Aside from the tradition-bound Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, nearly all the commerce associations within the Heaven Dou Empire used banks to support their businesses.
For bookkeeping services, all they had to do was deposit money in the bank; there were no additional fees. In the past, every commerce association had to spend money each year hiring people to manage their ledgers. Now that someone was doing it for free, only an idiot would refuse.
Businesspeople traveled far and wide by nature. Yet when they went to the Star Luo Empire, they had no way to use bank transactions, which greatly affected trade in the Star Luo Empire.
It was not just merchants from the Heaven Dou Empire. Even local merchants in the Star Luo Empire found it troublesome.
Merchants might not hold high status, but they were adept at following the powerful. Which major merchant did not have a wife from a noble family?
The nobles wielded tremendous power. Even though Dai Tianfeng knew this was like inviting wolves into his home, there was nothing he could do.
The emperor might indeed rule the nation, but without the support of those nobles, he was, frankly, nothing.
He could offend anyone but the nobles, especially the great clans.
Thus, a month ago, the Star Luo Empire had proactively requested that Spirit Hall establish Martial Soul Banks within its territory.
Just three banks had been established in the first batch, yet they had already more than doubled trade activity in the Star Luo Empire.
Han Yu had said from the beginning that Spirit Hall could not allow the two great empires to unite against it. Instead, it had to make them compete against each other. The simplest method was to publicize the trade surpluses and deficits between the two empires every