Arnold’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“The prices of gold and silver around the world?”
Rishe nodded in affirmation.
“I’m personally interested in it, so I’ve been asking Tully, Chairman of the Aria Trading Company, about it.”
It was a document she had just received from Tully at their business meeting in the morning.
Rishe read it carefully and grasped most of the information she needed. She then handed the document to Arnold.
“Although the latest information varies, the oldest information is six months ago. Can this help Your Highness with your ‘plan’ in any way?”
“…Ha.”
Arnold shot an amused, sharp glance at Rishe.
“How did you know I was thinking of ‘coinage’?
…Sure enough, His Highness grasped my intentions just from this.
How could he see so much just from the list she handed him?
Rishe replied despite her surprise inwardly.
“I had a hunch that Your Highness’s purpose in visiting this city was not only to inspect money exchange offices…When I was trying to figure out what it was, I realized that you had touched my hand many times and were tracing my ring.”
Feeling a little embarrassed, she gently stroked her ring herself.
“Yesterday, didn’t you mention the Koyor Kingdom while touching my ring?”
“…I see. That was all it took for you to figure it out?”
“It took me a while, but…”
At any rate, Rishe and Arnold knew the problems that Koyor was facing.
One of them was that the country lacked military power and was in a semi-dominant position among the neighboring countries.
This issue was bound to worsen in the future as the mines in Koyor got depleted, and their extracted precious gems, gold and silver, dwindled.
Nevertheless, with the deal between Kyle and Arnold, this problem was on the verge of being averted.
The remaining issue was that the source of the problem in the first place has yet to be resolved.
In other words, the country of Koyor could no longer produce gems, gold, and silver.
“Of course, the gold and silver coins used in many countries are made in a form that contains real gold and silver.”
The value of a gold or silver coin was determined by the amount of gold or silver casted in the coin.
And of all the gold and silver available in the world, the ones collected in Koyor accounted for a good percentage.
“If this continues, the amount of gold and silver circulating in each country will be significantly reduced, right?”
“Yes. And there will be a shortage of gold and silver used to make gold and silver coins.”
What would happen then?
Rishe had witnessed all that would happen in the future.
For this reason, she asked Tully to gather information on the distribution of gold and silver in order to take action against it.
“In order to keep the economy running, money needs to be issued on a regular basis. However, if there are no materials to produce them, the country’s economy will fall in a state of devastation.”
“…However, as I recall, Garkhain had both gold and silver mines.”
Since coming to Garkhain, Rishe has been studying the inner workings of the kingdom from time to time. Many of the gold veins were in places that had been “other countries” until recently. It was obvious that they had become part of Garkhain’s territory due to the war started by Arnold’s father, the emperor.
“In the end, it means that gold and silver can be found in abundance.”
“Yes. This country will not be affected much by the decline in exports from Koyor.”
“Then why is Your Highness Arnold so concerned about the lack of gold and silver in circulation?”
“That’s a strange question. I’m sure you know the reason for this, and that’s why you came to me with this information, with the expectation of coinage.”
He gave her a wicked smile, hitting a bullseye.
As Arnold said, Rishe had some assumptions in mind. However, whether they were the right answers or not, she wouldn’t know unless he told her.
But when he gave her a look, urging her to share her speculations, Rishe spoke.
“Even though exports from Koyor might stop, there is still an abundance of gold and silver in Garkhain. On the other hand, the demand for gold and silver in other countries will rise, and so will inflation…”
What was in short supply would become expensive, and what was in abundance would become inexpensive. That was the basic principle of commerce.
“If 5 grams of pure gold at 50,000 gold in Garkhain sells for 100,000 gold at 5 grams in another country, people will take their Garkhain gold coins to other countries. Instead of using it as a foreign currency, they will buy and sell it as a precious metal containing gold…”
“Yeah. And unlike ordinary goods, it is difficult for a country to restrict this export at its own discretion because money is something naturally carried around.”
There would definitely be people who would take Garkhain’s coins to other countries and sell them off as gold.
Those people would return with the currency of other countries and bring them to the exchange office in Garkhain.
The foreign currency would naturally be exchanged for gold in Garkhain. The amount of gold they would get would be more than the amount of gold they had taken out of Garkhain in the first place.
“If more and more gold and silver is taken out of Garkhain by other countries, even the kingdom will quickly run out of gold and silver.”
Because of Garkhain’s stable production of gold and silver, it was inevitable that there would be differences in prices between Garkhain and other countries.
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