Rorschach originally thought that the city-wide search would make the whole city nervous, but it turned out to be much more stable and peaceful than he had expected.
There were no soldiers patrolling the streets, and the magic armors were parked in their garages. The frequency of flying objects flying over the city was also lower than usual.
It was as if the crisis yesterday had never happened.
The pedestrians on the streets were lively. The aftermath of the opening of the Cape East Line during the anniversary celebration of the city still brought the city into the hustle and bustle of the end of the festival.
In particular, the half-price tickets during the week of the opening ceremony attracted a large number of Cape Town people to travel and shop here. Vila Nova Dônia's celebration also gave most of the city's residents a seven-day holiday. Combined together, there was an explosion of human traffic.
The noisiest and most famous shops were filled with all kinds of people. Many shops were sold out three days before the celebration, and various imitation Aishi daily necessities and luxury goods were especially popular.
Truckloads of goods had just been unloaded from the long-distance floating airships and delivered to the shops when they were all sold out.
Yes, it was a robbery. The moment a salesperson placed the goods on a shelf, they were all sold out.
There were two reasons for this. One was that the tourists were rich, and the other was that they felt that the opportunity would not come again. They took advantage of the situation.
In the past few years, many things had changed. Aishi daily necessities, luxury goods, and consumer goods were gradually accepted by Cape Town people with the promotion of various media.
After all, practicality, appearance, beauty, and promotion methods were all leading. As long as the price was not too outrageous, it was too easy to beat the local products.
At the same time that Cape Town was being dumped, Cape Town's local industries and traditional culture were also suffering a huge blow. The number of unemployed people skyrocketed … Ahem, let's not talk about that. The impact on values brought about by the opening up of the country, the tide of layoffs, the big bankruptcy, and so on were actually the same everywhere.
They felt that they had a big advantage by shopping here, but there was a very important competition point — tax.
The goods produced in other Aishi People's cities were taxed at 3% when they entered Vila Nova Dônia. This was because Vila Nova Dônia had a decentralized political structure and ideology. In fact, not many people cared about this tax. They cared more about the additional benefits brought by the prosperity of the city.
The people of Cape Town still had the primitive concept of feudal lords. Taxes were the mainstay of financial income, and foreign merchants were like fat sheep that came to the door. In the feudal era where the lord owned the entire city as his personal property, it was considered merciful to pay 5% or 7% tax on foreign goods.
"Anyway, I'm the only city in this area. If you don't want your goods to go bad, you can only sell them here."
"What's there to be afraid of paying more taxes? Just raise the price. If the untouchables can afford it, then so be it. If not, then so be it. "
This concept was very common, especially since Cape Town had been the only city in the wasteland for a long time. Naturally, it had become the most important business center, and its monopoly naturally brought with it high prices.
5% tax on foreign goods, and 3% tax on domestic goods. To the Aishi People, this tax was excessive, but the people of Cape Town and the wastelanders were not only used to it, they even thought it was a matter of course. They even thought that it was a low tax set by the previous city lords out of pity for the citizens.
In a sense, the terrifying military power of the Seymour people in Cape Town was accumulated little by little like this.
It was easy to raise taxes, but reducing taxes … Haha, at least most people had only seen taxes raised in their lifetime. They had never seen a reduction in taxes, and it was unlikely that they would see one in the future.
With the fall of Seymour, and the instability of Cape Town's internal and external situation, the impact on the internal businesses caused the total tax revenue to drop. Following that, the military expenditure increased year after year. As the income decreased, the expenditure increased. In order to maintain the balance and stabilize the income, it was necessary to increase taxes. In the worst case, the tax had reached 7% of every 10 taxes.
Was this the end? No, this was just the beginning. With the loss of the city lord's faction, the internal competition and struggle had reached the level of a civil war. The huge city had now been divided into several factions.
And in the feudal era where the lords were in power, this meant that … taxes had to be paid repeatedly.
A product, once bought and sold, would have to pay taxes twice or even multiple times. It sounded ridiculous, but it was the truth.
It was the same in Europe during the Middle Ages. Every faction had their own territory. The flow of goods from outside had to go through layers of checkpoints, and the taxes had to be paid layer by layer. Although it was extremely harsh and repetitive, it was both legal and common.
This could be said to be a devastating blow to commerce. In fact, in the Middle Ages, heavy taxes were the first factor in the flow of commerce. The political chaos would inevitably affect commerce. After Cape Town lost its city lord, someone calculated that after all the checkpoints had been passed, the worst case scenario was that the tax had reached 27% of every 10 taxes.
This was very normal. Every territory had its own lord, and they had to raise their own army. How could they raise an army without collecting taxes? As long as they passed through their territory, even a tiger's tail would be chopped off, and a goose's wings would be plucked off.
What? You didn't say that from me? How could that be! The roads had to be changed, the checkpoints had to be added, and people had to change their routes to create congestion.
The result was that just looking at the taxes to enter the city, the cost of goods had almost quadrupled. Including the additional expenses (bribing officials, bodyguards' salaries, and the daily operating costs of the caravan), it was already quite generous of them to only sell the goods at six times the price. It was even possible that they would suffer a loss.
And this was only the result of entering and exiting the city, which wasn't too far away. If they really had to travel a long distance from where they came from … During the Middle Ages, porcelain and silk that weren't worth mentioning in the East were probably worth more than a few times or even tens of times more in the West.
And so, an absurd scene occurred.
For the same Aishi daily goods and consumer goods, the difference between Vila Nova Dônia and Cape Town could be more than five times. And this was only for the common daily goods. There were many things that Cape Town didn't even have in stock.
Competition was cruel. Even the current "overlords" of Cape Town's major factions had to make some compromises under the cruel current situation where the flow of goods dropped, the citizens' satisfaction skyrocketed, and immigration applications skyrocketed.
But even so, in the end, the taxes still reached the level of 10% tax and 15% tax. The price difference of imported goods was at least three times, which made the citizens of Cape Town full of resentment.
When the three territories' alliance agreement was first signed, there were a series of agreements regarding immigration and trade. Although some of the terms were destined to be unfulfilled, these agreements at least ensured that information between the two sides was flowing smoothly. Regardless of whether it was the citizens or the government, they were all paying attention to their only rival city in the wastelands.
Some people were willing to be slaughtered like sheep, not because they were born weak, but because they didn't know what it was like to be a human. There was no comparison, no difference, no dissatisfaction, and no resistance.
Revolutionaries, rebels, internal warlords, and so on were constantly making trouble. Even the Evil Gods often crossed the line to make a profit. In a situation where the situation was becoming more unstable and people were in a state of panic, the various bosses were more focused on making their own profits. Naturally, the internal situation became more chaotic.
Fortunately, at least Cape Town's foundation was not weak. The internal food supply, textiles, and clothes could still be self-sufficient. As long as the price of these daily necessities was stable and could allow people to survive, then dissatisfaction was still dissatisfaction, and not hatred that needed to be ignited.
Cough, it seemed that he had gone off topic again. Although living was the minimum requirement, no one would refuse to live a life of luxury.
So, when the price of imported goods between the two places reached more than three times the price, the tourists from Cape Town launched a frenzied shopping spree. Especially when there were rumors that the great lords of Cape Town were planning to pay taxes on personal goods.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
