Chapter 495 – Nuances of Golden Island

After ten hours, these grasses can even be harvested. However Zhao Hai didn’t want to touch them right now, he decided to just let them grow. Even if the grass can be harvested, they were still very short. If he harvests them now, Golden Island would only return to its previous state. Because of this, Zhao Hai decided to let them grow more before harvesting.

By the time Zhao Hai, Laura, and the others appeared back on Golden Island, the grasses were already a meter long. The entire Golden Island was green and full of vitality.

Looking at the situation of Golden Island, Laura smiled and said, “Brother Hai, I’m afraid we need to enforce a rule forbidding people from moving these Plate Silk Grass on their own. Otherwise, our losses would be very big.”

Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “Construction would certainly destroy a part of them, but we can control it. These grasses can provide us with profit.”

Megan looked at Zhao Hai and said, “Big Brother Hai, you still care about money? These grasses can only be worth so much.”

Zhao Hai showed a faint smile and said, “I certainly don’t care about money, but these grasses are necessary to guarantee Gold Island’s appearance. Alright, no need to think too much about it. Now that everything has been completely prepared, the only thing we need to wait for are the people.”

Megan smiled and said, “Big Brother Hai, do you think it would be that easy? It’s almost been a month and nobody has come to visit the island.”

Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “They didn’t come because I still haven’t made them come. Now that we have taken care of Golden Island, we can have them come. Right, I have to send Grandfather a letter when I go back.”

Megan was confused, Zhao Hai hadn’t told them what he was planning to do in the island. So it was no wonder that Megan and the others were puzzled.

After returning to the naval base, Zhao Hai immediately sent a letter to the Calci Family, Prince Charlie, Crook Family and the Shelley Family. He relayed his plan carefully and asked them to cooperate.

In fact, Randolph and the others wanted to send people to Golden Island, but Zhao Hai still hasn’t agreed. He asked them to wait for his letter before they can come.

Soon, Randolph and the others received Zhao Hai’s letter. They couldn’t help but comment him, they thought that Zhao Hai’s plan was fantastic. If the pirates don’t come to Golden Island in order to trade, the major forces of the continent would suffer as well.

However, the pirates were still uncertain about the situation on Golden Island. Therefore, they chose to wait until there is exact confirmation coming from those who went in first.

Randolph and the others knew about this. So when they received Zhao Hai’s letter, the Calci Family immediately sent a party to enter Golden Island. Because Sky Water city was closest to Golden Island, they can immediately send a party as soon as possible.

The second group to enter the island was from the Shelley Family. Recently, Shelley Family’s businesses on the continent have been severely suppressed by the Radiant Church. Although they had taken care of it, the businesses weren’t as good as before. For the family, this loss was huge. The elders of the Shelley Family were now very dissatisfied with the Patriarch for his support for Zhao Hai. Their arrival at Golden Island this time was a good opportunity to cover their losses.

The third group who entered Golden Island was from Prince Charlie. His base was Jade Water City, although it was farther than Sky Water City, its distance to the island wasn’t that far. It was because of this that they were quite slower than the Calci Family.

The Crook Family were the last people to enter the island because their family doesn’t have a port city. If they want to move to Gold Island, they needed to make more preparations compared to the others, which made them a lot slower.

These four groups entering Golden Island wasn’t a mystery for the people of the continent. All of them knew about their relationship with Zhao Hai, because of this, people weren’t very surprised by it.

However, two pirate groups suddenly entered Golden Island to do business. Naturally, they weren’t there to make a shop, they wanted to sell off their snatched goods. They went to the island to have their loot sold and were given gold or other goods in exchange, the trade went very smoothly.

Not only did they manage to buy what they needed, they had also bought it at a much lower price than what they usually paid for. The things they sold were also bought at a much higher price than what they were usually bought at. This time, they earned three times the profit compared to what they had before.

The two pirate groups who entered the island were quite courageous, they directly entered the island. In the end, their courage was well rewarded, they gains that they made was more than satisfactory.

Their success stimulated the other pirate groups. The pirates really lacked a place where they could trade. Now that Golden Island appeared, all of them were very happy.

The coming of these pirates brought great fortune to the Calci Family and the other three. Naturally, these profits weren’t hidden from the other forces in the continent, they immediately went and started to move.

Their first action was to set up shops on Golden Island. At this time, Laura’s men also arrived at the island and beacon to work as its administrators.

Before long, Golden Island became very bustling. Golden Island wasn’t only cheap, its taxes weren’t very high as well. All of their businesses weren’t very restricted, as long as they don’t violate the basic rules of Golden Island, the administration wouldn’t disturb them.

The pirates were extremely pleased. They haven’t been this rich before, they couldn’t help but be very happy. In the past they can’t even walk on the streets because of their fear of being arrested.

Now it was very different, as long as one arrives at Golden Island and follows its rules, the undead who acted as guards wouldn’t even spare you a glance.

In the beginning, they weren’t very used to seeing the undead patrols, however, in time they gradually accepted it as a normal thing. These undead were very good, as long as you don’t violate Golden Island’s rule, they wouldn’t pay any attention to you. Only when someone commits a crime would they become impolite.

The pirates have seen it with their own eyes. A pirate went to sell their items but didn’t receive any money. The owner even fought with him before the owner was taken away by the undead and whipped a few times.

If this was just the case, then there’s nothing strange about is. But interestingly, the person was from the Calci Family. When he was taken away, he was still very arrogant, he kept shouting to the undead that he was from the Calci Family. He said that if these undead dared to touch him, then he wouldn’t make Zhao Hai look good.

But the undead didn’t care about his words, they still proceeded to whip him. And at the same time, they heard that the person was heavily fined by the Calci Family.

There were some small merchants who were planning to no longer move their goods to other places. Instead, they decided to directly go to Golden Island. As long as they are inside the waters of Golden Island, they can be safe.

Naturally, some of the pirates didn’t follow the rules. After the Buda Clan announced this rule, they still robbed along Golden Island’s sea region.

However, even if they robbed at daytime, nighttime, or even if they didn’t use magic cannons, the Buda Clan would still be the first ones to know. After that, the pirates were guaranteed to be destroyed.

After three pirate groups were exterminated in a row, the pirates finally behaved themselves. The pirates knew that there should’ve been some kind of secret signal, otherwise it wouldn’t be possible to know everything.

Regarding the profits that the Buda Clan has lost in dealing with these pirates, it wasn’t that large. On the other hand, the action was very good for their income.

Some of the goods that merchants brought to the island and were sold off would fall into pirate hands. The cycle would then continue, therefore the Buda Clan doesn’t need to worry.

Because of the amount of goods being shipped to Golden Island, the prices of these items were naturally lowered. In the end, the ones who managed to save their profits would be the pirates. Therefore, the pirates were naturally very popular among the merchants.

But to say that the pirates would stop robbing would be impossible. The pirates would still rob, however, when they enter and sell their loot in Golden Island, nobody would tell on them. Even those who are eager to trace the pirates would find it hard to do so. Because of this, Zhao Hai wasn’t worried that the island’s income would be affected.

Zhao Hai’s taxation on Golden Island being very low was because he wasn’t taxing the goods that were shipped in, instead he applied taxes on each transaction.

Zhao Hai gave a clear announcement that this tax rate wouldn’t change, it would always be at this rate. Zhao Hai knew that as long as he made the tax of Golden Island very low, as well as provide good services, Golden Island would sooner or later have a reputation. As long as Golden Island has its brand, more merchants would come in. They may not want to deal with pirated goods and would only want to do normal business, but Zhao Hai reckoned that the tax rate would still be enough.

Just a month after the Calci Family arrived at the island, the place welcomed its peak season. Whether they be pirates or merchants, all of them wanted to trade on Golden Island because the taxes here was really cheap.

Even if the taxes on other places aren’t very high, they weren’t that low. Take Sky Water City for example, the city’s base tax for ordinary cargo was 5% – 8%, other goods would reach 10% to 15%

However, in Golden Island, the taxes for ordinary cargo was only 1%, other goods can be taxed about 2% or 3%.

The division between ordinary cargo and others was whether they are strategic resources. If they are strategic goods, then the tax would be higher, if not, then they would be lower.

Also, Golden Island taxed based on transactions, not the amount of cargo. If you sell something, they you would get taxes. If you don’t sell, then you don’t need to pay tax.

Also, damaged items might still be taxed on other places, but on Golden Island, damaged goods wouldn’t.

For other people, it might look like merchants can abuse this fact to evade taxes. However, such a thing doesn’t happen on Golden Island.

When goods arrive at Golden Island, they would be inspected. Moreover, each month, someone would come to the storehouses and record its contents before charging the merchants for tax.

Moreover, the people who would come and inspect the goods were undead. Undead couldn’t be bribed, and they were also very careful in their inspection. Because of this, evading taxes would be very difficult.

In order for Zhao Hai to prevent falsely declared damage goods, he borrowed the ticket system from Earth. If you make a transaction, you need to issue a ticket. Then the island would collect the taxes based on those tickets.

At the same time, Zhao Hai also carried appraisals for all damaged goods, assigning prices on them. If 5 out of 100 of your goods gets damaged, then they would be classified as fragile goods. If their mean value is 6% of the value of the 100, then those 5 wouldn’t be taxed. If you claim to have 10% worth of damaged goods, but the appraisal for those are just 5%, they you would be punished. At that time, 100% of your goods will be taxed.

Naturally, this might sound unfair. For example, if someone encounters a typhoon which caused massive damages to their goods. In that case, then they can report the incident to the island. When the time where you pay taxes comes, those goods wouldn’t be taxed.

This way, most cases of tax evasion would be eliminated. However, there would still be some people who can find a way to escape being taxed. Because of this, Zhao Hai thought of a reward system. If someone goes and reports someone of tax evasion, as long as that report is true, then that person would be rewarded. As a result, tax evasion was almost non existent in Golden Island.

Golden Island became a place of enthusiasm and prosperity. The businesses on the island became very popular. This made everyone on the continent jealous. However, they aren’t able to sabotage the island.

Zhao Hai had already set his reputation on stone, he even offended two Great Clans but he still didn’t care. If he didn’t have his reputation, he wouldn’t have opened Golden Island.

At this time, Zhao Hai was smiling on his gains. Also, since there were a lot of merchants who came to the island for business, his construction team was very busy. Due to these constructions, Zhao Hai had also made a lot of money.

The merchants on the island weren’t fools. They calculated everything before they proceeded with construction. If they saw that the construction group was very expensive, then they’d rather buy materials elsewhere and hire some people to build the shops on their own. But after doing their calculations, they saw that the construction team wasn’t more expensive than the other construction groups of the continent, on the other hand, they were actually cheaper. Therefore, people on the island decided to just hire Zhao Hai’s construction group to do the job.