Descending On France 1780-Chapter 17 - 014 Chaotic Currency System

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The decor of the VIP room gives the impression of a Baroque-style room that someone tried to forcibly convert into Rococo style.

This was especially evident on the desk: In a Rococo-style environment, there was such a desk filled with lavish gold and ivory carvings, which was somewhat incongruous.

Anning couldn't help but comment, "This desk is completely out of place with the rest of the VIP room's decor. A random table from a street cafe would be more suitable than this."

The bank employee looked apologetic, "When we bought this room for use as a bank's office, the desk was already here. The manager thought it would be wrong to throw it away."

At that moment, the door opened, and a man dressed as a Noble entered the room, bowing to Anning, "Greetings, Mr. Frost. I am the banker who didn't want to throw away the desk. You may call me Krova. May we begin with your business now?"

Anning nodded, "Mr. Krova, let's begin."

Krova came to the desk and drew a document from a stack, "We have received a bill of exchange for you, according to which we are to pay you 550 Crowns. Do you wish us to pay directly, or would you prefer it in gold? 550 silver coins can be quite heavy."

In this era, France's currency was extremely chaotic, with many different units of currency, such as Gold Louis, Gold Ecus, Livres, Sous, Deniers, and Crowns, and so on.

One big reason for this was that the entire French circulation was of metal money. The previous French Finance Minister had tried paper money, but due to problems like excessive issuance, the paper money quickly became worthless, and as a result, paper currency was widely distrusted by the populace.

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Metal coins have value in themselves because they contain precious metals like gold and silver, and their exchange had to be calculated based on the gold and silver content, making things overly complicated. It wasn't like the government-backed official currency of a central bank could enforce different units' exchange rates by decree.

For example, the British defined one British Pound as equivalent to 20 shillings and 1 shilling as 12 Pence, no matter how much gold or silver the coins contained.

A unified currency system is greatly beneficial to economic development.

France, however, was a mess. Not only was the currency chaotic, but the Feudal Nobles also retained certain rights to custom duties, severely affecting the development of commerce.

For this, the Finance Minister of Louis XV once attempted reform, thus it was decreed that one Mark of Gold could be exchanged for 740 Livre and 9 Sols in an attempt to unify the currency system, but it was of no avail.

Because of this, Anning now had the headache of how to withdraw his reward.

After thinking for a moment, he said to Krova, "I will open an account here in your bank..."

Krova responded, "An account? Uh... Do you mean to deposit this money in our bank and have us issue you a Deposit Ticket?"

Anning's mouth hung open – he just remembered that the banking system then did not have account management, and when depositing money at a bank, you would receive a Deposit Ticket as proof, which anyone could bring in to exchange.

The Deposit Ticket served as a negotiable voucher that could even be freely traded.

Finally coming back to his senses, Anning nodded, "Yes, I would like to convert the 550 Crowns into Gold Louis and deposit it with you. After all, Gold Louis are generally not needed in everyday life. For the non-exchangeable part, please help me convert it into Sols, which I will use as change."

Mr. Krova nodded, "Understood, I'll handle it right away."

He then clapped his hands, and several bank employees brought in a large bag of silver coins. Mr. Krova sat behind his desk, put on his glasses, and began to weigh the silver coins on a balance scale.

Anning watched Mr. Krova manipulate the weights and scales in astonishment.

The last time he saw something similar was in a Harry Potter movie, where Harry saw Goblins weighing gold on his first visit to Gringotts.

Observing this scene, Anning profoundly sensed the backwardness of the times.

Having to weigh and calculate the value of the currency with each transaction, how troublesome...

Thinking of this, the "assignats" issued after the Revolution in Revolutionary France were actually a step forward, it was just a pity that due to lack of management, the Revolution authorities printed the assignats excessively, causing the value to collapse.

Anning quietly noted this down, perhaps he could do something in this area after the outbreak of the Revolution.

After being busy for half a day, Krova and his colleagues finally completed the conversion commissioned by Anning. Then, Mr. Krova addressed Anning, "We can issue you a Deposit Ticket of 20 Gold Louis and 10 spare Livre. For these 10 Livre, we can pay you in the manner you wish."

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Anning nodded, "Okay, give me five Livre silver coins, and change the rest into Sous."

"Understood, please wait a moment."

Soon Anning received his first Deposit Ticket since crossing over to this world, along with a small pouch of coins.

He placed the Deposit Ticket in the inner pocket of his coat and tied the coins to his belt, then bid farewell to Mr. Krova: "Then, I'll be leaving now."

"Take care." Mr. Krova stood up and accompanied Anning all the way out of the VIP room.

Outside the VIP room, Vanni was standing quietly to the left of the door, waiting just like a loyal dog waits outside the bathroom for its master.

At this moment, Anning suddenly noticed that Vanni's maidservant dress was not a long skirt, but rather revealed her shins clad in white stockings.

This was a design from a future era of maidservant outfits; in theory, maids of this current time should be wearing long skirts that cover the ankles!

Anning hurriedly asked, "Vanni, why is your maidservant dress only this long?"

Vanni only then noticed Anning coming out and rolled her eyes as she responded, "If the skirt is too long, won't it just get dirty from the ground? I am a maid of a Duke's family, I wouldn't wear a long skirt like ordinary working women. It's the same reason you, Mr. Frost, wouldn't wear long pants."

Anning was at a loss for words.

It seems the logic of this world is as follows: Nobles and wealthy people disdain dirty floors, so they wear breeches with white stockings, and naturally, females from noble families would not wear excessively long skirts.

Long pants and long skirts are apparel for the poor laborers.

Well... it kind of makes sense, at least it's logically consistent within itself.

Wait a minute! Anning suddenly realized something! So in this world, I can often see beauties in white stockings?

He glanced again at Vanni's white stockings.

The moment he saw the white stockings, Anning suddenly felt that this world might not only have inconveniences.

Vanni asked, "Have you finished your business?"

Anning tapped his coin purse, "All done, just took some change out."

"You are a guest of the Duke, and theoretically, you shouldn't need to use small change," said Vanni, "Next, I shall take you to the tailor as instructed by the Chief Maid. We can also purchase anything else you need on the way."

Anning was about to reply when he saw Mr. Krova, the banker, coming out of the VIP room.

His gaze fell on Krova's wig, and he pondered whether he should buy a wig for himself...

Vanni said, "The nobles in Paris won't consider you one of their own just because you wear a wig. Actually, by now the news has probably spread that the young lady's benefactor is the son of a leatherworker."

Anning asked, "Can you read minds?"

"Of course not! As a servant, I am only good at observing and interpreting nuances. Besides, you were just staring straight at the banker's wig; it was quite obvious."

Anning asked, "So your advice is, I don't need to get a wig?"

"Not at all; those who respect you won't disrespect you just because you don't have a wig. On the other hand, those who look down on you will only find another excuse to ridicule you if they see you wearing a wig."

Anning raised his eyebrows, then suddenly thought of something and asked Vanni, "So, do you look down on me or respect me?"

Vanni replied, "I am someone who doesn't yet know you. Let me understand you first, and then I'll decide my attitude towards you. Enough about this; let's go."