What could a hundred kilograms of gold buy in the Kingdom of Bagnia?
At present, it could buy two thousand healthy cattle. If that gold were spent in Raitelia, then setting aside any additional political factors and going purely by market prices, it could buy more than three thousand.
The difference was so large because Bagnia currently lacked cattle, while Raitelia, a major agricultural nation, had no shortage of healthy livestock.
So, for the sake of those two thousand cattle, Chris felt he could meet with the Makon Alliance's ambassador... Marquis Dirac had handed over the hundred kilograms of gold, which they then split thirty-seventy.
Dirac received thirty percent, and Chris took seventy.
That split gave Dirac thirty kilograms of gold, and even that was a considerable favor from Chris.
Marquis Dirac might have considered pocketing all hundred kilograms himself, but he did not dare. The Tax Bureau agents under the Ministry of Finance were utterly unhinged. Nobody wanted to provoke a pack of lunatics who would turn on their own families without hesitation.
Dirac did not want to, either. Still less did he want to fall out with His Majesty Chris over money.
But that was a digression.
Chris decided to meet with the Makon Alliance's ambassador, but before their official meeting, he felt he should see the Retalia Empire's ambassador, Prince Hohenlohe.
Relations between the Kingdom of Bagnia and the Retalia Empire were currently very close. The latter had paid a hefty sum for the former's saltpeter field technology and was still learning it. Its payments in money and supplies were pouring steadily into Bagnia.
Then there were purchases of Steam Train locomotives and rails, along with the hiring of railway technicians. Their relationship was essentially that of client and contractor.
As long as the money arrived, why