Chapter 84 - I Go Into Banking

Now sure, I really did want the citizens of Lofie Village to increase, because everyone knew that an increase in population means a boost to the economy, I mean it’s logical. More people means more taxpayers, more people means more spending power, which means businesses prosper, which means more tax revenue, which means improved infrastructure, and just like that the circle of economy continues, and growth continues.

But the main thing needs to be that those citizens need to be economical additions. They need to be citizens that would be taxpayers. Basically a productive addition to society.

And I know that most of the people here won’t like it when I say this, but refugees tend to be anything but that.

If you can’t find a place for them to become productive, either to start their own businesses, or to find jobs, they tend to be only a massive drain on the economy.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that they should be kicked out, of course not, but the responsibility falls on them, and the country, kingdom, or in this case village they fled to, to provide them with the opportunities to become productive members of that place.

Which is exactly what needed to happen at that time.

"Okay, we can discuss the threat of this conqueror later," I said, sitting up and leaning my back against the wall. "For now, tell me what has been done with all of these refugees."

"We have some of them settled into the mercenary barracks, and the rest are split between the inn, and some homes that had room available for them to stay in." Julia answered.

"Okay," I nodded. "That settles the living arrangements for now, but what about employment? Businesses? Has anything been done about that yet?"

"Has Worick explained the village’s tax laws with them, the conditions for buying land, any of that?" I asked.

"Well... no," Cat answered. "About fifty of them are training with us and the mercenaries though."

I felt my heart sink at those words.

"Please tell me you didn’t hire them?" I asked. "Please, because we don’t have the capital available at the moment to carry that many employees."

"Don’t worry, they aren’t employed," Julia smiled. "They just train with us."

I couldn’t help the sigh of relief that came with those words.

"Thank the lord," I sighed. "Okay, but that’s the problem, if we want these people to help us grow the village, we’re going to need to find them employment, or help them start their own businesses. It doesn’t matter what kind of businesses, but they need to start earning coin."

"Okay," Cat said. "But that’s easier said than done, they came here with nothing, how are they going to start something?"

"That’s where we come in," I answered. "I want you to go to Worick, and convince him to sell properties to these people either at a lower rate, or to have them pay the same amount as everyone else, but allow them to pay that amount in installments."

This seemed like an easy way to solve the problem of helping them start their own businesses, or buying homes for themselves, after all there isn’t an easier way to convince people to start making money, than to give them a reason to have money.

But then it hit me.

The thing that made the richest people on Earth, the richest people on Earth... banking.

Why not start my own bank.

It works on a simple concept after all.

And with the small number of people that would actually use said bank, I didn’t need a massive influx of capital to start it up, and I could even provide employment to some of these new villagers.

"Let’s wait on that one," I smiled down at them. "I think I’ve just found my new business venture, a business venture that would help me just as much as it would help everyone else."

"I just need to figure out if I can create the required systems to be able to implement it,"

"What are you thinking?" Cat asked.

"I’m going to start this world’s first bank," I smiled down at her.

"A... bank?" She asked, looking up at me with those beautiful, yet confused, red eyes.

"Exactly," I said. "A bank is basically a business where people store their money, and receive interest on that coin over a year."

"Okayy," Julia said. "But how does the bank make its money?"

"It’s simple," I answered. "What we do is, not only do we charge a small monthly management fee, we also loan out their money to other customers, at a higher interest rate than what we give them for saving their money with us."

"So basically, you take the money they save with you, and then loan that money to someone else, and the differences in interest rates are your profits?" Cat asked.

"That’s about the gist of it, yes," I answered.

"But how are you going to monitor this?" Julia asked. "And how are you going to make sure that you’re actually repaid the money you’re owed?"

"That’s where the systems I want to create come in," I smiled. "As for making sure they repay their loans, well for that you have them provide some security for their loan."

"Security?" Cat asked.

"Basically you ensure that the value of all of their belongings, that can’t be moved, equals, or is more than, the value of the loan you give them," I said. "And if they don’t repay their loans, you can seize those belongings."

"That seems brilliant, and a bit... cruel," Julia said.

"That’s just business," I smiled.

"But for now," I said, extricating myself from their embrace, and getting out of the bed. "It looks like I’m going to have to do some experimenting with my magic again."

I had work to do after all.

If I wanted people to be able to manage the funds people left with us, and to be able to track the ins and outs of these funds, I would need some systems, in that case it was administrative systems.

But if I wanted to make my customers’ lives as easy as possible, and make it possible for them to have basically a live accounting of their available funds... well for that I would need some magical systems.