Ookami to Koushinryou: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf Episode 4 Discussion

Estoy_Gordo said:
So the silver scheme cat is out of the bag, but the bigwigs behind it aren't too happy about being found out, and sent out some hired thugs to silence the two of them. And they also know Holo is a wolf god after capturing her...

I was confused about how the silver scheme worked at first, but this episode cleared it up. The price of silver coins wasn't going up, but down. Those who sought to profit would try to buy up as many newer coins as possible and later resell a now higher-content silver coinage, pocketing the difference. But what's really happening was the price of silver is expected to go down with the new lower-content silver coins, leaving investor merchants holding the bag of less valuable coins, suffering heavy losses (much like how stocks work if you bet wrong). The schemers were planning on forcing those suckers with all the silver to resell it to them for pennies on the dollar, so to speak, and therefore profit off of their losses. As to what they'd do with all that silver once acquired, I imagine the noble backing them would take it, as it would still be very valuable as silver is still needed for trade, and thus would give them bigger bargaining power to whoever wants it, effectively having a monopoly on a large chunk of the silver coinage in circulation once the older higher-content silver coins are fazed out/taken out/bought up (which is likely what the Milone company is banking on, buying up the older higher-content silver coins). Not only that, since they'd be able to secretly collect a large amount of coins without the knowledge of authorities, they would also be able to evade taxes on their capital gains with their new hidden assets, as the people who were scammed wouldn't be able to report it or else lose their reputation as a trader.

Rather than some grander reason as to why the two of them were targeted by hired thugs in the first place, it could just as easily be simply revenge; to get even. Once Milone started buying up older silver coins, Medio would soon find out that their plan is compromised, and that the leak must have come from one of the people they were planning on scamming, which would lead to them finding out it was Lawrence who struck a deal with Milone company. And now that after Holo was caught revealing her identity, threatening to take her to the church to be killed was an afterthought in their change of plans to smoke out Lawrence.

Edit: If I'm wrong about my assumptions, like Light Novel readers can correct me in a spoiler tag. One thing I think I missed was...what exactly was this "personal grudge" Lawrence have against Milone company?

Edit 2: Nevermind, I rewatched it and the "personal grudge" was referring to the scenario if Holo was taken hostage, then Milone would not act to help save her out of greater interest in company profits. But since Lawrence dropped the bombshell at the end revealing to Milone company Holo's true identity, then things just got more spicy.