Starting from the Planetary Governor

Chapter 1458: Chapter 827: The Alliance Also Harvests Profits

During the process of the Dark Side Expedition, Gu Hang had to stir things up within the Alliance, naturally to stabilize the Alliance as much as possible and maintain a strong momentum of development.

Only an internally stable entity, where the economy can continue to grow rapidly even in wartime—especially the rapid growth of the military industry—is the fundamental reliance for the Alliance to persist through the unknown length of the Dark Side Expedition in the future.

At the same time, the newly conquered areas, especially the part toward the east of the Magrey Cosmic Domain, captured by the Alliance during the early stages of the Dark Side Expedition, are being digested with full effort by the Alliance Government.

So far, it has been relatively effective.

The core nature of the Alliance has never changed: they are a monster that, in less than a hundred years, has developed from a single planet to its current extent.

Throughout the Alliance’s relatively short lifespan, the task they are most familiar with is: expansion!

The Alliance has had tens of thousands of mature experiences of expanding and occupying a planet. They fully understand what needs to be done to quickly assimilate an entire planet after claiming it.

First, promote the righteousness and prestige to establish legitimacy.

Based on the powerful military strength of the Alliance, reorganize and subordinate the planet’s armed forces during a short period of military governance, rebuilding a Defense Army system that obeys the Alliance.

Provide security and survival assurances to the lower and middle civilian class, enticing the civilian class to serve the Alliance’s interests;

Demand the old aristocratic class to fully integrate into the Alliance system, offering them decent terms of integration, but the means of production must belong to the Alliance, and they can enjoy only the profits at most. Opponents and resistors will face strong suppression.

With legitimacy, means of production, a local army that obeys the Alliance, and supportive citizens, the foundation to do well is established.

Institutionalization of the Alliance and normalization of industrial production, at this point, can already supply the Expedition with resources.

The Alliance, of course, also levies taxes, only that it doesn’t favor the Empire’s conventional Imperial Tax model. Brutally taking a 10% share of the total output as tax not only looks particularly unsightly but actually doesn’t earn much, causing public outrage as well.

The Alliance’s tax collection is rather lenient. For civilian enterprises, there are some low-rate value-added taxes and corporate income taxes; for the people, there are a few consumption taxes, with direct income taxes being relatively low.

The Alliance’s primary source of income is more about directly controlling a vast majority of the means of production, thereby building these state-owned enterprises whose production value brings in all the profits naturally belonging to the Alliance as the official enterprise owner.

However, executing this is not simple. The Alliance has to make substantial investments to reconstruct the planetary infrastructure. Additionally, within the Alliance system, there must be enough management personnel to operate this entire setup.

During this stage, the Alliance instead introduces some market elements. The output value and profits of state-owned enterprises are not entirely taken by the Alliance directly but are left in the hands of the enterprises themselves. The Alliance’s method of ’cutting the leeks’ entails making some adjustments based on the circumstances of various regions, set against standard pricing.

For industries that are just starting or recovering, the Alliance will elevate some numbers in terms of standard pricing order acquisitions, with some even reaching up to 100% elevation, to ensure the industries can grow rapidly.

Coupled with the Alliance’s initial financial investments in rebuilding the planet, the Alliance officially leads the integration of existing industries, considering local conditions, surrounding trade environments, and the Alliance’s overall needs, focusing on developing some pillar industries.

All these combined essentially form the Alliance’s overall supportive policy for the newly reclaimed planets.

After using these comprehensive strategies, a world that had considerable issues during previous turmoil often could indeed quickly get back on track.

At least there would be basic social order; productivity would recover; the populace would see hope for a better future.

But the duration of this support is often not too long. Half a year, a year, no more than two years at most.

By that time, the Alliance’s investments would decrease, and the order prices for enterprises would convert to standard pricing.

At this point, the Alliance has not yet made a profit. Acquiring goods at standard pricing certainly doesn’t make money. At most, it profits from some value-added tax, corporate income tax, personal consumption tax, and most of these revenues are used for purchasing the planet’s output; the Alliance Central even has to subsidize a bit.

But once reaching this level, it can basically be stated that the planet is no longer a burden to the Alliance and has gotten on track.

Of course, there are cases where, even after going through supportive policies, the standard state isn’t achieved. Then, the Alliance Government would initiate an accountability process to see what the issue is exactly.

Often, the planetary governor would be penalized.

Whether it be management inadequacies, recovery of production not meeting expectations; internal public support being insufficient; local aristocrats reviving to oppose the Alliance’s governance; internal disturbances persist, lacking stability, posing military threats…

In short, regardless of the issue, the governor can’t escape responsibility. Then, according to specific problems, they would seek accountability from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Production Department, and the armed forces.

Unless there has been an objective change in the overall environment outside the planet leading to unmet expectations, otherwise, responsibility cannot be shirked.

This set of governance, the planetary governance of the Alliance is somewhat similar to the planet governors of the Empire, both holding substantial power and full responsibility. But the difference is, in the Empire, as long as you pay the Imperial Tax, it’s over. Whereas, in the Alliance, evaluations are meticulously detailed. If there’s a problem, everything would be dug up, and indeed there are responsibilities to bear.

Being in politics in the Alliance is not a pleasant task. Although the internal power struggles are not as overt, cruel, and intense as in the Empire’s political arena, the ’business pressure’ is far greater than in the Empire’s political scene.

Everything else is secondary; the fundamental work being done or not is the crux. Without ’performance’ as a basis, engaging in other methods is futile, and during promotions, being directly vetoed—if not, when the Ministry of Internal Affairs checks, they are not easy to deal with.

And when a world can sustain normally for three to five years, it will enter the next stage: the Alliance begins to cut the leeks.

For the planet’s products, procurement prices start to drop below standard prices, by 1%-60%.

What is cut in this gap becomes pure profit. Plus, with the taxes collected, often from a well-off planet, the resources that the Alliance can draw are much more than the Empire’s 10% tax.

To achieve this, it forces the local industries of the planet to have to come up with ways to improve their standards. To properly develop advantageous industries so that the Alliance’s purchasing prices, even with reductions, will still allow for certain profits.