They Really Were Just a Bunch of Beggars Begging on the Street

"Financial leverage? National debt?"

The two awkward technical terms left everyone from Shrek staring at one another.

Throughout the Douluo Continent's history of over ten thousand years, commerce had been fairly prosperous, but the underlying logic of trade had remained at its most primitive: "Money in one hand, goods in the other."

Even the major trade associations, at most, settled their accounts using Gold Soul Coin savings cards issued by the Three Great Empires' banks.

As for "leverage" and "national debt," to natives who had not so much as scratched the surface of Capital, these were even more obscure than the core formations of a Level 10 Soul Tool!

"What's wrong?"

After waiting a long while without hearing a response, Su Xian frowned in puzzlement. "Since you're playing such a hardcore business-war monopoly murder mystery role-playing game, how come you don't even know the most basic financial leverage and national debt?"

"Ahem, ahem..."

Qian Duoduo came back to his senses, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and hurriedly put on an apologetic smile, speaking in his local accent. "Teacher Su, don't laugh at us! We just happened to read a script outline online, thought it was interesting, and brought it over to test you. How would bumpkins like us understand those advanced economics terms? Sorry for the trouble, but could you explain them to us in detail?"

"Fair enough. Macroeconomic financial operations like these really are beyond the average person's understanding."

Su Xian lifted his insulated mug and blew on the steam, assuming the air of a university professor guiding graduate students. "All right, since we're playing out a script, let's work through the logic first! Uncle Mo Niu, you just said the trade associations cut off Shrek's funding chain. Then tell me, before they cut off supplies, how were Shrek's procurement funds and rare metals accounted for?"

At that, Qian Duoduo immediately began pouring out his grievances.

How was this some script? This was clearly the history of blood and tears that he, the Soul Tool Department's vice dean, lived through every day!

"Teacher Su, to tell you the truth, this is how the script's setting works."

Qian Duoduo spoke through gritted teeth. "Shrek Academy has no mines of its own! In the past, it relied entirely on those huge trade association alliances in and around Shrek City to buy materials from all over."

"These major trade associations have powerful backing. They transport rare metals worth only a thousand Gold Soul Coins at their place of origin all the way back to Shrek City, then exploit their monopoly to brazenly charge the academy three thousand, or even four thousand Gold Soul Coins!"

"And..." Qian Duoduo glanced at Yan Shaozhe's ugly expression beside him and steeled himself to continue. "They also secretly collude with some of the academy's procurement managers and teachers! They deliberately falsify accounts and sell inferior goods as top-quality products! They bleed the academy dry from both inside and out!"

This was effectively the same as merchants colluding with border officials to drive prices sky-high.

"Now the academy wants to make large-scale industrial purchases and bypass them to buy mines directly. Afraid their monopoly business will be ruined, these trade associations have joined forces with mine owners from the Three Great Empires. Not only have they cut off the rare metals supply, they've also threatened to withdraw all their investments from Shrek City, draining the academy's treasury completely!"

By the time Qian Duoduo finished, his eyes had reddened.

These bloodsuckers normally threw their weight around outside under Shrek's banner, yet now, at this moment of life and death, they had turned around and seized Shrek by the throat!

"Got it."

After listening, Su Xian gave a disdainful snort. "Isn't this just a textbook case of comprador capital colluding with insiders, clinging to the academy's main artery and sucking its blood?"

"Honestly, if Shrek's leadership can't even handle these middlemen, what industrialization are you talking about? You might as well disband right here and now!" Su Xian mocked mercilessly.

Mu En sighed beside him and replied helplessly, "Teacher Su, we want to deal with these crooked merchants too! But the script stipulates that although Shrek is unrivaled in military strength, it can't simply send experts to confiscate the trade associations' assets and exterminate their families!"

"If we really did that, we'd be acting like bandits! What merchant in the world would dare come to Shrek to do business afterward? Wouldn't that be draining the pond to catch the fish?"

Mu En's words struck the heart of the matter.

Although strength reigned supreme on the Douluo Continent, Shrek did, after all, proclaim itself righteous. If it used force to rob the trade associations outright, its spotless reputation of ten thousand years would be ruined.

This was also where Shrek's leadership most feared smashing the vase while trying to strike the rat.

"Uncle Mu En, you do have some insight as an old village chief. You know not to kill the hen for her eggs."

Su Xian nodded approvingly:

"So, if we want to break this monopoly without using force and giving people ammunition against us, we have to use the knife of finance to slice off their flesh! And not just slice off their flesh-we have to make them obediently hand over their money themselves, then kneel on the ground and cry out in pain!"

"There's only one underlying reason the trade associations dare seize Shrek by the throat-they've calculated that Shrek's treasury is empty right now, and it absolutely cannot produce an enormous amount of cash in the short term to bypass them and deal directly with the mine owners!"

Su Xian raised one finger, striking straight at the crux. "So our first step in breaking this deadlock is to conjure something out of nothing and raise money!"

"How do we raise money?" Zhang Lexuan could not help asking.

"Issue Shrek Official Bonds! Or even directly issue 'paper currency'-absolutely guaranteed by Shrek's ten-thousand-year reputation!"

With that startling declaration, Su Xian hurled modern finance straight into the Douluo Continent's primitive financial desert.

"P-paper currency?" Qian Duoduo was dumbfounded. What was that supposed to be?

"Think about it. Aren't current trading methods far too backward?"

"Bulk transactions routinely involve hundreds of thousands or millions of gold coins. Even if you have those Storage Soul Tools, they're rare items, after all. Ordinary small and medium-sized merchants and the general public simply can't afford them! Tens of thousands of jin of gold coins aren't just cumbersome and extremely expensive to transport-they're also likely to attract robbers along the way, right?"

Everyone nodded instinctively.

Indeed, aside from major trade associations with high-grade Storage Soul Tools, ordinary merchants gambled with their lives whenever they transported money.

"Then what if Shrek Academy stepped forward at a time like this and established a 'Sea God Pavilion Central Bank'?"

"Shrek would announce to the entire continent: anyone who deposits their heavy Gold Soul Coins in the Sea God Pavilion bank will receive a 'banknote' bearing the Sea God Pavilion's exclusive anti-counterfeiting seal!"

"This banknote represents Shrek Academy's ten-thousand-year reputation! With it, you can exchange it for an equivalent amount of soul coins at any Shrek branch anywhere on the continent, at any time!"

"And that's not all! For large deposits, Shrek could also issue them 'bonds'! In other words, Shrek borrows their money and pays them a fixed, steady interest return every year!"

"Do you think that if something like this really existed, those small and medium-sized merchants, along with commoners and minor nobles who have spare money hidden at home but don't dare bring it out, would rush like mad to deposit their gold coins with Shrek?" Su Xian asked. "After all, is there a safer treasury with a better reputation than Shrek's Sea God Pavilion anywhere on the Douluo Continent?"

No answer was needed.

Because the answer was yes!

The unrivaled reputation Shrek had accumulated over ten thousand years was the hardest currency in this world!

If lightweight, secure "banknotes" and "bonds" that even earned interest really existed, the continent's entire lower and middle strata would absolutely trample the Sea God Pavilion's threshold flat!

"This is what you call getting something for nothing!"

Slapping his thigh, Su Xian delivered an imposing conclusion. "There's no need to rob anyone! Overnight, the idle gold coins in the hands of countless small and medium-sized merchants and commoners across the continent will surge into Shrek's treasury like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea!"

"With this astronomical cash flow gathering half the continent's wealth!"

Su Xian stretched out both hands and clenched them hard in midair. "Would Shrek still fucking need to bow to those few agent trade associations? You could take that enormous sum and throw it straight in the faces of those mine owners in the Three Great Empires! You could even buy out the extraction rights to entire mineral veins!"

"When that happens, those trade association alliances that dare seize you by the throat will become empty shells without a supply of goods! Shrek can twist them around however it pleases!"

Terrifying!

Simply too terrifying!

Trading paper for soul coins?!

Using Shrek's ten-thousand-year reputation as leverage to move the entire continent's wealth out of thin air and destroy the enemy's economic blockade!

What... what kind of devil could devise such a scheme to cut off an enemy's line completely?!

Moreover, Mu En saw further ahead than Qian Duoduo did.

If this system called a "central bank" and "banknotes" really were established.

Once everyone on the continent grew accustomed to using Shrek's paper currency for transactions... what Shrek held would no longer be merely military hegemony.

It would directly seize the economic throat of the entire Douluo Continent and control everyone's lifeblood!

This was ruling all under heaven without expending a single soldier!

Compared with financial methods like these, which could plunder the entire continent's wealth and toy with hostile trade associations in the palm of one's hand amid casual conversation.

Those old money-gathering methods Shrek had been so smug about, relying on offerings of Soul Bones and Gold Soul Coins.

They really fucking were... just a bunch of beggars begging on the street!