Rome must fall.

Chapter 356 About Currency
"There is certainly no problem in sending people to the Greek city-states to hire scholars as teachers." The first thing Maximus thought of was the pirates led by Alsippus, who are the most powerful channel for the Nyx tribe to connect with the Mediterranean world today.

"But in the eyes of the Greeks, this place is a barbaric and backward wasteland. Are those Greek scholars willing to come here?" Maximus did not have much hope for this.

"Chief, you should know that hundreds of years ago, Macedonia was also a representative of barbarians in the eyes of the Greeks, but Aristotle still accepted King Philip's invitation and became Alexander's teacher, and eventually educated Alexander into a great conqueror!" Kephisofon said excitedly: "There will always be some Greek scholars who have ideals and hope to integrate barbaric and backward places into the world illuminated by civilization!"

"Take, for example, you, Kephisophon!" Maximus interrupted with a smile.

Kephisophon felt a little ashamed. He was forced to stay in the rebel army due to the situation. Later, when he came here, he was entrusted with important tasks and was able to display his strengths. Only then did he begin to work sincerely for the Nix tribe.

He adjusted his mood a little, and then said: "Chief, I studied in Rhodes Island for many years and met many classmates. After returning to the city-state, I still had some contact with them. In the past few days, I carefully analyzed their respective situations and felt that several of them might be willing to come here, so I wrote letters to them separately, and wrote addresses on the envelopes.

Chief, you can send someone to give them the letter first, and then send out the invitation. I believe it will be successful."

Rhodes... Maximus had heard of this place when he was in Italy. It was a famous academic center in the Mediterranean region. Many young people from Greece and Rome went there to study. According to his memories from his previous life, it seemed that Caesar had also studied there.

Seeing that Maximus didn't say anything, Kephisophon quickly said, "Don't worry, Chief. I didn't reveal the secrets of our tribe in the letter. You can check it out."

What secrets of the Nix tribe must not be revealed? Of course, the fact that the tribe was founded by slave rebels and once fought side by side with Spartacus's team in Italy and defeated many Roman armies.

"Kephisophon, you are the tribe's etiquette instructor and one of the most important tribesmen. You have always worked diligently for the tribesmen. How can I not trust you!" Maximus looked firm and spoke sincerely. Then he asked softly, "What kind of paper do you write the letter on?"

"Of course it was made in the papermaking workshop—" Kephisophon suddenly realized that something was wrong and stopped talking.

Maximus reminded softly: "Thanks to the blessing of the goddess Danu, we have created magical paper that other city-states and countries do not have. If we don't want to attract the attention of the Romans, we'd better not circulate these papers for the time being."

Kephisuo said with embarrassment: "Chief, I was negligent. I will rewrite the letter with papyrus, but this papyrus——"

"There is still some papyrus left in the warehouse. I will ask my men to send it to you later." Cornelius interrupted.

Kephisophon thanked him repeatedly.

"Once you have rewritten the letters, I will send someone to take them to Chalsipompus and ask him to help us do this," said Maximus.

"Thank you, chief!"

"Don't ever say thank you in the future. You are doing this for the good of the tribe. I hope we can invite back some knowledgeable teachers who can teach the children better!"

Maximus encouraged him with a smile, but he was thinking: Before sending the letter, I still need to let Cassius check it carefully to see if there are any important secrets of the tribe in the letter, so as to avoid attracting the attention of outside forces...

This thought flashed through his mind, and Maximus looked at everyone and said, "Let's end today's meeting here. After everyone goes back, we will start taking over the northern territory according to our previous plan."

"Chief, our Ministry of Commerce now has a difficult problem that urgently needs to be discussed and resolved in the Political Affairs Hall." Pigris said loudly.

"What problem?"

"Our Commerce Department is responsible for managing the market. Most of the shops in the market are also managed by the Commerce Department. They sell goods produced by various workshops. Only a small part is sold by the tribesmen using their own products to trade with others..."

Pigris spoke slowly, obviously having been prepared: "Since the tribesmen had no gold and silver coins, we made a rule when the market was first established - wheat would be used to replace gold and silver coins, and we also set a rough price for wheat to exchange for other goods. For example, an ordinary pottery bowl is eight catties of wheat, a pair of straw sandals is two catties of wheat, an ordinary wooden stool is four catties of wheat, a kitchen knife is ten catties of wheat...

Except for some tribesmen who like to barter, all the shops under our management strictly follow this practice.

At the beginning, our tribe had few people and a small territory, and not many people came to buy goods. In addition, the market was built in Snowtia and Westney Village, so the Ministry of Commerce could manage it easily. But now the situation is different——"

Pikris complained in a serious tone, "Now the territory of the tribe has expanded several times, and the population is approaching 200,000. These new tribesmen, like the old tribesmen, have gradually come to like the pottery, furniture, and ironware produced by our workshops...

The market has become very busy, and the old tribesmen, now that their families are in better condition, want to buy more expensive goods, such as a curved plow, which is priced at 70 kilograms of wheat! But according to our statistics, more than 30 people have requested to buy it so far, and some people want to buy stone bricks to renovate their own houses...

In order to make it more convenient for the tribesmen to buy goods, our Ministry of Commerce has built markets not only in towns, but also between villages, such as the market near the Linkou Post, the market near the mountains east of the Sava River, and the market that will be built near the military camp facing the river in the southeast——"

Maximus frowned slightly and said, "Pygris, I know all the efforts your Ministry of Commerce has made for the tribe. Just tell me what difficulties you are facing now?"

"Yes, Chief." Pikris said seriously, "The problem our Ministry of Commerce is facing is that the number of trades among tribes is increasing dramatically, and the trade volume is also increasing. However, wheat, which is used to purchase goods instead of gold and silver coins, is beginning to hinder the development of tribal trade and even hinder trade."

"Oh!" Maximus immediately perked up: "Tell me more about it."

"When villagers come to the market to buy things, they have to bring enough wheat with them. Since most of them don't have carts, they have to carry it themselves and walk for several miles. When they arrive at the market, they see so many goods and want to buy this and that, but in the end they find that they don't have enough wheat...

Not only did the tribesmen have trouble buying things, but the people in our Ministry of Commerce who were in charge of managing the market and running the shops also had trouble. There was already a shortage of manpower, and when they sold a piece of goods, they had to weigh the wheat repeatedly to avoid being punished for harvesting too little. They were busy from morning to night and rarely took a break, yet not much business was done because half of their time was spent harvesting wheat.

Within two days, the wheat harvested in the market can be piled up into a small mountain, and it has to be quickly sent to the Finance Department because the market does not have a special warehouse for storing grain, which will be troublesome if it rains.

But after sending it to the Finance Department, they have to take the time to weigh the wheat again. Every time, the officials from the Finance Department would blame us for the discrepancy between the amount of wheat we sent and the records. But can they blame us for this?

The tribesmen handed the wheat to the staff of our shop, who then transferred the wheat to the temporary storage in the market, and then moved the wheat from the temporary storage to the pack cart, and then transported it to the grain warehouse of the Finance Department, and then brought it down for weighing... Each step may cause a small amount of consumption, and once added up, it will be a relatively large loss-"

"Pigris, your Ministry of Commerce feels troubled, but our Finance Department feels wronged!" Cornelius interrupted him and said loudly, "Captain, the Ministry of Commerce uses a batch of wheat every two or three days. We don't have many people in the Finance Department, but we have to carefully weigh the wheat, record and file it, and then transport it to the warehouse for proper storage... This takes most of the day, which means that half of our Finance Department's time every month is busy with your Ministry of Commerce's affairs.

At the end of the month, we also have to pay salaries to officials, craftsmen and other personnel in various departments of the tribe. That’s thousands of people! The wheat given to each person also has to be repeatedly weighed, checked, signed, and filed... It takes our finance department seven or eight days to complete this task.

Our finance department is no less relaxed than your business department. We spend most of the month dealing with wheat, which affects our energy for handling other matters! ..."

Cornelius was both complaining and grumbling.

"Since using wheat to purchase goods has seriously affected the normal operation of the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Finance, and has also caused great inconvenience to the tribesmen who are buying things... Chief, why not issue a decree to allow the tribesmen to start using gold and silver for transactions again?" Capito suggested.

"This is impossible! Neither the old nor the new tribesmen have gold or silver coins at home, so how could they use them for trading?!" Volenus objected.

"If they don't have gold and silver coins, we can slowly give them some." Capito raised his head. "We just need to ask the Ministry of Finance to pay salaries to department officials, craftsmen and other personnel next month instead of wheat, but gold and silver coins, and resume using gold and silver coins to purchase goods...

Over time, other tribesmen will also realize the benefits of using gold and silver coins, and will find ways to exchange them with the tribe, and then go to the market to buy goods. In this way, the problems of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Commerce will be solved, right? "

(End of this chapter)