Banking Clan Civil War (II)
Upon hearing Glosse-Shelbia's words, the Core Five finally recognized the gravity of the situation.
In the past, the InterGalactic Banking Clan had committed enough crimes to sentence every one of its top executives to death ten times over. Yet they had remained perfectly at ease, utterly unaffected.
Because the InterGalactic Banking Clan was simply too rich—rich enough to buy off nearly anyone they wanted to buy off!
Whenever the InterGalactic Banking Clan was about to face punishment, countless people would always come forward in opposition, and all manner of unforeseen obstacles would arise, until the matter eventually fizzled out.
In the end, even the Galactic Republic's finances had to defer to the InterGalactic Banking Clan. Republic officials naturally did not dare touch them, and could only turn a blind eye.
But now, things were different.
This war had given the Galactic Republic an incomparably powerful military, while also drastically changing the way it conducted itself. In the past, the Galactic Republic would reason with you, and if reason failed, that was that. But now, if they found reason would not work, they would teach you physics...
At the same time, over the past two years of war, Chancellor of the Galactic Senate Sheev Palpatine had quietly completed a wholesale reshuffling of the Republic's bureaucratic structure.
All those officials who had bought their offices with money had been removed. In their place came those selected by status.
The ones now controlling the Republic's bureaucracy were the noble classes of the Inner Rim and the Core Worlds. They did not lack money; what they lacked was ambition, status, and power!
It was an unnoticed shift between classes. The merchant class was gradually marginalized, replaced by warlords and the privileged elite.
In other words, money was still very