Human greed had taken on 100 many different colorations. In the end, the Guild concluded that in a stable, hierarchical and controlled society, there was no reason not to employ an entirely artificial currency. They bent their efforts to persuading House Corrino and the other directors of CHOAM of the advantages of money. A traditional advantage such as portability could not be emphasized, since it would tend to soften the rigidity of the faufreluches. Other advantages, such as easy transferability, would outweigh the dangers IMPERIAL MONETARY SYSTEM 338 IMPERIAL MONETARY SYSTEM associated with them Finally, two chief ele ments earned the Guild case interest and leverage The first appealed to the desire fen-wealth, the second to the desire for power The Guild never tired of pointing out that commodities must be produced, they increase m quantity only through further production But by the charging of interest, money may be made to reproduce The Guild also repeatedly demonstrated how the judicious spending or investment of a sum of money may affect the movements of much larger sums in ways advantageous to the spender or investor The statesmen of the Guild were happy to show the many ways in which interest and leverage can work in concord with each other, to the greal profit of those who hold money To a few Great Houses, the Gwld advanced a thud argument, mat the mtroduc tion of money would make interstellar commerce more efficient, m s sense cheaper, and so more readily accessible Commodity-poor Houses who owed their standing to court politics or military achievements would find the prospects for their economic advancement enhanced by money An incomplete document m the Rakis collection records the response to this argument of Marco Atreides (385-445), Count of Thuestes ' In my mind I know no doubt that the introduction of a common currency and an Imperial banking system will give my House its only good chance for a dominant political poMUon We can never build palaces on pundi nee But I fear grievously that the price of money will be the honor of the Houses mat covet it Lust for glory may make a man a warrior, lust for fogwood may make him an artist, lust for women may make him no worse wan a fool But but for money will make him a bookkeeper An Atreides drawn to money will be an Atreides drawn to death" ("Letter to Dona," Lib Conf Temporary Series 763) Whatever the merits of Duke Marco's sensibility, he saw clearly enough something the Guild did not often mention in its argu ments and proposals mere could be no intro duction of money at the interstellar level without the concomitant introduction of inter stellar banking Other documents show that Marco rightly understood the Guild to be the only organization able to assume the bank