The Nuwali had an unusual obsession with gold. Generally speaking, species in the universe would not use this mineral as a standard of value, much less as currency.
Gold might not be abundant on formed planets, but there was plenty of it in the universe. In an asteroid belt, you could take any spaceship out to scoop up ore, then refine gold from it using the simplest methods. You could even do it at home with a Cauldron.
But the gold the Vanuli liked was rather special.
Their homeworld had an environment much like Earth's, so its gold reserves were limited as well. During their development, they had liked using gold for large transactions among themselves.
But once Civilization entered space, they discovered that gold was everywhere in the universe, and the entire population entered an era of space mining.
They had even hollowed out the Boötes Void, creating a cosmic emptiness with neither stars nor planets.
More than four million Planetary Systems had been turned into slag by their mining ships. Once their advanced technology was applied to mining, even supposedly unusable residue amounted to little more than inert gas.
They acquired vast amounts of gold, yet everyone only felt empty. Mining did not make them happy, and even gold, which had once delighted them, no longer seemed appealing.
So the clever Nuwali quickly realized that what they wanted was not gold itself, but the process of obtaining gold through trade.
Doing business and earning gold were the sources of their happiness.
So everyone contributed their gold to assemble the first batch of goods. The people of the entire planet jointly established the Nuwali Consortium, then adjusted the direction of their Civilization's development and began trading with the major species of the universe.
Because their technology was powerful and