Ookami to Koushinryou Volume 4 Discussion

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Jun 2, 2017 6:13 AM

Playcool

Supreme Tsundere

Offline

Nov 2012

4324

THIS IS A MANGA ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS ANYTHING BEYOND THIS CHAPTER.
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So this was the volume not adapted for season 2... it was a slower paced volume, I can understand why they didnt want it for the final of season 2, with that said I have yet, at the point of reading this, to see the later half of season 2, but hey, it was a great volume, the miller and the nun were interesting cast and the whole story resolving around the snake deuty was so mysterious~~

Holo interactions this volume once again, did not disappoint.

PlaycoolJun 2, 2017 6:16 AM

Mar 27, 2018 5:28 PM

JeremiahOrange

Offline

Sep 2017

1899

So, conclusion till now. Explanations for economic terms given.I am not an expert myself, so forgive me for any lapses in understanding.

A bartering system was used in olden times when book keeping was present and currencies tended to be quite feeble, due to the rise and fall of kings. You can think of a company as a bank dealing in trading over vast regions. In olden times, your bank account would have a certain value towards it and when you buy or sell stuff, your value increases/decreases. Since all transactions are noted, you can use this in order to buy or sell goods immediately without problems of cash or currency, much like current day's banks.

The reason Lawrence uses a barter system is because it makes it efficient. He carries goods rather than actual money, which is much riskier to lose should he encounter bandits. Also, those days, the companies accepted any goods at market price, so there was no necessity or fear of currency dealings. Plus, as a merchant, transporting a good in your cart is better than an empty cart, right?

In Lawrence's example, you can further interpret his story by a similar scenario. Imagine a merchant who has a journey through coastal city A, village B and town C.
In coastal city A, he gets $1000 worth of salt by the company, while the company registers it as borrowed money. The company provides for the salt with no actual monetary transactions involved. Then taking his goods, he goes on a long journey to village B, where salt is not as cheap as it is in the city. There he trades the salt for $1100. Then subsequently, in the same village, he buys up $1100 worth of wheat.(Of course, he can directly barter the wheat with no monetary transaction, but more importantly, he engages in direct trade here and buys the wheat along with the profit). Then with the wheat, he heads to town C, where wheat is needed and in the town, where the company's another branch is located, he exchanges the wheat now worth maybe around $1150 for $150 of profits and $1000 fulfills the loan. The $150 would then be divided into some cash for upcoming journey supplies and further investment, of say $50 for food and future lodging and $100 along with another amount of borrowed money for buying another good like fur, which the merchant hopes to profit from in another place.

The reason the merchant never comes back immediately is that exploring different places present better opportunities to profit and can help the merchant understand the current trends in each place.
The deal offered by Zheren is in reality a ploy by his employer. Zheren has no losses either way because in worst case, loss is 0. But he too genuinely believes that there will be a profit and tries to convince others truthfully. His employer from Medio promises him certain amount of old gold coins for compensation, and in return, by the vast number of such small deals made by many merchants, Medio can get a good supply of old coins. Reason this is needed is because just before the settlement of new coins is made, the mining rights/land can be settled upon with a certain amount of coins, say 1 million trenni which would be agreed upon to be paid shortly. Then the old trenni is exchanged for a foreign currency and after the settlement date, the new trenni is worth less in foreign currency, which will ensure that 1 million old trenni worth of foreign currency will get exchanged as 1.1 million of new trenni, not losing the total money worth and hence they can buy mining rights/land and still get to keep their original currency. The reason why this works is because the new trenni can be severely devalued(by popular opinion), which would sometimes inflate the 1M worth of old trenni in foriegn currency(NOTE:Old trenni will have the same amount of value as new trenni after devaluation, hence the change to foriegn currency) to 5M worth of new trenni temporarily(A similar thing happens in stock market crises ). This will of course help merchants acquire bigger deals of mining rights than actually worth.
The reason why currency silver value is changed a little then subsequently a lot is because deciding how much silver to add/take is something that is very crucial. Not too much, not too less. If coins have too much silver, you have less coins to mint, and business goes down(Circulation of money usually starts from the government. If it goes down, so do the money generated by businesses .Check out inflation and velocity of money.). If too less silver, then not only can foreign nations take over silver value, but hyperinflation can occur. But you have a lot of money to print.

So, in simpler terms, the reason why countries increased silver percent is when country is wealthy and they want to enforce that promise of wealthiness. And other countries decrease silver percent due to the lesser availability of silver and so that business goes as usual. It is a quality vs quantity, where you want more quantity ideally, but you would want to maintain your quality as much as possible.
(Cause you manage a nation after all).

So, when increasing silver content(say to 15% more), you do it in steps like 3%(slightly noticable), 6%, so and so on, over a period of 6-12 months so that if your currency is more valued and business changes accordingly, then you can readjust with minor problems(to maybe 12%, after understanding more about the change in economy better). A huge change immediately causes concerns. Of course, this is done intentionally because the country does well.

But when decreasing(say to -5%), you change it differently. You change it to -0.1%, then -0.5% then -1% and so and so on, till the market notices(Holo may have understood changes of -0.5% when cambists/foreign dealers would not have at even -1%). Hence the gradual change. Once it is noticed, you change it even carefully.(If market noticed at -1%, next change will not be -2% as planned, but -1.5%, then -1.6%). If market doesn't notice even at -2%, then the currency will be changed to -5% at settlement, taking a gamble.
After the settlement takes place, the people who had stocked up old coins will be desperate to sell them down before further devaluation hence, it is unlikely they will come back to claim the information money(no one wants to be known as the merchant who was swindled then).
It is not easy to make money on a dwindling currency(drop in silver value). You need to wait for long amount of time and lots of patience in order to exactly play your cards right. You need to use futures contracts(sell high, buy low) and a lot of money everyday(Cause gold prices can increase and you will lose quite a lot money in the contract in short term basis, but if you persist, you can make that money back and even more when price falls. Say if you sell 10 kg of gold at $10k, you need to return 1 kg back in futures and if gold price fluctuates to $250/kg in short term, you owe -$15k and will be forced to go bankrupt. But in long term, price can go to $75/kg and you will get profit of $2.5k ). Since Law is a travelling merchant, he has no time to wait. But Medio can(due to their large capital), which is why they were able to pull this scheme off.
Finally, the kidnapping sequence. Lawrence thinks that Medio guys pursued him and Holo because they were trying to sell secrets. But his company informs that as Medio already knew of the deal by the time they agreed on contract, there would be no reason to hold Law and Holo as hostages. If Medio didn't know, then the kidnapping is justified. But, the company admitted that the trenni plan took into action immediately after signing the contract and hence since it is a large scale plan, there is no way that Medio would't have noticed it. And as the company already put their full plan into motion, it was obvious to Medio guys that kidnapping the two would make no difference. Had they kidnapped them when company didn't make arrangements, they could have hoped that the company may not have heard all about the plan from Holo and Law. And, it is finally shown that the reason they kidnapped Holo is because they found out she is a wolf. This could affect the company since they had dealt with what the Church decrees to be witches. The company and Law could be ostracized from society by the church and can be sentenced to death.

Hence the threat,

"We have the wolf. The Church's doors are always open. If you
don't want the wolf in your home, shut your doors and keep your
family inside".

Without change,we end up becoming the very person we hate.

I was dead until the moment I met you. I was a powerless corpse pretending to be alive. Living without power, without the ability to change my course, was bound to lead me to a slow death.

Jul 7, 10:11 PM

StandingSitting

Offline

Mar 2021

I feel like a ton of action happened in this volume and this chapter alone. Almost feels like a separate story. But I guess its just another aspect to it. The themes were fleshed out so much here. I'm so glad I read this compared to the anime remake. The anime was great ofc but every detail here seems to pertinent. Especially at the end of at the chapter It seems like a philosophical change happened - it seems much deeper than the anime showed it.

I did feel like I had to focus a bit more than I'd like and muse things over so I understand properly what they meant, but it was worth it.

Jul 7, 10:18 PM

StandingSitting

Offline

Mar 2021

This was a great chapter. Much better than the anime. I felt a subtle feeling of your stomach sinking for-I think-- the first time that wasn't in real-life. The author did a great job. In the anime it seemed a lot more malicious by Holo rather than a misunderstanding, definitely characterized her differently to me in a negative way. Glad that isn't the case in the original source.

I wonder if the whole festival and the battle with giant animal decorations is foreshadowing Holo and her people and their past, and were they originated.

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Ookami to Koushinryou Volume 4 Discussion

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