months. This affected other province's workforce as they didn't have sufficient workforce.

It was all fine for Hanover as it didn't care what happened to other provinces but Hanover suffered a great deal too. As unemployment rates shot up in Hanover each year, the citizens were always at unrest There would be multiple protests every month but the police dispersed them within an hour of protest. It wasn't much but it was still an important problem to solve.

Another problem was unchecked private business. Even though they paid their taxes without being outraged or without protests, it will be difficult to control them as private business meant keeping a word sword tied to the ceiling just above your head. The reason? It's because this was the 20th century not the 21st century.

The third problem was gangsters and mafioso. The underworld was a delicate matter as corruption was prominent. Some gangs even put policemen on their payroll. As a result, the current lives of the citizens were at huge risk. The atrocities committed by these gangs were heinous as there would be a new case to deal with every single day.

The fourth and the last problem was Newspapers. The Newspapers companies in Hanover would not write about current National Problems and would rather mention the crimes committed by these gangs. In a 15 page newspaper, there would only be atrocities, sports and illegal betting advertisements. These made the people of Hanover less exposed to current situations of Germany.

Maybe it's time to go undercover.

"Sir! The Great Britain's Ambassador is here!"

What?