NOVEL NEXT Chapter 48
No matter what Rockefeller wanted, Carter was still the shop owner.
It had become important for Rockefeller to persuade him because if he couldn’t be persuaded, he couldn’t put the lord in more debt.
“Carter-ajusshi. Isn’t it too early to worry about it that much? If he pays back the money he borrowed on time, it’s beneficial for us to lend out a lot of money unconditionally. The lord is the most trustworthy of the customers we are dealing with, so I think it should be okay to let him more?”
It wasn’t that Carter didn’t understand Rockefeller’s words.
From their point of view, it was good to give out as many loans as possible to customers with good credit.
“I agree with your words that the lord’s credit is good. It’s much better than lending it to someone in a more unstable position. But still, this has never happened before,”
“What has never happened before?”
“The lord has never borrowed this much money in a row before. It … doesn’t feel good. My instincts aren’t bad, so I’m wary of this,”
Rockefeller’s efforts continued,
“Including the previous loan, the lord borrowed 150 Talents for the down payment to the Mercenaries, and this time he borrowed an additional 100 Talents for a Mage. And adding in the balance of 150 Talents to be paid later to the mercenaries, the lord’s recent debt only adds up to 400 Talents. It might be huge money to people like us, but for the lord who controls the land, it can’t be that much money – it’s definitely not,”
(TN – That means the lord has to pay 24 Talents of interest a month – that’s an average farmer’s 2 year salary – on monthly interest alone – yikes)
“You keep urging me to lend the lord money?”
“If we can lend out as much as possible, then it’s good for us too – that way, won’t the shop’s profits increase significantly?”
It was undeniable that ever since Rockefeller had started working for him, the shop’s income had increased. That’s why, even if he was the owner, he couldn’t just ignore Rockefeller’s opinion.
“Right, I know what you’re trying to say. You’re saying that since the money he’s borrowed so far isn’t too big of an amount yet, it should be okay to lend him more. But the thing is, what I’m worried about is whether the lord will form the bad habits,”
Carter continued to speak,
“As you said, 400 Talents isn’t a lot of money for someone who owns this land, but accumulating debt starts with a small amount. His debt is only 400 Talents, but if he keeps borrowing recklessly, the debt will increase exponentially someday. That’s what I’m worried about,”
If such a situation did occur, what would happen later was like a terrible nightmare for Carter that he didn’t even want to imagine.
“You should never think that everyone in the world will pay your money back on time. If they were some random jerk, it would be easier to get the money back – you can just hire some thugs to collect the money, but the opponent is the owner of this land. Do you think it’s an easy task to get money from someone like that?”
Carter shook his head before Rockefeller could answer.
“No, it’s not an easy task at all. Especially with people in power, you have to be careful from the very beginning. We have to adjust things on our end so that our premium debtors don’t turn into bad debtors with bad habits,”
At this point, Carter thought he had said enough and made his point, he thought Rockefeller would understand his perspective fully, but that was his own delusion,
“What if you could get all the money back?”
“I could get it back?” Carter tilted his head curiously without realising,
Rockefeller continued to talk,
“Even then, would you not lend it out?”
“There’s no way that would happen…right? Think about it, if you were the lord of the land, would you listen to a person like me who appears and asks the lord to pay back the money? There wouldn’t be a problem right now, but if in the future, the lord had a debt level that he himself couldn’t handle, then he wouldn’t pay anything at all even if it killed him,”
“That’s a little weird,” Rockefeller deliberately tilted his head,
“Why would we be the ones going to get the money? As you said, the lord wouldn’t even listen to us,”
Carter raised his objections,
“Well, if we’re not the ones going to get the money back, then who on earth would?”
“There’s this,”
Rockefeller pulled out a promissory note signed by the lord.
“It’s in the conditions that it’s for sale to other people. Once we sell it, then that person can go to the lord and receive the money instead of us,”
“That’s…”
“If that happens, we don’t have to care about the lord’s debt at all. It will be up to the debt collectors to collect the actual debt from the lord because it becomes someone else’s responsibility, not ours,”
Only then could Carter understand the answer that Rockefeller had been guiding him towards this entire time,
“Then, do you mean you want to hand over the promissory note to someone else?”
“If we have too many promissory notes from the lord, then of course that is what we have to do. It’s too big of a risk for us to keep all of them after all. And as Carter-ajusshi said, if the lord lost his ability to repay the debts, then he might respond with some bad ideas, so of course, it’s a given that we would sell the promissory notes to others,”
When Carter failed to respond immediately, Rockefeller asked about Carter’s previous meetings with the lord,
“Didn’t Carter-ajusshi also mention this to the lord? That the promissory note can be traded elsewhere?”
He had definitely said that.
The problem was…
“That is… of course, those were just words. It’s not like I’m an outsider here. I have to live and pay taxes here, so do you think it’s an easy task to do as you say? I was just saying it to the lord just in case of the worst-case scenario. I have no intention of showing the lord hostility with something like that,”
“If that’s the case, why did you get this promissory note? If you’re not going to use it to trade with others, then it’s pretty useless anyway, right?”
At his answer, Carter frowned.