Limited by the era and his own narrow perspective,
Merchants were driven by profit. Lorrister recalled that in his previous life, back when he was running a small handicraft factory, he had attended several lectures by financial experts. The history of finance could be traced back as far as the medieval period, when the Jewish people, driven from their homeland, wandered across Europe and keenly noticed the price disparities and profits in currency exchange between various kingdoms. The reason the Jewish people came to be known as a commercial nation was that their earliest business ventures consisted of three things: usury, currency exchange, and general stores. These three lines of business allowed them to accumulate wealth over a thousand years and, in later generations, influence the economic development of the entire world.
The Galentea Continent was different from the medieval world of Lorrister's previous life. The Temple of Sijin, which presided over wealth and commerce, had taken over some of the functions the Jewish people once served, and in some respects did it even better. For instance, it leveraged the Temple's credibility to appraise valuables, real estate, and collectibles; it provided notarization and guarantee endorsement for various commercial contracts; it issued gold yuan notes to replace Gold Forde; and it extended loans to lords, trade guilds, and nations. In a sense, the Temple of Sijin already possessed some of the functions of a modern bank.
However, compared to a modern bank, the Temple of Sijin did not offer deposit or withdrawal services. Its clientele consisted entirely of large trade guilds, lords with proven creditworthiness, and nations. It had no interest in private banking, at most exchanging gold yuan notes for merchants about to embark on long journeys for the sake of convenience. Precisely because of this, the Temple of Sijin's influence had long been unable to expand. Apart from merchants, it enjoyed virtually no following among the common folk. Just as had happened after the former Krisen Empire broke into civil war, the Temple of Sijin withdrew from the entire empire, and to this day, the closest Temple of Sijin to the Northland was still located in
Now, from Fatty Shi's proposal to issue the family's own gold coins, Lorrister had conceived the idea of establishing a family bank. It would issue gold coins, provide loans to support newly established farms, mines, and workshops in the family's territories, and offer personal deposit and withdrawal services. What was advantageous for the family was that, regardless of what private workshops or factories were established within the family's lands, the
Most importantly, Lorrister wanted the financial affairs of the family's territories kept firmly under his own control. He would use the bank to alleviate the enormous economic pressure of territory development and military campaigns. On the Galentea Continent, people's habit was to hide and bury their accumulated gold coins to prepare for rainy days. The Norton Family's territories now had nearly one and a half million inhabitants. In the earliest developed region of the Fongle Plains, according to Steward Sipel's estimates, the residents should have been among the first to grow wealthy, with each household possessing no fewer than ten Gold Forde. This was one of the reasons Steward Sipel had advocated for increasing taxes.
The Norton Family's armed forces had destroyed the Kingdom of Haneiabada. The spoils from this slave state had amounted to no fewer than twenty-seven million Gold Forde alone, and then Lorrister had gone on to spend over ten million in lavish investments over the next two to three years. According to Lorrister's experience from his previous life, injecting such an enormous sum of capital would very likely have triggered an economic crisis of runaway inflation in the family's territories. Yet, remarkably, the territories remained completely unaffected. There were two reasons for this. First, the residents' consumption needs were minimal — as long as they had food, clothing, and shelter, they were content. Second, those who earned money simply buried their Gold Forde rather than spending them. As a result, the more Lorrister invested, the more it was like throwing money into a bottomless pit with not a single ripple in return.
Lorrister took a piece of cowhide parchment and wrote two characters on it: "Bank." He hoped to wrap up these administrative matters in the family's territories within the year. Next year, he would be spearheading the assault on the Kingdom of Iberia and dealing with Grand Duke Fasaburon. By then, all development and management affairs in the family's territories would be handed over to Fatty Shi, so he needed to get his thoughts down clearly before entrusting them to him.
November passed amidst a flurry of meetings. Fatty Shi was amazed by Lorrister's proposal to establish a bank and immediately suggested placing a statue of the Goddess of Sijin inside it, letting the bank serve the role of the Temple of Sijin. This was one of Fatty Shi's mischievous whims. He was rather eager to see the expression on the Temple of Sijin's face when they eventually discovered the Northland's prosperity, came to submit an application to establish a new temple, and found that a bank had already assumed all their functions…
Lorrister finalized the list of ennoblements as well. The family was preparing to grant peerage to a total of two Viscounts and twelve Barons this time. What surprised people was that the two elevated to Viscount were Master Sidney and Master Follin. The reasons were very simple: without these two, the family would not possess the Sidney Steel Shield Armor, the War Chariot Crossbow, or the Thunderbolt Catapult. These were the fundamental reasons behind the Norton Family's unstoppable armed forces and the minimal casualties suffered across many major battles. It was said that upon receiving the decree of ennoblement, Master Sidney wept like a seven-or-eight-year-old child, kneeling to swear that the Sidney Family would serve the Norton Family loyally for generations, never to regret.
Aside from those on the ennoblement list, next came Steward Hansk，Steward Spell, and Steward Kordan. These three were the chief managers of the Norton Family's Maplewood Manor. Having served the Norton Family loyally for many years, their talents were greatly utilized after Lorrister returned to inherit the family titles and territories, making significant contributions to the development of the family's domains.
The final three candidates elevated to Baron caused some controversy. The first was Fatty Shi. As the Norton Family's chief knight, his ennoblement as Baron should have been a matter of course, but compared to Errol, Terlmann,
Baron Kamola had originally been an honorary Baron granted by the previous Northland Grand Duke, Luginus. However, after offending the Grand Duke, he was thrown into a water dungeon and stripped of his noble status. After rescuing him, Lorrister valued his talent and had him serve the family. Baron Kamola started from a low-level clerk, gained the appreciation of Steward Kordan, and was steadily promoted to the upper echelons. Eventually, Lorrister appointed him as the Steward of the family's most confidential weapons production base, Ironforge Keep, and the person in charge of military logistics. Since taking office, the Norton Family's armaments had never encountered issues, and waste and production costs were drastically reduced. Only then did Lorrister overcome all objections and ennoble him as a territorial Baron.
Upon receiving the decree of ennoblement, Baron Kamola also locked himself in his room and cried for half a day. Then, tidied and dressed, he went out to visit the home of a nobleman named Baron Giste, one of the seventeen whose lands had been reassigned in Rockkeep Castle. This Baron Giste had a widowed sister living with her brother, accompanied by a seven-year-old son. Baron Kamola's visit was to propose marriage to this lady. Now that he had become a territorial Baron, he finally decided to continue the Kamola surname and establish a family.
Aside from these fourteen newly ennobled territorial nobles, the former Northland lords whose territories Lorrister had destroyed and who had been confined in Rockkeep Castle would also be reassigned to the Dreymark Province. Not only would their fiefs be reduced, but they would also become vassal families of the Norton Family, meaning the Norton Family would be their overlords. Just like Count Spence, who was now Viscount Spence and would subsequently swear fealty to Lorrister...
For these seventeen territorial nobles, it was a mix of joy and grief. The eight who were originally Barons were quite happy; how could the Northland compare to Dreymark Province, which had been the most renowned granary of the former Krisen Empire? Their territories being reassigned there would only be an improvement, and a better life was already beckoning them. The other nine territorial nobles, however, felt quite helpless. From Count to Viscount, from Viscount to Baron, the drop was somewhat significant. Nevertheless, in any case, the Norton Family had taken care of them. Surviving a change of dynasty after backing the wrong side and still managing to keep a territory was already extremely fortunate. Who told them to have sided with the deceased
After finalizing the lists of these reassigned lords and newly ennobled nobles, Lorrister then granted six honorary Baronies. The first was Hickard, serving as Governor in the Haneiabada Archipelago. Being ennobled as an honorary noble as Governor meant that once he left his post, he was very likely to be promoted to a territorial noble, as long as he made no mistakes.
The second was Old Father Balleck. Actually, Lorrister wanted to ennoble him as a territorial noble, but this met with unanimous opposition from his retainers. The reason was that Old Father Balleck's original position in the family was merely the manager of a small copper mine, with a status much lower than the three stewards. Although Lorrister had appointed him as the head of all the family's mining and manufacturing facilities, his contributions still fell somewhat short compared to the three stewards. It was like building a house: Old Father Balleck laid the foundation, while the three stewards built the walls. People often praised the house's height and beauty, but forgot that without a foundation, a house was unstable.
The third was Master Sylloba. This architectural design genius, originally coerced by Lorrister into serving the Norton Family, had become the chief supervisor of all the family's projects. He was now immersed in the Norton Family's series of grand-scale developments and was extremely obsessed with naming the projects he oversaw after himself, like the Sylloba Dam, Sylloba Fortress, and Sylloba Avenue. Although most of the names would soon be changed, he still enjoyed doing it immensely. The latest completed projects, the battery and lighthouse atop Oxhorn Cliff in Oxhorn Bay, had just been named by him the Sylloba Battery and Sylloba Lighthouse. In the end, Lorrister made the decision: the battery would be called Oxhorn Cliff Battery, and the lighthouse would indeed be called Sylloba Lighthouse...
The fourth to be ennobled was the headmistress of the Nico Academy, Lorrister's lover Miss Tessisty. However, she declined the title of Baron, requesting instead to simply be granted the title of Sir, as her foster mother had been. On the Galentea Continent, the title of Sir was merely an honorary designation, much like the title of knight — obtaining it signified becoming a quasi-noble, one who could be treated as nobility.
The fifth and sixth honorary baronies went to the Norton Family's two current first-rank Great Swordmasters, Yingjieliek and Hughes. Great Swordmaster Hughes might still have hope of becoming a territorial noble, but Yingjieliek was not one for such ambitions. The old man, having already risen to the rank of first-rank Great Swordmaster, was perfectly content with his current life and couldn't be bothered to make any effort. Ever since returning from the Haneiabada Archipelago, he was only willing to accept the task of garrisoning
Second, it was for the sake of these vassal families. As the new Grand Duke of the Northland, Lorrister would from now on have to host this kind of New Year's banquet every winter, just as other Grand Dukes did — summoning all the vassal families and subordinate lords to gather together and celebrate.
The newly granted fiefs were all located in the Dremke Province, but these newly ennobled nobles would not be returning to their own family territories, as they still held important positions within the Norton Family. With the exception of Divine Arrow Jost, who nonchalantly entrusted his fief to the family's management and simply collected an annual pension, the rest of the newly ennobled nobles handed their lands over to their family members or relatives to manage, while they themselves continued to work diligently within the family, preparing to earn greater merits in order to obtain higher titles and additional land grants…
Apart from the bank preparations and the ennoblement decrees, the remaining matter on Lorrister's agenda was the real estate development proposal he had put forward. Steward Spell had once suggested raising taxes on the prosperous subjects to cover the family's excessive development expenditures, but Lorrister had vetoed the idea. Having never seen a pig run but still tasted pork — that was how Lorrister felt about getting the subjects to willingly part with their money to fund the family. With his experiences from his previous life, he could list countless methods with his eyes closed.
He would start with something simple. The proposal Lorrister put forward was real estate development. Fenton Plain had seven towns and Xing'an Plain had eight — these were the earliest developed regions in the family's territory. After six or seven years, the populations of these towns had grown considerably, mostly because the young and able-bodied laborers from surrounding villages had flocked to the newly established workshops and factories in each town, where they could earn far more than farming at home. This had resulted in a proliferation of privately built houses in the original towns. The problem was that the earliest town houses had all been uniformly built as earthen-and-timber dwellings, allocated to each household. Now that the population had surged and housing was insufficient, everyone had begun fending for themselves.
Technically, all the land and housing in these towns belonged to the Norton Family. Steward Spell's initial idea had been to collect rent or management fees on these houses, which would amount to a form of increased taxation. However, Lorrister felt that after letting them live rent-free for so long, suddenly demanding payment would only earn the family infamy and bring it shame.
So Lorrister decided to launch real estate development across the fifteen towns of Fenton Plain and Xing'an Plain — demolishing the original shabby houses and developing them into garden-style residential communities and luxury villa districts for the wealthy. The plan called for expanding the towns' boundaries, improving their public facilities, and strengthening their administrative institutions. Development would begin with Fenton Plain and then move on to Xing'an Plain.
All the funding for the development and renovation would come from pre-sales. Taking Northfield Town as an example, Lorrister had the Engineering Department under Master Sylloba construct a model of the redeveloped town along with blueprints for each residential community using plaster and wood, then displayed them in public spaces throughout Northfield Town for everyone to see. Those who wanted to own a house in the redeveloped Northfield Town needed only to do something very simple: pay a one-third deposit, and in two years they would have their own beautiful and cozy home.
The residents of Northfield Town were half-skeptical. Although the houses and dwellings in the model and blueprints looked beautiful and appealing, the thought of having to wait two years gave them pause. Their current houses were crude, true, but they were free — no gold needed to be spent… Lorrister's countermeasure was simplicity itself. He hired several hundred shills who posed as visitors from other towns, claiming that since Northfield Town was the first to be redeveloped, they had decided to come here first to buy houses… When crowds surged in and the atmosphere grew electric, the original Northfield residents panicked. If all the houses were bought up by outsiders, what would they do? Where would their families live? In a frenzy, they rushed home, dug up their hidden gold coins, and squeezed into the crowd to scramble for purchases…
Lorrister told Steward Spell, "See? All their money is flowing into our family's coffers now. And we've been generous enough to let them buy on credit — lacking gold coins is no obstacle. For the next few years, they'll have to work their tails off for our family, slaving away without pay before they can call those houses their own. On top of that, they'll owe us a land tax every year — three to five percent of the property's market value. The house may be theirs, but the land beneath it belongs to our family. If they ever fail to pay the land tax, we can simply evict them, sell the house to cover the tax, and the new owner will keep paying. Now that is the proper way to collect taxes…"
Steward Spell was so impressed he could have bowed down in worship.
...(To be continued.)