Chapter 49

< 49. Currency Reform. >

Of course, before starting any new projects, he had to finish the current affairs first.

“Minister of Internal Affairs.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Is everything going smoothly?”

He omitted the object of his question, but the Straight Tree understood him perfectly.

“Yes, it is. All the financial offices in each city have been completed. We are ready to start anytime.”

Kim Kiwoo nodded at the minister’s words.

Financial offices had been established all over the empire.

The purpose of these financial offices was twofold.

To exchange the gold and silver that were circulating in the market into currency.

And to take care of the empire’s citizens’ money at the financial offices.

In other words, the financial offices were banks.

‘Banks are necessary and very important.’

Everyone knew how significant the role of banks had been from modern times to the present.

Likewise, the financial offices would play a very important role in the empire’s economy.

Therefore, Kim Kiwoo instructed the Straight Tree again.

“It will be hard, but check the financial offices one more time during the remaining time. We can’t afford any trouble at the financial offices.”

The Straight Tree agreed with Kim Kiwoo’s words right away.

He was confident that there was no problem since he had checked several times already.

“Yes, I will follow Your Majesty’s will.”

“Good. Do your best until the end.”

Kim Kiwoo had a reason for establishing banks under the name of financial offices at this point.

The currency would soon be released into the market, and many citizens of the empire would want to keep their assets in the form of currency.

But gold and silver coins had a very high value compared to their weight.

That was why he chose gold and silver as currency. It was only natural.

‘It must be insecure for ordinary citizens to have a lot of currency.’

Therefore, even a small theft would cause a lot of damage.

Kim Kiwoo set up the financial offices to soothe the citizens’ anxiety.

The financial offices were national institutions.

That meant that if they deposited their money there, they could prevent such theft incidents.

‘Besides, I can use the collected money for good.’

This was also a great benefit for Kim Kiwoo.

He didn’t need to just store the money that was deposited in each financial office.

There wouldn’t be any bank runs in this era anyway.

That meant that he could pour the rest of the money into the empire’s growth, except for a certain amount.

This way, he could reinvest the sleeping assets of the citizens in various industries.

‘I can also solve the initial shortage of currency.’

Many citizens would exchange or receive their wages in currency and deposit them in the financial offices instead of piling them up at home.

If he hadn’t introduced this system, he would have needed much more currency than now.

‘And later on, I can also control the amount of currency in the market.’

Of course, he didn’t charge or pay any fees for depositing right now.

The interest rate was zero.

But he didn’t intend to keep it zero forever.

If there was too much currency in circulation, he planned to raise the interest rate and pull the money into the financial offices.

That was why it was more important than anything else for the financial offices to settle properly.

“Good. Let’s end today’s meeting here. Everyone, do your assigned tasks well.”

After that day’s meeting ended, the Minister of Internal Affairs vigorously investigated whether there were any problems with the financial offices.

At the same time, he started transporting gold and silver coins to each financial office.

When he thought that everything was ready,

Kim Kiwoo officially declared at the meeting,

“I will carry out currency reform from now on. Does any minister have a different opinion?”

There was no way. 

If they did, they would have suggested it during the past time.

Who would pick a fight when all preparations for currency reform were done?

As expected, the ministers were silent.

Soon after, the Minister of Education spoke on behalf of them,

“No, we don’t. Please do as Your Majesty wishes.”

“Do as Your Majesty wishes!”

That day,

the currency reform decree fell all over the country.

***

“Did you read today’s monthly newspaper?”

“Haha. I didn’t read it, but I think I know what you’re trying to say. Are you talking about the currency reform decree?”

Hehe. You know your stuff.

The reform decree spread quickly throughout the empire.

The imperial citizens were thrilled with anticipation.

Especially since the reform was a symbol of Kim Kiwoo’s initiative, this tendency was even stronger.

His influence was so high that no one could match him.

“This time, too, it’s His Majesty’s doing, so the currency will surely be a great help.”

“Haha. That’s right. It’s something that His Majesty himself is doing. Who would doubt that?”

Kim Kiwoo had achieved great success in everything he had done so far.

As this trust accumulated, the imperial citizens gave him firm support for whatever he wanted to do.

Besides, many people agreed on the need for currency.

So there was hardly any opposition to the currency reform decree.

Of course, even if not, they would have no choice but to use gold and silver coins.

-From now on, all wages paid by the empire will be in gold and silver coins.

This was the first item of the currency reform decree.

Of course, the merchants were gradually growing and hiring imperial citizens, but most of the laborers were still directly employed by the empire.

The field that most imperial citizens worked in was agriculture.

Apart from agriculture, construction and industry were the next ones.

But most of the laborers in construction and industry were directly employed by the empire.

The merchants mainly transported the raw materials they needed and sold the manufactured goods to various places in the empire.

Moreover, the empire was also the one who paid wages to the imperial citizens affiliated with kindergartens, teachers, middle schools, universities, etc.

In other words, most of them received wages from the empire.

Once they started receiving currency as wages, gold and silver coins would naturally be widely used.

And the second item was also very important.

-All taxes except for agriculture will be unified in currency.

In fact, this was not a big deal for most of the imperial citizens employed by the empire.

They had paid taxes before they received their wages in the first place.

There was no reason to pay them wages and then collect taxes again. That was a clear waste of administration.

And this did not change even after they paid wages in currency.

It was the same for agriculture.

They still took a certain percentage of the harvested crops as taxes as before.

The class that felt this was everyone except these two cases.

Thanks to these two items, whether they were employed by the empire or not, most of the imperial citizens were forced to use currency.

As a result of Kim Kiwoo’s trust and the constraint that they had no choice but to use currency, gold and silver coins caused an explosive reaction as soon as they were released into the market.

“Huh, is this all a line?”

“I knew it! That’s why I said let’s eat later! Thanks to that, we have to wait for hours!”

“…Who knew the line would be this long?”

This heat was clearly evident from the long line stretched out at the finance office.

“Ugh. Today is a bust. I’ll have to come back tomorrow.”

“Do you think the line will get shorter tomorrow? Anyway, it will be the same tomorrow when we finish work. It’s better to exchange today even if it’s late.”

“Well, if tomorrow doesn’t work, I can stop by later. It won’t last forever like this.”

Some people turned around after checking the line.

But even as time passed, a constant length of line was maintained.

Thanks to that, the finance office staff were going through hell.

“Next person please!”

Red Sand shouted loudly.

‘Sigh. I can’t see an end to this.’

This was something that all of them at the finance office expected, including Red Sand.

But as they continued to serve endless imperial citizens, they felt dizzy.

Red Sand had no choice but to get out of this thought.

Because the next customer came up to him.

“Can I help you with exchange?”

“Ah, yes.”

The man looked very nervous and hugged his bundle tightly.

He clearly cherished what was in his bundle very much.

It was natural. 

The bundle contained gold and silver after all.

He couldn’t afford to have such a large amount of precious metals stolen from him.

Red Sand smiled brightly and said,

“Can you put your bundle down here? Don’t worry. All of our staff are public officials of the empire.”

“Haha… Here you go.”

The man smiled awkwardly and carefully put his bundle on the desk.

Thud!

Even though he put it down gently, it made a heavy thud.

Red Sand untied the bundle.

“All gold ingots.”

Red Sand looked at the man with renewed interest.

He thought they were silver ingots, since there were so many of them, but there was not a single one of silver.

‘How envious.’

He was the best among the people he had exchanged today.

He hadn’t amassed this much wealth since he became an adult, not long after he started working.

That’s why he was quite jealous of the man in front of him.

Red Sand shook off these thoughts and did his duty.

He appraised the value of the gold ingots in front of him and paid the man the appropriate amount of gold coins.

Of course, he had to go through quite a lot of procedures to avoid any mistakes in this process.

“Here you are. Do you want to deposit some of the gold coins?”

“Ah, I was going to tell you that…”

“Haha. I’ll help you right here.”

Most of the people who visited the finance office deposited some of their money after exchanging it.

The man in front of him was no exception.

He handed back all but fifteen cents of gold coins to Red Sand.

Most of the gold coins that were handed over to him were returned to the finance office.

“Here, take this deposit certificate. You can withdraw your money anytime by handing over this certificate and saying your password. Don’t forget your serial number and password, and be careful.”

“…What if I lose the certificate?”

“You can get a new one if you know the serial number on the certificate and the password you wrote.”

“Oh! I see.”

“Never tell your password to anyone else. In that case, the finance office will not compensate you.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Red Sand’s earnestness made the man’s face resolute.

With that, he went home with fifteen cents of gold coins and a deposit certificate.

The gold ingots he brought were transported to the capital and reborn as gold coins.

That’s how currency was successfully established in the Wakan Tanka Empire Empire.

< Currency Reform. > The End