"Pearls of wisdom? Now that would be a grandiose claim."
Valentin pretended to waive the idea away, to present himself as humble--but the idea appealed to him. A lot. After all, wasn't he a man conceived of a higher calling, who had spent his life learning the ways of directing the affairs of empire? If he, a man entrusted by the Imperium and the Emperor himself (well, notionally trusted; he did not personally know His Majesty) with governing the property of the nation was not wise, then perhaps nobody was.
Trade, it is said, is the lifeblood of a nation. But without proper tithe and tribute, the blood sloshes uselessly in the arteries while the flesh and muscle waste away. Was he not, in fact, responsible in goodly part for the vitalization of all that national tissue? Why shouldn't someone ask him for advice?
"Well, for all that you are young, you seem to have good instincts and a willingness to seek advice. I have no reason to doubt that you will learn from every misstep and master trade. And I am, after all, more of a spectator."
Not a disinterested spectator, of course.
"But..."
"My grandfather used to tell me-" For all that Valentin resented the man, he respected him too. "-that his least favorite aphorism is 'time is money.'"
"Perhaps ironically, it took me years to understand his point entirely. He meant that you can spend time making money, but you can't spend money to get more time. That was his warning to me, that those who gave up too much of their lives chasing ever-greater fortune were idiots. They were trading an irreplaceable resource for something which would never quite buy them the joys they desired. And that's fair enough." Of course, the old man had said this while he secreted away a small fortune for his own family. This, Valentin did not mind- the hypocrisy had paid for his education and current position, after all.
"But eventually I realized that he had found his truth in the aphorism and failed to perceive another, deeper secret. And that is that money is time. Every stamped coin is a ledger of blood and sweat, from the long labor of the miners to the quick calculations I perform in my own office. Every soldier earns his pay by spending his life. Every aven a cobbler makes is a token of the time he spent making the shoes. Although I am a skilled laborer, my own pension is filled first and foremost by the ticking of the old grandfather clock in my office.' The economy is an iron law; those who would have money, they must give it their time, their sweat, and ultimately their lives."
"If you would become rich, you must break this law as often as you can. Do not ask 'which investment makes most money', ask 'which investment can I profit from with as little work as possible'. If you seek to improve your businesses, improve first and foremost the time it takes for them to realize profit. The people with the most money in this world do not need to spend an instant of their own time to make a thousand avens. Do this, grow richer while selling your time as dearly as possible, and you may live to become one of those rare people who are both powerful and happy."
