Chapter 96 Usual Morning

It was the usual morning again, the same as the ones he had since his arrival in this world. It was boring because the only chore he’ll have to do is eat breakfast, read the morning papers, suffer from imposter syndrome of being inside the body of an emperor, and wait for the clock to strike before working.

But on this day, it was different. Now that there is a new appliance installed in his office that can give him company while he sifts through all the paperwork…Television.

To be exact, Alexander was watching the morning news that discusses things, especially the nationwide construction efforts initiated by the government. Giving live updates and visuals on some of the construction sites. The morning show also has a side effect of boosting productivity as people can see progress being made all over Ruthenia and go to work motivated.

The Ruthenia Empire has only one channel, but in the near future, Alexander expects that it’ll rise to ten or twenty. So far that one and the only channel is the Imperial Dynamic Systems Broadcasting Network. Shorten to IDSBN. Hopefully, a new shorter name is in the works.

Every morning, the channel will play the Ruthenia Empire’s national anthem. After that, it’ll be followed by morning news and a morning movie that has been played in cinemas before. The same goes in the afternoon where there’ll be afternoon news and afternoon movies that will go around until nine in the evening which will then close and the cycle repeats. Simple as that.

As he continued to watch, a sudden knock on the door was heard, prompting Alexander to reach for the remote…only to end up looking all over the table for it until he remembers.

The television model that Alexander’s company manufactured doesn’t yet have television remote control features…Well, that only means he has to introduce one soon.

Standing up, Alexander strode all the way in front of the television and turned it off manually. Then fixing his suit and straightening his suit, he called out “Enter.”-.

The door opened and in walked the familiar faces of his ministers. The Minister of Finances, Foreign Affairs, and Interior.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Gentleman…Good morning,” Alexander greeted them with a smile as they entered the office. As soon as they did so, one by one, each bowed respectfully and said “Good Morning Your Majesty,”

“Let’s get down to business,” Alexander sat at the table and motioned to the others to sit as well. “What do you have for me,”

With a nod, the Minister of Finances spoke up “Your Majesty, I’m here to tell you to report to you the statistical reports of the Ruthenian economy, if you would refer to this file, please,”

Taking the file from the Minister, Alexander looked at it and read the content of the file. He sighed as he saw numbers from the previous year’s economic growth and compared it against last year’s growth and compared their results and conclusions.

“We’re in free fall huh?…as expected,”

“The primary cause of the downward trend is due to the huge government spending. The modernization of the military and the Infrastructure Act are drying out our coffers. We need to ease government funding otherwise we’ll go bankrupt…”

“Calm down, minister. This is only a natural effect. In business you call this investment, we invest in infrastructures that will produce us money, and then will reap the rewards. Also, there’s another reason as to why our economy is falling…the people doesn’t spend their money,”

“People don’t spend their money?” Vladimir repeated.

“What was the employment rate right now in Ruthenia?” Alexander asked.

“Last year, it’s 40 percent but now it skyrocketed to 85 percent,”

“Then 85 of those are earning with a new minimum wage system right?”

“That’s correct, Your Majesty,” Vladimir nodded.

“Well, that’s the issue…” Alexander said and continued. “You see, those people keep earning money every month from their salary and they only spend it on their needs, which are food, rent, and utilities. We have to break that cycle to keep the economy from stagnating. Hence, we need to come up with another way to make people spend their newfound wealth and make it pour back into our treasury.”

“Do you have a plan, Your Majesty?”

“Indeed, I do,” Alexander said.

Alexander’s plan is simple. Introduce more products in the market. There’s already a television? Then why don’t we introduce another one like microwave ovens or innovate and improve current appliances such as electric washing machines and vacuum cleaners? Introduce new entertainments and the symbol of capitalism…the fast food restaurant.

There’s also another way of encouraging individuals to start their own business and be competitive in the market.

The only problem Alexander is anticipating once this plan is implemented is that it can lead to depression, like what happened in the United States. You see, when people start earning a lot of money from their work and they literally bought everything from the market such as cars, appliances, houses, they’ll look for something to spend on, which is stocks.

See, why settle on being rich when you can become richer? People invest their wealth in stocks and if that’s not enough, take loans out from the bank to invest more until to the point where the companies will have a hard time keeping up and justifying their stock price.

To prevent the worst economic downturn of history, Alexander has drawn up plans to soften the fall if an inevitable comes. Like introducing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Security Exchange Commission targeted to protecting the citizens’ wealth, overhauling the banking system, which at this time are small, individual institutions, or even abandoning the golden standard, which is risky if other countries didn’t follow suit.

Simply put, Alexander has placed countermeasures for something like this so it won’t happen during his reign.

“I see…Your Majesty, I wish you good luck on that…however, onto the next order of business, please look at this new tax legislation passed by the Imperial Council, they want you to review it before they make amendments…” Vladimir handed a thick file with many pages.

Alexander took the file and looked over the document. After a moment, he glanced toward Vladimir who smiled back at him.

“I’ll give you a call once I finish reading the legislation…for now let’s move on to another topic…Dmitri…is there something you want to report?”

“Yes, Your Majesty…this concerns the Black Hand…we’ve just flushed the last remaining hideout in Siberia, effectively cleansing Ruthenian of the pests…we are conducting interrogation to get information out of them that will lead us to the location of their main headquarters, which is likely on foreign lands,”

“That’s great…If you extracted something invaluable, do let me know…It’s a good thing that we’ve cleansed off these lands of terrorists, gaining the confidence we had lost from the people and our partners. The next faction which I consider enemies within our lands is the group known as the “communists”. Their ideals can be threatening should their moderate leaders be replaced by extremists…watch them over for me, Dmitri…Do that and you’ll have your another 15 percent increase in budget,”

From what Alexander remembers from history on Earth, the communists gained much power after the fall of Imperial Russia. Hopefully, with his many reformations and projects, the communists will see the Ruthenia Imperial family in a different light. But there is no guarantee.

“Understood, Your Majesty…”

Alexander’s gaze flickered to Sergei, “Okay, what about you, Sergei?”

“Sir, the trade delegations from the Francois Republic and the Britannia Empire are at the Mikhailovsky Palace waiting for you, Your Majesty.”

“Oh, they’ve already arrived huh?” Alexander stood up, putting away his copy of the new tax legislation he’d just taken, “Very well, then…”

The delegations from the Francois Republic and Britannia Empire are guests Alexander is expecting. The reason for it is that Alexander made a deal with the Deutschland Empire by building fighter and bomber aircraft in exchange for them joining his side during the conflict in the Far East.

If the Francois and Britannia Empire were to find that out, they’ll be royally pissed. So, to maintain neutrality, Alexander is doing business with them as well which it’ll lead Ruthenia to economic prosperity, ushering itself into a new era. This is just a fancy way Ruthenia is open for business to everyone.

“Thanks for your report, you may now leave.” Alexander slipped in his jacket and walked past them heading towards the front doors.