Chapter 1255: Graycastle “Yuan”

Below the fourth provision was a sample application form.

Victor read it twice, then a third time, his eyes moving between the fourth and fifth articles the way they might move between two figures that didn’t balance — until, suddenly, they did.

The application form was how the king planned to collect tax.

It asked for personal details and transaction records. Merchants who applied would have the five percent exchange fee waived. In return, the Administrative Office would audit their revenues and deduct commercial tax from what they declared. Merchants who didn’t apply would pay the fee every time they converted currency.

Victor had paid his commercial taxes faithfully — one of the rare merchants who did. The previous system had no real enforcement mechanism; evasion was simply the industry standard. A traveling merchant who never owned property in Neverwinter paid nothing and was never asked to.

Now the architecture was different.

A merchant could still evade. Exchange new currency back to gold royals at a five percent cost, take those gold royals to another city, sell goods purchased in Neverwinter, and recoup the loss. Theoretically sound. But it required always holding more gold than yuan, always absorbing that exchange cost, always managing the friction of conversion. And over time — over weeks and months of transactions — the new currency would simply be easier. Lighter, faster, more portable. Merchants would begin accepting yuan from each other directly. The exchange market would shrink. Gold royals would become the awkward alternative, not the standard.

Once that happened, the new currency would spread beyond Neverwinter’s borders on its own.

No matter which path a merchant chose, Neverwinter won.

What impressed Victor most was what the policy didn’t do. It didn’t confiscate. It didn’t forbid gold. It didn’t penalize merchants who chose the old ways. It offered a door marked reasonable terms and left people to walk through it themselves. The merchants who had fled the city in the first wave were, Victor thought, probably not thinking clearly — abandoning a lucrative market over a policy they hadn’t finished reading.

The reform would succeed. Not immediately — nothing fundamental changed immediately — but the logic of it was sound, and Roland Wimbledon had demonstrated, in every industry he’d built and every institution he’d founded, that he could execute sound logic.

Victor set down the newspaper.

Once people accept the new currency, the king gains wealth no single business could ever generate.

The nobles in the Kingdom of Dawn, who prided themselves on commercial sophistication, would read the reports from Neverwinter and revise their understanding of what a king could do.

The only practical question was forgery. Paper was vulnerable in ways gold wasn’t — anyone with the right tools and sufficient skill could try to replicate it. The entire value of the reform depended on that problem being solved.

Two days later, on payday, Victor sent Twinkle out to buy notes from local residents at five times face value.

He understood his anxiety was misplaced the moment she returned with them.

“These are beautiful,” Twinkle said. She turned a note against the light, watching the patterns shift.

Victor agreed, reluctantly. He had expected something rough — the first effort of a system learning to print money. What Twinkle had laid on the table was something else entirely. The material wasn’t ordinary paper; it had a density and resilience that spoke of careful engineering. The feel was distinct, individual, impossible to mistake for anything else.

Six denominations, ten to one thousand. The face value of one thousand yuan equaled one gold royal, the proportion announced clearly in the golden patterning. Ten, twenty, fifty, one hundred, five hundred. A new unit — yuan — named for nothing Victor recognized, which meant it was named for no old power and carried no old allegiance. Each denomination used different colors, different imagery: the one-thousand note bore the king and queen together. Below them, in fine print: Royal Bank of Graycastle.

Victor brought a note close to his face. The texts, the portraits, the decorative borders — all composed of lines thinner than a single hair, each one crisp and separate, the spacing between them exact and deliberate. You could not reproduce this with a print block. You could not fake the accumulation of those lines — not without the instruments that had made them, and those instruments lived in Neverwinter.

The five-hundred showed the Witch Union. The one-hundred: plants and workers. Smaller denominations carried the Miracle Building, trains. Every note backed with the Graycastle royal crest — a high tower, two crossed spears. Victor set them side by side on the table and looked at them as a row.

They were artwork.

He recognized the strategy: confidence was a manufactured thing, and beauty was one of the ways to manufacture it. No one would immediately believe a piece of paper could hold the value of gold. But a piece of paper that looked like it belonged in a collection — that was harder to dismiss. The visual weight of the thing did real work, anchoring the abstract promise of institutional backing in something you could hold and look at.

A collector in the Fjords would buy these for aesthetic value alone, even if the political experiment behind them failed.

It would not fail.

Victor stacked the notes carefully and set them aside.

“What’s the matter?” Twinkle asked.

“The business world is about to change,” he said. He said it quietly, to the room rather than to her. “Fundamentally.”

Chapter 1255 - Graycastle “Yuan”

Translator: Transn Editor: Transn Below the policy was a sample application form. Applicants not only had to provide their personal information but also their transaction records. Victor skimmed the application form through for several times, and suddenly, the truth flashed across his mind. He finally understood the purpose of the new policies as his eyes shoveled between the fourth and fifth articles. It gradually dawned on him that the king’s true intention of making these two rules was to increase tax revenues! Like most major cities, merchants in Neverwinter had the obligation to pay commercial taxes. However, the problem was that not every merchant abode the rule. Victor never missed a single payment, but tax evasion was actually very common among merchants. He was indeed one of the fews who paid the taxes every time. Merchants who had real estate properties would, more or less, pay taxes partially, but those who leased the premises and traveling merchants almost never paid. Without the previous patrol team who had constantly blackmailed merchants, Neverwinter provided small business owners with a perfect, and even better tax-free zone than Valencia and Eagle City. Because of the great business environment, businesses had soon flourished in the new king’s city within a very short period of time. But now, everything was about to change. The application could waive the currency exchange transaction fee, but applicants would also need to provide their sources of revenues. Then the Administrative Office would deduct taxes from their earnings based on the information on the application form. Was there no other way to evade taxes? There certainly was. Merchants could exchange the new currencies for gold royals and sell their items bought from Neverwinter somewhere else to make up the loss. But this was not a guaranteed solution. Nobody could assure that the revenues would be exactly the same as the expenses. To maintain the business, one should possess more new currencies than the old ones. The only way to achieve this goal was to either exchange new currencies for gold royals or reserve the gold royals for the future. As time progressed, merchants would, inevitably, have a certain amount of new currencies and realize that they were easier to use and carry. Gradually, merchants would exchange new currencies among themselves. They would probably exchange gold royals at first and then slowly, directly use them to purchase goods. This meant that no matter which way merchants chose to go, Neverwinter would always benefit from them! What was clever about this policy was that it did not really prejudice the interests of merchants. In fact, it was quite considerate of merchants’ feelings. The declaration could increase the municipal tax revenues and thereby create a better business environment. On the other hand, legal business owners actually benefited from this policy as well. For merchants who chose to use the new currencies, there would not be much difference. They could still evade taxes and press others to also use the new currencies. Since all transactions in Neverwinter should be conducted via the new currencies, the new currencies would gradually replace gold royals and spread out to the territories beyond the jurisdiction of the King of Graycastle! Victor also noticed that the whole currency reform, as a matter of fact, aimed to take things slow and give people time to get used to the change. Without a doubt, the new currencies would be legally effective as long as the King of Graycastle took control of food in his domain, not only because of the implementation of the currency policies but also because Neverwinter itself was a large market. Merchants who fled the city might not even have truly thought about the policy. It was pretty shortsighted of them to abandon such a lucrative market simply because of the currency reform. Victor used to think that the reform was ludicrous, but now it appeared that it was not as bad as he had thought. As long as King Roland Wimbledon guided the country properly and take appropriate steps, this reform might be a great success. Victor shuddered involuntarily. The currency reform was just the beginning. Once everyone gladly accepted the new currencies, the king would immediately gain immense wealth that no business could ever bring. The nobles who were so good at business in Kingdom of Dawn would probably drop their jaws. The only problem right now was whether someone would forge the new currencies created by His Majesty. Victor thus asked Twinkle to purchase some paper notes from local residents at a price five times the normal price on the payday two days later. He soon found that his fear was unnecessary after he saw the actual notes. “These notes are… so beautiful,” Twinkle exclaimed as she toyed with a brand new note. “True,” Victor agreed. The new currency looked quite expensive, which was very different from what he had thought. It was soft and durable. Obviously, it was not made of ordinary paper. The most peculiar part was its pattern on the face. There were six kinds of paper notes in total, their face values ranging from 10 to 1,000. The largest value was equal to a gold royal, and one could easily tell from the golden pattern on it. The face values of the rest of the paper notes were 10, 20, 50, 100 and 500 each. A new currency unit “Yuan” was used. The colors and patterns of the paper notes varied according to their respective face values. For example, the 1,000 note was printed with the image of the king and the queen. Below printed a line that read “Royal Bank of Graycastle”. Although the font was tiny, it was pretty visible to read. Victor drew the notes closer and discovered that the texts and the images on the notes were all comprised of tiny stripes even thinner than hairs. Each stripe was clear and separate from each other, so it was impossible to forge the notes. Victor studied the other notes. The ￥500 note was printed with the image of the Witch Union and the ￥100 plants and workers. The other notes were printed with the Miracle Building, trains, etc. All the notes were printed with the coat of arms of the Graycastle royal family that featured a high tower and two spears on the back. Victor curled up his lips. It was evident that the notes were carefully designed and well made like artwork. Even if they did not have any practical values, Victor was sure that many collectors at the Fjords would be willing to collect them purely for their aesthetic values. This was indeed a very clever strategy. The colorful notes definitely cost a lot, but in a way, they built confidence among the public. Nobody would have believed a piece of paper could replace gold royals. However, if this paper resembled a piece of art, then people would have more confidence in them, although essentially, they were the same thing. Victor put down the notes and heaved a deep sigh. “What’s the matter?” Twinkle asked curiously. “There will be a drastic change in the business world soon,” Victor replied in a low voice.