"Have a seat, please." Swept up in the foreigner"s pace, Sawo and Tawo sat down while their host took the copper sheets back to his own spot at the table.
"These new ones are heavy, aren"t they? The copper prices have really become ridiculous." As he placed the copper plates on a large scale atop the table, the official grunted from the exertion.
"You are in luck," he continued while he sat down. "We only set up our exchange a short while ago, so there is still plenty of stock left. You will be one of the first who get to enjoy Medala"s newest kind of currency. No, to be exact, it may be the world"s newest kind of currency. You know, this is something I have been looking forward to ever since our first design meeting several months ago."
While the excited official was chatting away, he began to weigh Sawo and Tawo"s copper against various weights and applied a touchstone to each to verify their authenticity. All this time, the two cousins hadn"t gotten so much as a single word in. If he hadn"t carried the king"s official sigil on his chest, Sawo would have a.s.sumed that their opposite was a trickster, out to scam them of their wealth. Whether or not copper represented any real wealth at this point was a different question entirely.
However, despite his suspicious behavior, he was properly accredited and operated right in front of the castle, under the eyes of the guards. Thus, Sawo only sat there in bafflement and waited until the official had noted down the amount of copper they had brought with them.
"Right, that would be a total of one hundred and five Sila. Quite a bit," the official concluded.
"That is correct."
Since the number was equivalent to the pay they had received at the manufactory, neither of the cousins raised complaints. At least not until a short stack of blue paper landed on the table before them.
"There you are, one hundred and five Sila, to the dot." The official presented the paper with a big grin and a flourish of his hand, as if he had just done them a huge favor.
"What is this?" Sawo asked for the second time in a day, and picked one piece of paper from the pile.
"That is your payment, master, and the new currency of the entire south. A freshly minted ten Sila certificate."
Confused, Sawo looked back and forth between the official"s encouraging grin and the "certificate" in his hand.
"This is a piece of paper," he corrected the foreigner in disbelief. After an entire day of walking around and arguing with various people, he was far too tired both mentally and physically to get angry with yet another money man. For now, he would give the foreigner the benefit of the doubt and a.s.sume that it had been a miscommunication, despite the official"s solid grasp of Yakua.
"Just because it has the number ten written on its face does not mean that it can replace copper worth ten Sila, no matter how worthless copper has become," Sawo tied to explain.
"Ah, I can see you are a skeptic, so please let me convince you." The official rubbed his hands together, as if he was eager for a debate.
"First off, allow me to introduce myself: My name is Brymstock di Pluritac, I am an official of the crown in charge of the southern kingdom"s new banking division within the finance department. Though you may call me Brym, and consider me just another trader like yourself. I have been one for most of my life after all. May I know your names as well, good sirs?"
"Sawo."
While Sawo was curt, his cousin was a lo more open to the stranger"s introduction.
"h.e.l.lo, Official Brym. My name is Tawo and this is my cousin Sawo. We are ordinary merchants of Saniya, and we have been very concerned about recent copper prices. It has made our work quite difficult."
"As expected. It"s a shame, but that is the case for almost everyone in the city right now." Brym shook his head and put on a sad face. "The crown has tried its best to reduce the amount of copper mining from both Cashan and Kapra, but both sides are insistent on their rights. It has made King Corcopaca aware just how fragile the wealth of his people is. At this moment, all the copper that the farmers, merchants, and craftsmen have ama.s.sed over generations of hard work has turned into nothing, simply because two rival estates decided to show off. And this time, it was only an unfortunate row of circ.u.mstances. What happens if someone were to be malicious in his approach instead? There are giant silver mines around Arguna, so the northerners could very well do the same to our silver and there would be nothing we could do about it."
Confronted with an uncomfortable truth, Sawo realized just how dangerous the reduced copper prices really were for the people. If nothing was done, there was a chance they would lose everything, together with everyone else within the southern kingdom.
"I can tell that you are a smart man," the official continued. "And you have already understood the dangerous implications of this issue. Since Saniya does not produce its own precious metals, it will always be dependent on outside sources, and thus it will always vulnerable. In response, King Corcopaca, in his wisdom, has devised a solution in the form of these certificates."
Brym also held up one of the pieces of paper to mirror Sawo.
"These certificate notes are, of course, not equivalent to ten silver coins, but they do represent them. See, if you read the wording on the ten Sila note itself, it notes that this doc.u.ment is considered to carry a value equivalent to precious metals worth ten Sila. It also bears the royal seal and the king"s signature. As a result, its effects are legally binding anywhere within the king"s estates. These notes can be be exchanged for their value in copper, silver or gold with any government organization. Thus, unless all three precious metals lose all their value at the same time, they guarantee a stable economy, since the people can exchange them freely with the crown."
"Unless your people decide they would rather not," a bitter Sawo said, reminded of the manufactory foreman"s unhelpful att.i.tude.
"Oh no, that is not an option," Brym replied. "King Corcopaca signed these rules into law three days ago, maybe you did not see the announcement yet."
"We were out of town for work," Tawo confirmed.
"As I thought. You can look the law up yourselves, notices are still hung up in every market within the city. For now, you simply need to know that every government organization that handles money is legally obligated to replace these notes with their equivalent in precious metals. There are a lot of those organizations inside Saniya. In fact, in practice it is entirely possible to skip the exchange of precious metals and directly trade these certificates for other goods and services. I"m sure our many government workers will thank you if they no longer have to handle kilos of copper every day. By now, most people in the city work for the crown in one way or another, so using the notes is very simple and will save a lot of time and effort."
"They are quite light, much more practical than the large copper sheets." Tawo agreed once again, but his cousin was still skeptical.
"Even so, they are only legal within Saniya, correct?"
"Within the Chawir marches, and around Qarasi Castle in the Narrows," Brym corrected with a raised finger. "Considering Saniya"s growing influence on the southern kingdom and King Corcopaca"s excellent reputation among the southern lords, we have no doubt that these notes will soon spread across the entire kingdom and become a legal form of tender everywhere."
"And what happens if something changes again, or if some of the southern lords fail to play along?" Sawo asked again. "We are already seeing problems with the copper supply, and the kingdom will go through repeated crises in the future. You yourself admitted that Saniya"s prosperity depends on the goodwill of other lords within the empire. Even more: What if a new king comes to power after a while? Will he still accept these notes? Will he uphold the old rules at all?"
"If they are wide-spread enough by that time, a new ruler will have to accept their legality or risk a riot. People don"t enjoy being robbed after all," Brym explained, as patient as before. "So I don"t consider this a sound argument against the use of the certificates, with respect. Though I will add that the kingdom is already taking steps to become less susceptible to any unforeseen crises in the future. In fact, the introduction of these notes is already a strong step in this direction, wouldn"t you agree? If the kingdom were to suffer from disaster, everyone would suffer with it anyways. That includes its merchants, of course. Once there is a famine, for example, you will not be able to buy any food whether you pay in copper or certificate notes."
At least in that regard, Sawo had to agree. While other merchants would have the choice to simply move to another kingdom if the south were to collapse, neither him nor his cousin had that luxury. As former warriors and eventual traitors of House Ichilia, they wouldn"t survive a single season up north, that much Sawo knew. Still, he wasn"t quite convinced by the flimsy bit of paper between his hands. He wouldn"t be fooled out of his copper just like this, no matter how worthless it was at the moment.
"What if someone simply copies these notes and makes his own, with the same look? The entire system would fall apart at that point, would it not?"
"Impossible," Brym replied, strong pride visible in his face and posture. It was the first time Sawo detected anything resembling true emotion from the friendly face. "The bank notes are printed on st.u.r.dy cotton, with a pressing method that is proprietary to the crown and not known to people outside the newly-founded royal mint. They also bear the king"s sigil and signature. On top of that, the notes have been colored in a shade of blue that is a new development of Saniya"s royal chemistry laboratories. No one else knows how to recreate this new, royal blue, so spotting any fakes will be easy even to the untrained eye. Of course, it is unnecessary to mention that any would-be cheat"s actions are illegal and will be aggressively pursued. So, these notes can"t be easily forged, and anyone who tries risks the death penalty."
"That is good to hear." Tawo stayed polite while Sawo thought for a while. Although he didn"t like Saniya"s new ruler, so far he had kept his word on everything he had promised. There was little reason to a.s.sume he would ruin his reputation for some worthless copper, so if they could replace their heavy copper for some paper of the same value, it was worth the trade. Even better: If copper were to lose even more in value, his notes would still be worth the same as before, as they were denoted in Sila,. Not in kilograms of copper. In the end, even the stubborn Sawo decided to agree to the trade.
After a few more pleasantries had been exchanged, Tawo and Sawo took their new certificate notes to leave the government stall. Even now, no line had formed behind them and the merchants who had lingered around the stall earlier had only moved in a bit closer to listen in on their conversation. It didn"t appear as if the crown"s money exchange sparked much confidence from the locals yet.
"Please come back if you ever have any questions or troubles in regards to the certificates. Just ask the guards for Brym and I shall appear in a puff of smoke." The official had stood up again and shook both of their hands with the same enthusiasm as before, despite his lengthy explanations.
"What a nice guy," Tawo said as they left the stall behind. However, while Tawo was still focused on the past, his cousin already had his mind set on the future. His mind full of ideas, he turned one of the blue notes in his hands.
"That looks like good business as well. What do you think?"
"What looks like good business?" a baffled Tawo asked back.
"What this guy is doing. Exchanging precious metals for worthless paper," Sawo explained as he weighed his new wealth in his left.
"Official Brym said it was cotton, I believe."
"Worthless cotton then." Sawo shrugged. "I doubt we need to continue our work as merchants. At least not as traders. I think we just found something much better to do. More worthwhile, less risky and more respected. Say, brother, do you have any friends in the city"s foundry?"
"I do, but what would we need the foundry for?"
Somehow, a feeling of warmth and confidence spread from within Sawo, something he had not felt since he had lost his warriors in the battle for Saniya against the current king. He savored the moment, and then spoke the words that would transform his life once more.
"I believe it is a good time for us to enter into the money lending business."