The Duke of Windsor stared at the two people opposite him, his face gloomy.

"What do you say? The merchants ran away? Why did they run? Where did they go? What do they want to do?"

The two men swallowed and spitted, carefully looked at the Duke of Windsor, and then hesitated and replied: "Duke...Duke, the reason why the merchants ran away is probably...I'm afraid it's related to you..."

"It has something to do with me?" The Duke of Windsor raised his eyebrows and said sternly: "What does this mean? Did I drive them away?"

Two officials in charge of financial affairs in the southern province of the Candela Empire showed helpless bitter smiles at the same time.

Recently, merchants from the southern provinces have left the southern provinces and changed their main business points to other parts of the empire. If you investigate the reason, it is really the Duke in front of you.

The reason for this is actually very simple, that is, an order issued by the Duke does not allow any items related to the New Air Chamber of Commerce to enter the southern provinces.

After His Majesty the Emperor changed his attitude towards the New Air Chamber of Commerce under the advice of the Imperial Minister of Finance Minister Hastrey in the second half of last year, countless magical machinery produced by the New Air Chamber of Commerce from the Principality of Stantin, the Kingdom of Lampari and the Southwest of the mainland entered the Candela Empire.

Then, with the acquiescence of His Majesty the Emperor, the Navy of the Candela Empire reached a cooperation agreement with the New Aircraft Chamber of Commerce. After the two sides jointly opened up a maritime trade route, a large number of commodities from the Principal of Stantin poured into the empire from the southern coast of the empire.

These products are not only various magical machinery produced by the New Air Chamber of Commerce and other Magic Machinery Chambers. They also include various magical industrial products produced by the New Air Chamber of Commerce.

Because most of these products appear to be extremely affordable and cheaper than the products in the Candela Empire, they are very popular in the empire.

For business people with a keen sense of smell, the business opportunities contained in this are self-evident.

So the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce did not need to spend too much effort. The merchants of the Candela Empire rushed into the southern harbor of the empire and the junction of the southwest of the empire and the Norton Principality. The purpose was to grab some goods from the Principality of Stantin as soon as possible and then transport them back for a good price.

Under the influence of this business trend, a ban issued by the Duke of Windsor was particularly conspicuous.

This ban prohibits not just products from the New Air Chamber of Commerce, but all products related to New Air merchants.

This "all" includes almost the vast majority of goods from the Principality of Stantin and from the Principality of Norton into the Candela Empire.

Because these products that are currently very popular in the Candela Empire are almost not related to the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce.

Even the only fruit produced by the Principality of Stantin was able to import large quantities from the Candela Empire before, and now it is basically deeply affected by the industrial manufacturing brought by the New Air Chamber of Commerce.

For example, all kinds of canned fruits with extremely high sales demand are simply products under the new magic industrial system implemented by the standard New Aircraft Chamber of Commerce.

In fact, it is not just the Duke of Windsor who clearly opposed such large amounts of imports from other countries in the Candela Empire. Because they felt that this would have a significant impact on the local area of ​​the Candela Empire.

But at most, the others opposed the New Flight Chamber of Commerce, with the reason that the New Flight Chamber of Commerce supported the enemy country of the Rulson Kingdom, which was considered an enemy of the Kandra Empire, and of course the empire could not cooperate with it.

The Duke of Windsor simply opposed everything related to the New Air Chamber of Commerce, and there were too many things designed.

Under the high-pressure policy of the Duke of Windsor, no goods related to the New Air Chamber of Commerce could enter the southern province, which made the merchants in the southern province who smelled business opportunities very depressed.

It is impossible to make these businessmen ignore business opportunities like making the cat who smelled the fishy smell unmoved.

But how could ordinary merchants dare to resist the Duke of Windsor who could be said to be the one who covered the sky in the southern provinces? So the end result was that these merchants simply shifted their focus directly from the southern provinces and moved to other places within the empire that did not oppose cooperation with the New Air Chamber of Commerce.

In fact, seriously, these businessmen are just now paying more attention to the business progress related to the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce. They do not completely give up all the businesses they already have in the southern provinces.

But now this situation has been reflected, it has become like merchants fleeing the southern provinces.

For the Duke of Windsor, the most intuitive manifestation lies in financial statistics.

After April, the southern provinces conducted fiscal statistics on the first quarter as usual.

Statistics show that compared with the same period last year, the grain output in southern provinces remained basically the same. The fiscal surplus obtained from the grain has not changed much.

However, in terms of commercial taxation, it showed a significant decline compared with the same period last year. The decline reached as much as 13%.

Originally, this was nothing to the Duke of Windsor, because he was a very typical traditional nobleman from the Synes continent, and what he valued the most was food.

If there is no problem with the food, he will not feel that there is any problem.

As for business, just make sure that there is no trouble.

However, when the first quarter financial report was submitted to the Imperial Ministry of Finance, the southern province was criticized by the Imperial Ministry of Finance.

According to the explanation given by the Imperial Ministry of Finance, the fiscal revenue of the southern provinces in the first quarter ranked second from the last among the nine major provinces of the Imperial Provinces, which were only slightly better than the Northeastern provinces, which have always been known for their barrenness in the Kandra Empire.

Compared with the previous fiscal revenue of southern provinces, at least the middle of the empire, this is undoubtedly a significant decline.

Moreover, the fiscal revenue of the southeastern province, which is adjacent to the southern province and most of the area is close to the coast, rose sharply in the first quarter of this year. The fiscal revenue of the Tural province even exceeded 38 million gold coins, far exceeding the 17 million gold coins in the southern province.

This creates a strong contrast, which makes the southern provinces more dazzling compared to last year's slight decline.

The Duke of Windsor, who had suffered a lot of eyebrow in the Imperial Finance Department, was extremely angry about this. As soon as he returned to the Governor's Mansion, he immediately ordered a thorough investigation of the cause.

However, the two financial officials who were mainly responsible for the investigation gave an answer like "a large number of businessmen fled the southern province", which of course made him extremely dissatisfied.

"Duke... Actually, my subordinates think... Compared to the issues in commercial taxation, I think we should pay more attention to the issues in food at this time..." A financial manager hesitated for a moment and shrank his neck and made a suggestion.

"What?" The Duke of Windsor glared. "Do you want to tell me that even normal grain production in our southern provinces will have problems? I tell you that the important spring harvest will soon come soon. If something goes wrong in this regard, don't say that you don't think about it all, even if I am in trouble!"

The two financial managers could only smile bitterly again. The financial manager who had just plucked up the courage to speak winked at his colleagues and signaled him to speak too.

Another financial manager had no choice but to bite the bullet and said, "Duke, it's not that there is anything wrong with this. It's just... we found that as long as you change your mind a little, our spring harvest will go more smoothly. Maybe there is hope for the autumn harvest to increase the grain output significantly."

The Duke of Windsor was slightly stunned: "I can significantly increase the grain production by just changing my mind? Are you kidding?"

"No, how dare we make a joke." The treasurer took out a document from his arms and handed it to the Duke of Windsor. "Sir, this is a report on the agricultural industry within the province that Baron Domingo has brought us to you. Please take a look."

"Domingo? Why didn't he bring it to me by himself?" The Duke of Windsor looked at the two of them in confusion.

"This..." The two financial managers looked at each other and smiled bitterly. "Baron Domingo said that he was afraid that this report would make you angry and dared not come by himself. So please both of us."

"Oh?" The Duke of Windsor glanced at the two of them. "Then aren't you afraid that I will get angry?"

The two financial officers smiled bitterly again.

"We can't escape anyway."

Seeing the bitter expressions on the faces of the two, the Duke of Windsor snorted coldly and took the report. After looking through it, he glanced and his face immediately darkened.

"It's these bullshit ideas again, no wonder he dared not come to see me!" The Duke of Windsor angrily threw the report directly on the ground, pointed at the two of them and cursed loudly: "Tell Domingo for me that if he insisted on introducing the farmland magic machinery of the New Aircraft Chamber of Commerce, don't appear in front of me again! And the same is true for you two! Don't think I don't know what you are thinking. Are you also like those merchants with only gold coins, wanting to force me to cooperate with the damn New Aircraft Chamber of Commerce? Ah? Is it?"

The two treasurers lowered their heads deeply and did not dare to look directly at the Duke of Windsor.

They knew very well that the Duke was really angry this time.

The Duke of Windsor pointed at the two and cursed, and finally shook his arm.

"Get out!"

The two financial officials were as if they were amnesty and quickly gave a gift and retreated quickly.

After both of them left, the Duke of Windsor was left in the room. He gasped for a while and gradually calmed down.

After staring at the report on the ground for a long time, the Duke of Windsor hesitated for a moment, possessed himself and picked up the report, and read it carefully again.

This time, he was far more serious and focused than before.

It took him half an hour to read a report. After reading the last page, he remained silent for a long time, suddenly sighed, and his face seemed to have become more than teenagers in an instant.

"Is this the so-called change of the times?"

The Duke of Windsor sighed again, returned to the table and pulled a rope hanging from the table.

A middle-aged man who looked like a housekeeper appeared quietly in the room.

"Master, do you have any instructions?" Unlike others, this middle-aged man called Duke of Windsor, but he used the very ancient "Master".

The Duke of Windsor waved his hand: "Go and prepare, I'm going out for a walk."

The middle-aged man looked up at the Duke of Windsor, and a hint of surprise flashed through his eyes, but he didn't ask much, lowered his head and responded, and quietly retreated again. (To be continued)
Chapter completed!