Faith Creates Wealth (1)
While Carter was polishing gold coins according to the empire's standards, he stopped momentarily to go and speak with Rockefeller. He thought it was time to wrap up the conversation they had had earlier.
"Rockefeller, you remember our previous conversation, right?"
During a brief lull when no customers were around, Carter approached Rockefeller. He naturally turned his attention to Carter.
"What conversation?"
"Our talk about lending non-existent money."
"Ah, that one?"
Before Rockefeller started working as his assistant, Carter had lent out only his own gold coins and earned profits off the interest. After Rockefeller came in, he secretly loaned out customers' gold coins that they hadn't touched before, and even suggested to Rockefeller to create non-existent gold coins for loans.
If Rockefeller had been the owner of the shop, Carter's approval wouldn't have been necessary, but at present, Rockefeller was nothing more than an assistant.
Without Carter's permission, Rockefeller couldn't do anything, so he shared his thoughts with Carter and sought his approval.
However, Carter, who felt uneasy even lending out other people's gold coins, couldn't help but feel even more uneasy about going a step further and creating non-existent gold coins for loans.
So, after a few days of thinking, Carter finally made a decision and revisited the previous conversation with Rockefeller.
"What have you decided? Will you do it?"
"Ultimately, I don't think that's the right thing to do."
Rockefeller couldn't hide his disappointment since he had expected Carter to give permission.
"Why? You already allowed lending out gold coins entrusted by customers, didn't you?"
It was already a problem to secretly loan out gold coins entrusted by others.
But the person who allowed that couldn't agree to an even bolder idea.
"I think it's unnecessary to go that far. Isn't our profit already enough?"
"Sir, we're also in the lending business, right? Naturally, the more money customers borrow, the more we make."
"I understand that. But I doubt there's that much need for loans in such a small place, and every night I can't sleep and have weird dreams because of the things I already allowed."
"Dreams? What kind of dreams are you having?"
"Dreams where people who entrusted their gold coins to me come swarming and grab me by the collar, and they take away all of my gold coins as well."
Carter wasn't done.
"Then I'm dragged to the gallows by the lenders, and I end up being hanged. But the funny thing is, I don't die. Instead, I just keep twitching and become a laughingstock for everyone."
"That's quite a nightmare."
"I've had that dream a few times, and I had it again this morning."
Rockefeller sighed briefly.
"Sir, don't you know that dreams often mean the opposite of reality?"
"I know that, but the dream just feels so unsettling."
"You know better than anyone that such things won't happen, right?"
"Still, what can I do about my personality? While you'll be the one responsible, it won't be without damage to me either, right?"
"So you're saying you can't agree with that idea?"
"I'm sorry. If I were young and full of vigor like you, I might give it a try, but now I have no regrets, and I think it's not a bad thing to just keep running the shop as it is."
Although it was disappointing, Carter had a valid point.
There were no places to lend out even non-existent money.
"It's okay. You're right; we don't have people to lend that much money to anyway."
"Right? You think so too?"
It was true that lending even non-existent money could generate more profit, but the domain was not yet in a position to offer such loans.
If there had been many large projects led by the lords, such as construction or trade businesses needing large amounts of money, the bank lending them money would also have been successful. However, the domain was located in a remote area, and there were few people who needed a large sum of money.
"It's still a shame, though. It's not like there would be a big problem if we did that."
"But how can you be so sure? It's not like we're creating fake gold coins and circulating them; we're just lending non-existent gold coins by writing them on loan certificates. Can you really be sure that it won't cause any issues?"
At that, Rockefeller showed no hesitation.
"Yes, I think so."
"Why? This is even more dangerous than touching the customers' gold coins. It's literally non-existent gold coins, right?"
Rockefeller smiled.
"People don't directly check whether we're actually lending non-existent gold coins on loan certificates, do they?"
"And if they do? What would we do then?"
In response to that question, Rockefeller countered.
"Mr. Carter, do you engrave your name on gold coins? There's no owner on gold coins. If someone suspects my gold coins are not accounted for, I just need to show them the gold coins inside the vault."
"Well, that's true, but..."
"For there to be a problem, our customers who have entrusted us with their gold coins would have to all rush in and look inside the vault. But would that really happen?"
Carter could not respond right away to the question concerning Rockefeller. It was a situation that could not happen, even if it was argued otherwise.
'A bank run is possible for any bank. Even if everyone is certain that the bank will never go bankrupt, a bank run cannot be avoided if all the customers visit at once.'
It would happen because, from the beginning, even the most reliable banks have lent non-existent money. Banks run out of money because they lend non-existent money and generate interest income.
Thus, Rockefeller also intended to show the deception of modern finance here.
"Alright. However, if there becomes a sudden need for a large amount of loans, please reconsider what I've said."
Would that really happen?
As Carter pondered for a moment, Rockefeller continued,
"Such good opportunities are not common."
