The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 129: The Value of the Treasure (Happy New Year!)

Chapter 129: Chapter 129: The Value of the Treasure (Happy New Year!)

There was nobody to greet them at the harbor. In fact, under Arthur’s sudden command, the harbor went into a day-long alert, during which no unrelated individuals were allowed near.

Although people were unclear about what had happened at the harbor, they all respectfully kept their distance.

After all, since the alert was set to last only one day, it didn’t greatly affect their lives.

Guided by the lead escort ship, two huge transport ships slowly docked at the harbor.

At the harbor, thousands of large boxes had been prepared in advance to house all the treasure. It was to be transported to a safe place for counting, masked under an inconspicuous appearance.

Just the task of packing all the treasures into the boxes consumed a substantial four hours of time.

To transport these treasures, Arthur had deployed scores of horse carriages and over a thousand royal guards for security.

Eventually, all the treasures were temporarily transferred to Arthur’s manor house, where a specially prepared underground warehouse was located that was large enough to accommodate the treasures and was highly secure.

Although onlookers were extremely curious about the grand procession of carriages heading for Arthur’s manor, none of the young men dared to take a peek.

The mere sight of the armed royal guards escorting the convoy was more than enough to deter them, let alone the fact that the destination was a heavily guarded manor house.

At the manor, Barty Crouch once again met with Arthur. Arthur, with a smile on his face, patted Barty on the shoulder and said in a jovial tone, “Barty, you’ve done a great job with this mission. These treasures will suffice to support the royal family and Australia’s future plans.”

Although the precise value of the batch of treasures was not clear, they were undoubtedly sufficient to support Australia’s industrial development plan for the next two or three years.

“Your Highness, it is all because of your intelligence. Without your tip about the vast wealth in the temple, nobody else would have thought of targeting it,” Barty Crouch replied, shrugging off the praise.

How enormous was the temple’s treasure hoard? The total weight of the gold and silver treasures exceeded sixty tons, out of which gold currency and jewelry alone weighed more than thirty tons. There were also a large number of gemstones and other treasures.

Silver items made up the smallest portion of the treasure, weighing in at less than ten tons. This was because they had chosen to abandon many low-value silver items after giving it much thought.

If they had included those vast quantities of silver items, the total weight of the treasure would have been at least eighty tons, making transportation even more challenging.

The most eye-catching item amongst all was a golden Buddha statue, slightly bigger than a real person. Although its size was barely life-size, it weighed a lot more and was the most troublesome to transport.

It even weighed more than the golden elephant statue and was the most attractive amongst all the treasures.

Truth be told, Arthur didn’t know much about the treasure in the temple apart from some media reports.

But these reports were largely sensationalized, with the specific figures in each article hardly matching up.

The only thing that could be assured was that the treasure inside the temple was of high value and was worth billions of US dollars in later generations.

Although many items’ values would have decreased significantly a hundred years ago due to various age factors, such a colossal treasure was undeniably valuable and certainly met Arthur’s expectations.

For the gold currency and jewelry, Arthur issued instructions to have them melted down into gold bars as a reserve for the future issuance of new currency.

Keeping such a massive amount of gold items in the warehouse was a waste, and Arthur didn’t need these items to flaunt his wealth, especially since their origin could not be openly revealed.

The thirty-plus tons of gold were a significant addition to the issuance of new currency and would also increase the Australian Government’s limited gold reserves.

However, this batch of gold belonged to Arthur and the royal family. Even if it was to be used in the future for issuing new currency, the ownership would still be retained by the Royal Bank.

Upon seeing the treasure’s value estimates on the inventory list, Arthur was slightly surprised.

The value of this treasure hoard was not only capable of supporting Australia’s industrial growth for one or two years, but it could also easily sustain development for up to five years.