As soon as the lights went out in Deputy Secretary of State Allen's single-family house, the red light at the entrance came on, and the automated security system was activated. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Allen's baby son, Jack Harper, had just finished taking a shower, staggered into the bedroom in Snoopy's pajamas, jumped on the bed and curled up under the covers, revealing his short soft and fluffy blond hair, waiting for his mother to come and give him a goodnight kiss.

Erin turned off the lights in all the rooms one by one, and finally pushed open the door of her son's bedroom, pressed her hand on the light switch, looked at the bed gently, and said sweetly: "It's time to sleep, good night baby." ”

Jack showed a pair of blue eyes and said in a milky voice, "Daddy will come and kiss me and tell me a bedtime story." ”

Erin patted her head weakly, hated herself for forgetting the goodnight kiss, pushed the door in and leaned over to kiss Jack's soft cheek, then sat on the edge of the bed, closed her eyes and rubbed her temples and asked, "Where's Daddy's storybook?" ”

Seeing his mother's anxious and tired face, Jack sat up carefully and asked empathetically, "Mom, are you bothering about something?" ”

Alan has been at work for more than a week, and has not heard from him so far, and Irene, as his wife, has been suffering from insomnia for several nights. She didn't dare to confide in Jack to know, and coaxed her son with exhaustion: "I don't have any troubles. ”

Jack sees his mother's bags and dark circles under her eyes, and he feels that she needs comfort.

"Mom, when I can't sleep, my dad will tell me bedtime stories, and I will fall asleep immediately. Shall I tell you a story? Jack whispered.

Erin's heart warmed and she murmured, "Oh, my Jack can tell stories!" What story did Dad tell you? I'd love to hear it. ”

Jack rejoiced, sat down with a pillow, remembered carefully, and tried to complete the narrative:

"The story of the goldsmith and the king. It worked, I fell asleep as soon as I heard it, and it took my dad a year to tell me before I understood the whole story. ”

"Okay, let's talk about it, baby." Erin tilted her head and cheeks, looked at Jack lovingly, and thought, "God, I need sleep so much." ”

"It's called 'The Goldsmith and the King.'

"A long, long time ago, people could only exchange grain for grain in the market, and fur for fur, which was very inconvenient. Later, the precious gold was minted into gold coins. Gold coins could be used to buy both cheap grain and extravagant furs, and trade became very convenient, bringing unprecedented prosperity to the tribe.

With their flourishing prosperity, the tribe became a state, with stonemasons who built houses, goldsmiths who minted gold coins, blacksmiths who made weapons and soldiers who used weapons, and kings who ruled over everything. With the accumulation of wealth, people felt that gold coins were heavy and inconvenient to carry in large quantities, which limited large trade, and this problem plagued the people.

So the goldsmith came up with a solution. He allowed everyone to deposit the gold coins at the goldsmith's house and take the 'receipts' for the corresponding amount. Everyone used the 'receipt' to trade, then went back to the goldsmith's house, and exchanged the 'receipt' for gold coins and took it away. It's convenient.

But goldsmiths are smart. He found that he could issue non-existent 'receipts' to people who needed the money and charge 8% interest. Then, after the borrower returns the 'receipts' and interest with interest, the goldsmith quietly destroys these 'receipts' that do not exist, and can use everyone's money to earn interest for himself.

In this way, the goldsmith completed the initial accumulation of capital. His lending business is getting bigger and bigger. But then there is a risk: some borrowers eventually go bankrupt and the goldsmith will not be able to recover the principal and interest.

At this time, the king urgently needed two thousand gold coins to fight. This need coincided with the goldsmith's problem: lending money to the king was the best option, because the king could not repay the money if he used the taxes of the inhabitants as collateral.

So the goldsmith approached the king and announced that he would lend him 2,000 gold coins to feed the soldiers at the front, and that the king would be allowed to pay off the debt with future taxes on the simple condition that the king would use the 'receipt' issued by the goldsmith.

The king readily agreed, and he took the 'receipt' from the goldsmith in the amount of 2,000 gold coins, and ordered the quartermaster to take the 'receipt' and immediately go to the market to buy weapons and food, and send them to the front as soon as possible, so that the soldiers who supported the war survived the winter.

Seeing that even the king was using the goldsmith's 'receipt', people were even more convinced of the goldsmith's credit, so the goldsmith's 'receipt' became a hard currency equivalent to a gold coin, and anything could be bought in the market.

The king's life became happier, and he kept borrowing money from goldsmiths, using borrowed 'receipts' to buy weapons and horses, to pay stonemasons to repair palaces, and to buy fresh fruit to please his concubines. The goldsmith, on the other hand, was magnanimous and did not mind the king's high debts, because the higher the king's debts, the more interest the goldsmith charged. The 'receipts' flowed into the market as a huge amount of military spending, and gradually, the goldsmiths' 'receipts' were used throughout the kingdom, and the citizens' taxes flowed into the goldsmiths' accounts.

Moreover, when goldsmiths' 'receipts' were circulated in the market as a light and high-quality currency, large transactions became easy and convenient. This led to an unprecedented boom in the market, and commerce and industry in the kingdom began to flourish, and all of this prosperity was based on the base currency of the 'receipt'. The king's subjects affectionately and respectfully referred to the 'receipt' as the 'pound'.

Suddenly, one day, the king realized that he would never be able to pay off the goldsmith's debt. For if the king pays off the debt, then the 'receipt' will be returned to the goldsmith in its entirety, and the 'pound' will disappear from the market. People will go back to the tribal days of 'bartering'. This was a devastating blow to the kingdom's economy.

The king learned from the pain and decided to pull back from the precipice. He began to restrain his desires, dismissed all the stonemasons, scolded the coquettish concubines, straightened out the extravagant army, and vigorously cut expenses. Finally, the wise king stopped borrowing money from the goldsmiths. The kingdom's debt began to stop growing and was steadily shrinking.

The goldsmith found that the king was trying to pay off his debts. He was troubled, for if the king's debt stopped rising, it meant that the interest charged by the goldsmiths also stopped growing; This is not what frightens the goldsmith the most, but what scares the goldsmith the most is that when the king pays off the debt, the goldsmith's position will plummet, because the king will try to replace the pound with another currency, and the goldsmith will no longer be needed.

The goldsmith is nostalgic for this fame, status, prestige and wealth. He didn't want to go downhill. He did not want to get the king out of the quagmire of debt.

It so happened that there was a small rebellion on the border. A rebellion of this magnitude was small enough to be crushed by twenty soldiers. But the goldsmith saw a business opportunity.

The goldsmith secretly delivered weapons and food to the rebels. The rebels were so strong that they inflicted heavy losses on twenty soldiers of the kingdom. The defeated Captain of Ten returned with a report requesting the king to send an expensive order of knights to quell the rebellion.

So the king was faced with a large expense: the bereavement of the soldiers who died in battle. Medical expenses for wounded soldiers, expensive armor repairs for the Order, fodder for horses, food and wages for the Order and knights' attendants, transportation expenses, and losses from the unstable economy of the people.

The wise king, helpless, bowed his proud head, and once again came to the goldsmith's door, and asked for a loan of ten thousand pounds.

Yes, he had to borrow ten thousand pounds, because there is nothing in the world that burns money more than war. Only war can instantly destroy the people's abundant means of production, so that the people will always need money. For goldsmiths, this means more loans, more profits.

The goldsmith proudly threw a thick pound sterling in the king's face, and the king's crown fell off.

The wise king departed with hatred, and if it were not for the obedience to the law, the king would have torn the goldsmith's heart. ”

Jack's mouth was dry, and he looked up at his mother, and found that Erin had not slept but had opened her eyes wide in horror.

"Mom, isn't my story good?" Jack muttered aggrieved.

Erin recovered from her shock, her heart gripped by fear. Only then did she realize that her husband was declaring war on some kind of behemoth, and tears had rolled down, fearing that Alan's life would be in danger, so she hugged her son hard and muttered, "Oh my God, God." Oh my God! ”

"Mom," Jack let his mother hold him in confusion, and insisted on asking for praise and praise, "Is my story good?" ”

"Nice, can you tell your mother?" Erin hugged her son and didn't dare to let go, afraid that Jack would see the tears on her face.

Jack said in a milky voice, "Well, I'll continue to tell you the story of the goldsmith and the king's duel. ”