Prosperity: True and False

As Karya returned to Freljord, all of Demacia seemed to be immersed in endless glory.

On the surface, this glory came from the monopoly of Shurima trade, which brought astonishing financial income to the Royal Family. Merchant ships arrived one after another at the Imperial Capital port, bringing various specialties from Shurima, allowing the nobility and local magnates from all over to witness what true treasures were.

But on a deeper level, in Karya's eyes, this glory was truly like blooming flowers and a roaring fire.

In the past, although the Demacian nobles lived extravagantly, their extravagance had its limits. Considering production and price issues, a "wine pool and meat forest" was not considered overly luxurious in Demacia. Even if nobles wanted to squander their fortunes, they could at most build castles, buy fine horses, and expand their private armies.

Even the most expensive expansion of private armies had just been cut off by the Royal Family. Many Demacian nobles held vast resources, but these resources simply couldn't be spent.

However, it should be noted that a large portion of the "resources" here were not gold coins, but grain collected as taxes.

That's right. In Demacia's traditional taxation system, grain, horses, weapons, and other physical goods occupied a considerable proportion.

The main reason for this phenomenon was Demacia's insufficient gold coins.

Within the entire Demacia, the mines were mainly located in the Northern Territory, and mining had always been inconvenient.

What was even more critical was that among the mineral resources in the Northern Territory, the proportion of precious metal mines was very low. This directly led to the high price of precious metals in Demacia, and even coining money was not profitable.

Therefore, although the lords were rich, the "money" here should be more accurately described as assets, not