Chapter 16: 16

“It won’t make us very rich. Haven’t you thought of that too, Andrew-hyung?” 

“That- well… that’s true,” 

Rockefeller spoke up, 

“There’s nothing wrong with what you’re saying, Joshua. You can’t become very rich by mining and selling placer gold. It might have been different if we were the owners of this place – but even if it can fill our stomachs, secretly mining placer gold and selling it while being careful of other people’s gazes won’t make us rich,” 

No one brought up any objections to his words. They all agreed with that, after all. 

“Then how do we do it? How can we be as rich as you said?” Joshua asked, 

“If we can’t get rich that way, then we just have to find another way,” 

“Another way? What way are you talking about? Do you already have something in mind, Rockefeller-hyung?” 

“Actually, there are some ways to get rich,” 

Rockefeller continued to speak to his brothers, who stared up at him with all of their concentration focused on his words, 

“When you’re trying to make big money – it doesn’t come from working hard. You can’t make a huge amount of money no matter how hard you work – for that, you either have to run a business or gamble,” 

“Gambling?” The younger brothers’ expressions were enough to express their displeasure at the word gambling, 

No matter what their eldest brother said, the stories they would hear from their dad when they were bored were enough to let them know they should never be gamblers. 

“Do you mean you want to be a gambler?” Andrew asked, concerned.

“That’s not it. I’m talking about ‘Unearned Income’,”

(He uses Economics jargon here that I had to look up – it refers to income earned without the direct participation in productive labour – there’s a wiki about it if you’re curious)

“Unearned income? What is that?” 

“I’m talking about money that you earn by sitting around doing nothing, rather than from working,” 

“Is that possible?” 

According to the common sense of these young siblings, it was an irrefutable truth that one could only earn money when they worked. 

‘So how would you make money without doing that? And a lot of money at that.’

“You guys know about the interest you get when you lend money to others, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I know interest. It’s money you get from letting others borrow your money,” 

“Yeah, it’s something like that interest. And besides interest, there’s also investment income like dividends and rent or profit from the sale of items or real estate. And the real big money comes from these things, and it’s not something earned by just working,” 

The younger brothers fell quiet when difficult words they didn’t understand came out. 

‘In anything, early education is important,’ 

Rockefeller smiled softly and continued his words, 

“You don’t have to understand all the difficult concepts right now – just remember that the money you make by sitting around is bigger than the money you earn by working hard,” 

“Then who works? If you make a lot of money sitting around, there is no need for anyone to do the work,” Joshua asked, 

“I don’t get it either. If the amount of money we make by doing nothing is bigger, then no one has to work hard, right?” Andrew added, 

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Rockefeller shook his head slowly, 

“That’s not it. Not just anyone can sit still and make money. To do that, you have to have a lot of money first – but there aren’t many people like that in the world, right?” 

It seemed like the penny dropped for Joshua first, 

“I get it. If you lend a large amount of money and receive interest, you get more money in interest than when you lend a small amount of money. Do you mean that?” He asked, 

“Right, you can think of it like that as well,” Rockefeller nodded, 

“Then that person would be able to earn money even if they didn’t work,” Joshua nodded, 

“And from there, if you lend out a large amount of money?” Rockefeller asked, 

“Then you would be very rich, even if you do nothing,” 

Andrew, who had been quietly listening to their conversation, asked another question, 

“Then what if the person who borrowed the money doesn’t pay it back? If they don’t pay the interest properly, then you’d be in big trouble,” 

Rockefeller smiled, 

“Didn’t I say in the beginning that Unearned Income is like gambling?” 

“Yeah?” 

“It can be quite a gamble if you consider the case where the borrower doesn’t pay the interest on time or runs away with the money you lend them,” 

“Wouldn’t that be bad?” Andrew asked, 

“So, in that case, who should I lend my money to increase the odds of me winning and getting my money back?” 

“Right….you can lend it to nobles or wealthy people – people like that wouldn’t run away with the money,”

“That’s right. If we lend money to people with credit, we can enter this gamble with high odds of winning. Ultimately, what we have to consider is the odds of winning. If you keep betting at a  gambling venue with a high winning rate, that’s how you become rich,” 

Although his younger brothers didn’t understand every word, they seemed to understand the concept to some extent, 

“I think I get it?” 

“Me too!” 

“What I want you to understand is that we can’t get rich by mining and selling placer gold, so what hyung wants to do is, after selling for a while, is going to work under the goldsmith,” 

“Why there?”

“One of the things a goldsmith does is lending gold coins to others and earning interest. Like I explained before, big money is made by not working…?” 

The two younger brothers shouted out in unison, 

“It’s earned by sitting around!”

“Exactly. That’s how real money is made.”

After talking to his siblings, Rockefeller thought about what to do next. 

‘In the current situation, gold mining is too risky. It’s a problem if they find out about it – but if we might still get unlucky and meet an orc as well. So as soon as possible, I should work under the goldsmith and take a seat – that’s the way my siblings and I will live.’ 

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