Chapter 727 — Open the Door, Free Trade
Blade of Dawn · Page 4 of 4
"So long as the Cecil Empire does not collapse, so long as there is no international credit collapse, so long as our industrial and economic systems continue to develop steadily, so long as the Grand Wall does not fall and we ourselves commit no folly of unlimited over-issuance, then fiat currency will amount to having something close to unlimited capacity to pay," Gao Yang continued. "Whereas the gold reserves of Typhon and its commercial partners will eventually hit a bottleneck—and the larger the market they build and the faster it develops, the sooner that bottleneck will arrive. The gears of a factory are a wheel too heavy to stop; that wheel will force them to over-issue currency. And what we must do is—before Royan Augustus reacts, before the Typhonians plug their holes—do everything in our power to make the gold of the Typhon Settlement Zone flow to our side..."
"May their noble investors keep up the good work," Patrick laughed.
Gao Yang smiled too: "May the present 'peaceful situation' hold for a few more years."
He rose and went to the place by the bookshelf where the map hung.
Ansu's full territorial map had once hung here, but the old map had now been taken down, replaced by one depicting the entire continent.
The Gondo Wasteland occupied a striking position on the map, and around the wasteland—Cecil, Typhon, the Augustray Tribal States, the Highland Kingdom, the Silver Empire... nation upon nation interlocked like dogs' teeth, each holding its stretch of land handed down from the ancient forebears.
For a thousand years, these nations had each developed in comfort and tranquility, and though there had been some exchange between them, an invisible barrier seemed to divide all the realms.
For a thousand years, the stories had all been of knights, princesses, castles, and open fields.
Quiet, peaceful, pastoral.
But the times had changed.
Open the doors. Free trade.
His gaze drifted slowly across the map of the entire continent, a map he had drawn himself by reference to satellite imagery. Amid those precise lines, his eyes gradually passed over the Gondor Wasteland and came to rest among the jungles and cities of the Silver Empire.
"If only north and south could be connected across the continent..."
"Your Majesty?" Patrick had not caught it clearly and asked curiously.
"No, nothing," Gao Yang shook his head. What he was weighing was not something Patrick, as head of commerce and economics, could resolve. "Let us return to the matter of issuing currency. However necessary credit currency may be, issuing it... will not be so easy."
"Yes, Your Majesty."