The princess possessed vast veins of gold, but had neither the wisdom nor patience to use it. She sold shares in the mine and bought shares back when convenient for her, on nothing but the wealth that could be generated by a mine and on the strength of her reputation. Without credit, our hero would have to seize the land itself. However, due to the scarcity of the lands surrounding the city, the diseased forest creatures prowled the wastes for even the smallest bite.
The businesswoman had a simple but effective plan. She appealed to their pride as rulers of this land not too long ago, permitting the humans to live on their own leisure, and convinced them to take fortune into their own hands and work hard for their offspring. They were allotted forty acres of land; they did not need the mule as some of them were. They entered into a partnership with our hero’s business, exchanging some crops for gold, which in turn could be exchanged for meat and other luxuries.
However, they lacked the knowledge to grow food, so they were given education for a fee. Regardless of their strength and speed, they still required tools, which were lent for a fee. Some could not use tools without hands, and so were punished with a fine. As the land they were given was arid, they could grow very little, and thus did not meet certain quotas, which were necessary for our hero’s business to draw some profit, and they had to pay a fine. Finally, they were unable to provide enough for themselves and their families, which inability, because it violated welfare laws, forced them to pay a fine. The carnivores died, the herbivores starved, until only the coprophages lived, only barely. Many died by drinking their sorrows away. The somewhat tilled, somewhat cultivated land was then given over to humans, which was fortunate for our hero’s business.
Our heroes made their way to the gold veins. They were taken aback when they found, instead of vast stores of gold-banded rock, a golden palace, with a golden roof, a golden door, and golden windows, which were very hard to see through. A golden butler led them inside, and golden maids catered to their needs. A golden king explained that the patriarch’s death had weakened the magical boundaries of the realm, allowing golden elementals, beings whose nature were not carbon but of gold, to dwell in the gold veins and create a palace of it. Then they bred and created more golden people and pets. They showed them how they bred; it was very loud.
Though our hero and the businesswoman were pleased there was even more gold than imagined, and in a cultivated state, they were displeased that it had feelings. That night, a golden lantern cracked in the golden palace, causing a golden fire, which, by being of gold, set the golden palace ablaze. Contrary to how one would think, golden water did not douse golden flame, and the golden elementals, for the same hazards they felt the need to escape their golden realm, were burned to liquid gold.
Our heroes rejoiced. The princess would be very pleased with the increase in her wealth, and the forest creatures could be given free gold so as to escape the cycle of poverty and therefore death. The businesswoman thought differently.
The influx of gold into the city, so vast it was, immediately diluted the value of gold, which markedly decreased the value of nearly all of their possessions. In short, the rich were poor, and, as our hero had to pay his workers more gold as a result of the actual value of the gold, the poor were not rich but less poor. The forest creatures could do nothing with this devalued gold but, as the businesswoman lowered the price of alcohol, drank even more quickly to death. The replacement contemplated basing the city’s currency on corn, but found it was difficult to boast about his wealth in corn. The princess was far less wealthy than she had been before, and our hero, not understanding that wealth is generated by the value of labor, which value comes from the ability to purchase the necessaries of life such as staple foods, was not that much wealthier and no closer to acquiring land.
© 2025 Justin Lee