From Corsica to the Fourth Rome

"What did you say?"

Coggero froze on the spot, his helpless eyes wandering around, wandering away for a while before returning to Lawrence's face, and said in shock:

"Of course we want to make a difference, but you know, this is not an economic issue, this is a political issue, those landowners, their parliamentarians, and the land in the countryside."

Mr. Coggello gestured incoherently for a long time. It was only after Lawrence's expression showed a hint of impatience that he quickly organized his words and said:

"But it is impossible for those landowners to agree. They are an important class in Corsica."

After saying that, Mr. Coggello looked at Lawrence's face again and added nervously:

"To tell you the truth, I noticed this problem ten years ago when I was a tax collector. I also mentioned it to Governor Pauli, but he was very afraid of the power of these landlords, so the problem was left alone. ”

Lawrence looked at Coggero's panicked expression and knew that what he said was indeed correct. For these landowners who controlled a large amount of land, wealth, and even a large amount of manpower, it was definitely not possible to make them accept reforms with a piece of official paper.

Pauli was indeed very afraid of these landlords. In order to win over them, he deliberately packed many landlord members into the parliament.

Basically, except for the four deputies of Ajaccio and Carlo Bonaparte, the remaining four deputies represented the interests of the landlord class.

"I hope you noticed something, Mr. Cogello."

Lawrence tapped his index finger lightly on the table, shook his head slowly and said:

"I'm different from Paulie. He compromised with the landlords, but that doesn't mean I will compromise."

Although these words were plain and without any emotion, the tone was full of non-committal, which made Coggero tremble slightly and gave up the idea of ​​persuading Lawrence.

"Of course."

Mr. Cogelo swallowed, put away the panic look on his face, lowered his head and said:

"You are the governor, and what you say is law. But what are you going to do?"

Lawrence held his chin with his hands, closed his eyes and thought for a moment, and then said in a deep voice:

"I need a radical agricultural reform and tax reform from the Treasury."

"reform."

Mr. Coggello glanced at Lawrence uneasily, suppressed the words of dissuasion that came to his lips, sighed slightly and asked:

"What are you probably going to do?"

For such a major reform, of course, Lawrence himself would not compile the laws one by one. He only needed to inform the Ministry of Finance of his policies. The specific details would be compiled by officials of the Ministry of Finance, and then reviewed by Lawrence after the final summary.

Lawrence glanced at Coggello, who was taking out a memo to record, but he was not in a hurry to tell his policy.

Because Lawrence knew very well that every word he said now would have a profound impact on all of Corsica and the people of Corsica, so he had to be careful in his words and deeds.

After another period of deep thought, Lawrence slowly said:

"This reform only needs to clarify two issues: how to collect taxes, and who owns the land."

Mr. Coggero was stunned for a moment. He scratched the quill in his hand in the air but didn't know how to record it in the memo. He couldn't help but ask:

"How are taxes collected? Who owns the land? What does this mean?"

Lawrence pointed at Coggello's memo, motioning for him to record it, and then said in a deep voice:

"In terms of taxation, I decided to abolish the poll tax and levy a land tax. As for the land issue, I want to take the land back from the landlords."

"this!"

Coggero looked at Lawrence with wide eyes. If Coggero could still understand the first half of Lawrence's words, it was aimed at the landlords' behavior of harboring farmers, and at the same time it also relieved the burden of farmers who had no land or little land.

But the second half of Lawrence's sentence was completely beyond Coggello's understanding.

Land is the property that landlords value most, and this is not something Lawrence can take back with just a few words here.

Not to mention that Lawrence is just the governor of Corsica, even if he is a king or emperor, if he wants to deprive these landowners of their land, he will probably provoke direct resistance from them, or even a rebellion that will spread throughout the territory.

"Governor Bonaparte"

Cojero took down Lawrence's words with trembling hands, swallowed his saliva and asked:

"How are you going to take the land back? I know you have a gun, but this is too violent."

Lawrence looked at Coggero who was sweating profusely. He guessed that the Finance Minister thought he was going to use force to take back the land, so he chuckled and shook his head and said:

"These landowners are also Corsican citizens. Naturally, I will not deprive them of their property out of thin air. Of course, I will spend money to buy back their land."

Coggello couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this, and secretly sighed that fortunately Governor Bonaparte was not so radical.

In fact, Lawrence also considered using the army to force the landlords to hand over their land, but considering Corsica's national conditions and the current era, he gave up such a radical method.

Although Coggero breathed a long sigh of relief, he immediately became puzzled. After taking a breath, he looked at Lawrence and said:

"You want to spend money to buy back the land? With all due respect, even if you spend all the money in the treasury to buy the land, I'm afraid you won't even be able to buy the suburbs of Ajaccio."

"Don't worry about money, someone will send it to us."

Lawrence shook his head indifferently and said that he already had a plan in mind on how to raise such a huge sum of money.

"Sent? You mean the French?"

As a senior member of the Corsican government, Coggero also knew that the Republic of Corsica would soon recognize Louis XV as the King of Corsica, but he still said worriedly:

"It is impossible for the French government to give Corsica such a large financial subsidy. Are you really sure?"

Faced with Coggello's questioning, Lawrence just waved his hand and said:

"Who told you that the French government sent us money?"

"Not the French government?" Coggero became confused, not knowing which other force could hand over such a large sum of money to the Corsican people.

Just when Coggello was at a loss, the door to the study room was gently pushed open, and Anna walked in slowly, bowed slightly to Lawrence and said:

"Sorry to disturb you, sir, but the Duke of Choiseul and the French fleet are about to arrive in Ajaccio. Do you need to prepare in advance to greet them?"

Lawrence nodded, then stood up at the same time as Mr. Coggello, and the two shook hands to signal that the meeting was temporarily over.

Holding Cogelo's right hand, Lawrence whispered to him:

"The land issue can be put aside for the time being, but I hope the Ministry of Finance can give me the draft tax reform as soon as possible."

After hearing this, Mr. Coggello quickly nodded seriously and agreed. Although Lawrence used the word "hope", his words undoubtedly gave him a death order.

After walking out of the Governor's Palace, Coggero suddenly felt a lot more relaxed. He felt suffocated just after communicating with the tough Governor Bonaparte.

"only."

Coggero, who was walking halfway, couldn't help but take out his memo and read it twice. Then he turned to look at the Governor's Palace behind him, and said to himself:

"If this reform really succeeds, Corsica will at least not be as poor as it is now."

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