Records: the Golden Parliament

### **The Rain of Gold**

February brought back a new parliament, again led by Prince Edward, but there was a different feeling. Granted, there were still threats literally on all sides of England, but Prince Edward's *Audit and Rectification* had reclaimed the Royal Court.

The incompetence, criminal-level negligence and corrosive corruption had been excised from power. The effects of that could not be overstated in their impact on the morale of the House of Commons. The biggest impact, however, was in the relationship between the Crown and the House of Lords. The chain-of-command had been decisively refreshed and reinforced *without* a civil war.

Combined with the return of the Crown Prince to health, the magic of Merlin reborn, and the rumor of new income flowing through the coffers changed absolutely everything.

**The cash infusion:** the Crown didn't announce that they were running a secret gold mine – but that was the appearance. After taking direct control of the Warden of the Mint duties, the Royal Wardrobe had a sudden windfall that was measured in *tons*of coinage. Accounted as £25,000 in golden nobles and another £25k in silver groats, the Crown "recovered" an entire year's worth of normal income.

* As the regular revenue trickled in atop this, there was new breathing room in England. The "secret gold mine" was suspected by many to *actually*be a manifestation of Merlin's magic, as performed by Richard. The Royal family were discreetly inscrutable.
	+ The 12.5 tons of gold was just a hair over a tenth of what they'd actually created, leaving plenty of time to dribble more out as needed – and dribble they did as construction funds for the Royal Company, the Royal Academy and so on weren't coming from the official Wardrobe anymore. The South England economy was already heating up.
	+ The alchemy processes, including the gold, silver and lithium-to-carbon (diamond) process was supported by Richard's 5+25 strong secret Royal Order of Merlin (ROM) cadre.

**Tax:**The announcement of a change in the tax structure. Government was being asked to do more – and they could – but it took money to do it. They needed to get used to a more regular direct tax, that is, a tax imposed upon an individual person (juristic or natural) or property (i.e. real and personal property, livestock, crops, wages, etc.).

* Parliament had a choice: either yearly fixed poll tax or a graduated income tax. Parliament would dictate the rates for such taxes. They chose the graduated income tax.
	+ The Crown reserved the right to veto. As evidenced by the *recovered* funds, once the Crown had competent officials in place, there was a great deal it could do with collection, storage and eventual disbursement.
	+ Parliament couldn’t argue with the results, and while there was plenty they could argue with, they didn’t have the pull to do it under “Edward's Reformation of England.”
	+ In the long run, especially given inflation, the tax collected would be a regular source of income that would eventually dwarf what precious metals they could make with alchemy (mining or anything else). Establishing the taxation precedent now would make the transition to long-term modern collection systems easier when the time came.
* The Crown retained the right to charge Indirect tax at will (taxes on transactions).
	+ Parliament reserved the right place injunctions on the taxes.
	+ The most indirect taxes at the time were import/export levies.
	+ Translated to modern terms, the “National Sales Tax” was usually an alternative to income tax if implemented to its maximum potential (as cost of living would/could be too high by taxes alone if both rates were maxed). If both taxes were moderated, an economy could carry both types – and that’s what Prince Rick had in mind.
* Significantly, the Prince developed, streamlined and universally codified the taxes that could be raised by the towns, including murage for walls, pavage for streets or pontage, a temporary tax for the repair of bridges.
	+ Combined with an English form of the *lex mercatoria*, a set of codes and customary practices governing trading, this provided a reasonable basis for the economic governance of English towns.

**France:** John of Gaunt was increasingly marginalized for having suggested the English adopt the French Salic law, but it was a gentle reprimand.

* It wasn't something Prince Edward could openly embrace while his father still lived, but in private, he wasn't entirely against the idea of letting France be French.
* One proviso: Edward wanted a substantial Aquitaine which he'd to grant to his *second*son.