Chapter 182: Overview of London Reform

Chapter 182 Overview of the London Reform

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Since the Hanseatic merchants were heavily taxed by Edward, merchants from all over England flocked to London like hungry tigers, vying for the market share of the Hanseatic merchants.

So, overnight, the Hanseatic merchants almost fell from their market dominance. They could only firmly control the timber and fish industries, and the other industries had been completely captured by English merchants.

Regarding this matter, Edward is happy to see the results. It is better to have meat rotten in the pot than to be eaten by others, and he has collected a lot more taxes.

"Your Majesty, please let me introduce to you the achievements of the entire London City Government in the past few months!"

At this time, in the new building of the London City Government, the mayor's office.

On the spacious and comfortable mayor's seat, there is a teenager sitting at this moment.

I saw that he had blond curly hair like the English people at this time, dark blue and bright eyes, a straight nose, and milk-like skin. He was about five feet tall, only half a head lower than ordinary adults. .

He sat on the chair with a relaxed expression, the best woolen cloth under his buttocks, it was extremely soft to sit on.

The young man's eyes turned to the document in front of him, which was a record of London's financial situation in the past few months, recording the specific financial situation.

In front of him, the Mayor of London, William Selsey, was bending over, respectfully reporting to the young man.

He glanced at Edward, who was concentrating on the information. The beard under his nose was already covered with green beard, which was soft and soft, which added a lot of maturity to the young king, and after the Scottish incident, the king's prestige had already disappeared. It is almost the same as Henry VIII in normal times.

At least, in the whole of England, there are not many people who dare to contend with him, even if Duke Edward comes out of the mountain.

And the best proof is that since May, there has not been a single riot in the country, and the whole of England has been in a state of peace.

After tidying up the thoughts, Mayor William continued:

"From March to June, the municipal government's financial revenue has increased from 15,000 pounds per month to 30,000 pounds per month, doubling!"

"The taxes handed over to the Finance Office have accumulated to 65,000 pounds!"

Edward expressed his understanding with a light 'en'. According to the regulations when the city government was established, the London city government has to pay taxes to the Treasury Department every month, with a ratio of 30 to 70%.

As an institution independent of the Privy Council, the Finance Department is directly responsible to Edward, and the person in charge said similar figures.

From this, it can be seen that it is necessary for Edward to cancel the London Self-Government Committee.

Currently, almost 60% of the money and factories in England are concentrated in London. Controlling London is equivalent to controlling half of England. Edward is not at ease if he does not control such an important land boundary.

Seeing that His Majesty the King is still buried in the documents, Mayor William can only continue to say:

"According to your request, the London City Government has established ninety-six hundred-household districts in the city of London. Each hundred-household district has a mayor, a magistrate, a tax officer, and four clerks under its banner; a total of There are eight thousand-household districts, and every twelve hundred-household districts form a thousand-household district. Each thousand-household district has a head of the district, a deputy head of the district, a chief magistrate, and a deputy chief magistrate , one chief tax officer, one deputy chief tax officer, and ten clerks each!"

"The same arrangement is made outside London. There are 168 hundred-household districts and 14 thousand-household districts outside the city. There are 264 hundred-household districts and 22 thousand-household districts in total. district!"

According to Henry VII's arrangement, the local area is generally a hundred-household district-county, such a setting.

According to China's administrative division, if a hundred-household district is a village, a county is a county, but there is no town or township in the middle.

The most important thing is that the 100-household district and the county are parallel, that is to say, the county does not manage the 100-household district, and the two are directly responsible to the king.

As a result, the hundreds of households in the local area were completely controlled by the local gentry. Anyway, the county lieutenant (let’s call it the county lieutenant, the magistrate is easily confused with the magistrate) and the sheriff are still appointed by the king. .

As for the Hundred-Household District, it is completely arranged by itself, and the candidate is directly submitted to the king, and the king generally agrees directly, and cannot be directly managed.

Therefore, Edward directly established the Thousand-Household District as the intermediate hub between the county and the Hundred-Household District, and as a bridge, it played the role of connecting the upper and lower.

Of course, this is just Edward's idea. It just needs to be tested in London in the early stage. If it works well, it will be implemented nationwide.

Hearing this, Edward silently calculated in his heart. Based on five members per household, there are at least 130,000 people in London, which is quite a lot.

"So, my Lord Mayor, what is the total population of London?"

After thinking silently in his mind, Edward raised his head, a little curious in his heart, and then asked softly.

Mayor William himself is quite interested in this question. Fortunately, he read it several times and remembered it fairly well.

"Your Majesty! After three months of rough calculations by the city government, the number of people living in London has reached more than 156,500, half of whom are underage children."

Mayor William said in a surprised tone, with a shocking expression on his face.

150,000 people, if some omissions are counted, 160,000 is still possible.

Besides, there is no poll tax at this time, and no one wants to deliberately conceal the number, so this data is still credible.

Moreover, half of them are children, which is also consistent with Edward's memory.

150,000 people, this is just the population of a small county in later generations, but in current Europe, this is indeed a large city.

At this time, England has a total population of only 3 million, of which one-twentieth is in London, which puts enormous pressure on the London City Government.

London needs to import hundreds of tons of grain every month to meet the demand.

And the security pressure brought by such a large population is unparalleled.

At the end of the Middle Ages, greed and crime were the main themes of society. In a city of 150,000 people, hundreds of corpses were pulled out of the city by corpse collectors every morning, and there were many more lying in corners that no one cares about. It slowly stinks, rots, and is eaten by rats, which eventually multiply and expand in the city of London.

In the end, the plague will break out in London, killing a large number of people.

"Mr. Mayor, I don't think there are enough police officers in London!" Edward said solemnly.

"Not enough!" Edward's voice was a little harsh, "I need the number of police in London to reach 500, so that London can function normally!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Although he didn't know why, Mayor William still followed suit, "I will follow your instructions!"

(end of this chapter)