Finances: Expenditures

  I felt a creeping madness overtake me as I reviewed the expenditures that my mother had amassed. I now understood why Father was the only one who had seen them as a whole. Our advisors would not have had the temperament necessary to restrain themselves from telling Mother to cut her spending in half. It’s the kind of spending that makes it appear as if Mother had forgotten that she had bestowed the power of taxation to Parliament and removed it from herself. Yes, there were many confiscated assets to sell when her reign first started, but we’ve reached the point that we’ll be selling a quarter of the capital if we ever run into a crisis.

  I’m sure she said that this was all for the people as she let herself burn through our fortune, but there should be room for efficiency when giving to others. At least, that’s what the teachers she hired taught me. I assumed that she shared that mentality with them.

  It is of no matter now. Our spending shall be reduced and with time some of our wealth will be recovered. From our most outstanding loss leaders I shall perform a further investigation with the intent of the reacquisition of allocated resources.

  First there are Mother’s research grants which fall into two categories: medical research and general innovations. With the amount of money spent on these grants, there must be a genius on every block. Surely, I must be supremely unaware for there to be so many intellectuals wandering about the capital without my knowledge, but considering my consistent review of our audience records,I think this not the case.

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  Next is her spending on the kingdom’s orphanages. Yes, I am against children starving in the streets, but tell me when did children start to as much as they apparently do today? Somehow we produce almost all the food in the capital valley and own almost all the housing, yet we’ve still managed to spend a duchy’s wealth on housing and feeding them. And speaking of feeding children, we spend so much in aid on Nordenheim that we might as well adopt the country. Shouldn’t this be what Parliament collects taxes for? Or rather, shouldn’t Nordenheim be able maintain some semblance of order without us sending them enough resources to fund a war?

  And for the last and thank goodness the least of the major offenders are the estate’s staffing costs For our staff, we find ourselves paying the price of a small army. Now perhaps, my senses have been skewed by what great excess I have already witnessed, but I found this to be a bit relieving after reviewing everything else.

  With that said, I must thank my father. There is no doubt in my mind that the many hours he has spent working everyday have been in service of thwarting Mother’s various attempts at impoverishing the crown. He need not worry much longer, for I shall soon remove the burden she has placed upon him.

  In Consequence

  Diane can peform further investigations into the estate's expenditures if she wishes to do so. She can choose to review the following: medical research grants, innovation grants, the orphanage system, aid for Nordenheim, and staffing expenses.

  If Diane reviews medical research grants, she will look for information about the physician Agatha. She is the capital's top medical researcher after all.

  Thoughts: We have some interesting choices here. Cassandra is looking forward to Diane giving a speech at the upcoming gala and speech is the second to last item on the study list Diane's father gave to her. William, who is currently the most eligible bachelor, is available to talk to. Diane has another chance to further her study of the stars and get some rest in the high tower. She also could sneak out to the capital to see if a Seer can help her do something about her Mother-related nightmares. As for what she's gained from her initial expenditures review, we've found an opprotunity to learn more about the physician she talked to earlier in the story.

  What should Diane do next?

  Poll Results:

  Reader's Choice: Speech (Father's Study List)