Shades of the New World

Chapter 225: The sell

'I guess that works After all, instead of spending restless nights trying to hatch some fruitless plan regarding my death, they can sleep peacefully, knowing that they're plainly not allowed to harm me,' Evin mused.

'Though it's surprising that a clause from a World Contract between me and Devin is able to affect the entirety of the group'

"I'm guessing that this new clause is enforceable through something similar to the Oaths?" Evin asked.

"Something like that. At any rate, you don't have to worry about its effectiveness," Devin smiled.

"Alright, then let's sign the contract. I'll start talking afterwards," Evin said and the two sides went on to read through the Contract details and sign them without delay. Since the previous contract regarding the banks was still effective, Evin could be sure that the other side couldn't just rename the banking business and cut Evin off.

Afterwards, Devin pulled out two seats and a couch for everyone present to relax on, with a small table between all of them.

"Now, all that's left is for you to introduce your idea," Devin said as he silently sat on one of the seats.

Evin also sat down and unhurriedly began his talk.

"First, I feel that it's crucial for me introduce some of the history of money on my original world." 

"Before the development of a universally accepted medium of exchange that is, money people did what we call bartering two sides each possessing some goods the other wanted, would decide on an agreement that let them exchange their desired goods," Evin said and saw the Cosmics assume a shocked expression.

"Naturally, such a form of trading had many inefficiencies. For example, if someone has sheep, but wants ceramic cups, they must find someone who not only has excess ceramic cups but also the need for meat, or wool. And even when they find one, they must consider whether a ceramic cup is worth a whole sheep or not. Should they shear the sheep and trade the wool for a cup? Or should they butcher the sheep and sell parts of its meat?"

"You can probably see how utterly inefficient, puzzling, and exhausting this system is."

The Cosmic seemed like he wanted to clarify something, but apparently decided against it, so Evin continued.

"Commodity money solved these problems. Commodity money was a type of good that functioned as currency. Goods which were widely desired and thus valuable, such as dried food and processed leather were prime examples of such currency. Naturally, it was even better if they were also durable, portable and easily stored. After all, our planet did not have the immensely useful Storage Rings of Alvox."

"Naturally, there were many other examples of such money alcohol, tobacco, spices, beans, shells, and salt. But evidently, the biggest example were precious metals, such as gold, silver or copper, which were promptly turned to coins, which worked similarly to the coins of Alvox."

"But, you might be a bit surprised to find out that the usage of coins and similar metal objects only began to appear after civilizations existed for more than 3000 years. That's about half of our long history of roughly 6500 years! Can you imagine using beans and shells to trade for more than 3000 years? Granted, we didn't start with a goddess ruling over our heads and paving the proper way for us, so I suppose it's inevitable we fumble in the dark for a few millennia," Evin smiled wryly and saw the thoughtful nods of the Cosmics.

He expected them to be a bit shocked about Earth's extensive history, but the Cosmics didn't seem very interested in the subject. Instead, they seemed more focused on the financial side of things.

"I suppose lodestones are the perfect example of commodity money. Even though it's not money, it's widely used as its replacement." Devin commented to which Evin nodded smilingly.

"Exactly. And at around the 5200-year mark, our world's economy was about to develop another form of currency that was desperately needed in the economy paper money. Or, banknotes in some cases. This - is the core of the idea I'm trying to sell you," Evin said and silently eyed Devin's reactions, wondering if the Cosmic will reach for the list of failed projects in front of him to show Evin that the Cosmics have thought of this before.

The Cosmic did not reach for the book, but instead seemed truly interested in the idea, as a glint of excitement became apparent in his dark void eyes.

'Perhaps I need to give more details before they decide whether they've had this idea or not,' Evin thought and continued.

"At first, these pieces of paper, were introduced to the economy due to the shortage of coins and precious metals. There were simply not enough metals to mint coins for everyone. This problem was especially apparent in the places that were booming economically. So, these pieces of paper were created to take on the roles of metal coins."

Still, there was no reaction from Devin, making Evin want to jump up in joy. But, he stilled his excited mind and continued on.

"In fact, I'm still sometimes confused how you, the Cosmics, are all able to casually move around millions of such of coins so effortlessly," Evin said, and was momentarily surprised by the words that came out of his mouth.

'Now that I think about it, even though the coins are made as thin as possible, it still feels like there's way too much gold in this world...'

Devin smiled slightly in response and explained the situation.

"I'm not sure how the situation is on your planet, but the supply of gold and silver on Alvox is fairly abundant. I'm not sure how much gold there is in the World in reality, but I'm positive that there's enough to supply our need for the foreseeable future. Moreover, there is a rather special group of World of Earth Mages who are tasked with artificially creating gold, silver and bronze for the economy," 

'I knew people tried to create gold through magic! After all, even on Earth where there's no magic, people still tried their damn hardest to create gold through alchemy and whatnot.'

'But thinking about it all, my guess that a single gold coin equaling 1000 dollars is probably not as true as I imagine it to be'

When Evin first came to Alvox and was introduced to its currency system, he'd casually compared a gold coin to be worth 1000 dollars of the 21st century. After all, it was an easy enough comparison to make, and helped him a lot to get used to money in the new World. 

But now, when Evin thought about money, he thought in gold coins of Alvox, not the dollars of Earth. It was a similar concept to thinking in a certain language. For example, after Evin had reincarnated on Earth, his thought process was mostly done in English. During the next 4 or so years, it gradually shifted to the Kingdom's language, and now it was on the verge of thinking in Imperial.