Becoming an Assistant at the Bank (3)
While Rockefeller was momentarily lost in thought, Carter glanced at the congregation clock to check the time.
It was still early for clients to arrive, but he checked just in case.
“Do you feel like you’ve got a rough understanding of the gold coins now? Any lingering questions?”
“Yes, all clear.”
“Alright, then let me explain what you will be doing moving forward.”
Carter had already explained the first of the three main tasks of a goldsmith, and he began to speak about the remaining responsibilities.
“The primary task you'll be focusing on is this: representing me in dealing with the clients who come here, especially since I’ll be busy making dalants. I mentioned earlier that there are three main tasks, right?”
“Yes, you did say that.”
“Then tell me about the other tasks. You must have heard something about them here and there?”
“Storing gold coins and lending them out to others while charging interest.”
“That's right, you understand perfectly.”
Carter nodded with a satisfied expression.
“Your job will be just that. To represent me in handling clients who come to store gold coins, and also to lend gold coins to those in need and collect interest on these loans.”
Carter took out a ledger he had prepared in advance and showed it to Rockefeller.
"Here's the ledger for the store. Take a look."
Rockefeller opened the ledger Carter handed to him and scanned through its contents.
The ledger was densely filled with all the transactions that had taken place in his store so far.
Although he couldn't grasp everything at first glance, as he continued to peruse the pages, he began to get a sense of what it was all about.
'Well, the content of a ledger is pretty standard.'
Since Rockefeller had been concentrating on the ledger for a while, Carter asked him to confirm.
"Do you roughly understand what's written in that ledger?"
"Yes, I think I get the gist of it. There's even the name of a lord who recently borrowed gold coins listed here."
Carter asked a few more questions, and Rockefeller earnestly answered them, demonstrating his understanding of the ledger's contents to him.
Having finished the verification, Carter slightly curled his lips and praised Rockefeller.
"As expected of someone who learned from his father, you catch on fast. Well done. Yes, that's roughly what it's about. That ledger is something I check doubly every day, so don't even think about playing any tricks with it."
Upon hearing that, Rockefeller waved his hands dismissively.
"There's absolutely no chance of that happening. Please trust me."
"This matter, you see, requires mutual trust. I don't think you would dare tamper with the ledger, but just in case such a thing happens, it won't bode well for you, I assure you. It's something worth remembering."
"Don't worry. In this line of work, trust and belief are everything."
"Yes, always remember that."
Still, the unpredictability of human nature was always a concern.
However, since Carter couldn't entrust the shop's business without trust, he decided to give Rockefeller the benefit of the doubt and continued the conversation.
"Let me explain about the customers who come to deposit gold coins. People, you see, occasionally deposit their gold coins for safekeeping, paying a certain storage fee to use the bank."
"Won't they find the storage fee too expensive?"
"That's up to them, really. But right next to this shop is the barracks of the Seers, and besides, I guarantee the safety of the deposited gold coins. So if they don't trust themselves or those around them, they come here and pay the storage fee to deposit their gold."
"Indeed."
"Here, you will receive gold coins from the guests and record the transactions in this ledger. And this is the most important part."
Carter had prepared quite a few things.
He showed Rockefeller a paper gold coin deposit certificate.
"This is called a gold coin deposit certificate. It's issued by our store to prove that a guest has left gold coins in our custody."
A promissory note (I owe you).
It was a simple document proving 'I owe you something.'
'I knew there would be IOUs.'
Rockefeller closely examined the gold coin deposit certificate handed to him.
It read '5 IOUs,' and below that, 'Lyon Guild' was written as a guarantor for this IOU.
'Might this be the starting point of paper currency? It's intriguing to see such a thing in this peculiar world.'
While Rockefeller was wearing a meaningful smile, Carter began to continue his explanation about the gold coin deposit certificate he had handed over.
"It says 5 IOUs there, right? It means if you have this gold coin deposit certificate, our store will naturally give you 5 dalants."
Carter emphasized his point by raising his index finger.
"And what you need to remember clearly here is that even if a customer leaves gold coins at this store and comes back soon after claiming to have lost the gold coin receipt, you must never give them the gold coins. It doesn't matter if they just went out and came back in. This applies even if they lost the receipt inside the store."
