Page 2680

After reading up a little more on the laws in question, Hector learned that they had originated about sixty years ago, after a series of new banks had collapsed, all within two years of each other. It turned out to be an elaborate scheme to "store" people's money and "invest" it in legitimate-seeming companies; and then when those companies declared bankruptcy, the investing banks would follow suit, ridding themselves of any responsibility to pay back their customers.

Tens of thousands of Atreyan citizens had lost their life savings, and millions of troa had essentially been stolen without hard evidence of any legal wrongdoing, because the bank owners supposedly didn't have access to the money, anymore. It had been "lost" in some tragic fire--or similarly destructive accident--that had befallen one of the companies that they had invested in.

It was widely believed that the money had really been used to buy huge volumes of products that were illegal or otherwise lacking a paper trail, in order to avoid the attentive gaze of auditors and insurance companies.

Multiple attempts had been made to find the culprits over the years, but they never resurfaced, probably for fear of facing the wrath of the newly crowned King Martinus. Even if they had technically not broken any laws, the King had made his displeasure over the situation quite widely known, and it would've certainly been within his power to change the laws retroactively just to punish the involved parties. The public probably would've been on his side, too.

When he'd read about all that, Hector had gained a modicum of appreciation for the regulations--or what they had been attempting to accomplish, at least.

It still seemed clear to him that the problems facing the nation now trumped any concerns over something like that happening again, but according to the Madame Cathrace, Queen Helen wasn't quite in agreement on that point. Or at least, not yet.