"You have already indicated several times that the situation for companies will improve, but how exactly will it improve?"

"Let's go through the things that will upset business owners beforehand, then it will be positive, negative, positive in the end."

"If that's how you want to do it..."

Marah turned to the penultimate page of her file and silently read through the individual key points herself.

"From the New Year onwards, it will not only be forbidden to destroy usable slaughter products, but also to destroy new goods in general."

"Shouldn't companies be allowed to decide for themselves what to do with their goods?"

"No, not in this case. Not everyone can do whatever they want here. There is no absolute ownership. All property is only borrowed from the country. The country doesn't care how the resources are used at first, but if they are wasted, then it does matter. The labor and raw materials could have been used more efficiently. I've said this a few times now, but tax revenue is not that important. What is important is what we get in the end. If the resources have become nothing but garbage, then the tax revenue is of no use, because the S-Mark is only worth as much as everything that is in this country. Of course, this is worst in case of limited raw materials, which are either completely lost or have to be expensively reprocessed, which in turn also costs labor and raw materials. Companies that produce more than necessary are slowing down the country's development and will have to pay penalties for this in future or, alternatively, hand over the surplus goods free of charge."

"What should happen to the surplus goods? It's certainly unavoidable that there will be some."

"The idea is for companies to donate these goods to temples or other charitable organizations, store them for later use or sell them at a lower price. Of course, it would be best if the companies could adjust their production volumes so that as few surplus goods as possible are produced."

"I understand. I don't think I have any further questions about this."

"Many of the general bans on unclean fuels will be lifted from next year. Some of these substances are more suitable for some industries than what they currently have to use. They will still have to adhere to the pollutant discharge quantities. This means that modern filter systems will be needed for use. There will also be a combustibles tax. It will be levied on all combustibles sold at a rate per kilogram, depending on how many pollutants the respective combustible releases when used. The exact amounts will be announced in the fall. The tax applies to everyone, but it should be noted that this tax can be fully offset for commercial entities if they comply with all the recommendations on filter systems for the combustibles used. The goal is clear, I think. All those who have not yet done so should at long last install the appropriate filter systems. Private individuals who still heat with coal or wood should switch to gas or district heating."

"Most households in Baele already only use gas mixtures with the standard filters from Blau. Are these still sufficient?"

"Yes, they are."

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"It's still a tax increase."

"Yes, it is, but for businesses only if they don't follow the recommendations, and the fact that it will be a bit more expensive for private individuals is intentional. Buildings should not be heated individually. We are no longer in the medieval age. We have heat plants. At this point I should perhaps mention that gas mixtures are only so cheap because we left the free banks, otherwise it would not have been possible to buy Blau from Hylla due to the restrictions on money creation within the free banks. As the stadtholder of Rosenberg, I would also like to announce that heating with wood and coal will only still be permitted in the city area of Rosenberg for this winter. Next year, the last households will finally be connected to the district heating network. Rosenberg will thus become the only city in the world that doesn't reek."

"Can you already reveal how much Blau has cost?"

"I can't yet. It's still under wraps until next year. But I can already reveal that it was around one trillion S-Mark."

"Aren't you afraid of triggering inflation with such absurd sums?"

"Have you noticed any inflation? Gases have fallen in price because they are in the hands of the state. Everything that is produced with gases has also fallen in price because gases have become cheaper. The S-Mark has even risen in value because one sixth of the world market supply of gases suddenly has to be paid for in S-Mark. As you can see, the creation of money does not necessarily lead to inflation, but can even have the opposite effect. At the same time, our dependence on foreign countries has also fallen sharply with the purchase of blue and the cubic prices for gases are rising so quickly everywhere else that the full purchase amount will be back in a few years."

While the man was still marveling at the trillion, the woman with the glasses unexpectedly spoke up.

"Excuse me, can we take a short break?"

"I'm only here for a fixed amount of time. If that's not enough in the end, then I'll leave anyway."

"I'm sorry. I'll hurry," the woman explained as she hastily stood up.

While she waited, Marah drank her tea and the man stared thoughtfully at the ceiling.

Reyji crossed her legs and unobtrusively checked her watch. As a bodyguard, she wasn't paid to talk. Fortunately, the appointment was soon over.

Blau was an artificial island with a gas production facility. It was located below the southern coast of Baele in the middle of the ocean. Just over a year ago, it was still part of the Republic of Hylla. Today it belonged to Baele and the gas extraction plant was a state company. In the past, Hylla had been trying to get rid of the island because it was too far away from its core territory, but had never been able to find a buyer because the price was far too high. Due to the permanently high gas prices in Baele caused by the war in Ceramare, Marah had eventually offered to buy the island from the Hylla government and after a year of negotiations, a purchase contract was signed. Baele received the island including all inhabitants as citizens, the territory, the extraction plant, all transport ships and all licenses for gas mixtures that were developed in this facility. In principle, Baele got almost everything. As payment, Hylla's debts of 90 billion S-Mark were written off and they received an additional 1.1 trillion S-Mark from created money. The purchase price also included other things, such as price guarantees on various raw materials and an assurance of full military support in the event of defense. So it was a pretty important contract and only the following year, at the end of a three-year period, would the public find out how much had actually been paid for the island.

The fact that the secrecy worked so well was probably also due to the fact that Hylla did not actually need the money. They were presumably mainly interested in military support. Hylla had just under 900,000 inhabitants and was the richest country in the world in real per capita terms. No other country had so many castles, palaces and abstruse buildings. If you had a plot of land with a house and garden, you were still lower class. Despite the beauty of the country, it was not a place to visit for many reasons. Everything was expensive. Everything was dangerous. Xenophobia was high. The language was annoying. Reyji had only been there once and hopefully that would stay the last time.

.../ End Part