In Najalil, the high priests were definitely the richest, but at the same time, they were also the most low-key group of people.
Every year, there were many religious activities and festivals. When it came to such festivals, people would start to prepare gold and send it to the nearby temple to pray for blessings.
Poor people could not afford to use good gold, but they could not refuse to send it. If they wanted to be reincarnated into a good family, then the annual activities and festivals were the time to show off. People could be poor, but they could not be poor, even if it was gold painted.
Sometimes, some priests would also guide people, saying that the reason why those rich people were getting richer and richer, and those with power were stable, was because the gold they sacrificed was more in line with the gods' wishes.
This also created another local phenomenon that foreigners would never understand. Once it was a major religious event or festival, some crazy religious families would sell their children, wives, and houses to raise gold. They would then forge a gold object to offer to the gods to express their devotion.
This kind of thing was slightly rare in recent years. The arrival of foreigners had indeed changed some things, but this kind of phenomenon still existed in society, especially for the elderly. When they were about to lose the power of the family, they would do this.
They would sell all the things they could control in exchange for gold offerings to the gods and start to wander. Among the old people on the streets, except for those who were chased out by their children, many people were like this.
The purpose of doing this was to please the gods, so that they could be reincarnated into a good family after death.
The religious fanaticism of the people made the temples in every region a huge gold collection organization. From gold lacquer to gold wrappers to pure gold, there would be a huge amount of these things flowing into the temples in every region every year.
The temples would entrust this part of the things to some people, or they would simply process it themselves, refining the gold and melting it into gold ingots or gold cakes.
Because they lacked specialized tools, the process was not so perfect, and there were profiteers who added things to the gold, the purity of the gold was not very high.
Among them, the most added was copper. As long as this thing was handled well, it was not easy for a group of priests who had never taken chemistry classes to find out.
Lynch shook his head and threw the gold bars back to the Little Gold Mountain. He walked to the side of the Little Gold Mountain and looked at the gold bars and gold bars that were filled with holes. His eyes became absent-minded for a moment.
The price of gold in the Federation was very stable and not very high. Thanks to the continuous decline of the financial and economic situation in the past few years, the prices of precious metals such as silver and gold were steadily increasing. Among them, the price of gold had risen to 37 dollars per ounce, and the price of silver had unexpectedly risen to 1.70 dollars per ounce. Currency units were not included in the statistics.
One ton was equal to more than 32,500 ounces, and the price of a meal of pure gold had already exceeded 1.3 million.
Lynch looked at the gold and silently calculated in his heart. There was at least tens of millions of gold here!
However, it was more visually impactful than 10 million RMB. Ever since gold was discovered, it had firmly attracted people's attention!
Lynch gave a price that he thought was appropriate. "Between one to fifteen million Federation Sol."
He thought that the high priest would reservedly express how rich he was, but what Lynch did not expect was that the high priest was stunned as well.
"This … this much?"
The high priest seemed to be a little confused by the number. "The number in my heart is less than what you said … a little."
He had intended to say a lot less. He thought that there might only be about three to five million here. Of course, this was also related to the behavior of the Preston Trading Company over the years. The price they recovered was not in line with the international price of gold.
At the same time, Nagalil was actually rich in gold mines, which was why the high priest thought that these things would not be too expensive.
Lin Qi nodded and casually picked up a gold bar. Because the grinding tool wasn't clean enough during the casting process, there were a lot of impurities in the solution, which formed a circle of pores on the back of the gold bar. The pores ranged from the size of a bean to the size of a finger. This actually reduced the value of the gold bar.
"Transportation, re-purification, labor costs, these additional expenses have to be deducted from its value. There are also some security costs and the bank's insurance business."
"If this much gold is kept in private, it is easy to get into trouble. It can only be stored in the bank's vault. These are also expenses."
With a clang, he threw the gold bar back. Looking at the gold bar and gold biscuits that slid down, Lynch sighed. These people were too damn rich!
Of course, this was normal. This was the characteristic of a backward country. Wealth and power were more highly concentrated in the hands of a very small number of people than in developed countries. This was also one of the manifestations of an unreasonable social structure.
The more mature and advanced the overall structure and mechanism of a society, the more balanced the distribution of wealth among each class should be. People's ideal social structure was that the top and bottom would be the same in terms of wealth and social obligations, and the power would be different because of the different division of labor.
The more development in this direction, the more advanced the social system would be. But Nagalil was different now. The high concentration of wealth and power only brought about the slow death of the society. The rulers firmly controlled power and wealth, which was equivalent to depriving the ordinary people of their desires.
Ordinary people could not obtain wealth, power, status, and other material and spiritual promotion and enjoyment through labor or other means, and they would lose the motivation to work hard.
They would rather lie in the dirty water and wait for death than stand up and find a job to fill their stomachs. Of course, not having the opportunity to work was another problem.
But no matter what, there was so much gold piled up here. Looking at it, Lynch withdrew his thoughts from the ragged people outside waiting for a good reincarnation.
"Are you sure you want to give these to me?"
Lynch asked again.
The high priest hesitated for a moment. He really did not expect the gold to be worth so much. But he only hesitated for a moment, then nodded hard. "Yes, I'll leave them to you."
Lynch nodded. "I'll arrange for someone to deal with these as soon as possible. Besides, I'll definitely do what I promised you. For the sake of our friendship and the money!"
He said these words in a very unflattering way, but this unflattering way had gained the approval of the high priest.
"I've heard that the Federation is a country that pays great attention to the spirit of contracts. Perhaps we can sign some contracts to make these things more perfect?"
Originally, he did not intend to do so. If the gold could only be exchanged for a few million Federation sous, Lynch and his sons would share it. In the end, each of his sons could only get about a million Federation sous.
But there was too much, so he had to add some restrictions. Sometimes, too much money could cost one's life.
After walking out of his back garden with the high priest, Lynch and the high priest had a general idea. Lynch would use the money to set up a foundation. The shares would be held by Lynch and the high priest's children respectively. It was equivalent to giving some of the money to Lynch for free.
This foundation would be entrusted to "Blackstone Capital" to manage. 60% of its annual income would be reinvested into the foundation as capital increase, while the remaining 40% would be distributed according to the shares.
The entrustment period of this agreement was 10 years. Within 10 years, no one could cash out. After 10 years, the trusteeship would end.
In short, the high priest's children would have 10 years to adapt to the society there. After 10 years, they would have completely integrated into the Federation society and become citizens of the Federation. Only then would they be able to get the money that truly belonged to them and have complete control over it.
Before that, they had to listen to Lynch.
After Lynch left, the high priest gathered his children and told them his decision.
When he told them his decision, his children, including Reka, could not help but raise different opinions. The general idea was that the high priest did not have to do this.
Facing these children who were arguing and wanting more autonomy and control, the high priest was even more certain of his decision.
When these people were not so noisy, he smiled and shook his head. As he skillfully replaced the incense wick in the incense burner, he asked softly, "Are you all done?"
This sentence that had accumulated for a long time made these children regret being too impulsive just now. They lowered their heads and dared not speak again.
After the high priest fiddled with his incense, he sat cross-legged on the bed again and said some of his opinions.
"Preston is very powerful. He knows a large group of powerful pirates. It is said that these pirates are backed by the Royal Navy of Gaffra. It is also with this force that he firmly monopolizes the import and export trade of Nagalil."
"We all hate him, but we can't leave him. This is a very sad situation, children."
"Whether it's me, Dragon, or those idiots in the central government, they can't do anything to Preston. It can even be said that as long as Preston is unhappy, it only takes a few months for us to return to primitive society."
"But such a powerful person, a person we can't fight against, was easily dealt with by the Federation!"
When a strange high priest suddenly talked about these very serious things, it would give people a very absurd feeling. But none of the people in the room had such thoughts.
"You are not familiar with the Federation. They can find a reason to take away everything you have and then make you disappear from people's sight. No one will care about barbarians like you who came from a barbaric society. You must have someone who can provide you with shelter so that you can survive."
"Lynch is a good choice. I heard that he has a good relationship with the king … president of the Federation. This is enough for him to ensure your safety. No one will kill you because of your wealth."
The high priest looked at these children and sighed silently. In fact, he also gave these children a layer of protection, and that was himself.
He did not choose to go to the Federation with these children. There were two reasons why he did not choose to go with them.
First, he wanted to use the power in his hands to get more benefits, such as the inheritance of the high priest. When the time came, the priests and officiants of the various temples below would go crazy. A large amount of gold would gather here, and he would have a second sum of money.
Second, as long as he was still the high priest and had influence, he would be of value to be used.
In order to make better use of his power and influence, the people of the Federation would take care of him and his family until the people of the Federation thought that he was no longer of value. Only then would they throw him away.
All of this was for the children.