If the Empress could abandon the Amazon Lily Kingdom and settle here, the World Government would probably hand over a billion without hesitation if she simply asked.
Because it would kill two birds with one stone.
First, the Amazon Lily Kingdom would no longer threaten the World Government's great prison. Second, at Mock Town, the Amazon Lily Kingdom could help the World Government eliminate pirates passing through.
Put those two things together, and what did a mere billion matter?
But Leo had never considered such a thing, and the Amazon Lily Kingdom would never allow it to happen.
Yet even without the first benefit, the World Government would have been more than happy for the Empress to choose such a place as her territory.
Mock Town had no major powers. Neither the Four Emperors nor the World Government's member nations had a presence there. It was unclaimed land; giving it to a Shichibukai was no big deal.
If she developed Mock Town, that would be a good thing. If she failed to develop it but eliminated pirates passing through, that would be even better.
In any case, the Marines had nothing to lose.
And Leo intended to borrow her name and use the legitimacy recognized by the Marines to turn Mock Town into a paradise for the Revolutionary Army.
Sometimes, one might suffer losses in business, and ordinary people would naturally feel frustrated. But a nation's credibility was built step by step like this.
The only way Leo could quickly turn Mock Town into his base was to follow methods from his previous life: build up his credibility and get the merchants—whose property had nominally been confiscated by him but who had actually gained benefits—to pour their funds into Mock Town as quickly as possible, taking the first step toward