Viking: Master of the Icy Sea

Chapter 330: Fiscal Balance

To the Pechenegs, warhorses were their most trusted companions. They spent a long time observing the animals in the stables, trying to select the steeds they felt the strongest affinity with to serve as their mounts.

Thanks to a lifetime of training, this group of recruits possessed exceptional horsemanship. The equestrian skills of some individuals even surpassed those of their cavalry instructors.

"Not bad. These men are natural-born Rangers, far better than those simple-minded farmers," Company Commander Hafren whispered in admiration, watching some of the men demonstrate the trick of hiding alongside the stirrup.

On the training ground, a nomadic horseman sat securely in his saddle, pushing his mount to its maximum speed. In the blink of an eye, the rider's entire upper body violently leaned over the side of the saddle, making him appear to vanish entirely.

In reality, one of the rider's feet was hooked tightly into the stirrup like an iron claw, allowing his body to cling closely to the galloping horse. A moment later, relying on astonishing core strength and leverage from his hooked foot, the rider launched himself back up and seated himself firmly in the saddle once more.

According to the Pechenegs' explanations, this maneuver had three distinct uses:

Evading arrows.

Retrieving items. It allowed a rider to scoop up dropped weapons or slain prey while moving at a high-speed gallop.

Concealed ambushes. When cavalry rapidly approached an enemy, hiding beside the stirrup reduced the chance of being spotted, tricking the enemy into thinking it was merely a harmless, riderless horse. Once close enough, the rider would suddenly pop up to attack.

However, the horsemanship instructors did not recommend such a highly risky, showy maneuver. The Rangers were fully equipped with armor capable of resisting arrow fire, making such unnecessary risks redundant.As training concluded, Santan led his mount back to the stable. Since he had mastered the largest vocabulary of the Viking language among his peers, he had been appointed as the temporary squad leader.

He had not gone far when he heard a chorus of excited, bizarre whoops ringing out behind him. It was First Company Commander Hafren and a dozen Rangers trailing behind him.

Hafren had graduated from the Army Academy's cavalry department the previous year. As the youngest son of the wealthy merchant Harry, he was exceedingly generous with his money. He frequently treated his brothers-in-arms to drinks and occasionally took standout cavalrymen to town for a good time, making him highly popular among the Pecheneg soldiers.

Unfortunately, Santan belonged to the Second Company and missed out on such perks.

After spending an hour caring for his warhorse, he headed to the public bathhouse to wash up, then went to the dining hall to collect his monotonous daily rations: fried fish, vegetable soup, and hardtack.

"Add a little more fish sauce for me."

Santan loved the condiment. A single spoonful was enough to make the entire bowl of hot soup taste significantly more savory. Suddenly, six chimes rang out from outside. He quickly finished his fried fish and vegetable soup, then shoved the hardtack into his pocket and hurried out of the dining hall.

As a grassroots commanding officer, Santan was required to attend two hours of extra training every evening to study the Viking language, practice drawing topographical maps, and learn how to navigate using the stars.

Having grown accustomed to this busy and fulfilling lifestyle, his dreams were sometimes mixed with various training drills. Without him even realizing it, his memories of life on the steppes were beginning to fade.

Londinium.

An auction was currently taking place within the city, selling pearls from the Caribbean Sea.

In June, two three-masted sailing ships had carried exiles to Puerto Rico. Afterward, Lieutenant Colonel Lyke had navigated the Voyager to explore the surrounding areas, making a massive discovery in the southern islands of the Caribbean Sea. The region was abundant in pearls, and Lyke had traded for a substantial quantity of them, paying only a trivial amount of cheap goods in exchange.

Fearing the jealousy and resentment of his colleagues, he had presented the vast majority of the pearls as a tribute to the royal family and promised to provide even more revenue in the future. In the end, he successfully secured the title of Caribbean Governor, just as he had hoped.

Most of the pearls were white or cream-colored, with a small number exhibiting a pale rose hue and flame-like patterns on their surface. Wigg kept the ones with the finest appearance, giving them to the Queen to bestow upon the noblewomen who came to pay their respects, while the remainder were put up for auction.

In just two short days, this batch of pearls sold out entirely, bringing in a revenue of 1,500 pounds for the royal family. With the acquisition of this unexpected windfall, the recorded revenue for the year increased to 46,000 pounds.

Among these figures, the agricultural tax saw a relatively minor increase. Despite the introduction of crops from the New World and the widespread promotion of seaweed fertilizer in coastal areas, it still could not compare to the booming growth of handicrafts and trade.

'A direct jurisdiction population of 910,000 providing this level of agricultural tax is more than enough.'

Total expenditures amounted to 29,000 pounds, with military spending accounting for more than half. This included military pay, equipment procurement, militia training across the twelve direct-jurisdiction counties, and the horse trade.

Expenditures in other areas remained largely unchanged. The completion of the two main thoroughfares—from Londinium to Mancunium, and from Londinium to Edinburgh—had drastically improved the kingdom's overland transportation, fully realizing Wigg's expectations. In the short term, he had no plans to invest in any new large-scale infrastructure projects.

After finishing his calculations, he recalled a letter recently intercepted by the intelligence network. The sender was a noble from the royal court in Paris, and the recipient was an abbot of a monastery in Normandy. The two were friends, and an agent had accidentally acquired the letter while it was in transit.

The letter primarily complained about various trivial matters, but it notably included details about the financial revenue and expenditure of the West Francia royal family.

The total value of land rent from their directly governed territories was 13,000 pounds, accounting for fifty percent of their income. From this, it could be deduced that Charles the Bald's annual revenue was 26,000 pounds.

West Francia boasted fertile land, and its crop yields were higher than those in Britain. Its flaw, however, lay in the relatively small size of its directly governed territories. Charles the Bald only controlled Île-de-France, portions of the Loire River basin, parts of Burgundy, and a few scattered manors in Aquitaine that belonged to rebellious nobles.

Furthermore, his directly governed territories were fragmented and scattered all across the country, making unified administration highly difficult.

In contrast, Britain's directly governed territories were divided into two massive blocks:

The southern five counties, including Londinium and Cambridge, and the northern region, encompassing Tyne County and all of Scotland. This allowed for significantly higher administrative efficiency.

Through intelligence gathered from various sources, Wigg and his cabinet estimated Charles the Bald's direct jurisdiction population to be between 400,000 and 600,000. For them to provide 13,000 pounds in land rent meant the farmers were being pushed to their absolute limits.

In the letter, the noble also complained about the decline of the handicraft industry in Flandre. Originally, the annual commercial tax and tariffs from there totaled 4,000 pounds, but now it could only provide a little over 1,000 pounds, and the number was continuing to drop.

On the expenditure side, Charles the Bald's annual spending was about the same as Wigg's—25,000 pounds. Sixty percent of this was military expenditure, used for constructing fortresses and purchasing equipment in preparation for war against the Vikings at any given moment.

Because he laid claim to his grandfather Charlemagne's imperial title, he needed to maintain a corresponding level of pageantry. Consequently, courtly expenses accounted for twenty percent, amounting to 5,000 pounds.

Every year, Charles customarily made donations to various monasteries totaling over 3,000 pounds, making up fifteen percent of his total expenditures. He would also occasionally donate real estate, which caused his agricultural tax revenue to continually shrink.

The final sum of slightly over 1,000 pounds was used for rewarding nobles and administrative management. The number of civilian officials in West Francia was far lower than in Britain, keeping expenses in this area relatively small.

Overall, the West Francia royal family's financial situation was exceptionally fragile, constantly teetering on the edge of a deficit. This was similar to other states in Continental Europe during the same period. They lacked sensible financial planning, and when faced with large-scale wars, their usual methods boiled down to only two options: raising taxes or borrowing money from the Church.

'Two years ago, when the Franks attacked Denmark, Charles the Bald repeatedly urged Gunnar to launch an offensive, forcing him to head to Hamburg for a decisive battle against me. It was likely because the royal family's finances could no longer hold out.'