Chapter 6

“Placer gold is also also gold but it’s not usually used in the form of placer gold. It’s easier to transport and usually processed into gold coins to ensure a certain amount of value to each coin. You guys know about gold coins right?”

“Of course we know!” The third child, Joshua answered most confidently,

“When you say gold, don’t most people usually think of gold coins? But what about them?”

“Who would make the gold coins?”

It was the second child, Andrew who answered

“Hmm… goldsmiths? Gold coins are usually made by goldsmiths,”

Although they were young, they weren’t ignorant.

Rockefeller smiled lightly and continued his words,

“That’s right, gold coins are usually produced by goldsmiths with an imperial license. Silver is a currency managed by the lord of the territory and circulated in that area, but not gold. Gold coins are standardized by the imperial family and only a few blacksmiths who have permission from the imperial family can make gold coins. And in for convenience, a goldsmith is assigned to each province and distribute the gold coins they make to that area,”

It was then, that Joshua, who realised Rockefeller’s intentions, began to react with a bright face,

“Then can we sell placer gold to the goldsmith? That person has nothing to do with the lord right?”

“Right. They are master craftsmen with an imperial license. Although they aren’t completely unrelated to the Lord of each territory, they aren’t directly managed by them either.So from our position, it’s worth at least trying to secretly sell a portion of our gold,”

Joshua looked convinced but Andrew still had an expression of doubt on his face.

“Rockefeller hyung, is there really no problem if you do that?”

Rockefeller gazed at him as he shared his concerns,

“In the end, he’s also someone running a business in the Lord’s land right? So it’s not like he’s unrelated to the lord,”

“There will be some form of relationship with the lord, however, from their point of view, they wouldn’t feel the need to tell the lord about a small deal they made with us. Because those people are extremely profit-orientated. Contrary to popular belief, goldsmiths aren’t sincere and moral people. They’re the type who can even make a deal with the devil, if there’s profit in it for them,”

“With the devil?”

When mention of the devil was made, his younger siblings looked a little surprised and frightened.

‘Well, they are kids in the end,’

Rockefeller was fully aware of the depravity of goldsmiths who were at the same time being viewed as professionals trusted by everyone. Someone had to prove their trust and competence to the imperial family in order to be permitted to do goldsmithing with the imperial license.

You have to prove the sincerity with which you have lived, and your loyalty to the imperial family – a lot of that is based on the tax you’ve made and moral issues.

‘Even in the imperial family, if they think you have moral problems they won’t let you be a goldsmith. Making and distributing gold coins is a trade based on trust.’

However, the morality in question was a matter of showing the pure gold content of gold coins and the sincerity in the taxes paid to the imperial family.

The imperial family did not interfere beyond that so there was no need for morality in the things that happened outside that sphere.

‘And that;s why the first money and finance related businesses were born,’

If goldsmiths were as kind and sincere as everyone thought, would they have lent gold coins to others and charged interest as well?

According to the doctrine of the church, it was sinful to receive interest from others.

Ironically, goldsmiths are recognised by the imperial family for their sincerity and trust, but they were actually the people who fell to hell by doing an interest-based money-making business.

That was why there were very few cases where nobles did such things and there were many cases where wealthy commoners would throw the prospect of hell to the dogs and pursue the profits right before their eyes and make that their main line of business.

In the first place, the people who were goldsmiths were those types of people so Rockefeller thought it was possible to secretly trade with them.

And he explained this thoroughly to his younger siblings.

“You understand what your hyung has been saying so far right? They are not good people, but rather, they are people who fall to hell because they’re in the money-lending business,”

As he explained this to his younger siblings, they started to worry about strange things. It was the connection between goldsmiths and falling to hell.

“Rockefeller Hyung, then aren’t we going to hell too?”

Since they were still young children, he realised they believed in things like heaven and hell and a world after death.

Both Andrew and Josh looked frightened and even the fourth child, Andrew, who rarely spoke out said,

“We can’t go to hell,”

Rockefeller laughed lightly and began to soothe his siblings,

“Did you know this? Heaven or hell, all you need is money to go,”

“Ehh? Why?”

When Joshua asked, Rockefeller explained the reason as briefly as possible,

“If we later become rich, we can buy the church’s favour with that money. The people of the church would pray for us day and night – then where would we go?”

It was the church they knew that claimed they had to pay a lot of money in tributes in order to go to heaven.

“You guys know it very well don’t you? That you have to pay a lot in order to go to heaven,”

None of his younger siblings denied what Rockefeller said,

The idea that you need to pay a lot of money to the church in order to go to heaven was something that had been drilled into them for a long time after all.

“In the end, even if we follow God’s will, if the donation to the church is small, we have no choice but to go to hell. But, if we forsake God’s will for a while, we can still go to heaven if we give the church a lot of donations,”

The younger siblings who had been pacified upon hearing they could go to heaven, were no longer afraid to get involved with a goldsmith.

“Okay! We can earn a lot of money later and pay donations to the church. Then we can go to heaven,” Andrew said, relieved.

“Let’s make a lot of money and go to heaven! They say that if you go to heaven, you can eat whatever you want to eat for your entire life!” Joshua agreed.

At the same time, Leo carefully thought about what Rockefeller said, he couldn’t agree with the idea that he would go to heaven just because he had a lot of money, but if because of the donations, the church prayed for them a lot, then it might be possible.

‘If you pay a lot of donations, you can go to heaven,’

Rockefeller, who was watching his younger siblings, smiled gently,

‘Since they’re still kids,’

Although they believe in hell and heaven right now, would it still be the same later on?

‘Well you can believe in it if you like, since that’s your freedom,’

Although Rockefeller didn’t believe in the existence of a god, he acknowledged the power of those who believed in God.

‘Even if you become really wealthy, you shouldn’t be enemies with the church,’

If his younger brothers made donations to go to heaven, Rockefeller had the intention of supporting the church for other reasons.

‘Rather than becoming friends, we should actively use their authority.’

Rockefeller wasn’t from this family, but he still remembered the words that remained as their teachings and heirloom,

‘He told us to be people who inspire fear rather than respect. I’m 30 but it still made me shiver to my bones. Though it’s correct. In order to live in this harsh world, there is no need to be respected by others. Rather, you should be a person who everyone is afraid of.’

It was a one-dimensional idea that only swords and magic could be the object of fear.

‘There is another, really scary person,’

After thinking for a moment, Rockefeller said to his siblings,

“Tomorrow, Hyung will go and see a goldsmith. First I’ll go ahead and see if there will be any problems and if there aren’t any, we’ll be able to sell the placer gold through the goldsmith in the future,”

It was Rockefeller’s first goal to solve the issue of their livelihood right away by selling the placer gold.

‘He’s a goldsmith…if I do this well, I can write the history of the economy of this land with my own hands,’

And once his immediate goal was fulfilled, he could move on to the bigger picture.

==

Carter Goldsmith.

He was a Goldsmith who, with the approval of the imperial family, built a nest in the Montefeltro estate.

He was a fat, greedy man who had to eat everything laid out in front of him to feel full. If he had a weakness, then it was that he was too timid.

‘Ha…I’m not making enough money. The money really isn’t coming in,’

Even today, he was sitting on his chair in the store and was thinking about how to make more money.

In the view of the average person, he already had a lot of money and made more in minutes than normal did in days, but since he was greedy, he always wanted more money.

‘That doesn’t mean I can just make money like that rich guy from Lyon,’

To him, who was timid and afraid, the story of the goldsmith in Lyon was just a dream.

To think, he was using not only his own gold coins but the gold coins of customers to make money!

Then what would happen if the customer suddenly came to you to find the gold coins they had entrusted to you?

‘That would be a huge deal! Then, if you get caught, what would you do to clear the waters then? It’s crazy! It’s stupid crazy! The customers we deal with aren’t just random nobodys from the streets!’

And towards his shop, were headed quiet footsteps.

It was Rockefeller, the eldest son of the Rothmedici family who had come to sell him placer gold.

Rockefeller stopped in front of the Goldsmith’s shop, which was located near the Lord’s castle.

‘Carter Banco’

Banko.

Originally, it meant chair or bench, but it also referred to the shop of a goldsmith who sat down on such a chair for most of the day for work.

Usually goldsmith shops are named after their own name or their family’s name, similar to ‘Carter Banco’ to do business.

‘Please, I hope that you are a greedy person with a similar nature to what I had thought,’