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In the early days of Empire, the Governor-General had always appointed the drossaards. More recently, however, in an attempt to be more sensitive to the needs and sensibilities of local peoples, the practice had evolved of drawing the drossaards from the local communities. They were, therefore, often either nominated by village councils or appointed by village chieftains, the actual process being determined by local custom.

It was a system that functioned with varying degrees of success, as could be expected in a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic country such as Bugrawlia.

In the worst cases, the whole structure had become utterly corrupted, with the drossaards acting as the final authority in some areas, flouting and disregarding colonial authority.

“Perhaps it’s not the collecting of the taxes, but the fact that revenues are ending up in the pockets of the drossaards instead of being paid over to the treasury. Don’t your audits show these discrepancies?” Lord Ludvig asked.

“With respect, Sir, since you cut back my department’s budget, we’ve not been able to audit the Heimraden as thoroughly as in the past. Fewer audits mean they can get away with more.”

“Hmm, yes.” Lord Ludvig spun his chair around and spent a few moments studying the map on the wall. Whereas the reluctant Governor-General saw his own failures in that jigsaw puzzle of regions and provinces, Da Silva saw them as aggregates and percentages, totals and shortfalls.

When at last Lord Ludvig turned back to Da Silva, he had a steely glint in his eye that Da Silva knew did not augur well.

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