Meeting the Goldsmith (6)
Basing his actions on the trust and credibility he had valued like life itself, the idea of deceiving his customers was both ingenious and amusing.
"Certainly... it's not wrong. If people trust me, they would believe their gold coins are safe with me."
Carter found himself nodding involuntarily.
"Listening to you, I see your point."
He empathized, but something else puzzled him more.
"But how did you come up with such an idea?"
"It just came to me suddenly. What do you think of it?"
It was a tempting proposition.
However, it was astonishing that the person making this offer was just a 15-year-old boy, not even a fellow goldsmith.
"You see, in Lyon, there are goldsmiths who do business like you suggest. But I disliked that approach. I was afraid my customers would come and demand all their gold coins back."
Not all goldsmiths seemed to be cowards like Carter.
Apparently, there were some, like Rockefeller, who boldly conducted their business.
Rockefeller pondered over this.
"There must be those who have gone a step further than here. After all, not everyone is the same."
There was a certain evolutionary process even in the moneylending business conducted by goldsmiths.
Here, the method Carter used of lending only his own money was the most primitive form.
And the next stage was, as Lyon and Rockefeller suggested, secretly meddling with the customers' money as well.
‘In this place, the so-called Goblin Bank, no different from the goldsmiths in Lyon who are into moneylending, would at best be lending out customers' money to make a profit.’
To Rockefeller, who majored in economics, it was really child's play with money.
‘These people really don't know real deceit.’
"How about now? Do you have any intentions of proceeding?"
Carter showed a moment of conflict.
He had greed, but the problem was his timid nature.
"I'm tempted, but…"
"You've even done under-the-table deals with me. Isn't that too timid for someone like you?"
"Well, such under-the-table deals don't matter much since they're not that noticeable, but this is a matter where if things go wrong even once, all the foundations I've built up till now could crumble, so it's not easy to make a decision."
If I had the nerve to secretly lend out the customers' money, I would have done that a long time ago.
Rockefeller, seeing his indecision, could guess to some extent his timid nature.
'He's not without greed, but he seems to have fear as well.'
Rockefeller decided to devise a plan.
After all, the end goal of this conversation was to prove his own worth.
And the result of that would be getting a job.
'Then, this should work. After all, my original goal was to work under this man.'
“How about this?”
As Rockefeller was about to make a suggestion, Carter expressed his doubt.
“What are you talking about?”
“I’ll work under you. What do you think about that?”
“What? You want to work under me?”
“Yes.”
It wasn't that there was no work to do, but in a small territory, he wasn’t busy enough to need an assistant.
“That might be difficult, don’t you think? I'm not that busy, and why would I use someone I barely know as an assistant?”
“Isn’t it because you can’t do the job I proposed, as it would be troublesome if there were problems later on?”
"Of course."
"Then I'll take full responsibility for that matter. Doesn't that make me useful as your assistant?"
It was an unexpected proposal.
Taking full responsibility for the matter himself.
"What did you say? What did you just say?"
"Just as I said before. I will take responsibility."
"You mean you'll take full responsibility?"
"Yes, that way, if there's a problem later, you can just betray me, right? After all, you can just deny knowing anything about it."
For Carter, avoiding responsibility was not a bad option.
As Rockefeller had mentioned, if he secretly lent even the customers' gold coins, the interest income would multiply compared to now.
'If I not only lend out my own gold coins but also secretly lend the customers' gold coins that I shouldn't even touch, the interest income would double. Then it wouldn't be a loss to employ an assistant....'
No matter how much he hit the calculator in his head, it was a profitable deal.
Therefore, it was naturally questionable from Carter's standpoint.
"It's fine by me, but why would you go to such lengths from your perspective?"
Rockefeller, as if he had been waiting for this moment, began to recite a prepared answer.
"Uncle, as the head of the family, I have four younger siblings to take care of. If I have to feed all of them, wouldn't I need a lot of money? I can't guarantee how long I can continue with the work I'm doing now, and if I can find a job here, of course, I would welcome it."
Carter found this reason for wanting to work quite convincing and did not object to it.
