Chapter 372: An Investment
In the Rockwell Kingdom, no one was wealthier than the Second Queen.
It was impossible to say exactly how much money Natasha personally controlled, but 100 million Gold was probably a decent estimate. If all her hard assets like land and businesses were also counted, that figure would likely be 3 to 5 times that much.
There were plenty of forces in the Rockwell Kingdom that controlled more money than that, but no single person came remotely close to being that wealthy.
It was blunt, in-your-face proof that no one in the Rockwell Kingdom was better at making and growing money than Natasha Summer.
Yet now, she was proclaiming she would be investing nearly all her fortune into these reforms.
This single statement shifted the scales in everyone’s head.
Where before, fears about implementing these reforms were the most present in their minds, fear of going against the Second Queen’s financial instincts quickly overtook them.
When the richest woman in the nation, with the single most influence on its economy and the best track record when it came to making profit, said she was going all in on an investment, it was very, very hard to do the opposite.
Of course, there was more going on in the minds of these wilily old foxes than just hesitancy to oppose the Second Queen.
Before the meeting even began, the Economic Cultivation Initiative passing was a done deal, so refusing now served no real purpose other than to offend the Royal Family.
Many were also thinking that while the future was uncertain, with Natasha investing so much of her own money and the bulk of the royal family’s coffers, there would surely be opportunities for them to benefit at least in the short term.
More importantly, though, was the deal the Second Queen proposed at the last moment to secure a unanimous vote.
Participation for all Viscount-rank nobles and above, as well as businesses that made more than 1,000 Gold in annual profit, would be made mandatory, but the minimum investment demanded from these forces would be just 10% of the total tax they paid the previous year, not 10% of how much they earned that year.
In exchange for this ’compromise’, however, it was agreed that any profits made would also be strictly distributed according to how much each individual force contributed.
In other words, if your house paid 10,000 Gold in taxes last year, you would have to pay at least 1,000 Gold into the Initiative unless you could prove to the Royal Treasury that you were somehow unable to do so.
If you contributed 1,000 Gold in local Initiative projects that generated a 10% boost in local economic growth, you would get 100 Gold as a return on your investment.
Similarly, if you invested 1 million, you would get 10,000.
10 million, 1 million.
And so on and so forth.
With this clause added to the proposal, many of those who still had reservations figured they could just invest the minimum amount.
If things worked out, great; if not, it was just a small loss.
Natasha was well aware of what her opponents were thinking, but she didn’t care. All that mattered was dragging everyone onto her ship; after all, once they set sail, even if they wanted to get off, it wouldn’t be so easy.
All of this had happened without Lucas even being aware.
In fairness, Lucas had meant to implement most of the policies and reforms Natasha had put forward in her Economic Cultivation Initiative, but not for several more years at least, and certainly not all at once across the entire country.
He didn’t have the power or influence to make such drastic changes to the Rockwell Kingdom, nor did he think it would be wise to do so in such a radical fashion.
His plan was to start with the Balfour March, taking advantage of his position and his Master’s power to demonstrate the effectiveness of a well-regulated, semi-industrialized, free-market system to promote economic and social growth.
Once he had a proof of concept, Lucas could extend his reach out to the rest of the province, then the kingdom.
Never had he imagined that the Second Queen would take his sleep-deprived midnight ramblings, study them intensely, reverse-engineer his endgame, and then immediately try to implement it.
It was a testament to Natasha’s brilliance when it came to finances, but also to her boldness. She was well aware that doing this would cause massive disruption and create many enemies, but she did it anyways.
In fact, it was precisely because the Rockwell Kingdom was already in the middle of a period of upheaval after the disaster in the South-West Province that Natasha was so determined to act.
Trying to implement drastic reforms during a period of peace, when everyone was content and their pockets were filled, may have seemed like a simpler and easier task, but it was actually the opposite.
It was human nature to not want change when things are going well. During good times, although some would become adventurous and seek new opportunities, the vast majority prioritized protecting their vested interests, even if that meant sacrificing potential future gains.
Only in times of crisis could rapid and uncertain modifications be made to stagnant but functional systems.
Whether things would all work out in the end, only time would tell, but for the moment, Lucas, the root cause of all this chaos, had absolutely no idea it was even happening.
In a single night, the young boy had managed to impact the Rockwell Kingdom’s economy in ways no one was yet capable of comprehending, yet he remained totally ignorant of it all, and the Second Queen was determined to keep it that way for as long as possible.
Natasha saw enormous potential in Lucas, so much so that it honestly frightened her a bit.
Despite her incredible foresight and ability to read people, talents she had developed in the cutthroat environment she grew up in, the Second Queen was at a complete loss trying to predict Lucas’ future. Who he would eventually become, what feats he would accomplish along the way, even his current objectives and motivations were all a mystery to her.
However, from the little time Natasha had spent with Lucas, and from the bits-and-pieces of information she had gathered about him, there was one thing she was certain of, she wanted to see just how far he could go.
In the Summers Family, Natasha never stood out much because of her modest, reserved personality; she had always preferred working behind the scenes, quietly gaining wealth and influence beneath the surface instead of fighting for the limelight.
Not much changed when Natasha married Nathanial and later become Second Queen, so much so that even amongst the upper nobility of the Rockwell Kingdom, she was known as the brains of the Royal Family, while Marianne was the muscle, and Cynthia was the face.
That was why it was so shocking when the usually quiet Second Queen came out swinging for the Economic Cultivation Initiative, going so far as to leverage her name, reputation, and fortune on it.
Everyone thought that Natasha was betting on herself and on her plan, but what she was really betting on, or rather who she was really betting on, was Lucas and his limitless future.
In her mind, Natasha Summers felt that this young boy from the countryside of her adopted kingdom would either rise up so far he would one day hold the very stars in his hand, bringing all those around him along so they too may witness that glorious vista, or be forever buried by the weight of stagnation and repression.
Only one of these outcomes appealed to Natasha, of course, so she decided to throw her full weight behind him in order to see her preferred future come to pass.
It was an investment in both Lucas’, her own, and her family’s futures, one that carried incredible risk, but whose rewards were bountiful beyond her wildest imagination.
Fortunately, making winning investments was what Natasha Summers did best.