Orbia: All It Took Was a Whim for Me to Take Down Ortolan!
This enormous military expenditure, first of all, includes logistics. The World Government will directly convert the cash value of food and other supplies into goods and distribute them to various Marine Base. This alone accounts for almost 80% of the logistics expenditure.
Ortolan naturally understood all of this, so he naturally intended to continue using this model. The grain-growing areas developed in the Calm Belt and the artificial biotechnology he had just obtained from Dr. Vegapunk were all intended to be used to produce food supplies.
Secondly, regarding the basic salary amount, the World Government cannot pay all Marines in cash. Instead, it has established a Marines fund account, which is held by the central bank established by the World Government, namely the current issuing institution of Beli, the "World Bank". Every year when military expenses are distributed, the World Government will transfer these funds into the Marines general account, and the Marines personnel will then settle the salaries of their subordinates according to the salary settlement date.
On the surface, the World Government has provided ample military funding, but in reality, it has only provided a bunch of data that exists within the World Bank!
This isn't cash at all, because as long as the financial systems of the World Government don't collapse, their massive expenditures on the Marines are far less terrifying than imagined.
It's impossible for the entire Marines to simultaneously withdraw all their salaries from the World Bank.
In this world, probably no one can afford such a terrifying cash flow, not even the World Government, which has been established for eight years!
As for the procurement of warships and weapons, it's the same. There are very few direct cash transactions. They are all account transactions with the trading parties. To put it bluntly, it's still an exchange of data, not a direct transfer of cash.
Therefore, despite the Marines's enormous annual military budget, the actual amount distributed in cash is pitifully small, which is the normal situation!
Otherwise, the World Government would never be able to support Marines, and there is no other power in the world that can support Marines with cash.
Ortolan was well aware of this situation, so he adopted the same method; otherwise, he would have worked himself to death and still not been able to raise sufficient funds for the Marines.
In the past, G-5 used a system of plunder and profit sharing, which meant that the army maintained its operation by robbing pirates.
As G-5's size continued to grow, this model was clearly insufficient to meet G-5's development needs. Subsequently, G-5 began to adopt the model of the World Government, which consolidated funds into G-5's central account and then distributed them to the individual accounts of each Marines member on the payroll day.
However, because G-5 does not use the Marine Headquarters' main account, this account is not with the World Bank under the World Government, but with Underworld market exchange.
Later, under Tesoro's management, this exchange gradually evolved into the New World Bank, which became very popular in the Underworld. Of course, this was not the first bank not under the jurisdiction of the World Government. In fact, long ago, many similar banks had appeared, such as in the West Blue, where the mafia each owned their own bank.
However, due to the chaos in the New World, there wasn't a person with enough 'face' to establish a bank that everyone in the New World would accept. This problem was only solved with the appearance of Ortolan. Now, many people in the Underworld, including the loan king Lu Field, have made this New World Bank their first choice.
Totto Land even established this bank as Totto Land national bank of Totto Land.
The salaries of G-5 Marines also come from this bank; in other words, Ortolan is now simply distributing 'data' to his subordinates.
This would at most allow the New World Marines to survive by relying on this financial system. Given the New World Bank's reputation and size, it is simply impossible for it to coordinate the entire Marines's military expenditures like the 'World Bank'.
Therefore, this is also why Ortolan wants to make the Golden City bigger and stronger. In the Golden City plan, there is a crucial fulcrum, which is that all transactions and settlements within the Golden City are led by the New World Bank!
In other words, as the Golden City develops and attracts a large number of wealthy individuals, a significant amount of capital will continuously flow into the New World Bank through this platform. Consequently, the New World Bank will break through geographical limitations and spread its influence throughout the world.
The goal is to ensure that members of the Marines system know that there is such a reliable bank and such a powerful financial institution, so that they can trust that the bank can guarantee the safety of their funds and that the data sent to their accounts by the bank is true and valid.
Only by taking this step can Ortolan be considered to have a certain degree of confidence in bearing the Marines's enormous military expenses.
Because of this step, he was able to pay the Marines's salaries in the way that the World Government; otherwise, he simply couldn't have managed to do so.
If the World Government discover this situation, they certainly won't sit idly by. What's the simplest way to strike at a so-called financial system and banks? It's a financial run.
If the money you deposit in a bank cannot be redeemed, the bank's reputation will naturally be ruined, and once the bank's reputation is ruined, it's all over.
World Government that can legally and legitimately print Beli have nothing to worry about in this regard. Nowadays, there is no financial system that can launch a bank run against their banks.
Of course, Ortolan had considered this situation, so he needed a large amount of financial reserves, and these reserves absolutely could not be Beli!
Just kidding. The World Government can print Beli. What's the use of stockpiling more Beli?
Therefore, Ortolan's solution to this problem was to use gold!
The Golden Country of the Skypiea boasts enormous gold reserves, enough to fill an entire city – a truly terrifying amount. Similarly, the Golden City under Tesoro's jurisdiction continuously absorbs gold from around the world. Coupled with his own substantial gold-gold resources, which he manages, its future looks promising.
With sufficient gold as collateral, there's no need to worry about the World Government launching a devastating financial attack on Ortolan.
Furthermore, with enough gold as collateral, Ortolan could even develop their new currency based on gold in the future.
Of course, this new monetary system cannot be simply built upon gold.
Gold is merely a common medium of exchange. The core of what truly makes this new monetary system work is that the currency you issue can actually be used to purchase goods in the market!
This is also the fundamental reason why Ortolan wanted to develop productivity and get heavily involved in the commercial system.
Even if the World Government doesn't recognize this new currency, Ortolan will still ensure that his 'customers' who hold the new currency can buy things in the market. In the long run, whether the World Government recognizes it or not will become irrelevant.
Fortunately, based on Ortolan's repeated probing and attempts, he has basically confirmed that this world is backward in terms of culture, education, and systems. In addition, the World Government has never experienced such financial confrontation in the more than 800 years since its establishment. Therefore, the high-level officials of the World Government are not familiar with these financial means, and can even be said to be quite unfamiliar with them.
Therefore, until now, the World Government have never noticed that Ortolan has already begun to undermine their foundations in these areas.
It seems they always believed that as long as they held onto Belly's right to issue his name, they could forever control the world's economic landscape, never considering that one day a new challenging force might emerge.
While thinking about these things, Ortolan was also discussing some related issues with Tesoro. However, it was still too late today, and they had already given a general overview of the situation. The more detailed arrangements would have to be discussed in person.
Ortolan quickly hung up the call with Tesoro.
He didn't continue pondering any profound questions. He closed his notebook, placed it on the table, and seemed too lazy to get up and go back to bed. He lay down on the sofa, ready to make do for the night.
However, just as Ortolan was drifting into a deep sleep, the door to his room was suddenly and gently opened from the outside.
Ortolan seemed to have heard the noise, opened his eyes somewhat groggily, looked towards the door, and then froze.
Nicole Orbia, the Rear Admiral of the Science Unit and leader of the scholars, was wearing a sexy lace nightgown and looking at Ortolan on the sofa with some surprise. She seemed to have not expected that this guy would not go to the bedroom to rest, but instead sleep in the living room.
"What are you doing?!" Ortolan sat up abruptly from the sofa, looking at Orbia in surprise.
Upon hearing the sound, Orbia snapped out of her daze. Instead of answering Ortolan's question, she stepped into the room, closed the door, and locked it with a click.
Ortolan????
"The night is long and I can't sleep. Would you be interested in playing a game with me, Admiral?" Orbia asked Ortolan with a seductive smile on her face.
Ortolan swallowed slightly and said, "When did we become this familiar with each other?"
Orbia's behavior was telling; Ortolan wasn't stupid, so of course he understood what Ai Bai meant.
Play games... play adult games!
However, he didn't quite understand that there was absolutely no emotional foundation between him and Orbia, so why did he suddenly start acting like this?
Orbia smiled and said, "It's precisely because we're not very familiar with each other that we seem more at ease, isn't it?"
It has nothing to do with love or anything like that, nor is it any kind of emotional need; it was just a whim of hers tonight, and that reason is enough.
Having understood Orbia's reply, Ortolan immediately stood up, stepped forward, and picked Orbia up in his arms, saying, "If such a beautiful lady were to extend such a warm invitation, wouldn't it seem rather inconsiderate and ungentlemanly of me to refuse?"