King of The Wall

2021-10-15

Chapter 661 Battle of Eagles and Pigeons (Part 1)

Stupid?
Who to say!
The powerful and powerful people from all walks of life in the house were slightly angry, but no one responded: not to mention getting up to the Old Master, he has not yet made it clear which side he is scolding, even if he is pointing at someone's nose and naming his name Curse, with the seniority and fame of any person still alive in this room and even in the entire Braavos, one can only secretly hold grudges, and cannot contradict them in public.

"There are all the top elites of Braavos, the powerful and powerful, and some truths do not need to be verbose, but now it seems that I have to repeat the old tune and talk nonsense again." The old man said with a sad expression and The tone said, "What is the prosperity and wealth of Braavos, the comfort and enjoyment of us people?"

"Because we are the economic and commercial center of the known world." Afraid of embarrassment, a few Seconds later, the current president, who had moved his seat to the second seat, replied in a low voice—no need to be quick-witted, this is the consensus of Braavos decision-makers, and the basic knowledge points are known to a member of the Keyholders Association and even ordinary Braavos citizens.

"Yes, but have you guys thought deeply about what makes us an 'economic and commercial center'?" The old man praised and continued to ask, "Did anyone say Get it?"

A group of people with an average age of 30 or 40 turned into dolls.

The old man's move is to emphasize his seniority and show his seniority, but no one dares to say that he is really on age to show of age. In absolute silence, no one answers.

It's not that everyone can't answer. As a real power class, even if you don't say everyone... at least nine out of ten have thought about this question and have an answer from oneself. However, this kind of question itself does not have a standard answer, and now it is not the Little Red flower that is answered correctly in the class, and the Old Master is not trying to grab the dominance of the speech.

......

"Is this city-state with a long history and special status?" As if dissatisfied with no one answering, Galonil glared and began to ask himself Self-answered one-man show, "No, on the contrary, Braavos is not only the youngest among the Free Cities, but also the only 'illegitimate daughter' who does not have Valyria Freehold bloodline and inheritance. If you rank seniority, she should be at the end."

"What minerals, crops and products do we have that other city-states or kingdoms do not have?" The old man took a breath, then continued, "Indeed, our territorial waters are rich in fish and shellfish, and the islands are Covered by dense forests, there are also iron, tin, lead, rocks and various minerals within the controllable land area... It is no exaggeration to describe the land with abundant products. Unfortunately, these resources... In terms of value, It is not high; in terms of quantity, it was only abundant when the city was built, and even today it is not enough for self-use; in terms of type, it is a conventional resource that can also be produced elsewhere, and there is nothing rare; not to mention, the highest profit is the most popular. Our slave trade is strictly prohibited. The current status of city-state trade is that Braavos does not have any other bulk pure exports except for a small amount of fine swords, high-quality armor and warships, and dark purple pigments that only local sea snails can produce. Commodities, the annual trade deficit is so large that it is calculated by millions of gold coins!”

There are not many wealthy businessmen or officials in the seat tube trade, but fortunately these are not classified, and in the slightly loose silence , everyone is waiting for the turning point of Old Master.

"Then, could it be that Braavos has a particularly advantageous geographical location, and the trade between the north and the south and the east and west cannot be avoided?" In a look of anticipation, Gordon's desire to be repressed was not over yet. "It's not right. Volantis is the core node of the east-west route; Pentos is the midpoint of shipping from north to south in the narrow sea; even if we want to talk about the straight-line distance from the large cities of the Seven Kingdoms on the other side, we have no advantage... …If we have to list one advantage, we are probably the closest Free Cities to Westeros North, and ships sailing from the narrow sea to Ibben and Lorath must also rest and replenish in our port before turning to Shivering Sea. ."

After a good deal of self-deprecation, the Old Master's words finally turned to the point.

"A city-state that is so useless is one of the places with the most developed commerce, the largest trade throughput, and the most concentrated wealth in the entire known world. Only Volantis can compare with us. Once discussed' Per capita', we have an absolute lead, what do we rely on?"

This question is also a divergent type, but unlike the previous one, after listening to the above, this big pass seems inexplicable, but the context is clear. After the analysis of - the intuition began to figure out the Old Master's position.

A voice came from the main battle faction immediately.

"Because we have an iron vault!"

No one dared to speak just now, because I couldn't figure out where the old man's ass was sitting, for fear of being beaten for rashly answering the question. Face, now, the hawks know: helpers and backbones are here!
"The interest income from money lending accounted for half of Braavos' total revenue last year, and the iron vault's share accounted for more than half of the total. Without the iron vault contributing nearly one third of the net inflow of wealth, Braavos simply cannot compete with the larger volume. There is no doubt about it!”

Yes, this is one of the consensus, but why does it feel like the topic is getting further and further away?
Although the Lord and Pai faintly sensed that the Old Master was here to help the other side, they couldn't figure out their thoughts and plans for a while, so naturally they couldn't even come up with a way to deal with them.

"That's right, we have an iron treasury!" The old man nodded, but still didn't give up, "Then the problem is, the iron treasury's interest only accounts for less than one third of the city-state's net income, even if this one is removed. Third, the remaining 2/3/2022 are still at the top of the Free Cities’ output value Ranking List, second only to Volantis and Pentos, and they are still ahead of Tyrosh, Lys and Myr, and their per capita wealth is still in the first echelon. Who can say what's wrong with this inference?"

The frozen atmosphere melted away, and the Lord and the faction whispered about countermeasures, and the one who had the upper hand had the upper hand. The hawks started another round of speeches with full of energy confidence. They had a hunch: this debate that lasted for more than ten days will finally come to fruition today under the hammer of the older generation!

"Of course there is a problem!"

The president who was silent for a while, as the representative of the main battle faction, replied resolutely and decisively.

The Keyholders Association has many iron principles, one of which is that its members are completely equal to each other. The so-called chairman only plays a coordinating and organizing role, and does not have any authority to force members to accept oneself’s views or directly formulate policies. It will reduce the efficiency of decision-making, which really makes people love it and hate it.

As the current president, he has been aggrieved for a while.

"The problem with this sentence is that it is illogically presupposed that the wealth of a city-state is determined by the total income of various industries on the surface. But the truth is: precisely because of the iron The treasury is in...that new word that comes from Westeros is called...what is it, that means the one that circulates gold?"

"Finance."

"Yes! It's because of iron. The supreme status of the treasury in the financial field has allowed Braavos to shine in other fields as well!" He stood up excitedly, "I can only think of an example: currency! Because Braavos is the world's financial center, Therefore, the currency officially minted by the city-state also has a function similar to 'world currency', and in the process of the Braavos people using the currency minted by the oneself city-state to lend to the whole world, the mint of the city-state looked towards the whole world and collected seigniorage! Taxes go first into the pockets of the Mint, then into circulation through redistribution, and in the end, this income, which is not explicitly recorded on any account, actually enriches every Braavos!”

“More than This! The financial status of the Iron Vault not only allows the Mint to have hidden taxes, but this influence also allows merchants from Braavos and even shipping and trading companies to be half higher than their counterparts." Another hawkish customs official also expressed concern Followed by inferences, "Braavos lenders, businessmen and captains go anywhere in the world with the widely recognized and popular Braavos currency, and their own credit halo with the backing of 'an iron vault', which is precisely for this reason , the success rate of Braavos people doing business with the outside world is naturally higher than that of people in other places - this is the fundamental reason why our city-state does not have a particularly advantageous geographical location, but still has developed shipping trade!"

"So, if the iron vault suddenly collapses, Braavos will not only lose the interest income of the bank, but from the bottom up, the entire economic system will collapse. We simply cannot escape the iron vault. On the premise of keeping the remaining 2/3/2022 wealth income, pessimistic estimates, even one tenth can not be guaranteed, Braavos will quickly become a city-state as poor as Lorath, the bad thing is: our population is Much more than Lorath. The cliff-like decline in living standards will cause devastating social upheaval, and so many people in this room..."

"Don't talk nonsense." Gordon Gallonier controlled the direction of the discussion in a timely manner, "Thanks to these little friends for their examples. The reason why I go around such a big circle is that I actually want to say that the Iron Vault is not just a bank, it is the economy of the entire Braavos. The lifeblood and the cornerstone! It has real value The thing is not the gold and silver in the treasury, but the influence in the hearts of the people, based on the credit of the iron treasury recognized by the whole world, and the determination and ability of the Braavos people to defend this position. ! "

Garonnell knocked on the table hard.

"And now, there are two people across the Narrow Sea who want to shake it all up, and we even agree to resist." have not been able to achieve. Those people of the Lord and Pie, are they stupid or bad, I am a little bit confused by the old fogey! ”

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(end of this chapter)