Solomon sat down before Kindleberg again, but this time he was far alone in the room, there were other merchants.

These businessmen are currently members of the Commodity Exchange Management Committee at home, and together with Kindleberg and Derek, they hold the power of the Commodity Exchange.

After listening to Solomon's words, Kindleberg smiled and said, "I am personally very happy that His Majesty the King has invited us to enter the parliament to discuss politics together. However, we are limited in our individual capabilities, and I am afraid that we will still not be able to borrow money to support the war effort. ”

The other members also began to gossip, and some said: "Yes, Mr. Solomon, no, it is our young Sir Solomon, we have listened to you and paid taxes to the kingdom, this is already the limit of our ability, and then we should enjoy the benefits after paying taxes, how can we pay again." ”

"Mr. Solomon, I am very grateful for the one you fought for us, and I want to say this, you also saw that we paid our taxes, but the protection that the kingdom gave us was not enough, of course, I also saw that the kingdom has worked hard, but I want to say that this is not enough, this is not enough, do you understand, we want to allow caravans to walk freely anywhere in Yugudral. Someone shouted with a waving arm.

Solomon listened to the merchants with great grace, even if they were dissatisfied and complaining.

"Mellegens, it's my dream to be in the council, think about it, if we can sit in it, we will be on an equal footing with the nobles in the future. A fat businessman stammered a little.

The skinny merchant next to him, whom he called Mellegans, sneered, "Of course that's good, I hope too." But that's not enough for me to shell out any more money. If you like. You can donate some more money to His Majesty and see if he will allow you to enter the council alone. ”

"Sir Solomon, can you help us report to Your Majesty?, we paid our taxes, but the guarantee of our safety was not enough, and just before this return, I was attacked by the army, you know, although I was lucky. Fleeing under the cover of the guards, but my guards suffered heavy losses. Someone rushed to Solomon and shouted.

This aroused the thought of the other merchants, and one of them followed: "Yes, Mr. Solomon, I heard that the President said that you refused to help us again, and why? ”

Someone started, and the second and third shifted the topic to it, and most of them made it clear. He was willing to hand over his personal guard to Solomon's unified command, and was responsible for the safety of the merchants and the smooth flow of trade routes.

The war in Yugudral intensified. Fortunately, at first, the merchants were protected by their own team after paying taxes to the king, and the trade routes were expanded, but soon with the fierce resistance of the natives, coupled with the conflict of interests of the same Queosian state, Asturias's protection of the merchants could only be guaranteed in the original trade area, and could no longer be protected in the new expansion or new needs of the merchants.

Of course, the merchants were not very happy with this, but there was no way to do it, so the unwilling merchants began to hire some personal guards, and the more they earned, the size of the guards began to rise.

One or two squads of escorts are not particularly strong, even if the mercenaries are as strong as Wolf or Rhein.

A large group of heavily armed Wolf in the Black Rock Plane is definitely close to an invincible elite and can be swept away, but in a silver-level plane like Yougudral, it can only be regarded as an elite soldier at best.

The shrewd minds of the merchants realized that they ought to assemble their guards together like a fist with five fingers together in order to be of greater utility, but they lacked the military wizards they could trust, despite their shrewd eyes and minds.

can be trusted, military wizards, indispensable.

The former, in particular, were military talents, and they could not find a few suitable commanders among the people they hired, but none of the captains or vice-captains of the convoy could satisfy all the merchants.

Naturally, the merchants would think that the commanders selected from them would give priority to their servants, and that by handing over the warriors they had hired at their own expense to help others.

To meet both conditions, the most suitable candidate in their eyes was Solomon, who was rejected once very early.

This time, after Solomon won the chess championship, the topic was once again on the lips of the merchants.

"Sir Solomon, think again, accept our invitation, and if you agree, the commission is negotiable, and if you are not satisfied, we can even promise you three percent of the profit to you. Kindleberger said.

Kindleberg's offer was astonishingly rich, considering that although each person paid only five percent of the profit, the commodity exchange now employed at least a hundred merchants from the guard, and Solomon received more net profits than a single merchant.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I would love to cooperate with you, but I would like to remind you that if the kingdom loses this war, I am afraid that your interests will not be guaranteed. Solomon looked around at the merchants.

The merchants fell silent, and they understood what Solomon meant, if Asturias lost the war, it would mean that the merchants of their country would lose their markets in Jugudral and Farusion, and even the domestic workshop owners would not be happy, because it was from them that the merchants bought their own goods for trade.

Of course, this is not absolutely unavoidable, for example, businessmen can go to other countries, but in this case, it is not without cost.

Changing the door means that the reputation and goodwill generated by the previous investment in Asturias will be temporarily useless or severely discounted in a foreign country, and it is impossible to rebuild your network in a foreign country without cost, and even at a high cost, because people know that you were a former Asturian businessman.

Only powerful businessmen are qualified to change their careers, and more small and medium-sized businessmen may not even have this qualification, because their vast wealth is rooted in their own country.

"But. Sir. Just let us into Parliament. Not enough. At most, the nobles will give us a chance to listen. Kindleberg raised his hand and motioned for the noisy merchants to stop.

"Yes, we don't want the kingdom to lose in the war, after all, it is in our vital interests, but how can we trust that the kingdom will pay us back in the end?"

"So I came up with a solution for everyone. "And, if you agree to this, I'm willing to put your money into it." Lend it out again. ”

"What way?" the merchants were a little more confident when they heard that Solomon had not only come to persuade them, but had lent out the money himself.

Solomon began to speak his plan.

Solomon's plan was to set up a bank that would allow a very large number of people to put their money into the bank as principal, so that they could have enough capital to lend out in the shortest possible time.

But at the same time, because of the large number of people, the risk shared by each person will be a little smaller, of course, which means that the benefits will also be diluted, depending on what you think. But the problem of the current businessmen is that they are worried about the risks, so the large number of people makes them more confident. Otherwise, only a dozen or so members of the management committee of the commodity exchange present will be allowed to borrow money, not to mention that they cannot support it, and even if they can support it, it will be a risk of bankruptcy.

And the advantage of this is that because of this bank, businessmen also share the same interests, and the risk sharing is gathered into a rope.

Merchants have always been very loose, and in the past only the guilds were relatively close, but because the leaders of the merchants' guilds often went to the great nobles who could bring them great business opportunities, and ignored the interests of small and medium-sized merchants, this closeness was also very limited.

The commodity exchange should be said to be a better start, expanding the contact of merchants.

After the establishment of the bank, the interest rate on the borrowed money is 10% per annum, which is not high, only slightly higher than the current loan interest of the Franklin Bank.

By the way, the interest rate at Franklin's St. Quentin branch has become a bellwether in the city, because there are so many goldsmith banks paying homage to him that his every move now has an impact on the city's imitators.

Compared with loan sharks, this annual interest rate is even lower, it is simply ridiculously low, and it will definitely satisfy the borrower.

The bank will charge an administrative fee of 500 Mithril coinage per year, which will be used mainly to pay the salaries of the recruited staff, as well as to pay for the rental of the premises.

And there is one thing that can definitely satisfy the royal family, this money does not even have to be paid back directly.

The front was just that, but in the end, the merchants were dumbfounded.

There is no need to pay back the money, the royal family is absolutely happy, but, but what do you want businessmen to pay for, isn't this becoming a pit person?

Solomon explained unhurriedly that there was no need to repay the money directly, and of course the bank had to have some benefits.

And these benefits, in fact, ensure that the merchants can actually get back the money they have borrowed, and receive additional benefits.

That is to issue bank bills, and expand the function of bank bills, to be precise, to turn bank bills into paper money.

The current currency is very chaotic, copper coins are being withdrawn from circulation, silver coins and gold coins are used the most, but the most emerging and insistent is undoubtedly the Mithril coinage.

However, there is a problem with Mithril coinage, and even gold coins, which is the production volume, which makes the circulation of money often limited, resulting in a shortage of money.

Not every city is as lucky as Liberty City to dig a Mithril Mine next to it and eat half of the proceeds.

Even so, the Franklin Bank of Liberty City did the same.

Bank bills can be exchanged for a specified currency and the amount of currency without limit, which is somewhat similar to the goldsmith's receipts in the past.

What Solomon wanted to achieve was to greatly expand the function of bank bills, whether they were receipts issued by goldsmiths in the past, bank bills could be used as a direct substitute for cash when merchants paid for goods.

Solomon's plan was to further paper money bank bills, specifically to denominate the money lent in Mithril, and then after the money was lent out, the bank had the power to issue bank bills of equivalent value, and the kingdom of these bank bills must be recognized as having unlimited legal compensation, and could even be used to pay taxes to the kingdom or feudal lords.

In this way, the kingdom does not have to repay the money, and the bank notes issued by the bank can also be used to pay for a lot of purposes, so there is no need to worry about whether to repay the money or not.

But the premise of this plan is that the person borrowing money is the kingdom, not the royal family or some nobleman.

This is very important, and to achieve this, it is objectively to help the royal family further consolidate and strengthen the royal power, so Edward finally agreed to let Solomon try. (To be continued......)

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