Laughter naturally couldn't travel over a thousand kilometers and come to Banta City.
However, it was unknown if it was because her highness Seveni and Viscount Leslie were discussing him, but even if Xu Yi was hiding in the warm conference room of the City Lord's Manor, he couldn't help sneezing.
This sudden sneeze interrupted Count Sean's speech and also attracted the attention of everyone in the conference hall who had been listening attentively.
Samo Count put down the report in his hand and looked at Xu Yi with a smile as he said, "What?
Chairman Xu, are you dissatisfied with the report in my hand? "
Xu Yi quickly shook his head, "No, no, I don't have any objections.
I just ….. I just suddenly felt a bit cold. "
"Cold?"
Samo Count looked at the two Magic Air Conditioners on the wall and said with a smile, "These are the Xinfei Brand Magic Air Conditioners produced by your company. If you still feel cold with them, I should ask you if you as the chairman of New Flyer have neglected your duty."
"Ha, ha!"
Of course everyone knew that Samo Count was teasing Xu Yi, so they broke out in laughter.
Xu Yi laughed, "That's impossible, the quality of the Xinfei Brand Magic Air Conditioners can be trusted, there definitely won't be a problem.
Perhaps it's because I went to the Sandy River with Stiel last night and caught a cold from the cold wind. "
There was another round of laughter in the hall.
Chairman Rank sitting not far from Xu Yi gave a long sigh, "Chairman Xu is still young and strong, he even dares to stroll by the river on such a cold night.
For an old man like me, I'm not willing to go out once it gets dark. "
Everyone agreed, teasing Xu Yi one after another.
With the development of New Flyer, Xu Yi's position in Banta City had also risen. He was gradually able to sit on the same level as the old company chairmen.
Although everyone would often make fun of him because of his age, no one would express any disdain for him.
Even chairman Morgan who was the most hostile to Xu Yi before, because of the agreement between Xu Yi and Joseph Marquis, New Flyer and the Falcao Chamber of Commerce began cooperating. He no longer showed any hostility to Xu Yi, rather he was very close to Xu Yi whether it was in front of everyone or in private.
After laughing and joking with everyone for a while, the somewhat serious atmosphere in the conference hall suddenly became relaxed.
When everyone's voices stopped, Xu Yi turned to Count and said, "Lord City Lord, I have no objections to this report, but I have a suggestion."
"Oh?
Then let's hear it. "
Not only Count Count, even the others stopped laughing. They all looked at Xu Yi with looks of concern.
After being with Xu Yi for a long time, everyone was very clear that the words Xu Yi said in this kind of situation wouldn't be random, it would have a large or small effect.
If it was a suggestion he made, the Lord City Lord would never reject it and it would always have quite a bit of effect.
"Lord City Lord, in the report you just read, Banta City's plan this year is to reclaim wasteland, expand farmland, and increase grain yield. Of course I don't have any objections to this.
I have no objections to this, but I feel that you've overlooked a very important problem. "
"What problem?" Count Count asked in a curious voice.
"That is manpower." Xu Yi said.
"I feel that if there aren't any related measures, there will be fewer and fewer farmers in Banta City. In the end, there will be no one farming."
Count Count knit his brows, "How is that possible?
There are over a hundred thousand farmers in the villages outside Banta City, how could there be no one farming?
It's fine if you can't manage it before, but now with the help of your Frestech Chamber of Commerce's agricultural magic machines, it's much easier and more efficient. Even if there are fewer people, there won't be a problem.
I made this plan because I considered this.
Could it be that your company isn't planning on producing agricultural magic machines in the future? "
"Of course not." Xu Yi immediately shook his head.
Count Count shook his head, "But Lord Count, you might not have noticed a fact.
Although there are over a hundred thousand registered farmers outside Banta City, have you calculated how many people are still farming in the villages? "
Count Count was surprised, "Could it be that you're saying that these farmers aren't farming anymore?
Then what are they doing? "
Xu Yi laughed and pointed at himself before pointing at the representatives of the other companies sitting in the conference hall, "It's very simple, these farmers are all working in the factories."
Count Count was surprised. He looked at Xu Yi and the representatives of the other companies before revealing a look of understanding.
"You want to say that the farmers are all working in the factories of your companies and aren't willing to farm?"
"Of course."
Count Count nodded, "Right now the average monthly wage of the factories of the large companies in Banta City is over seven gold coins.
Even the workers who have just entered the factories on probation can receive a wage of over four gold coins a month.
Compared to the trivial few gold coins a year from farming, it's clear that the wages of workers in the factories are much higher.
If I were a farmer, I wouldn't be willing to farm and would choose to work in the factories. "
"Un ….. This is indeed a problem, I've neglected it."
Count Count knit his brows to think before asking, "Chairman Xu, how many workers does your company have right now?"
"Not counting the elves and dwarves, just the day before yesterday, we broke through the four thousand mark." Xu Yi raised four fingers as he replied.
"When the new canned fruit factory is finished, we'll need to recruit another five hundred workers.
Other than that, according to general manager Kennard's estimates, we need to recruit at least a thousand workers by the end of the year. "
"This means that just your New Flyer will take away over five thousand people?"
"Yes."
Count Count asked the other chairmen of the large companies and the answers he received were the same.
As the New Flyer kept developing various magic machines, the other large companies of Banta City kept changing their production model to an industrial model.
As the scale of production became bigger, they needed more and more workers.
Just the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce alone had over twenty thousand workers.
Other than the six thousand workers who were working on the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce's traditional construction projects, the remaining thirteen thousand workers were scattered across the Lampari Kingdom, the Kingdom of Ruhr, and the Principality of Constantine, working hard to build roads.
Compared to this, the workers of the New Flyer were considered few.
Adding in the workers of the New Flyer, the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce, the Armani Chamber of Commerce, the Sarac Chamber of Commerce, and the Falcao Chamber of Commerce, the five recognized large companies of Banta City, there were over seventy thousand people.
Adding in the workers of the other companies of Banta City, there were over a hundred thousand workers working in the factories of Banta City.
This didn't include the people working in the other industries.
If it was added in, there were close to two hundred thousand people working in the other industries.
After receiving this estimate, Samo Count couldn't help being a bit stunned.
Since there were close to two hundred thousand people working in the other industries, putting aside the old, weak, women, and children who couldn't work, of course there wouldn't be anyone working in agriculture.
Moreover, the total population of Banta City didn't even reach two hundred thousand. If it wasn't for the large amount of foreigners entering Banta City, the workers of these companies wouldn't have reached such a terrifying number.
Not to mention that even like this, the large companies led by the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce often complained to the City Lord that they didn't have enough people, hoping that he could find a way to bring in more workers from other places.
Thinking of this, Samo Count couldn't help looking down at the report in his hand, flipping to the part that hadn't been read yet.
The topic of today's meeting was a summary of the work done in Banta City last year. The final part of the report was the various tax statistics of Banta City last year.
The reason why the representatives of the large companies were invited to today's meeting was because in terms of the tax statistics, the large companies had performed very well.
But looking at the tax statistics again, Samo Count still felt that it was unreal.
According to the final statistics of the Banta City tax department, in just a single year, Banta City's tax revenue had reached a terrifying one million three hundred and seventy thousand gold coins!
It had to be known, according to the numbers released by the kingdom's tax department, the Lampari Kingdom's tax revenue last year was less than two million gold coins.
According to the law of paying a third of the tax, Banta City had paid four hundred and fifty thousand gold coins, which was close to a quarter of the kingdom's tax revenue!
This was a very terrifying result.
This was because the year before last, Banta City's tax revenue was less than fifty thousand gold coins. Among the twenty six cities of the kingdom, they were at the bottom of the rankings.
Now that only two years had passed, Banta City's tax revenue had even surpassed the capital Anvilmar City, becoming the city with the highest tax revenue in the kingdom!
If one looked back at the one million three hundred and seventy thousand gold coins that Banta City had received, they would find that although the agricultural tax revenue had greatly increased with the help of the agricultural magic machines, going from less than thirty thousand gold coins to close to a hundred thousand gold coins, compared to the business tax revenue of over a million gold coins, it wasn't worth mentioning at all.
In other words, the agricultural tax revenue that used to be the most important to Banta City could already be ignored because the most important industry had already become business.
If one divided it a bit more, one would find that in the business tax revenue, just the New Flyer alone was a large number of over five hundred thousand gold coins. If one added in the tax revenue from the various magic machine companies related to the New Flyer, it would be over seven hundred thousand gold coins, which was over two thirds of the total.
This meant that if one really calculated it, the most important industry in Banta City right now was the magic machine industry represented by the New Flyer.
Thinking of this, Xu Yi's importance in Count Samo's heart couldn't help increasing. He looked up at Xu Yi and said with a faint smile, "It seems like the problem that chairman Xu mentioned does exist and it is very important.
Then chairman Xu, what is your suggestion? "
Xu Yi replied with a nod, "My suggestion is to promote the development of the agricultural industry."