The Mad Tycoon of Rome - Chapter 281:

It was expected, but most of the people in the committee did not understand the current situation itself.

It was inevitable.

It would be strange if the people in the committee, most of whom were over 50, had any knowledge of the rapidly developing finance.

“Sharon’s daffodil price is too expensive? Then why don’t you just lower the price?”

“No, but is the price being so expensive the problem? If it’s expensive, you don’t have to buy it…”

“Why don’t you just ban the sale of that flower with your consul’s authority?”

Marcus’s face was gradually stained with gloom by the opinions that had nothing to do with understanding the market.

Fabius, who witnessed his expression getting worse and worse, coughed hastily and restrained the committee members.

“It’s not that easy, that’s why Marcus called us. Think more deeply and speak.”

“Yes? Of course, that’s true, but…”

Marcus was called Shahanshah, but he couldn’t handle everything as he pleased when he decided on a big matter.

Of course, everything was done as Marcus wanted in reality. But on the surface, it was important to follow the procedure.

Even if the committee was nothing but an automatic water dispenser that followed Marcus’s words, it was necessary to listen to their opinions.

But now Marcus felt a genuine impulse to get rid of that process.

“By the way, I’ve been wondering since before, what is this futures trading?”

As one of the committee members asked as a representative, several people shook their heads vertically at the same time.

“It means a contract to buy and sell goods by specifying the future point and price.”

“···Why do you have to make a contract by predicting the future point when you can just buy it now?”

“Because they will have different opinions on how the price of that product will change over time.”

The committee members who had some concept of economics nodded as if they understood.

Rome currently had not only bills of exchange and promissory notes, but also derivative financial products.

It was like a furnace of finance that had a huge amount of money coming in from all sides and increased liquidity.

The early joint-stock companies called Publicani had already begun to transform into full-fledged joint-stock companies.

A representative example was the North India Company that Tadius was building in Satavahana.

The requirements for existing major shareholders and small shareholders were more concretized, and new laws and certificates proving ownership of capital were created.

Marcus felt frustrated at first by the sight of the committee members who could not follow this trend at all, but now he felt a sense of crisis as well.

It becomes harder to suppress social problems that erupt as people in high positions in society become more disconnected from reality.

Rome would not be much different from Eastern Vassal either.

Maybe the administrative bureaucrats he was going to appoint now would be a little better, but he couldn’t trust them completely either.

‘I might need to educate them regularly.’

He thought it might be a blessing that the financial problem had exploded even now.

If an unavoidable problem erupts, it is natural to solve it first.

And then, it is also essential to come up with measures to prevent recurrence.

Considering the grotesque sense of reality of the old committee members, he needed to keep in mind even taking extraordinary measures.

“What you need to know now is that Sharon’s daffodil bubble is not just a fuss over one flower.

It reminded us of the need to fundamentally review and check Rome’s current market system. If you don’t have any knowledge of the current situation, study and learn with all your might. It’s cruel, but if you can’t do that, you might be excluded from discussing this kind of agenda in the future.”

“Hmm…”

“I’ll try my best.”

A gloomy light naturally circled around the faces of the committee members.

Marcus wasn’t unaware of how hard it was to learn something new at that age.

But what could he do if there was no other way?

If they couldn’t keep up, they would be doomed to extinction.

‘I’ll have to ask scholars to make simple introductions for each subject later. And I need to hurry up with establishing educational institutions that can provide higher education…’

While Marcus was lost in his own thoughts for a moment, the committee resumed their discussion.

This time, they exchanged opinions more seriously and Marcus watched them quietly as he returned to reality.

In order to educate them in the future, he needed to thoroughly see the bottom of these people who were called the best elites in Rome.

The people who led the conversation were mainly Publius and Fabius, the representative of the committee.

Surenas was not an expert in this field, so he mostly listened to the conversation, and so did the other senators.

“So, the current price surge of that flower is because people expect it to keep rising in the future, right? The point is, we just need to break that expectation.”

“Publius, you have a valid point. But the important thing is how we can do that.”

“Hmm…well, how about we show some movement to limit the price of the flower by law? We don’t have to actually do it, just watch the trend. Then maybe people will think that the price of the flower could go down.”

“But that would undermine the credibility of the authorities.”

Surenas, who had been listening all along, cautiously raised an opposing opinion.

“If soldiers lose trust in their commander’s orders on the battlefield, they will become uncontrollable in the long run. I think this case is not much different. If we say we will regulate but don’t, it might have a short-term effect, but in the long run, it will only erode our trust.”

“That’s true.”

“We need to avoid any methods that give a negative impression of us.”

They talked for a while, but no concrete measures came out.

In fact, there was no way to find an answer.

The tulip mania was such a sharp problem that even in the 17th century Netherlands, where finance was highly developed, they only rushed to recover after the bubble burst.

But Publius, who had been exposed to new cultures and broadened his horizons by Marcus’s side, also gave some realistic opinions.

“I heard before that all prices are ultimately determined by demand and supply. Isn’t it because the supply is low compared to the high demand that the price is soaring? So if we increase the supply, it might be solved.”

“Do you mean we should transport a large amount of seeds of that flower from here to Rome?”

“Yes, then…no, that won’t work either. The value is soaring right now because it’s an improved rare variety…Increasing the supply of ordinary flowers won’t solve it.”

Eventually, as time passed and no specific method was derived, Marcus finally opened his mouth.

“Your idea was not bad. But before that, we need to make one thing clear. What is the essential cause of the price spike of the flower?”

“Yes? Well, it’s because many people want the flower…”

“Why do they want it?”

“Well, it’s because it’s the variety that Marcus brought to Rome himself and they think it has a blessing added to it.”

“Right. So Rome’s people are projecting me onto Sharon’s daffodil, which is selling at the highest price right now. They think they will receive a blessing if they grow it at home. This kind of superstition must be quite widespread.”

There were several ways to collapse the price of the flower, but there were some things to be careful about here.

First of all, there was the fact that many commoners saw this situation as an opportunity to make a fortune.

If someone intervened in the overheated market and made the price of the flower collapse, there would be many people who would go bankrupt.

And there would also be resentment from countless commoners who tried to turn their lives around with this opportunity.

Marcus had experienced a similar incident in modern times, so he could anticipate people’s reactions.

He knew very well what it felt like to lose money after buying coins late when he was Lee Jaehoon.

The problem was that Sharon’s daffodil was a symbol closely linked with Marcus.

He didn’t intend to make it that way, but anyway, that’s how the masses perceived it.

If there were people who ruined their lives because of that flower here, it would inevitably hurt Marcus’s image.

It was an irrational flow, but once it crossed a threshold, people’s thinking became irrational.

Usually, people who fail miserably tend to look for causes elsewhere rather than themselves.

There might not be anyone who openly resented Marcus, but it was better to avoid anything that could harm his image even a little bit.

Unfortunately, no one could end this situation without any damage.

No matter what method was used, the price of Sharon’s daffodil would collapse and there would be bankrupt people.

So they needed a target to turn around the anger of the angry crowd.

“If you do your business in the bathroom, you should clean up after yourself. It’s a bit pitiful, but they brought it on themselves.”

Marcus wrote a letter to Caesar as detailed as possible and showed it to the people of the committee.

Since there was no one to oppose him anyway, Marcus’s proposal was unanimously adopted and sent to Rome through reverse participation.

This incident would surely be remembered as a historical bubble, but it was also an opportunity for Marcus to think more diversely.

And more importantly, it implied that banks and stock exchanges were beginning to flourish throughout the Italian peninsula.

Considering the enormous territory and economic scale that Rome occupies now, this might be just the beginning of a bubble economy phenomenon.

Maybe not only the tulip mania, but also events like the Mississippi bubble or the South Sea bubble would happen one after another.

‘I have to fix it on a large scale. I just got a good excuse this time.’

Marcus, who was looking at the half-conscious elders, sighed softly and organized the materials again.

※※※

While the solution was being prepared and sent from the east, the atmosphere of Rome, the capital, was getting hotter by the day.

People were obsessed with growing flowers, and some even went into huge debts and raised their enthusiasm for Sharon’s daffodil cultivation.

Caesar, who usually handled any matter in one stroke, could not rashly intervene in this unprecedented situation.

He tried to come up with various alternatives, but none of them satisfied him considering the aftermath.

But the genius who remained in history was a genius after all.

He was able to find a decent solution before Marcus’s letter arrived.

However, he needed Marcus’s cooperation to use this method.

And, a few days later, when he saw Marcus’s letter that arrived by express mail, Caesar burst out laughing without holding back his laughter that had been leaking out for a long time.

“You were thinking the same thing as me. It’s a bit more radical, but I like it.”

There was no need to hesitate as long as the opinions of Rome’s supreme authority matched.

Caesar rose from his seat with excitement and summoned the lictor to head to the Senate.

The End