“Lord Sesta, unlike you, not all statesmen can be as accustomed to an uneventful life. The point is that they will definitely develop other thoughts if they just work without getting anything, making it difficult for them to resist temptation,” said Sedrum, who was beside Sesta.
“Then don't become a statesman and just go into business!” Sesta replied.
“I called you here to discuss a solution, not for you to argue,” Davos said gently, making the room quiet again.
His eyes swept over the faces of everyone, but when he saw Mersis' worried expression, he knew what he was concerned about. Davos smiled and stopped his gaze on Androlis. Since entering the king's office, Androlis has remained quiet.
Of course, there was another one who remained quiet – Vespa. As a Lucanian and one of the rotating speakers, he would remain silent most of the time but naturally strive to safeguard the interests of the Lucanians. Privately, other people criticised him as a puppet, believing that his ability was far less than that of Hemon and that the only reason he could sit in this position was entirely due to his son, Bagul. But even after learning this, Vespa remained the same without any change.
On the other hand, Androlis, who had just become a rotating speaker, has kept a low profile for several months. However, Davos didn't want him to remain silent, so he directly asked him, “Androlis, what do you think about this?”
After getting startled, Androlis straightened his body. Then his reserve temperament immediately changed as he said loudly with a severe expression, “Your majesty, the statesmen are the best among the citizens and occupy an honoured position, which should be the pride of the statesmen. However, the people are looking at our statesmen as if they were criminals, full of suspicion of who would become the second Pollux; who would be the second Ladician? We are now losing the trust of the people, which is a terrible thing as it is the foundation that bestows the highest authority on the Senate! Thus to regain the people's trust in us and to make us worthy of that honour again, we must forbid the statesmen from accepting any more gifts!-”
“But, Lord Androlis.” Cornelius interrupted.
But before he could go on, Androlis sharply said, “Esteemed Lord Cornelius, please continue listening first!”
Cornelius became a bit embarrassed.
“However, being an honourable statesman doesn't mean one must be poor. After all, a poor person loses courage when speaking in front of a rich person, which is true for statesmen living in poverty when facing wealthy citizens. And that would only reduce the statesmen’s prestige and make the citizens look down on us, giving them other thoughts which aren't favourable to the governance of the people and the kingdom.
Thus the kingdom should give the statesmen corresponding wealth and honour because it is through their efforts that we have today’s prosperity, and the statesmen should enjoy the wealth they deserve! Therefore, I suggest we pay the statesmen, and it should be a high enough salary!”
Androlis' fervent words touched the crowd.
Davos, however, remained calm. But before he could say anything, Mersis shouted, “No! No! We don't have much money left in the treasury to pay other officials! There is no more money to pay the statesmen!…”
“Calm down, Mersis!” Davos said to him and then to the crowd without delay, “Androlis said it well, and I had the same idea. We shall create a law prohibiting the statesmen from accepting gifts and that they should accept the supervision of the tribunal officers, council members, and constables. Also, we would start paying the statesmen enough salary to allow them to live a life that is worth it as a statesman… What do you think?”
“If your majesty wants to pay us, how could we possibly disagree?” Sedrum said jokingly. In fact, whether to pay or receive gifts doesn't have much influence on him or Vespa. After all, their other identity as the chieftain of a tribe made them not short of money as they still had a large area of tribal land, many slaves, and countless livestock, even though the youth in their tribes had become independent. Therefore, Davos was mainly asking the other people.
But Cornelius remained hesitant towards Davos' proposal, “Your majesty, I agree with your proposal, but what would be the appropriate amount for the salary? Where will the money come from?”
“It seems that we have reached a consensus on the proposal of prohibiting the statesmen from accepting gifts and the implementation of salary,” said Davos as he glanced at Lysias and Marigi, who were both nodding.
“Next, let's talk about the specific salary!” Davos' eyes fell on the nervous Mersis again, “Mersis, tell me, what is the salary of the officials ranking below the city praetor?”contemporary romance
“The officials ranking below the city praetor?” Mersis regained his composure once they started talking about business. After thinking carefully, Mersis said, “The vice praetors, intermediate-level aedile, agricultural officers, judge…and so on, have more or less different salaries. For example, we would pay the agricultural officer and construction officer more as they need to travel outside for long-term, judges and constable's work is relatively easy, so the pay is a little less…the average calculation is about…about forty Hades' drachmae or so.” Mersis calculated it for a moment and finally blurted out a number.
Mersis called it Hades' drachmae because, after the kingdom's establishment, they changed the design of the drachmae with the head of Hades on one side and the head of King Davos on the other side. Moreover, the kingdom also started minting copper coins with two types of designs: Persephone and the Grand Senate Hall, and Heracles and the Grand Senate Hall. And the exchange rate of copper to silver coins was 6:1, which was almost the same as that of an Obol to a Drachma. Hence Theonia replaced the Obol with the copper coin. These two coins, with their high purity and exquisite pattern, became the only currency circulated in the kingdom of Theonia and became one of the main currencies used by other countries in the western Mediterranean.
“Forty drachmae…about the price of one and a half cows.” Davos didn't feel any surprise at this figure as he already had a detailed understanding in advance, and he had only asked Mersis so that the people present were clear about it. This salary is not low because a citizen with an acre of land would only earn three times that amount when having a good harvest, yet this is only a month's salary of a middle-ranking official in the kingdom of Theonia. Moreover, the price of cattle and horses in the kingdom is low, usually fluctuating between twenty-five and thirty drachmae. On the other hand, a cow would cost at least fifty drachmae in Greece.
Davos tapped his fingers on the table and said slowly, “I propose we should set the statesmen’s salary to be a hundred Hades' drachmae. In addition, statesmen who have positions will have an increase in salary according to their position. For example, suppose a statesman was a praetor; his total salary should be adding the salary of a statesman and the salary of a praetor… Hmm, since a vice praetor's salary is about forty drachmae, we should pay the praetor fifty drachmae so that his monthly salary should amount to one hundred fifty drachmae.
Another example: Sesta, since you are a statesman and the grand inspector, whose position belongs to the same rank as a praetor, so your salary should also be about one hundred fifty drachmae. There are also those like Cornelius, who is a rotating speaker. And since a rotating speaker is different from an ordinary statesman as you also needed to undertake some extra work, you should also receive an additional salary…”
Everyone gradually relaxed as they carefully digested Davos' proposal. After all, no one dislikes having too much money, not to mention that their salary would reflect their seniority in the kingdom. And with that, the statesmen wouldn't have many complaints even if they passed the no-gift bill.
Only Mersis was discontent as he shouted, “That's too much! Too much! If we calculate the salary of the more than a hundred statesmen in the Senate according to a hundred drachmae, we would need to take out more than two talents from the treasury each month! We don't have that much money there!”
Before Davos could say anything, Cornelius asked suspiciously, “I remember the Department of Finance earns hundreds of talents yearly just from the lottery ticket of the various ball games. Moreover, since the country's commerce is booming and merchant ships are gathering in the ports in the various cities, the monthly merchant tax is almost a hundred talents, right? Besides those, we should earn more land tax as the kingdom's population is up to 1.8 million, as well as the annual slave redemption fee, the postal fee of the post office, the escort fee of the fleet…all of those shouldn't be a small amount of money, so how can the treasury run out of money?!”
“Lord Cornelius.” Mersis sneered, “You only see the money entering the treasury, but you don't see how much we are spending. Currently, we have more than a thousand middle-ranking officials in the kingdom, and the salary we are paying them amounts to more than a dozen talents every month. Besides them, we also have the jailers, patrolmen, sentries…and other bottom-level officials who we also have to pay. If we all count them, there are about tens of thousands of people. So the amount we have to pay is more than fifty talents!
Don't forget the cost of building new roads, bridges, ports, temples, libraries and other public buildings. Moreover, we also have to pay for the maintenance of the old roads, walls, temples, and other such public buildings, the cost of military services every time we call the soldiers and warships for military training, the cost of creating and maintaining military equipment, warships…all of these requires a lot of money.”
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