Chapter 61: Chapter 61

A bank is a product made when finance and economy have developed to a certain extent. On the Silver Continent, banks didn’t exist, but there were monetary houses.

On the Silver Continent, precious metals like gold, silver, and bronze were used as basic currency. In this world, they didn’t have a system that issued out and trusted in paper money. The main reason for the existence of monetary houses was to circulate metallic currency that would otherwise be inconvenient to carry around in large amounts. Take for example, a merchant who was traveling to a foreign land to obtain goods that were worth a thousand taels of silver. If monetary houses didn’t exist, then he would have to personally carry a bulky and enormous amount of wealth on his journey. This was not only inconveniently heavy, but also extremely risky. These circumstances had brought about the emergence of monetary houses to fulfill an age-old demand. Monetary houses enabled people to procure goods by carrying only golden and silver promissory notes of equivalent value.

Golden and silver promissory notes were items that were issued by a monetary house. To put it simply, neither the golden nor silver promissory notes were ‘paper money’. In fact, they were receipts that were issued out by monetary houses. This was also the main difference between a monetary house and a bank. A central bank that possessed the distribution rights to a currency could issue that currency based on trust. However, the purpose of commercial banks was not to facilitate the circulation of currency, but rather to convert the public’s unused money into the bank’s investments.

The people of the Silver Continent deposited their gold or silver currency into the monetary house mainly for the convenience of its portability and usage. The objective of a monetary house was to safekeep, transact, and circulate the money a person puts in the monetary house. For the people of the Silver Continent who stored their money in the monetary house, not only were they not given an interest rate, but they also had to pay the monetary house a fixed fee.

When passing money, a custodial and circulation fee was also required. This concept would be nothing but sheer fantasy back in Yan Liqiang’s past life. However in this world, this was deemed to be totally reasonable and fair. No one saw anything wrong with it. In reality, in his past life, everyone was actually paying a custodial fee as well when they used the bank’s services to store their money, and this custodial fee came from the balance of deducting the bank’s interest from inflation. It was just that no one actually noticed this fact.

When he received those five hundred taels of gold from the Lu Clan, Yan Liqiang had already thought of saving this big sum of money in the monetary house to earn the interest. But back then, Yan Liqiang was still making calculations. If the monetary houses here provided 5% interest, then by heavily relying on the five hundred taels of gold alone, he’d be getting twenty-five taels of gold as interest every year. With those twenty five taels of gold, Yan Liqiang and Yan Dechang would no longer have any financial worries.

However, the cruel reality of this world very quickly jerked Yan Liqiang awake from his wonderful dream of ‘earning money effortlessly’. After understanding how a monetary house operated, Yan Liqiang realized that if he were to store his gold in the monetary house, not only would his savings not grow, it would also reduce with time.

It went without saying that Yan Liqiang found this unacceptable.

Coming home, while thinking up how to resolve the threats of the Hong Clan, Yan Liqiang was already planning on how to use the gold at the same time.

Yan Dechang was getting on in years and he wasn’t cultivating. His stamina would gradually decline along with his age. Blacksmithing was becoming increasingly difficult to carry on as a trade. On top of that, Yan Dechang had sustained severe injuries. Even after his body recovered, he’d still have to take it easy for a very long period of time. For at least half a year, he shouldn’t be doing heavy work. He’d even have to put off swinging a hammer for a bit. Faced with such realistic issues relating to their survival, Yan Liqiang had no choice but to reconsider their future source of income at home. This source of income wouldn’t only affect his father’s livelihood in the future, but also how comfortably Yan Liqiang would live in this world.

Practicing martial arts might not be a necessity for everyone’s survival, but food, clothes and shelter were necessities in everyone’s life. And the latter items were all matters that required money to solve.

Lately, Yan Liqiang’s mind was frequently filled with questions on what to do with that money. He had thoughts of investing, thoughts of manufacturing four-wheeled horse carriages, thoughts of manufacturing a lighter that would be easier to bring and use than fire steel. In the end however, after doing some research, he realized that although his ideas were good, they weren’t really feasible and were hard for him to accomplish at this point of time.

First of all, the idea of stock-trading didn’t exist in this world. Those who ran businesses had partners too. However, looking for a partner to invest wasn’t a matter that could be accomplished overnight. Their clan currently didn’t have the necessary background and connections either.

Secondly, he had also thought about making use of the blacksmith workshop at home to make some small inventions or creations. The concepts of a four-wheeled horse carriage and a lighter were actually very simple. His house’s blacksmith store did in fact forge fire steels, so he could easily create a lighter or the main structure of a four-wheeled horse carriage. Unfortunately, registering to patent an invention wasn’t practiced in this world. If he were to modify fire steels into lighters or create a four-wheeled horse carriage, other people could just buy one, take it apart and be enlightened in just three seconds. The same object would then be mass produced by larger and more established blacksmith workshops. Hence, apart from earning a small amount of money through the items that he had painstakingly created from the beginning, he reckoned that they would later become common objects that were hardly worth any special attention.

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After deliberating over every possibility, Yan Liqiang eventually realized that the best option available to him was buying land and stores.

He’d buy a piece of land and hire a farmer to take care of the plantation. After establishing a crop share rental arrangement with the hired farmer, he’d basically have a stable income as long as there weren’t any major natural or human disasters. He’d store some food for himself and sell the surplus for money. That way, his family wouldn’t need to worry about surviving in general.

With more money, he could buy another piece of land. The more land he owned, the faster his income would accumulate. Not only that, more people would be relying on him for a living, and his territory would grow. With land, money, and human resources, people would naturally sign on for a protection fee. When that time arrived, he’d have to hire guards. If he wished for stability and to avoid unnecessary attention, he’d have to improve his relations with the government and other parties of influence. This way, his connections would expand; he’d slowly and gradually gain power and influence over other territories. This was how a local tycoon or local tyrant came to be.

The Hong Clan, Lu Clan, and Shen Clan had used this method. The larger, wealthier clans were also using the same method. Countless heroes of ancient China had done the same. Since so many people were doing this, and he had no better options, Yan Liqiang had no choice but to do the same as well. There was no way he’d do nothing about that much gold and just live on his current capital.

A few days ago, Yan Liqiang had wanted to briefly mention his plan of buying land to Yan Dechang. However, during those few days, Yan Dechang hadn’t been doing well with his recovery and on top of that, Yan Liqiang had yet to complete the martial arts examination as well. So Yan Liqiang could only hold back from talking about it. He didn’t expect his home to suddenly be crowded with that many visitors. He’d gotten so many congratulatory gifts that they barely fit inside his room. And so Yan Liqiang seized the opportunity to share his idea with Yan Dechang.

Apart from buying land, it had been a few decades since any improvements had been done to his residence. It was already turning quite shabby so it was probably time for some maintenance.

After a moment’s consideration, Yan Dechang agreed.

Yan Liqiang instantly breathed a sigh of relief when he got Yan Dechang’s approval.

Shi Dafeng had invited him to go on a tour, but he didn’t join him. He wanted to use these two months of free time to settle the issues back at home before he went to report to the martial arts academy of Pingxi Prefecture. He wanted his father to be able to live a more comfortable life while he was away from Qinghe County. As his son, the least he could do was make sure that his father didn’t have to work so hard that his hair was disheveled and his face was dirty, that he wouldn’t have to scrimp and save every day.

Yan Liqiang wasn’t really knowledgeable about things like purchasing land, purchasing shops, and building houses. But that didn’t matter because there was someone at home who knew just what to do. Hence, Yan Liqiang decided that he’d simply leave this matter to Lu Wenbin.

Apart from saving fifty taels of gold and five hundred taels of silver as a reserve, Yan Liqiang was prepared to spend all the gold that the Lu Clan had given to him—and the congratulatory gift money he’d received—to buy land, to buy stores, and to build houses.

…

After settling these matters, by daybreak on the second day after the examination, Yan Liqiang had already immersed himself back into his training without a second thought…

Yan Liqiang didn’t hesitate because he suddenly realized that if time and energy could be investments, then he’d invest his time and energy on training. In this world, this was simply a good trade of small capital in exchange for a huge profit.

When he thought about it, training could give a person a healthier and stronger physical body, along with the formidable strength that would allow a person to protect themselves and their family. With these at hand, one could also repay debts of gratitude and revenge. Not only that, it also made it possible for one to obtain even more gold, silver, beautiful women, manors and a comfortable lifestyle. It allowed you to become a figure that was revered by others, and to be a member of the higher social classes. Where else could one possibly find a better deal…?