Azeglio's heart sank. He realized he had declared his position too quickly, without first asking the King's opinion, and had drawn Charles Albert's displeasure.
Politics was this subtle. The Kingdom of Sardinia was also a constitutional monarchy; under such circumstances, if the prime minister made decisions while bypassing the King and Charles Albert showed no reaction, he would likely be sidelined before long.
Clearly, Charles Albert was not a political novice like Louis XVI. His political acumen was at least a ninety, and he immediately began putting Azeglio in his place.
Having thought it all through, Prime Minister Azeglio said fearfully, "Your Majesty, at present we have only two ways to solve the fiscal problem: either levy a war tax, or borrow from international financial groups."
Charles Albert glared fiercely at him, cursing inwardly, Old fox.
Prime Minister Azeglio had only said half of it. "Levy a war tax"—on whom? There had to be a defined scope, didn't there?
The Kingdom of Sardinia's old territories had long since been taxed. If they levied it now, would it target Lombardy, or be imposed across the entire country?
This was a job bound to offend people. Ordinary citizens were poor as church mice; squeezing them alone would plainly be a drop in the bucket. That meant they could only reach for the capitalists and nobles.
The nobles and capitalists of the Kingdom of Sardinia might seem highly patriotic, eagerly donating money, but once they were truly asked to pay up, one would discover that things were not so simple.
Donation fraud scandals still existed even in the twenty-first century, when the internet was highly developed—let alone in this era.
Who did not know how to put on a show? They could do even more than that. Countless people donated ten thousand lira,