Chapter 80 New Kingdom Requires New Currency

"Your Majesty, Miss Audrey has departed to the south. I sent several soldiers to keep her safe," Gerald reports.

"Good work, Gerald. You may leave now and call Theodora for me on your way back," said Riz without lifting his head. His eyes are skimming through the report in front of him.

While waiting for the news regarding the coal mine, Riz plans to introduce his kingdom's currency. Up until now, his kingdom still uses Bagyarosia coins.

He has a lot of gold, silver and copper accumulated in his treasury. It is all thanks to Coreton, Csorvar, Newbigle, Gyalcakes and ancient ruins for the wealth he possesses now.

In Bagyarosia, the coin's design was provided by the king to the upper-rank nobles for them to mint it by themselves. It doesn't take a genius to guess the consequences of this practice. A very unstandardized currency in terms of size, weight and content spread throughout the kingdom.

The nobles reduced the quality and content of the gold, silver and copper so they could keep the remaining for themselves.

Thanks to this practice, the Ryntum family manages to gain an immeasurable amount of wealth when they rob other nobles' treasury.

He doesn't know why but the king, merchants and people turn a blind eye to this. As someone from the modern world, this is unacceptable.

A centralized currency manufactured solely by Ryntum Government is a good way to go.

To achieve this, he needs to establish a central bank that functions as a currency regulator, set up foreign currency exchange rates and monitor the kingdom's economy. The central bank will be put under the management Ministry of Finance.

The name of this central bank shall be the Central Bank of Ryntum.

The responsibility for the coin manufacturing job will fall on the soon-to-be-established Ryntum Royal Mint.

Next, he needs to design the coins. His kingdom should follow the practice of other kingdoms by having three types of coins.

Riz named his coins based on elements in his family coat of arms.

The gold coin is named Ryntum Golrd, a combination between 'gold' and 'sword'.

The silver coin is named Ryntum Silvd, a combination between 'silver' and 'shield'.

The copper coin is named Ryntum Copred, a combination between 'copper' and 'red'.

At the front of the coin, it has 'Bank of Ryntum' embedded on it and his family emblem at the back. The gold coin was made of 83 per cent pure gold. It has a diameter of 3 centimetres with a thickness of 0.5 centimetres.

The same goes for silver and copper. They share the same design and 83 per cent of pure silver and copper as their content, the same as gold coins. The difference is in the size.

Ryntum Silvd, has a diameter of 2 centimetres with a thickness of 0.4 centimetres.

While Ryntum Copred has a diameter of 1.5 centimetres with a thickness of 0.3 centimetres.

Once finished, the value of Ryntum currency is four times higher than Bagyarosia's coins.

[A/N: Comparison as below]

4 Bagyarosia copper coins (4 Ros) = 1 Ryntum Copred (1 Ryn)

4 Bagyarosia silver coins (400 Ros) = 1 Ryntum Silvd (100 Ryn)

4 Bagyarosia gold coins (4000 Ros) = 1 Ryntum Golrd (1000 Ryn)

Riz takes another piece of paper to write.

Minting identical coins need appropriate technology.

A steam-power coin press becomes his choice instead of a screw press. It provides greater pressure and can produce 100 coins per minute.

Finishing his plan, a knock sounded in his ear. The door was abruptly open without waiting for his response. Riz saw his fiancee figure entering his office.

"What took you so long? My office and the Ministry of Finance are just a couple blocks away."

By now, Riz has moved his office from his mansion to his office at the government plaza. He made several regulations to ensure the safety and confidentiality of the documents there.

First, he made a list of all people working here from low-level officials up to the minister's level complete with their names, background information and sketches of their faces. A security team will need to check each one of them before entering the plaza.

Anyone who tried to break in will publicly be hanged to death regardless of their status.

Second, workers in the plaza are only allowed to be in the plaza during work hours. Of course, Riz and several other higher-ups were exempt from this rule.

Theodora rolled her eyes up and replied, "I have many unfinished tasks on hand."

"Is that so? Then you're lucky because I have more to give. Here, take a look."

Theodora's face looks so angry beyond words. She clearly tries her best not to spit any curses at Riz.

As she roughly snatches the papers from Riz, her eyes begin to move left and right.

"New currency? Central bank?"

"Yes, I believe we should have our own currency now that we are an independent country."

"Do we even have gold to mint this new currency?" asked Theodora.

"I guess I never told you about the spoils I get," said Riz. Indeed, Riz never bothers to show them. Since they didn't ask, it completely slips his mind.

"What do you mean?" Theodora raised her eyebrows as she looks at her fiance. She doesn't understand the meaning behind Riz's words.

"Follow me."

Riz walks toward the mansion with Theodora following him closely from behind. Their destination is the treasury on the second floor.

Upon reaching the front of the treasury's massive iron door, Riz took out a set of keys.

The door to the treasury has five locks on it. Each of them required specifically designed keys to open it. To open the iron door, the keys need to be put in the correct sequence.

Riz used all his energy to push the approximately 20 centimetres thick door open.

A bright light suddenly assaulted Theodora's eyes. She squints her eyes to reduce the amount of light entering them.

There are mountains of gold, silver, copper, jewellery, relics, weapons and fabrics.

"Where do you get all of this? This wealth probably exceeds the average of royals could have."

Riz chuckled when hearing her words.

"Except for robbing, I don't know any other possible way to get rich quickly. Now, what's your thought? Is it enough to implement my plan?"

"With this much precious metal, I don't have any objections," Theodora replied.

Her eyes however are locked on something else. She couldn't help but raise a question for her fiance.

"What's that?"

"Hm?" Riz looked in the direction she pointed to.

There's a glowing golden light brighter than gold in the midst of treasures. Riz walks and picks up a small ball with a size of one centimetre in diameter.

"I'm not sure either. There are a bunch of treasures here that I can possibly remember all of. But this is interesting, a small orb emitting such a strong golden light."