In his past life, Bill was a self-employed plumber until a knee injury became too painful and he switched to teaching English at a high school.
And although he had never been a big businessman, Bill knew the basics of business, which is why he was surprised by the second financial commitment that the Science Department presented him with.
The fact is that successful companies almost never made real cash profits, and the tax code was built around that idea.
Simply put, after paying all expenses, a successful company reinvested the capital back into itself.
This reinvestment was considered a tax deduction, and the lack of cash did not matter because as the company reinvested in itself, its credit expanded.
Thinking back to when he started his plumbing business, Bill realized that the first year he didn't pay taxes because he bought a used van. The second year he didn't pay taxes because he bought a new truck. The third year he didn't pay taxes because he bought an expensive pipe-cutting tool, and so on every year.
On the one hand, Bill and his family never had a lot of cash, but on the other hand, their net worth and, accordingly, their line of credit increased every year.
This is how successful companies became big, and it was a thoroughly modern concept that ran counter to the outdated system of governance in this world.
Because this approach to doing business has not been common in the history of the Earth.
In the past, when the systems of government were immature, princes gave monopoly rights to various merchant guilds. These guilds paid their dues directly to the ruler, and therefore had legal power behind them.
In theory, this was a good system because such guilds could regulate industries they knew better than central authorities, which often had little real knowledge of what was going on outside their immediate holdings.
Moreover, since merchant guilds almost always dealt in one type of product, they were considered best placed to ensure quality standards while protecting the interests of the working masses who worked in the industry controlled by the monopoly.
In practice, this system destroyed competition, because it became illegal to open such businesses. It destroyed innovation, because without competition there was no need to take risks to become more efficient. And finally, it encouraged corruption, because it was necessary to bribe guild officials whenever the need arose, since they were vested with power by law.
Thinking about the two different economic philosophies, Bill just shook his head when he thought about how the World Government functioned.
The only reasonable explanation was that either the banking system was predatory towards ordinary merchants, or that this loophole was obvious only to him, as a person familiar with modern economic theory.
"But enough about that," he thought as he finished his financial report.
His department had 264 million belli in cash, and he himself had about 20 million on hand.
After recruiting a hundred new crew members, they were now paying 1.2 million beli in salaries and 200 thousand beli in monthly expenses.
These numbers would need to be at least doubled to fill key vacancies on their current ships.
Running through various scenarios in his head, he was sure that a fortune could be made by connecting isolated islands and opening up their markets, but it would be pointless unless he could first establish his department.
After all, Bill knew that while what he was doing was technically legal, he was still a Marine, and Marineford could call upon ships from the Science Department just as easily as regular fleet ships. So he couldn't afford to have a merchant fleet that would fly the Marine Forces flag without risk.
Besides, this wasn't Earth. His merchant ships would need escort ships, and those escort ships would have to come from somewhere.
In the future, he planned to open factories in various kingdoms that would produce goods with high turnover but low individual profits. However, Bill decided to do this with his own money, not from his department's budget.
Until then, Bill had more pressing matters to worry about, such as arming and training his new recruits.
Then there were the estimated costs of building the city and its laboratory on Little Eastern Blue Island.
Bill shook his head, realizing that the cost of shipping iron and steel was unrealistic. He had thought about it before, but while the location of Little East Blue was good for a command center, it was not a good place to start production.