My Lovely Priesthood 5 - (Original Fantasy Otome, Priest!SI)
WIth the formation of a Royal Government and the ensuing economic crisis caused by the purge of so many lesser houses, the Grand Duke found himself in a very tight spot.
While it was true that he had enough power and 'steam' to push on his agenda to the extreme before bailing, but he was a man that had years and years of pragmatic self-education which made him aware that being too exposed would only make him an easier target for whom would come to succeed him. Hence why, out of this very notion and the idea of actually gaining more out of this situation, he was more than 'accepting' of some radical elements and ideas in his group of political ministers. And by radical, I mean reformists in mindset and overall intent.
The first among radicals who made a name for himself was Count Pendleton. By far one of the lowest-ranking nobles who had no ties with the planned revolution, he was known to be an eccentric man that had acquired nobility by gold a decade ago. He was mostly famous for the one reason that put him in place of the Agriculture Chair: he invented socialization of the land. Or, actually, a similar framework to that. With stuff like Karl Marx's teachings and communism not existing in this world, the way he interpreted socialization was more in line with how some market socialism interpreted industrialization.
Instead of creating cooperatives that were self-sufficient in their handling of internal policies, Pendleton pushed for the creation of self-sufficient and highly-efficient communes. Villages were reorganized as peasants were given greater job opportunities and a say in the way taxes were handled within their communes. The elders, now a council of experienced men rather than just old and wise ones, were on top of the game and were the ones acting as the 'union bosses' and the diplomatic connection between fief-holder and the workers. In essence, it was Agrarian Socialism but adapted to accept the feudal system.
For a time I thought that Pendleton was a fellow reincarnation. It made sense for one to believe this coincidental situation was actually feasible, but just a visit to check his affairs afte accepting the role saw him explain to me how he came up with the system, and I think his explanation was believable.
"Oh, I adopted this mindset after watching how a few villages in the Serene Republic had adopted a completely different system during a rebellion. The citizens had started to create a community-centered situation which allowed them to grow isolated to an extent to foster internal growth, while also preserving trade relations to uphold any needs requiring external resources. I eventually wrote this down when I was a young merchant, I saw how it developed and how it ultimately failed, and I created a brand new system out of it."
"And what if this one... fails too?" I asked
"One thing many merchants have learned is that there is no permanent winning strategy. One can milk policies for so long before it is needed to change those too. And once this system shows sign of issues, we will just apply amendments to fix what may be broken."
Good news, he is not an ideological moron. He can be flexible and will not cause any potential issues in the long run. At least, this is what I got from a mere visit. He may change his mind with how long he kept power, but for now I had all the reasons to think of him as someone untainted by the revolutionary fervor of the noble coup. And this put me to look at the next element in the council who had made some eyes narrow.
Duke Pescar was old money. He came from a long line of dukes famous for their wood-production, and his rise to the Trade Ministry may feel like a surprise if one didn't know why he was picked for the role. Pescar had been a man driven by wonderlust when he was young traveling around the world when he was but a young lord and studying ways to acquire new trees and plants to bolster national businesses. He was the one man that allowed the country to prevent a decline in national revenue by killing off a large portion of merchantile control over external resources by allowing those to be produced locally at a fair price.
He was a man with a mountain of experience in dabbling with foreign dignitaries, and he had enough knowledge of some 'secrets' about their courts which made him both a friendly and a very dangerous fellow for those to meet and discuss deals they were keen to use to rip us off. And his rise to power was a bit amusing considering that Saturne had to almost beg him to accept the role since the Duke was not exactly fond of national politics and had been yearning to keep his focus on his fiefs to prevent issues for his family. However, with his sons pushing him to the role so that he could add more prestige to the house while they made 'their bones' by taking care of their lands, Pescar accepted the title and moved to secure the best options for trade around the kingdom.
Among his first policies was a plan to find a cereal that could be mass-produced back home and cut down the needs to import new ones for the national demand, this was done in conjunction with Count Pendleton's own interest to expand the peasants' output, which already synergized the two radicals together and created a clear friction with the rest of the more traditional elements. This division was further galvanized when the Grand Duke raised a bit of a ruckus by appointing to the position of Finance Minister another radical who was actually... not a noble.
But a researcher.
Wiseman Herrick was in his fifties, he was deemed by many an erudite and a hermit. Not many even knew he still lived since he had gone 'silent' for two decades now. To some, he was even seen as a suspicious figure for vanishing so suddenly. He could be a spy, or a dangerous mage, but the hard truth was the one that Saturne took a while to stress out: Herrick was a scholar, just not on arcane runes or tomes of the past - he was a reformist to the bone. And he spent two decades looking into reports offered by the king to conjure an ideal economic system.
The truth is, in his own explanation, that there is no ideal system, but there were policies to render the current one viable. I was admittedly surprised when he brought up tax credits and breaks, mostly aimed to high nobles, but I was most puzzled over the mentions of rural investments, infrastructual expansion and a focus on 'nationalizing the important resources' such as rare minerals which the coin was based on (gold and silver), but also paper and construction itself. He advanced a theory that was wacky in concept over the foundation of a 'central bank' which would only exist for nobles to donate to and which board of directors would pump said money in businesses that required uplifting in return to a small claim over their 'ownership share'.
This was- I think this was how the Italian IRI used to work. An institute meant to use national funds to bolster failing companies, both small and middle-class, which required help to pull away from the shadow of failure. All at the simple price of a sizable chunk of their income sent back to the IRI. The bank itself would not be the one receiving the returning income, but the crown. And the companies aided would be re-classified as 'Crown Corporations'. All of this felt like a very wild goose chase over what sort of frankensteinian union of policies was going on, but eventually I realized the naming of some of the practices were not telling of their 'counterparts' and they were different policies altogether.
Plus... I wasn't the one that should be interested much about it. In fact, I was one of the two major culprits behind the economic crisis that happened by preventing the coup from happening. My father and I did such a brilliant job in sending info on who to arrest, kill, or isolate that soon enough the Kingdom of Poutens found itself lacking part of its central structure. And with the low nobles class finding itself gutted and with most families losing rights over their fiefs, the economy saw a sharp downturn which meant higher prices and higher taxes.
The council moved with aggressive steps in pushing some 'emergency laws' which softened the blow, such as the application of 'appointed governors' and the introduction of a newly reorganized and more decentralized land-distribution system to make investments more effective. Taxes were simplified, but the rise was not prevented in full, and some of the new unemployed workforce was employed by a 'temporary commission for the expansion of roads and bridges' instituted by Wiseman Herrick. The good news is that the Kingdom didn't kick the bucket due to the sudden axe chopping off a large portion of its torso, but the overall depression made for a very volatile economy which wasn't going to be tempting for most foreign businessmen.
To aid the matter, the High Priest had vouched support for the implementation of soup kitchens, sunday schools, and a greater effort to recruit young men that needed a 'light to guide them through a life of piety'. In simpler terms, the church used this chance to coax folks to join our organization by showing ourselves as benevolent helpers in these times of need. And while this sounded a bit disingenuous due to how the end goal made it all a move made out of cunning behavior, the overall recruitment would help these initiatives in being effective as new blood meant more men and women to help around and make the policies easier to apply.
The Kingdom was effectively fighting a war for its own survival, and this was further made clear when an increase on the national military budget saw rumors of reorganization to create a militia force to further bolster the army as more than just voices. We were not gearing up for an offensive war, but rather preparing for any of our neighbors feeling intrigued to take a stab at us for the current political malaise. And yet, in a rather ironic twist, we were the ones that caused a diplomatic crisis which set us up at odds with a distant country.
While my father and I were investigating for possible foreign plots, we ended up finding out that one of the princes of the distant Jade Shogunate had decided to come and visit and study here in this country without securing permission by the king or any formal authority. Which in turn meant that we had to seize him and his retinue, put them in house arrest and have a proper chat with his father, the Emperor, about what the fuck was going on in that matter too. It was poor taste to allow this sort of 'peaceful visits' go on without proper awareness because one mistake from a local can easily put us in trouble and we would have been caught off-guard by this entire mess.
What no one had told me at all, however, was that Prince Rin was actually a trap. Of all things I could have been facing, a fox-eared trap with a fur complex.
AN
A Trap! A Fox Trap! A healer submissive Fox Trap with a passion for sweets and 'Western Society'.