“Today’s lesson will focus on trade regulations, specifically on trades with other kingdoms.” professor Silvertongue said as class started. “Now while our kingdom tries to stay out of it and respect the autonomy of its noble houses when not at war, there are a few regulations that are kept quiet from the public.”
Ajax could see that almost half the class had been just as clueless as him when it came to these unpublished laws. There were also those who already knew the information and were just sitting in for a refresher. Anna however had almost completely tuned out the lesson and was reading through a scroll. The professor was clearly aware but chances were that she already knew all of this.
“Now while any individual sales are not subject to scrutiny, sales that involve a noble house as a whole are. The main reason for this is obviously so that anything that could be considered a national secret or resource can’t be traded away. The second reason is for fair taxation purposes.”
“What does fair taxation have to do with it?” Ajax asked, he clearly understood the first part but this didn’t make sense for him.
“Taxation is not always straightforward.” the professor explained. “Take the deal that the Goldmancers are making with the Empire right now as an example.”
Ajax felt a bit awkward considering just how personal that deal was, not only that but he could also see that Anna looked up and focused on the conversation.
“That deal isn’t finalized yet but I can guarantee that a member of the royal family or one of the king's advisors is a silent participant in those discussions.” the professor said. “His involvement here will be minimal if the whispers going around are anything close to the deal being put in place.”
“I hear that there is talk that the Goldmancers will get 20% of all honey gathered in the Empire for the next ten years.” another noble spoke up.
“Yes, and that is something that would make taxation easy for the kingdom.” the professor nodded. “Seeing as how a farming method is being traded and the talk hasn't been shut down it means the kingdom doesn’t deem it to be a national secret, otherwise the royal family representative would have shut down the discussion.”
“On that note I highly advise that all of you have a discussion with a royal family representative before even starting talks of selling anything that isn’t already widely known, whether that be a farming method, an unique item or even the first output of a new mine.” the professor said, “Charges of treason can be brought for doing so.”
“Can’t the royal family just get whatever information we are trading for free in that case?” one of the students asked.
“No,” it was Anna who spoke up. “All royal representatives take an oath to not divulge anything learnt in that session, it is heavily enforced, each representative has at least ten active contracts binding that promise of secrecy.”
Depending on the strength of the skill, breaking ten contracts at once could be fatal for almost anyone and Ajax doubted the economic advisors and other representatives were all that high of a level.
“As I was saying, taxation on this contract would be easy as the 5% would be easily taken from the honey that house Goldmancer would collect.” The professor refocused the discussion. “But what if they were trading it for a new family heirloom? The crown can’t take away 5% of an item.”
“The amount taxed would be something that the representative would discuss separately with the House before the agreement is finalized. Do any of you know what the current punishment is for finalizing a deal without notifying the royal family.” the professor asked.
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“The taxed amount is doubled.” Benedict answered.
“And what if the deal was for a single item?” the professor prodded.
“The House in question would be asked to place a value on the item.” Anna said. “From there it would be up to the royal family to decide whether to buy the item or accept double the taxes on the valuation.”
The whole premise was that while giving you the opportunity to name the price made it seem like the royal family wasn’t in control it actually stuck the House in question between a rock and a hard place. A too low value and the royal family would pay 90% of it and take the item in question, too high and you’d end up paying 10% of it.
“A big incentive to have said meetings supervised is included in taxation.” the professor continued. “Things like a ten man delve in another countries dungeon, or usage of a natural treasure can be baked into the deal where they are then relinquished to the crow in exchange for taxes.”
From there the lesson continued down the rabbit hole of edge cases and beneficial reasons to have the meetings monitored. While Ajax could see the incentives he also recognised that this lesson focused a lot on the downsides of getting caught and the upsides of being upfront.
“There is one exception to this.” the professor said as the class time was running out. “Any asset obtained as a reward from an international tournament can be traded away tax free within two weeks of it being obtained provided the royal family is given the chance to counter on the price.”
“Why are tournament prizes exempt?” one student asked.
“Mainly because of how many commoner winners there have been.” the professor said. “The exception is put in place to stop them from trying to hide the deal in fear of taxation and end up severely undercharging for it.”
The kingdom was smart here, using that same greed that would lead someone to hide the deal to get them to bring it forward, after all there was no downside if the crown didn’t want it but they could always offer to pay even more for it.
“Do you have a moment?” Anna asked Ajax after the class.
“Sure.” Ajax nodded, today would be one of the days where the first years would have an alchemy class and as such he will be having his one on one remedial lesson with professor Silvertongue.
“Since the deal my family is making was brought up anyway I thought I'd give you an update on it.” Anna said . “The deal is almost finished and the plan was to let you know once it was all done but I don’t want you to feel like we are hiding anything.”
One of the things Ajax had learned about Anna during all the time that he knew her was that despite the calculated and calm strategist and business women she had been raised as, whenever it came down to regular social interaction her isolated childhood started to show. Ajax himself hadn’t been all that social during his childhood and this manifested in a more quiet and reserved personality. Anna on the other hand tended to babble and go on tangents to fill the air and prevent any awkward silences.
“I wasn't,” Ajax said with a smile. The deal they had made when they sold the farming method to the Goldmancers was good and according to his grandparents they had gotten enough upfront that even if they were shafted on a resell to other kingdoms they would still have gotten a good enough deal for something that would be reverse engineered quickly.
“Dad managed to get them up to 22% of all honey produced.” Anna said and even Ajax could see how proud she was of her father, he also wasn’t all that interested in the raw amount since his House wouldn’t be getting any of that but he didn’t let that show. “As for the dungeon delves he managed to get a slot for both of their capitals dungeons.”
This is what Ajax was interested in. More than anything he wanted to delve as many of the small floor gapped dungeons as quickly as he could for the extra stats. He knew that all kingdoms placed level caps on how long people could delve and foreign nations would never let anyone even remotely close to their cap from another nation attempt the delve.
“For their main Dungeon, it’s a five level floor gap and it starts with a level twenty -nine max level on floor one, we have a five man delve team made up of under level forty members. Your House will nominate one of the five people.” Anna continued.
“I’ll be going with you.” Lexi who had quickly followed after them jumped into the conversation. “So will Anna. The prince will most likely claim the spot given to the royal family and one of Anna’s nephews or nieces will also join us.”
It was almost a foregone conclusion that Ajax would be the member of his family to claim the spot but he was surprised to see that four out of the five people going would be from his class. He had obviously expected Anna to get one of the spots as the head of House Goldmancer wanted her to take over but the other two were a surprise.
“Only a five man delve?” Ajax asked as he refocused on the main bit of information. Delves were usually at least a dozen people and could be as many as three dozen depending on the purpose of the delve.
“For their main dungeon, yes.” Anna confirmed. “The secondary dungeon, it has a ten level floor gap and starts at level thirty-three, we have a twenty man delve team and your house will be given three spots, they are to be under level eighty.”
Ajax could feel his eyebrows reaching for his forehead at the level cap, that was surprising to say the least. He couldn’t help but feel like there was something odd about the deal.
“This is why we didn’t want to tell you about the deal until it was finished.” Anna let out a sigh. “Dad said the only reason he could push so hard with his skills on the rest of the deal was because you are targeted here, the delve on their main dungeon is there to essentially analyze your strength.”
Ajax didn’t know what to think here. On the one hand he was already in the crosshairs of a neighboring kingdom, on the other the way they were going about investigating him also provided him with a great opportunity to get stronger.