The Porfian Princess: The Chronicles of Cornu Book 4 by L J Dalton Jr

Author:L J Dalton Jr. [Dalton Jr., L J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-06-17T22:00:00+00:00

Getting Organized

Duke Harlold had put together a governing council. Dedessus was made a Baron, and he handled security. They had recruited a finance minister from Sandford. Dante was the nephew of the Duchess Morvinia’s finance minister and jumped at the chance to take on the role in Koronus. He’d been an assistant to the finance minister along with the minister’s son. It was inevitable that the son would take over from his father, so the nephew saw this as his opportunity. Arturos, his stepfather, was in charge of commerce. His future wife, Noria, was also on the council. Prince Arken, Elizabeth, and Alla were all ex-officio members.

It had taken a couple of months to take stock of where they are. Finally, they were ready to start planning and instituting the changes that needed to be made. The first order of business was finances. Baron Dante gave the report. “Your graces, I’ve gone over the finances for the duchy. Since the ‘tribute’ didn’t get to Porfia, we have a very good reserve. The amount of gold and silver we take in on taxes is far more than what we need to meet our current expenses. I know from talking to Baron Arturo that there are many things that need to be done. Roads, better housing and sanitation in the villages, and upgrading the sanitation facilities in the city.

We’ve got the funds to start on that. We should be able to cut the taxes on the villagers by 60% and not have an issue. That will give them the where with all to pay higher taxes to pay for the improvements we will be making to their villages. Their taxes will be lower, and they’ll be much more productive. The higher taxes the merchants pay now are fair. As we transition from Porfian ownership, we should expect that we will have a drop in revenue for a few years. I would expect that will increase.”

Harlold was pleased. “Thank you, Baron Dante, for that summary. I’ve read your detailed report as I think most of us have. It’s an excellent summary of where we are financially. At least our finances are in good shape. Now I expect everyone else will tell me where we have to spend it.”

That brought some smiles from everyone. “Baron Arturo, would you please let us know about the state of commerce in the duchy.”

Arturo started off. “The city itself is in good shape. We’ve got a transition council going, as you all know, headed up by Prince Arken. The idea is to move the businesses into the hands of our own people and out of Porfian hands. That will happen slowly. Before your father was overthrown, we had established excellent trade relations with Sudlund. Those will have to be revived, and we should be able to trade with the other northern kingdoms as well.

The main impediment to that is the state of the roads. As you know, the roads between here and Sandford, which is the closest city in Sudlund, are poor, to say the least.

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