Shades of the New World

Chapter 226: The glorious rise of... America?

Acclimatization aside, another related question popped up in Evin's head.

"Can you tell me exactly how much of your vaults consist of crystal lodestones and coins? For example, is it maybe 30% lodestones and 70% coins, or is it different?"

Devin looked back at Evin, seemingly wondering if the boy was harboring any ill intentions. Evin could understand why, as information of this kind could be utilized by others to harm the Cosmics, especially so if the amount of lodestones was high. After all, the centurial redistribution of lodestones was coming in a couple decades.

"Although I'm not supposed to tell you of this to outsiders, I'll make an exception for you. In reality, the percentage of lodestones in our vault far exceeds any amount considered remotely safe by most other countries and organizations. Currently, 40% of our total liquid assets are lodestones," Devin said with a smile.

"You're right. It does sound very risky and dangerous," Evin commented, wondering how much damage he could do to the Elmes Group if he ever decided to reveal this information. If the Countries got wind of this leak, they would surely write up a law that forbids anyone from selling to the Cosmics for lodestones.

"Obviously, as time passes, we'll do our best to reduce this number to 0% in preparation for the reset of lodestones, but it's a bit too early for us to do that. After all, the incident is still two decades further down the line."

'Hmm, now that I think about it. I'm pretty sure the Cosmics didn't think of creating paper currency because of how they used lodestones instead of it. They already had a perfectly functional alternate currency. The only problem with that was the fact that it disappeared completely after every century...'

'In this case, the idea of paper money should be more and more alluring to the Cosmics After all, paper money is the better replacement for lodestones,' Evin thought, even more confident now.

"At any rate, let's get back to paper currency. After its introduction, the use of paper money was becoming more and more widespread alongside coins. Most of the time, it backed by something else, gold or another precious metal. After all, without nothing backing them, they were in the end, just glorified paper. This meant that people could use these paper currencies to purchase things, while also being able to exchange them for raw gold or silver at a specified rate with their government. So, if there ever came a day when no one wanted your paper currency, you could feel safely hold onto it, since you could still exchange them for something," Evin explained smilingly.

"But, after about a thousand years after the introduction of paper money, the leader of America, one of the biggest countries in my world, decided that its paper currency, which was called the dollar, was no longer redeemable in gold, which meant that the value of the currency was no longer tied to something material. Its value was instead tied to its demand and the people's basic faith in its worth. What do you think happened when the people learned of this?" Evin asked.

"I'd like to say utter chaos and anarchy but I have a feeling that the idea worked wonders," Devin said and his paws reached his chin, no doubt thinking of how plausible this was to implement in Alvox.

"Exactly. Obviously, this move by the America's leader might have not worked if it was just any old country trying to implement a revolutionary idea... But all the stars were in shining on America at that time. First of all, America was almost arguably the economically strongest country in the world at the time, which meant that its currency was widely accepted not only in that country, but was widespread in countless other countries as well. So, if the value of the dollar dropped, not just America, but many other countries were going to have a bad time. This meant that naturally, the entire world was working tirelessly to ensure that never happened," Evin said.

Evin didn't just randomly mentioned America in his little speech. This was his plan to make the Cosmics seriously consider his idea of paper money. For many countries, America's rise in the 20th century was like the perfect dream come true. Countless people all around the world dreamt for the chance to live in America, instead of whatever shithole country they were living in. So if the Cosmics saw a case of success, they were infinitely more likely to consider implementing this idea in reality.

'Though, I should probably not mention America's more depressing times in the economy, huh'

For the next few moments, silence ensued in the World of Space. Devin's hands were glued to his chin, an awfully focused expression on his face. Evin didn't mind the wait. At this point, he was 99% sure the Cosmics would try their hands at this project of his. It was now just a matter of how they were going to implement it. Sure enough, a relevant question popped out of Devin's maw.

"Could you tell me a bit more about how the enemy countries of America reacted?"

'Hmm, how much should I say? Honestly, the deal's almost over at this point, so I don't feel too compelled to say anything Wait, even though I'm talking as if I know everything about Earth, I don't really know how the others reacted? I just remember literally everyone and their mothers in America talking about the subject as if they were all macroeconomy graduates'

"I'm not quite sure on the details, actually. I just know about the matter since I was staying in America when everything was happening. But I do know that after a few decades, every country in the World had their own functioning currency in the market," Evin explained with a shrug.

"Is that so" Devin said and fell into thought again. After a few seconds, he followed up with another question: "These various currencies, they must've not been equal, right? I'd guess that even if they started on a similar platform, over time, the people would've preferred a currency over their own. You've also mentioned it with the dollar being widely accepted in other countries."

"Definitely. Right before I was reincarnated, I remember one dollar equaling thousands and sometimes even trillions of another currency. Naturally, the countries with stronger economies had currencies comparable to the dollar, sometimes even stronger than it, but they could never dethrone the dollar as the most widely traded currency of the World."

Evin felt that he'd spoken enough, so he decided to ask the Cosmic to make his decision:

"I must confess that I don't know half the details of this idea that I'm trying to sell you. At the end of the day, I'm just recounting the history of my previous World to you all. I'm sure you'll think of countless better methods to perfect it yourself... Or, you can choose not to, and we'll pretend like this conversation never happened."