Rosenberg, in the outdoor area of the second roof level of the Hanging Gardens. Marah was sitting at her favourite spot at the garden table under a palm tree. In front of her was a fresh tea and an empty ashtray. Reyji stood behind Marah, next to the fire lilies, casually leaning against the balustrading wall. Claire was also present. She stood a little away from the table with a round silver tray in front of her chest. The way she pressed it against herself with her arm, she looked nervous. She would have to work soon. Guests were already on their way up. A guard had just announced their arrival. It was a business proposition of great importance. Reyji knew what they wanted. But anyone who knew who they were could guess.
Less than two minutes later, one side of the small gate opened. Two palace guards came out and escorted two people into the outside area. One was a tall man in a rather casual suit. His hair already had a hint of grey and his expression was determined. He walked purposefully towards the table without looking back. The other person was a young man who was about the end of puberty in age. The boy wore a fedora and a fancy suit without a jacket, but with a waistcoat and bow tie. The clothes were a bit too tight for his chubby physique and it also seemed a bit as if his mother had chosen the clothes for him. From the moment the boy came through the door, his head was spinning in all directions. He was certainly impressed by the many plants, but it was still rude to scan everything with his mouth open. The older man was Mr Jens. He was the vice-president of the Free Banks. The boy was the substitute for the person who was supposed to come but then, as expected, was unexpectedly hindered. While the two came to the table, the palace guards went back inside and pulled the door shut.
"A very good day to you, Mrs. Von Rosenberg. I am pleased that we were able to get an appointment with you at such short notice."
"The joy is on my side, although I am a little disappointed that Mr Sternschreiber did not have time to visit me in person. Last time he made me laugh like no man ever has. I do hope that we can continue that sometime. Please tell him that the next time you see him."
~I wonder if they got that?~
"I'll keep it in mind."
"And who is the boy?"
Mr Jens took a step back and presented the boy with his arm outstretched as if he was trying to sell him.
"May I introduce Amadeus Sternschreiber, the son of the managing director of the Free Banks."
The boy took a long step forward and puffed out his chest proudly.
He had the same name as his father, but not the same charisma. He somehow seemed like a future scammer.
"I also wish you a wonderful day, Mrs Von Rosenberg. I have heard many good things about you from father."
"I doubt it."
The flippant comment made the boy freeze.
Marah ignored him. "Why not sit down first?" she invited to the table, making it seem as if it were addressed exclusively to Mr Jens.
Additionally, it was a request to Claire to pull the chairs away from the table. However, by the time Claire had understood, so much time had passed that Reyji already wanted to go herself and only when Claire realized what Reyji wanted to do, she jerked herself into motion to pull the chairs off.
Once they were seated, she stood at the side of the table. "Would you like something to drink?" she asked quietly.
"I'll have a coffee. Doesn't matter what kind. Strong, little milk, no sugar."
"I'll bring that to you right away. - And you, young sir?"
At that moment, for the first time, the boy really noticed her presence. He stared at her face for a conspicuously long time, then leaned forward to see her even better.
"I'd like a fruity tea. You can leave out the sugar. I do like sweet things, but it will be sweet enough that you serve it," he flattered her with a grin.
Caught off guard, Claire staggered backwards away from the table. After three steps, she turned on the hook. "I understand," she stuttered, already on her way to the door.
Normally she was not so fast.
The boy watched her and as he did so, he lifted his chin as if staring at her bottom.
After watching it like that, Reyji leaned back unobtrusively and looked down the wall, into the lower open area, at the stone tiles.
~Maybe I should throw him down?~
Marah had paid no attention to all this and continued to ignore the boy.
"It worked out at short notice because I figured you would want an appointment, so I brought my holiday forward to this week."
"Then we are very sorry to disturb you on your holiday. I hope you can forgive us for that."
"Oh, don't think anything of it. It makes no difference. Let's rather get to the actual topic. So I hear you're having a bit of trouble at the moment?"
"You're probably talking about the devaluation of the free currency. But you don't have to worry about that. We're not doing it either. The value is within the usual fluctuations and will increase again very soon."
"You think so? Well, I have a little of your money and that's why I'm here in the garden today, you know. It's annoying, isn't it. You think you've have your holiday fund in a supposedly safe currency, then there's a little drought in one country and a bit of war in another and suddenly people realise they can't eat the coins and don't want them any more. What am I supposed to do with them now? Should I smelt them? Maybe you should have given out your loans in cans instead? The free cans... Hm... Could be misunderstood. Maybe a different name?"
"With respect, Mrs Von Rosenberg, but we didn't come here to be made fun of."
"You didn't? Then why are you here? I came up with so many sayings for today, without money I can't get away after all."
"Well then, I'll come straight to our request. We would like to offer Baele, we would like to offer you, to rejoin our monetary union. We would like Baele to exchange its currency for the Free Currency this time, lift all trade restrictions and join the world market. It would be a win-win for everyone and a major boost to your foreign trade. Baele is an exporting country, but has the problem that its own currency is too strong. As you have just mentioned, that would then no longer be the case. We're talking about an increase in profits of up to 35% in the first year." Mr Jens pulled a folder of black leather with gold corners out of his briefcase and laid it on the table. "We had this evaluated by an outside agency." He pushed the folder out over the middle of the table. "In the folder here you will find the calculations with all the facts and figures. With the entry into the monetary union, you would also finally have a realistic comparison of the economic efficiency of Baele to other countries again. Which of course would be very good for a strong country like Baele. Please take a look at our offer. I'm sure it is convincing."
Marah pulled the folder towards her but did not open it yet.
"We should join the world market. What immense advantages it would bring to our economy to have a common currency with others and to trade without restrictions with the rest of the world. Do you know how many times I've heard that over the years? I don't know, I always switch off then."
With the end of her sentence, she opened the folder. The pages were full of diagrams and figures. Every word was written with a typewriter and everything else was neatly done with drawing utensils. It looked like a lot of work had gone into creating the folder.
While Marah skimmed the contents, Claire came back and served. For putting down the coffee, she earned a casual nod from Mr Jens, but he paid no further attention to her.
"As you can see, joining our monetary union would bring jobs and prosperity to Baele."
"Have you not done your research? We have full employment. For whom else should I create work? For the children? They don't have to work in our country-"
Claire startled and bumped the table in the process. The most remained in the cups, but the coffee spilled over the edge and ran onto the saucer.
Mr Jens glanced at Claire with annoyance. Immediately she hurried around the table to his side.
"I'm terribly sorry about that, Mr Jens. I'll bring you a new cup right away."
Claire tried to reach for the saucer, but Mr Jens intervened and waved her away.
"No need."
Claire bowed in humility, then walked away from the table.
Marah had been watching everything closely. "Claire." she addressed her in a serious tone.
Claire stopped on the spot and turned around immediately. "Yes?" she asked anxiously.
"Don't embarrass me again."
"Of-of course not, Mrs Von Rosenberg."
Bowing her head, Claire went to the door to stand beside it on standby.
At the same time, Reyji leaned towards Marah. "The brat was groping her," she whispered into her ear.
Marah heard it, but did not take her eyes off the pages.
"I don't care."
"I am aware of the official employment data, but we know that it is heavily polished by your Labour Department. In reality, you have millions of people who are only working part-time or in even lower jobs. They don't appear in the quota. If someone is sick in the calculation week, they are even subtracted. That's just window dressing. We both know that. The potential of your companies is hardly being utilised. Some of the factories in Rosenberg close as early as noon to prevent overproduction because they are not allowed to participate in the export business. It's not full employment if everyone is only working part-time."
"Part-time?" Marah stopped on the current page. "Try explaining that to my citizens. They don't even understand the concept. They just say how much they want to work and if you don't accept that, well, they go back home. They are completely unmotivated. Don't be shocked, but they would rather go out for an ice cream with their children in the afternoon than shoveling coal until late at night. Even though they would earn more that way. It seems they can't do the their math properly. Maybe the education index is wrong? How do you manage to get people to work until they die in order to live? ... As you see, my interest is limited. Do you have any other arguments?"
"An additional relevant factor, I think, would be the reduction of bureaucracy and administrative costs that you have. We would take over the branches of the state bank and their production facilities without exception. So we would also take care of the production and provision of cash ourselves. I would like to emphasise that our currency is much more counterfeit-proof than you. Almost weekly there is a case of counterfeiting here in Rosenberg, and those are only the ones who get caught. The real amount of counterfeit money is certainly even higher. In contrast, there were only two cases in the Free Currency International last year."
"Yes well, why would anyone want to counterfeit that? It's not worth it. And as the head of the state, maybe I shouldn't say this, but creating a little money doesn't make any difference. If someone can copy our coins so perfectly that even the state bank doesn't notice, then he's just making the production for us. I would pay wages, but so far no one has come forward."
Marah took a sip and continued to turn the pages. It was obvious that she had no real interest in the offer, but was only playing along out of politeness. The boy probably also noticed that the sales talk was going rather less well. But it seemed as if he did not want to give up yet. Confidently, he leaned forward on the tabletop. He put down an elbow. His body language said, I've got this.
"When you move goods across the border, you pay customs duty every time. When you exchange from one currency to another, you pay a fee every time. Currencies fluctuate all the time. We all know that. You have no planning security at all. It is time-consuming. It's nerve-wracking. I had to experience that myself yesterday. But it doesn't have to be this way. With a common currency, there would be none of these problems. People from Baele surely also like to go on holiday abroad..."
When Mr Jens realised what the boy was getting at, he already grabbed his head with his hand in advance.
"And you want to prevent that? Sounds interesting. What's in for me?"
"No, I want to make it easier, with a common free currency for Baele and the world."
"Boy, they go abroad because they can buy a summer house there."
"Yes, a summer house, but a summer house with fees. That could be avoided."
Reyji was shocked. The boy had so much self-confidence even though he did not understand the most basic economic principles. People went on holiday abroad because Baele had a strong currency, which made the holiday cheap. If Baele had the same currency, the holiday would no longer be cheap. The boy apparently did not know that. Besides, they were the Free Banks. The fees that he seemingly would like to abolish were one of the sources of income for their own subordinate banks.
Rosenberg, in the outdoor area of the second roof level of the Hanging Gardens. Marah was sitting at her favourite spot at the garden table under a palm tree. In front of her was a fresh tea and an empty ashtray. Reyji stood behind Marah, next to the fire lilies, casually leaning against the balustrading wall. Claire was also present. She stood a little away from the table with a round silver tray in front of her chest. The way she pressed it against herself with her arm, she looked nervous. She would have to work soon. Guests were already on their way up. A guard had just announced their arrival. It was a business proposition of great importance. Reyji knew what they wanted. But anyone who knew who they were could guess.
Less than two minutes later, one side of the small gate opened. Two palace guards came out and escorted two people into the outside area. One was a tall man in a rather casual suit. His hair already had a hint of grey and his expression was determined. He walked purposefully towards the table without looking back. The other person was a young man who was about the end of puberty in age. The boy wore a fedora and a fancy suit without a jacket, but with a waistcoat and bow tie. The clothes were a bit too tight for his chubby physique and it also seemed a bit as if his mother had chosen the clothes for him. From the moment the boy came through the door, his head was spinning in all directions. He was certainly impressed by the many plants, but it was still rude to scan everything with his mouth open. The older man was Mr Jens. He was the vice-president of the Free Banks. The boy was the substitute for the person who was supposed to come but then, as expected, was unexpectedly hindered. While the two came to the table, the palace guards went back inside and pulled the door shut.
"A very good day to you, Mrs. Von Rosenberg. I am pleased that we were able to get an appointment with you at such short notice."
"The joy is on my side, although I am a little disappointed that Mr Sternschreiber did not have time to visit me in person. Last time he made me laugh like no man ever has. I do hope that we can continue that sometime. Please tell him that the next time you see him."
~I wonder if they got that?~
"I'll keep it in mind."
"And who is the boy?"
Mr Jens took a step back and presented the boy with his arm outstretched as if he was trying to sell him.
"May I introduce Amadeus Sternschreiber, the son of the managing director of the Free Banks."
The boy took a long step forward and puffed out his chest proudly.
He had the same name as his father, but not the same charisma. He somehow seemed like a future scammer.
"I also wish you a wonderful day, Mrs Von Rosenberg. I have heard many good things about you from father."
"I doubt it."
The flippant comment made the boy freeze.
Marah ignored him. "Why not sit down first?" she invited to the table, making it seem as if it were addressed exclusively to Mr Jens.
Additionally, it was a request to Claire to pull the chairs away from the table. However, by the time Claire had understood, so much time had passed that Reyji already wanted to go herself and only when Claire realized what Reyji wanted to do, she jerked herself into motion to pull the chairs off.
Once they were seated, she stood at the side of the table. "Would you like something to drink?" she asked quietly.
"I'll have a coffee. Doesn't matter what kind. Strong, little milk, no sugar."
"I'll bring that to you right away. - And you, young sir?"
At that moment, for the first time, the boy really noticed her presence. He stared at her face for a conspicuously long time, then leaned forward to see her even better.
"I'd like a fruity tea. You can leave out the sugar. I do like sweet things, but it will be sweet enough that you serve it," he flattered her with a grin.
Caught off guard, Claire staggered backwards away from the table. After three steps, she turned on the hook. "I understand," she stuttered, already on her way to the door.
Normally she was not so fast.
The boy watched her and as he did so, he lifted his chin as if staring at her bottom.
After watching it like that, Reyji leaned back unobtrusively and looked down the wall, into the lower open area, at the stone tiles.
~Maybe I should throw him down?~
Marah had paid no attention to all this and continued to ignore the boy.
"It worked out at short notice because I figured you would want an appointment, so I brought my holiday forward to this week."
"Then we are very sorry to disturb you on your holiday. I hope you can forgive us for that."
"Oh, don't think anything of it. It makes no difference. Let's rather get to the actual topic. So I hear you're having a bit of trouble at the moment?"
"You're probably talking about the devaluation of the free currency. But you don't have to worry about that. We're not doing it either. The value is within the usual fluctuations and will increase again very soon."
"You think so? Well, I have a little of your money and that's why I'm here in the garden today, you know. It's annoying, isn't it. You think you've have your holiday fund in a supposedly safe currency, then there's a little drought in one country and a bit of war in another and suddenly people realise they can't eat the coins and don't want them any more. What am I supposed to do with them now? Should I smelt them? Maybe you should have given out your loans in cans instead? The free cans... Hm... Could be misunderstood. Maybe a different name?"
"With respect, Mrs Von Rosenberg, but we didn't come here to be made fun of."
"You didn't? Then why are you here? I came up with so many sayings for today, without money I can't get away after all."
"Well then, I'll come straight to our request. We would like to offer Baele, we would like to offer you, to rejoin our monetary union. We would like Baele to exchange its currency for the Free Currency this time, lift all trade restrictions and join the world market. It would be a win-win for everyone and a major boost to your foreign trade. Baele is an exporting country, but has the problem that its own currency is too strong. As you have just mentioned, that would then no longer be the case. We're talking about an increase in profits of up to 35% in the first year." Mr Jens pulled a folder of black leather with gold corners out of his briefcase and laid it on the table. "We had this evaluated by an outside agency." He pushed the folder out over the middle of the table. "In the folder here you will find the calculations with all the facts and figures. With the entry into the monetary union, you would also finally have a realistic comparison of the economic efficiency of Baele to other countries again. Which of course would be very good for a strong country like Baele. Please take a look at our offer. I'm sure it is convincing."
Marah pulled the folder towards her but did not open it yet.
"We should join the world market. What immense advantages it would bring to our economy to have a common currency with others and to trade without restrictions with the rest of the world. Do you know how many times I've heard that over the years? I don't know, I always switch off then."
With the end of her sentence, she opened the folder. The pages were full of diagrams and figures. Every word was written with a typewriter and everything else was neatly done with drawing utensils. It looked like a lot of work had gone into creating the folder.
While Marah skimmed the contents, Claire came back and served. For putting down the coffee, she earned a casual nod from Mr Jens, but he paid no further attention to her.
"As you can see, joining our monetary union would bring jobs and prosperity to Baele."
"Have you not done your research? We have full employment. For whom else should I create work? For the children? They don't have to work in our country-"
Claire startled and bumped the table in the process. The most remained in the cups, but the coffee spilled over the edge and ran onto the saucer.
Mr Jens glanced at Claire with annoyance. Immediately she hurried around the table to his side.
"I'm terribly sorry about that, Mr Jens. I'll bring you a new cup right away."
Claire tried to reach for the saucer, but Mr Jens intervened and waved her away.
"No need."
Claire bowed in humility, then walked away from the table.
Marah had been watching everything closely. "Claire." she addressed her in a serious tone.
Claire stopped on the spot and turned around immediately. "Yes?" she asked anxiously.
"Don't embarrass me again."
"Of-of course not, Mrs Von Rosenberg."
Bowing her head, Claire went to the door to stand beside it on standby.
At the same time, Reyji leaned towards Marah. "The brat was groping her," she whispered into her ear.
Marah heard it, but did not take her eyes off the pages.
"I don't care."
"I am aware of the official employment data, but we know that it is heavily polished by your Labour Department. In reality, you have millions of people who are only working part-time or in even lower jobs. They don't appear in the quota. If someone is sick in the calculation week, they are even subtracted. That's just window dressing. We both know that. The potential of your companies is hardly being utilised. Some of the factories in Rosenberg close as early as noon to prevent overproduction because they are not allowed to participate in the export business. It's not full employment if everyone is only working part-time."
"Part-time?" Marah stopped on the current page. "Try explaining that to my citizens. They don't even understand the concept. They just say how much they want to work and if you don't accept that, well, they go back home. They are completely unmotivated. Don't be shocked, but they would rather go out for an ice cream with their children in the afternoon than shoveling coal until late at night. Even though they would earn more that way. It seems they can't do the their math properly. Maybe the education index is wrong? How do you manage to get people to work until they die in order to live? ... As you see, my interest is limited. Do you have any other arguments?"
"An additional relevant factor, I think, would be the reduction of bureaucracy and administrative costs that you have. We would take over the branches of the state bank and their production facilities without exception. So we would also take care of the production and provision of cash ourselves. I would like to emphasise that our currency is much more counterfeit-proof than you. Almost weekly there is a case of counterfeiting here in Rosenberg, and those are only the ones who get caught. The real amount of counterfeit money is certainly even higher. In contrast, there were only two cases in the Free Currency International last year."
"Yes well, why would anyone want to counterfeit that? It's not worth it. And as the head of the state, maybe I shouldn't say this, but creating a little money doesn't make any difference. If someone can copy our coins so perfectly that even the state bank doesn't notice, then he's just making the production for us. I would pay wages, but so far no one has come forward."
Marah took a sip and continued to turn the pages. It was obvious that she had no real interest in the offer, but was only playing along out of politeness. The boy probably also noticed that the sales talk was going rather less well. But it seemed as if he did not want to give up yet. Confidently, he leaned forward on the tabletop. He put down an elbow. His body language said, I've got this.
"When you move goods across the border, you pay customs duty every time. When you exchange from one currency to another, you pay a fee every time. Currencies fluctuate all the time. We all know that. You have no planning security at all. It is time-consuming. It's nerve-wracking. I had to experience that myself yesterday. But it doesn't have to be this way. With a common currency, there would be none of these problems. People from Baele surely also like to go on holiday abroad..."
When Mr Jens realised what the boy was getting at, he already grabbed his head with his hand in advance.
"And you want to prevent that? Sounds interesting. What's in for me?"
"No, I want to make it easier, with a common free currency for Baele and the world."
"Boy, they go abroad because they can buy a summer house there."
"Yes, a summer house, but a summer house with fees. That could be avoided."
Reyji was shocked. The boy had so much self-confidence even though he did not understand the most basic economic principles. People went on holiday abroad because Baele had a strong currency, which made the holiday cheap. If Baele had the same currency, the holiday would no longer be cheap. The boy apparently did not know that. Besides, they were the Free Banks. The fees that he seemingly would like to abolish were one of the sources of income for their own subordinate banks.
