I Became A Black Merchant In Another World-Chapter 237: Auditing and Absolute Power (11)

In this world, it’s very common to try to save a little money and end up losing a fortune.

There are stories of building owners who didn’t want to pay for fire insurance, thinking a few thousand a month was a waste, only to have their buildings burn down and end up bankrupt because they didn’t get a single coin of compensation.

Or people who refuse necessary vaccinations because they’re too cheap to pay for them, only to later contract serious diseases and end up with astronomical medical bills, even losing their lives.

There are countless people who’ve ruined their fates by trying to save the money needed for proper preparation.

“Idiots, I told them everything, but why don’t they even try to follow through? Is there pasta in their heads instead of brains? Right, Sebastian?”

“There are more foolish people in this world than wise ones. Thanks to those fools, our Rothschild family has been able to prosper.”

Thinking about it, he’s right.

If someone like me, using the wisdom of the Great Empire, were to show up in another country...

The Rothschild Baron’s imperialistic “gift” (which causes disaster when received) would be recognized, and they’d do everything in their power to remove me from this world.

Much like the way the British ruined their own cuisine.

‘Did the British start eating Korean food because they understood the concept of taste in food?’

Their own food was merely something to consume for nutrition, while Korean food considers the eater’s taste buds as well.

I heard they’re moved by the concept they’ve never encountered before.

Sebastian handed me a report summarized on a single sheet of paper.

It listed which family had failed miserably, no, conducted an accounting audit and had only tightened discipline but failed to raise salaries.

Even though they couldn’t purge the ones committing livelihood-based corruption, they only intimidated them and told them to do better in the future.

Did they get hit on the head or something?

When a person is struggling to make ends meet, they would sell even their country.

“We’ve caught them misappropriating funds as usual, so now we must eradicate corruption. Enough with the barking.”

I remember reading something on an internet community before.

“Rather than following General Yi Sun-sin, you might as well live with alcohol, gambling, and women.”

Gambling moderately, and keeping the womanizing in check, wouldn’t ruin a life.

But if you live strictly by principles like General Yi Sun-sin, someone like us would be kicked out of any job over 30 and struggle to survive socially anywhere.

The idea of living with alcohol, gambling, and women is nonsense.

But I do agree with the sentiment not to follow General Yi Sun-sin’s way of living.

If a commoner follows his conduct, they’ll end up with enemies everywhere.

Eradicating corruption should be done step by step, starting with what we can fix now.

If we take an uncivilized approach like removing the heart to fix a heart problem, it could destroy the family.

“Sebastian, did you tell the Florence staff to create multiple fake identities?”

“Yes, about 20 have been created.”

In Korea, a low-ranking public servant can easily make a living person be declared dead and cause them all sorts of trouble.

But even a president would have a hard time bringing someone back to life or creating a non-existent person.

However, in the medieval fantasy Tuscany Empire, if you just buy one round of drinks for a public servant, they could create multiple household registers and clean up an identity.

It’s a paradise for criminals.

“Did you set up the fake identities well, like a family that has been in business for a long time?”

“In Florence and its surrounding areas, as long as they don’t cause trouble with these fake identities, no one will notice.”

In every place, be it Joseon, Japan, China, or Europe, until modern times, if you didn’t maintain good relations with your neighbors, survival in society was impossible.

Today, even introverts who can’t speak well can survive if they have the right skills.

But in the Tuscany Empire, a gloomy, busty, smiling girl would be a target for social exclusion.

Because if you don’t maintain at least the appearance of a good relationship with your neighbors, you can’t rely on any social protection.

‘It’s common for neighbors to shift taxes onto each other. Or accuse someone of being a witch.’

Due to the strong connections with surrounding groups, even if you create a fake identity, if you set it up as a resident of Florence, a “Florentine citizen” will eventually expose it.

“Perfect, there are no families left to plunder in the Florence area anyway.”

If I said so, even the Count of Pisa would go along with it.

Nobles near the capital also raised the salaries of public servants at the same time as the Duke of Visconti.

They even promoted lower-ranking individuals to prevent stagnation.

“Let’s see, let’s see. Which family should we target so we can get some good rumors going about our success?”

Since it’s unlikely anyone will find out I’m behind this, I’ll just tweak the accounting books a little and put a puppet in charge.

Even if things go wrong, I can just pay a little back and sacrifice the puppet’s life to cover my tracks.

That’s why in every country, people often employ “nominal CEOs” in this way.

“Count Dante, this gentleman has some good mines.”

Far from the city, in a rural village.

It’s a mine that extracts the common mineral “lead,” located in a place hardly touched by human hands.

‘The Albanian continent doesn’t have the lead separation method.’

On the Ifrikia continent, I use the “lead separation method” in the mines I personally manage.

When extracting gold and silver, using this method or not makes a huge difference in efficiency.

It was a technology invented in Korea but discarded by Confucian Taliban scholars, who deemed it useless.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

In the long run, it helped strengthen Japan’s national power, contributing significantly to the eventual colonization.

I’m making good use of it now.

‘Thank you, Teacher Kim Gam-bul.’

“Start from here, buy up everything I’ve marked. No matter the cost, it’s a guaranteed profit.”

When public servants decide to sell interests, you can get them at a very cheap price since there’s no middle tax.

So I need to act now.

Paris, dispatched by the Rothschild Baron to Dante’s estate, listened to the greedy man’s grumbling with a smile.

“Count Dante, you’re being unfair. We’ve served your family for generations, and we’ve only touched the finances a bit to survive. Now, you’re telling us not to do that. If this goes on, we’ll starve to death!”

Paris, hearing such words justifying corruption, wondered if the man was out of his mind.

But as a merchant himself, he wasn’t easily disturbed by such things.

‘There were nobles who secretly sold their serfs, so what’s the big deal?’

He let the man talk on until he calmed down.

“We can’t just stand by and die, can we?”

“I agree. If we lose a loyal minister like the finance minister, it would be a huge loss for Count Dante.”

The wisdom needed when a friend talks about his girlfriend behind her back is simple.

Just sympathize with your friend’s troubles but never speak ill of the girlfriend.

Even if she’s the most terrible person in the world, if you criticize her, you could end up being grabbed by the collar right away.

Paris was applying a similar tactic.

‘I mustn’t criticize Count Dante, even a little.’

“I also have a wife and children to feed. There are also my concubines and vassals. What choice do I have?”

“Even a lowly serf, when he becomes the head of a household, carries a heavy burden, and someone as wonderful as the finance minister... I can’t even imagine.”

The finance minister sighed and even felt moved.

“You’re right. In the end, this is why we do such things.”

“Some may say that handing over the lead mine to our Chino Trading House is corrupt, but in the end, this decision will yield the best results. We’ll pay taxes properly and hire many people.”

The “lead separation method” would be used to extract silver from lead.

The technicians verified by Rothschild Trading would take charge of it.

By doing so, we’ll mine silver and manipulate the tax declaration to pay as little as possible...

Paris spoke as if he were a patriot.

“Trust us, Minister of Finance.”

“Just give me 2,000 gold coins, and I’ll turn this into a defunct mine. Within a week, I’ll transfer the ownership of the lead mine for only 100 gold coins.”

The mine, which had been underused due to poor profitability, was an easy target.

But with this kind of deal, the original price of the land would be over 6,000 gold coins.

The corruption was giving it a 60% discount.

“Of course. Let’s sign the contract.”

In this way, the Rothschild Baron was gathering up profitable rights across the country at bargain prices.

Of course, the people involved had no idea what was going on behind the scenes.