"Old nobles did not engage in production, yet occupied vast amounts of land, preventing land from circulating freely. Some old nobles, driven by personal gain, secretly and maliciously raised the cost of selling land, increasing commercial operating costs. To profit, individual merchants then raised the prices of goods, throwing the market economy out of balance. High prices would affect public sentiment, but when faced with citizens' demands, most old nobles responded with violent suppression, ignoring the Empire's Equal Citizenship Act and instead treating citizens as targets for exploitation. This not only harmed citizens' physical and mental well-being, but also affected the Empire's stability. Over time, it would only weaken citizens' loyalty to the Empire, leaving the Empire with no soldiers to conscript and no one willing to fight for it. Thus, this was the first harm the old noble system posed to the unification plan."
"Most industries under old nobles enjoyed tax exemptions and reductions, while ordinary commercial taxes were harsh and complicated, making individual merchants' operating costs far higher than those of nobles. To seek further profit, most merchants had no choice but to join merchant associations to lower their operating costs and increase their income. Yet establishing a merchant association required the permission of local nobles. Thus, eight or nine out of every ten merchant associations in the Empire were nominally industries under collateral branches of noble families."
"To gain further profit, nobles mostly colluded with merchants, using noble privileges to legally evade Imperial taxes. Over time, funds that should have been used to build the Empire would enter private pockets instead, strengthening individual nobles while weakening the Empire as a whole. Thus, this was the second harm."
"..."
John recalled the intelligence on the Empire's nobles from the game while combining it with essays from his previous