Super Righteous Player
Chapter 878 - 415: Glory of the 4th Era

Chapter 878: Chapter 415: Glory of the 4th Era

Annan didn’t have to wait too long.

After lunch, while he was still resting and reading in his room, His Holiness Radiance IV from the lineage of the Silver Barons came to visit.

Radiance IV appeared to be a kindly old man.

His frame was lean, and like the Silver Baron, he wore a monocle, always squinting and bearing a gentle smile, his silver-white hair soft and thin. He truly looked like a benevolent elder, speaking slowly.

"Your Majesty Annan, I apologize for the intrusion."

Radiance IV said leisurely. His voice always gave Annan a peculiar feeling.

It felt as if he could at any moment mutter something like "there’s one more thing" or "oh dear."

Even the aura about him was distinctly different from that of the other priests of the Silver Baron—they always had a very clear scent of silver coins. But Radiance IV gave off more the impression of an elderly artist.

If he weren’t dressed in the distinctive robes of a Silver Baron’s Pope, one might think he was a musician or a painter.

"Pope Your Holiness, when did you find the time to visit me?"

Annan asked in an equally friendly tone.

During last night’s banquet, the Pope had really flattered him explicitly in front of the nobles several times, emphasizing repeatedly that His Majesty Annan was the Silver Baron’s favorite.

This indicated that the Silver Baron’s Church’s attitude toward Annan was at least amicable or better.

So, once Noah and Winter reopened their borders and resumed trade, the benefits would extend beyond just the imports and exports themselves, but also include "policy benefits" gained from currying favor with Annan through the Silver Baron.

—Since Annan was the Silver Baron’s favorite, wouldn’t the trade of substantial living supplies to Winter be considered support for the Duchy of Winter?

Shouldn’t they perhaps offer higher loan limits? At least they couldn’t let that money go to waste, right?

And so, those nobles looked at Annan with even greater eagerness.

...Just as Annan said, the nobles from the Kingdom of Noah were quite different from the nobles of other countries.

They resembled less the classical lords who stubbornly guarded their own small plots of land and were more like conglomerate families with power even above the officials.

Even if "money" had become just a number to them, that didn’t mean they could easily withdraw from this massive "agents" game.

Without sufficient money, one would lose power; and once power was lost, the money at hand might be siphoned away by others, both were complementary.

And overseeing these nobles’ "game," managing and sanctioning them from above... wasn’t their King, but the Pope of the Silver Baron.

—It was this seemingly kind and harmless old man who secretly controlled the entire Kingdom of Noah.

He was in the light... while the Crow operated in the shadows.

The old Crow was responsible for catching anyone "trying to break the rules" and throwing them under the proverbial "rules" for the appropriate punishment.

Pope Radiance IV, within the bounds of what the rules allowed, controlled all the flow of funds, including personal or business savings, lending, liquidating, investing, insuring, taxing... The Pope was the spokesperson of the divine, and in every "transaction" in all the "banks" of Noah, Radiance IV was aware.

In an era where there were neither computers nor networks, way before information technology, the Silver Baron had already achieved data storage for banks.

And this was a theory proposed by Radiance IV.

Each of these Popes from the Silver Baron was exceptionally talented. Or rather, it was because of the substantial information obtained during their "tenure" that allowed them to identify phenomena difficult for ordinary people to discover in that era.

Just like Radiance III, the previous Pope, who had studied the laws of the market where bad money drives out good. The theory proposed by Radiance IV went even further—

"I have heard about the theory you proposed."

Annan said politely and respectfully, "’Every individual engaged in transactional behavior cannot possibly grasp the full picture of the current economic market.’ This theory undoubtedly corrects all past ’Pope theories.’"

Radiance IV was undoubtedly a genius.

Coming from a later era, Annan naturally understood the significance of Radiance IV’s theory.

It was a classic theory from the New Keynesian School, the "imperfect information economics." Every market participant, when making decisions, held information that was neither identical nor static.

Because the flow of information was not instantaneous and acquiring it incurred costs—not merely from the channels of information distribution being inherently slow, but also from the "noise" in the market created by disruptors, making the information received not necessarily accurate.

This meant that market prices wouldn’t immediately and sensitively reflect the state of market supply and demand, and hence, the market’s own regulatory mechanisms could fail.

Radiance IV and all the previous Popes had proposed many economic theories. But those were built on the basis of "abundant data," summarizing objective principles through the data itself.

This could overlook one issue, that their proposed theories of market equilibrium might not be correct... or rather, might not always be correct.

Glorious Fourth had called this theory "incomplete market information" and had put forward subsequent conjectures such as "incomplete market competition" and "incomplete market rules," which could lead to classical economic laws proposed by previous popes being wrong under certain conditions.

Although no similar crisis had arisen yet, Glorious Fourth had already issued a warning.

His Holiness believed that the market was not simply a repeatedly resetting hourglass of "supply not meeting demand" or "supply exceeding demand," but something more complex — besides the "internal" factors like "price, output, demand," external factors needed to be considered as well.

This foresight and wisdom had impressed Annan.

And when the savory wind goose had first entered Noah’s Royal Capital to scout, the "donation boxes" he saw exhibited His Holiness’s benevolence.

——Merchants from various places wanted to suck up to the Silver Baron Church, not accepting their money would make them uneasy, even possibly unhappy; but accepting the money would break the rules and indirectly bring more trouble.

Therefore, His Holiness had set up many donation boxes around the city.

The donation box in front of the newspaper stand would contribute to the church school; the one at the subway entrance would donate to families that had lost their breadwinners; the ones at the concert hall and theater entrance were for nurturing orphans...

Different donation boxes in various areas clearly stated their purpose and the destination of the funds... and the executor was always the Silver Baron Church.

This arrangement satisfied those merchants who hoped to please the Silver Baron Church; it also met the convenience of wealthy people willing to contribute to social welfare.

At the same time, it significantly enhanced the reputation of the Silver Baron Church among the common people and effectively reduced the crime rate in the Kingdom of Noah, speeding up the development of a new batch of talent.

——Glorious Fourth was not just a pope or an economist.

He was also highly sensitive to politics.

Perhaps for these reasons... he had been so courteous and respectful to Annan since his arrival.

He might be the only wise man who truly understood what Annan was capable of achieving.

"I’m not here to cause you trouble,"

His Holiness began, his words very clear, "I’m here to help you. You could also say, I’m here to make an investment."

"...What kind of investment?"

Hearing this, Annan showed some interest, "What do you want to give me? What can you give me?"

Glorious Fourth smiled.

He raised his right hand and extended a finger.

"A cardinal position..."

He continued, popping out another finger, "A loan of ten million Gold Coins with unlimited duration;

"—and a Fragment of ’Storm and Heart’s Canticle.’"

"...What do you want in return?"

"I don’t need anything for now."

The Pope replied.

Annan smiled faintly, "Don’t be like that, Your Holiness. Wanting nothing is the most costly thing... just as ’whatever’ is the hardest dish to prepare.

"Please be specific—what does the Silver Baron Church really want from me?"

"It’s not anything too difficult for Your Majesty."

Glorious Fourth smiled gently.

His eyes shimmered with wisdom: "I wish to establish a ’banking system’ in the Winter Duchy. Our banks have spread everywhere... having taken root in The Holy Nation and the United Kingdom, now only the underground moles and the isolated Winter Duchy remain.

"After all, since ancient times, ’Tradition’ has been one of the guarantees of ’trade’... Once all the countries above ground have established banks, I plan to create an organization to supervise and regulate financial activities worldwide. After all, we are never truly isolated.

"At that time, the help I most need will be yours."

Annan did not indulge in any mysterious contemplation.

He wasn’t putting on airs or seeking a more formal setting for a more formal consultation—everyone present knew it was pointless for the two of them.

He took a sip of water and nodded calmly.

"I agree."

The young Duke replied unflinchingly.

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