Chapter 228 A Step Down
As one of the largest loan sharks in Lanthanor, Abrams had been sipping the costliest wine in the country when he had been notified of the message from the Palace which was inviting all the prominent people in his line of work for a meeting.
The only reason that he had been able to keep his business thriving for so long had been that he had always spent as much as needed to be kept up-to-date on the decisions of the government.
For instance, when all the wine importers and bar owners had been called to the Palace, he had guessed that the Kingdom would mostly impose sanctions, as it was common knowledge that Lanthanor was in need of money.
Hence, he had hastened to collect all the loans given to bar-owners before the meeting even took place.
His reasoning had been simple: if sanctions were placed, the profits in the business would go down, meaning that it would be more difficult for those who had taken the loans to pay the interest.
Usually, in the cases of other businesses, Abrams would have been happy at this as it would mean that he would be able to take over the assets placed as surety with the loan.
Yet, the problem was that here, the bars themselves were the surety.
Hence, if the business of wine did fall, the value of bars might also lessen, resulting in an overall loss for him.
In his life, "loss" was one thing he was determined to avoid no matter what he had to do.
It was this mentality which had enabled him to rise from the status of a slum-dweller to that of one of the richest individuals in Lanthanor with estimated assets of half a million Gold Lans(50 Million dollars, in Earth currency).
It was also this mentality which had made him branch out to almost all the Kingdoms in Angaria where it was allowed for outsiders to do business, as it was common sense to not place all eggs in a single basket.
After listening to the message, Abrams first contacted all the friends who were also in the same business.
On confirming that they had also received the same message, he started the inquiry into just what had happened in the Palace while looking forward to finally meeting the King whose idealistic schemes had led Lanthanor to a debt-laden for the first time in decades.
'He won't ask us for money, will he?'
As this thought floated into mind, he couldn't help but laugh thinking about the absurdity inherent in a King asking his subjects for money.
....
The next morning, 26 men and women entered the gates of the Palace of Lanthanor in carriages that were each more lavish than the next.
All of them were Ether-drive, yet the black boxes which were usually the mechanisms which drove such carts were replaced by artistic sculptures of mythical beasts such as dragons and phoenixes.
As for the carriages themselves, although each looked small, it was quite clear that they had been enchanted with the costliest enchantments that existed: space enchantments.
Like the carriage into which Daneel had jumped where he had the first fateful encounter with the Church of Rectitude, these carriages all had larger spaces inside than the size of the carriage that was visible to the outside.
The main thing that gave away this fact was that the carriages' wheels left deep ruts in the ground when this shouldn't have been possible if they were really the size and weight that they appeared to be.
Space enchantments were one of the trickiest and, thus, the costliest in Angaria. The smaller an object, the harder it was to cast space enchantments on it, resulting in the fact that making small pouches which were capable of holding a large number of things were impossible to make, at least for all the forces in Central Angaria.
Even the ones cast on carriages needed top-tier enchanters, with the cost for expanding a carriage of 10 m2 area to 20 m2 being over 100,000 Gold Lans.
Hence, these enchantments were only used in a few cases, except for in this situation where the only reason was to show opulence.
On entering the Palace while chatting amongst each other, the 26 people seated themselves in a large waiting room while waiting for the King to arrive.
Almost all of them had businesses in multiple Kingdoms, making it so that it was simple for them to shift base if needed.
In essence, they were like the businessmen from Earth whom governments invited and even tried to please because it would result in a growth in their country's economy.
After a few seconds in which some already started to complain that they were being made to wait, the doors opened to reveal a retinue of soldiers.
With the King entering the room, the 26 people only stood up and bowed by bending their back.
In a way, the salute showed just how much respect a person was willing to bestow to the King. A bow on one knee was the standard, which meant that the person giving the bow was a loyal subject.
As for this bow, it only meant that the person was respectful about the position of the man they were giving the bow to, but weren't ready to be ordered around.
After the King took a seat in the chair that faced all of theirs, he first looked around at all the faces present.
The combined wealth of the people in this room reached a staggering 10 Million Gold Lans.
Taking a deep breath, he said, "First of all, Lanthanor thanks you for being present in this meeting which will change both of our futures. Before I begin speaking about why I called you here, can I ask what the biggest problem is that you all are facing?"
A businessman, especially a loan shark which was the occupation that everyone in the room had, could tell when someone wanted something from the other party.
After all, they had built their businesses on deals where they had often been on the same side.
Hence, when they heard the King speak so cordially, they immediately sensed that he was going to ask something of them.
Realizing this, the first feeling that actually went through them was relief.
Abrams, in particular, felt very happy that the worst case of sanctions being placed on loans would mostly not come to be. This was because if that was the case, he would be among those who were majorly affected, as he currently had the most business in Lanthanor.
Taking a sip from the wine that had been served to him, he grimaced slightly at the quality before answering, "People who run without paying back their debt."
Indeed, this was the single biggest problem in their line of work. Even if surety was a must when taking a loan, losses were still incurred when a debtor left especially in cases when the value of the surety fell for some reason, like in the case of the wine importers and the bars they owned.
Hearing the answer, the King smiled before saying something that startled everyone in the room.
"I agree. Oh, by the way, do you think a Kingdom is something that can run away without paying its debt?"
After a brief silence, it was Abrams who spoke again.
This had been a notion that they had actually scoffed at, so seeing it become reality was quite jarring.
After all, a Kingdom was something that had the power to simply raise taxes to obtain as much money as it wanted.
Apart from this, there were myriad ways in which the King could go about procuring enough Gold to refill the treasury.
If so, why was he considering taking loans from them with an interest added on top?
"My Lord, I do not understand. Apologies if I sound rude, but I need these questions answered. You wish to take loans from us? Why not just raise taxes? And what's there to say that you won't use military force to make us 'forget' that we gave you the loan in the first place?"
The latter question was the second reason why the loan sharks felt disturbed. Kingdoms seizing their money wasn't something new; in fact, it was why they took care to spread out their assets as safely as possible.
"It is because I want to build something that can be trusted in the entire continent. A place where anyone can give their money without having to worry that it will be lost. To achieve this dream, I need an impeccable track record. And to kickstart this dream of mine, I am prepared to swear oaths to you myself that your worst fears won't come true."
What Daneel said simply shocked the loan sharks in the room.
A King taking a step down… to swear oaths personally?
This was something simply unheard of.
After all, Kings were individuals who usually saw it a beneath them to even interact so cordially with civilians such as them.
Here, they would actually be receiving an oath?
…..
A few hours later, the 26 people walked out of the room with indecipherable expressions.
Their net worth of 10 Million Gold Lans had been halved, but they only felt hope for the future.
Hope that the name "Bank of Angaria" would ring across the continent one day, and that they would be able to tell proudly that they were its first customers.