Chapter 625: The Queen’s national debt

“Build a new harbor?” asked Robb, “how did you think about this all of a sudden?”

“I can’t leave the Westwind Ship you sold to me in Lost City,” the queen said seriously. “This warship is too powerful. If it is taken away by the people of the Church of Darkness, the consequences will be very serious. I have to put it by my side. Moreover, my only harbor is at Lost City, which is also very bad. I have to have my own harbor to build a real fleet.”

“Yes, it makes sense.” Robb said, “it’s better to build a new harbor, build a new ship factory, and place all the new warships in this place. But… I just want to ask… Do you have money?”

The queen was rendered speechless

She was very angry.

However, the queen had already guessed what the man would say, so she had already been prepared. After squinting at Robb for a while, she suddenly said calmly, “no money!”

“You want me to help you while you don’t have money?” Robb snorted and said, “as you know, I attach great importance to the interests of workers. If I don’t have money, my workers won’t even do a minute’s work.”

“But since you have money, you can lend it to me,” the queen said seriously. “I will borrow money from you in the name of the kingdom. After that, I promise to pay you back with five percent of the interest every year, including the principal and interest.”

“Wow!” Robb exclaimed, “Wow! My cutie, you know national debt!”

“National debt?” the queen was stunned for a moment. After thinking for a while, she suddenly realized, “national debt is a good word. Indeed, I am really getting national debt. Then the next question is, are you willing to lend me this national debt?”

This was a very interesting thing. Their speed of thinking was completely comparable to the speed of economic and technology progress.

“You know I don’t have much money. Although I have many ways to make money, I don’t use them. I have given all kinds of industries to others, so the money that really belongs to me has never been much.”

The queen knew that Robb had come up with a new concept. He usually only earned a small amount of money at the beginning, and then threw it away to other people. For example, the candy making business had now completely become the business of Nuolun. The stockings business was now slowly handed over to the Corton family. The football match, he it to the Corton family. As for the railway system, it was left to the queen, the Corton family, and the big merchant, Pobo.

He did all the business at once and only did the initial invention and creation without eating the later profits. This was really inconceivable.

Robb said, “to put it simply, the money I have now is only enough for one person or a group of people to live happily. But it’s far from enough to build a city. Even if I want to lend you money, I can’t do it.”

The queen was rendered speechless

Robb said “But, speaking of national debt, I’ll give you a little trick. Don’t just loan money from me. You should broaden your horizon and put it on the public. In your West Gran, there are a lot of nobles who hold a large amount of money. They are afraid of losing money when they want to invest, so they want to find a stable and basic appreciation method. You’d better ask them to lend you money so that you can develop the kingdom rather than let their money rot at home.”

The queen sighed, “you don’t know how selfish and shortsighted these nobles are. They would rather keep their money at home than lend it to the national treasury.”

Robb said, “don’t blame them for this. You can only blame your lack of protection mechanism.”

The queen asked, “Oh? What do you mean?”

Robb said, “if they lend their money to the national treasury. God knows if they can take it back. What if you turn against them?”

The queen said, “how can the queen clan’s reputation be a game? There is absolutely no reason for us to turn against each other.”

“Reputation is the last thing you can rely on in the world. How is it possible to give a large amount of money because of reputation? Of course, you have to establish an effective system. Therefore, I advise you to make something called a bond.”

“Bond?”

“Yes, it’s bonds representing the national debt.” Robb said, “if a bond is made of copper or iron, engrave its value on it. For example, a copper bond token is worth one thousand and two hundred gold. Engrave the time when the bond is borrowed, the time when the state recovers these bond, and how much interest it has. All of these are written clearly…”

“How do I prevent it from being forged?” the queen asked directly.

Robb smiled and said, “just use magic. Don’t you have many powerful magicians and strange magic in your royal family? Use magic to imprint the royal family’s insignia on the bond, which can’t be copied by others…”

The queen listened carefully.

Robb said “Print this bond into many kinds of face value, large or small, and let the nobles buy it. The small face value can even be released to the civilians, so that the ordinary rich families can also buy it. Of course, most of the families won’t buy it, but there will always be a group of people who have free money and hope that their free money can slowly increase. They will try to buy the bond. You can receive a large amount of money through these bonds.”

Hearing this, the queen completely understood. “Great idea. How about I issue the bonds now and sell them for the first ten years?”

“Hey, ten years? Who would dare to buy it?” Robb said crossly, “when it is invented, it’s a new product for everyone. No one would dare to buy it casually. If you start on it for ten years from the very beginning. I promise you won’t be able to sell it at all.”

“How long should it be?”

“One month!” Robb said very seriously, “the first batch of debt will be redeemed in only one month, and the interest will be paid at the rate of five percent per year. In this way, we can use this short term debt to raise the interest, so that they can try to accept the debt.”

The queen frowned. “A month is not enough to lay a foundation for the new city. If I can make such a large amount of money in a month, why should I borrow it from someone?”

“Are you a fool?” Robb said, “the first batch of bonds won’t expire yet, so you can sell the second batch of bonds. The second batch of bonds will be returned in two months, and the money sold out of the second batch of bonds will be used to buy back the first batch of bonds. Then, when the two batch of bonds are about to expire, you can issue the third batch of bonds, and buy back the second batch with the money sold out of the third batch…”

The queen understood immediately. “In other words, I will never need to pay back the first batch of debt. I only need to pay interest for this batch of money, and the interest is only five percent a year. I can afford it completely. After the nobility and the public trust the royal family’s ability to pay their debt, I can have more.”