Chapter 1139 (1/2)

At present, there are 36 vassals in the British Empire.

Although the 36 vassals had fiefdoms and had high autonomy in each other's fiefdoms, not every vassal lived a rich life.

The living standard of more than half of the vassals is not even comparable to that of some businessmen with a little family wealth.

There are two main reasons for the great difference in the living standards of the vassals and the emergence of so many poor vassals.

The first reason - some vassals were not rich.

Not all vassals, like Duke Connaught, had such a vast and rich fiefdom.

Some of the fiefs were small and poor.

The output of a few vassals in a year is even less than that of the Duke of Connaught in half a month.

If the land is barren, it will naturally lead to the poverty of the vassal.

Of course, although these poor feudal vassals could not live as extravagant a life as Duke Connaught, if they saved some money, they could still live a better life than ordinary people.

However - because of the existence of something, the vassals who could have lived fairly became poor, and the vassals who were already very poor became even poorer.

This is also the second reason why the living standards of so many vassals are not as good as those of wealthy businessmen with a little wealth - they have to pay huge tribute to the central government every year.

As the vassals of the britannian Empire, although they had many rights, they also had quite a lot of obligations.

One of the great obligations of the feudal ministers is to pay tribute to the central government on a regular basis.

The britannian empire is one of the countries in the mainland with the greatest gap between the strength of the central government and the vassal.

The total military strength of all the feudal ministers in the British Empire was only 20000.

The central part of the britannian empire can easily wipe out all the vassals in the country by randomly sending one... Half of the Knights.

It is precisely because of the great gap between the power and the vassals that the British Empire always changed its methods to ”bully” these weak and deceptive vassals in the country.

For example, five years ago, at the round table meeting in 290 of the imperial calendar, the central government raised the tribute rate again.

Increase the tribute rate from 40% to 45%.

”Tribute rate” - this is a terrible word that makes the vassals of the britannian Empire sweat when they hear it.

Tribute rate - as the name suggests, it is the amount of tribute paid by the vassals to the center of the britannian Empire every year.

After the increase at the round table five years ago, the current tribute rate has reached an amazing 45%.

For every 100 francs of income, 45 francs will be handed over to the central government.

No bargaining is allowed.

In Britannia, there were some feudal ministers who concealed the real income of their territory and wanted to pay less money to the central government.

For the vassals who dared to challenge the authority of the central government, the central government of the British Empire has never been soft hearted, directly confiscating the fief, revoking the aristocracy and demoting them to civilians.

It is precisely because there have been some fools in China who dared to do such a thing of death, so now there are only 36 vassals left.

This ultra-high tribute rate has made many vassals who originally lived fairly poor.

The already poor vassal became even poorer.