by <unknown>
However, in the peripheral worlds of the Imperium, the so-called "space pirates" were in fact just a synonym of "privateers". Most of the powerful, major pirate gangs were the troops of the warlords under a different skin.
As the free coin spread out among the pirate gangs, it immediately entered the eyesight of the local warlords and Sector Master at the edge of the Imperium.
The exploitation of the central worlds of the Imperium on the peripheral worlds was extremely cruel. The dump of goods and the price scissors were almost killing the local dominators. But as it happened, their entire economic system in the past was based on the crystal coins of the Imperium. It was impossible for them to hide anything to themselves.
The appearance of the free coin gave hope to the local dominators. Under their intentional indulgence and even encouragement, the free coin soon became one of the most important trade methods on the black markets in the periphery of the Imperium. Also, it was given new credit that was guaranteed by the local dominators with their guns.
Even so, the newly born free coin was still like a baby in the cradle that was vulnerable and helpless and could be suffocated easily.
However, a serious economic crisis took place in the Imperium a hundred years ago.
A hundred years ago, the Imperium suffered an unprecedented failure in the frontline. The Black Wind Fleet, known as the strongest border defense army, was crushed. Five highly militarized, heavy industrial worlds were lost to the Covenant Alliance, whose army was ready to march toward the heartland of the Imperium.
For a moment, all kinds of rumors were spreading out. Everybody was panicking, as if the world would end soon.
But as it happened, the Black Wind Fleet did not stop there. Knowing that the court would not let go of them after the failure, they simply gathered the defeated soldiers and wandered about in the heartland of the Imperium, shouting that they would correct their mistake by conquering the desolate worlds at the edge of the Imperium. But of course, they could not embark on their expedition with a hungry belly, and the court had to pay them a large sum of compensation and military budget.
Judging from the shameless behavior of the scoundrels, it was obvious that they would surrender to the Covenant Alliance and let everybody die with them.
The emperor at that time was rather weak, and the four families were not united. In the end, they agreed to Black Wind Fleet's blackmail despite their anger, paying a huge amount of money to appease the crushed soldiers.
As it turned out, the crushed soldiers left with the tremendous fees, only to be killed by the Star Glory Federation at the edge of the cosmos a hundred years later.
That was the other part of the story. Focusing on the time of the failure, it was "Marquess Liaohai" Lei Chenghu who stood out and saved the sky, preventing the attacks of the aggressive Covenant Alliance. However, the Imperium suffered a major setback again. The military expenses and compensations were all astronomical. There was also the chain reaction on the financial market due to the loss of five Sectors. It would be a miracle if an economic crisis didn't take place!
The economic crisis led to the collapse of the cabinet of "Silver Fox" Li Jiande, who was the Prime Minister of the Imperium at that time. It also disrupted the last bit of the credit of the crystal coins of the Imperium.
Now, the free coin's credit was approximately zero, but it had a stable value and could be freely traded without being monitored.
The crystal coin's credit, on the other hand, was also close to zero, but it could crazily depreciate at any moment, and every procedure of the trade was tightly monitored.
Even an idiot would know which one to choose!
Merchants always had the keenest senses when it came to money.
Right when the Black Wind Fleet was crushed in the frontline, the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, which had been secretly developing, had already foreseen the upcoming economic crisis. Don't forget that Di Feiwen, the deputy commander of the Black Wind Fleet, worked for the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors too. The Black Wind Fleet's blackmail might've been related to the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors, too.
Through Di Feiwen and other people, the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors helped the Black Wind Fleet to blackmail the court, partly boosting the outbreak of the economic crisis. On the other hand, it wagered on the chips it had on the free coin!
Chapter 2516: Internet of Planets |
While the most prosperous worlds of the Imperium of True Human Beings were devoted to the meaningless attritions such as power struggles and coups, the seemingly insignificant and harmless Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors rose quietly in the remote lands at the edge of the Imperium.
The situation in the Pangu universe at this moment was entirely different from a hundred thousand years ago.
During the first hundred thousand years after the birth of mankind, every Sector basically met the conditions of self-sufficiency. Every habitable planet boasted enough water, air, minerals, and a steady ecological system. Even without trades with the outside world, it could still maintain an internal circulation of the minimal degree.
However, since the end of the ancient Cultivators, from the war that consumed the three thousand Sectors, to the rise and decline of demons, going down to the "Armageddon Rebellion" fought between the Supreme Emperor and the Blood God. The fire of war never truly died out in the Pangu universe.
The self-circulating systems in many worlds were destroyed in the wars. The atmosphere was gone, the mines were emptied, the water was contaminated, and the docile, mild animals turned into ferocious demon beasts.
It was needless to say that technological progress enabled people to conquer the resource planets that were previously unconquerable. In the places absolutely unsuitable for the survival of mankind, massive settlements that could accommodate millions of people had been established.
The result was that at the edge of the Imperium where the resources were limited, most of the habitable planets lost the ability of total self-sufficiency, if they had the ability in the first place at all. They had to count on the busy interstellar trades to bring them the resources necessary for their survival.
Therefore, the importance of interstellar trades couldn't have been more highlighted. Many specialists had even pointed out that the future was not just an age of the Spiritual Nexus but also an age of the logistics network and an age of the "Internet of Planets". Whoever controlled the trades among the habitable planets would be controlling the whole universe!
In the traditional, prosperous areas of the Imperium, the trade routes were dominated by the four families and the merchants affiliated to them.
However, to build a complete logistics system from scratch in a barren, remote, and unprofitable worlds at the edge of the Imperium and to develop the local market until it was profitable, it required tremendous time and effort.
The four families who had been used to earning extraneous profits through monopolization and taxes were too lazy to deal with the hicks and bumpkins of the peripheral worlds. Therefore, the local trade groups and logistics sects grew wildly on their own. After developing for hundreds of years, they weaved a web of trade, logistics, and finance that seemed unattractive but was in fact impenetrable. Later, the loose forces gathered together and surfaced as "Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors".
The peripheral worlds of the Imperium were a chaotic, lawless area. Space pirates, merchants, privateers, and regular armies were totally the same thing. Having fought a way out in such a bloody jungle, the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors naturally boasted the most audacious sailors and captains, the most sleazy businessmen, and the most brutal space pirates.
They monopolized the business routes that were like capillary vessels. They could bring incessant resources and talents to a planet, allowing the planet to rise and thrive quickly. They could also turn into space pirates and completely block a planet's sailing routes to the outside world, forcing
the planet to submit to them obediently.
Other than anything else, as long as the warships under the command of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors could blow up all the spiritual towers and the remote communication bases around a planet, casting the planet into a network blackout, it would be enough for the civilization on the planet to degenerate for decades in one year.
With such capabilities, the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors was naturally unwilling to wander around only at the edge of the Imperium as the supplier of the hicks and bumpkins.
Besides, the leader of the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors also knew very clearly that in the eyes of the powerful nobles of the Imperium, the merchants such as them were just pigs to be butchered. The fatter they were, the sooner it would be for them to be sent to the slaughterhouse.
In the past, the four families hadn't seen the profits in the trades at the edge of the Imperium, and therefore, they turned a blind eye to them. Now that they had developed the market through all the hard work and it was profitable, would the four families be Immortal Cultivators at all if they did not come and pick the fruits?
It was better to attack than to be attacked. The Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors that was born before long realized intuitively that it had to fight the "old Immortal Cultivators", namely the powerful lords and magnates at the center of the cosmos, who exploited the ordinary people crudely and violently through the traditional and nontechnical approaches, until only one party stood!
The free coin was exactly the sharpest weapon that they had chosen.
They were about to launch a war, one that was not fought with crystal suits, starships, and Colossi but through money with no blood shed. It was a war of currencies!
Taking advantage of the enormous military pressure from the Covenant Alliance and the virulent inflation in the Imperium, the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors secretly began the monetization of the free coin in the peripheral worlds of the Imperium.
At first, naturally, nobody viewed the free coin as real money. However inflated, the crystal coin of the Imperium was the "real money" after all. The regime in the Imperium hadn't been changed yet. Who on earth would trade for those worthless free coins with real money?
Naturally, the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors could not force the peripheral worlds to use the free coin, nor did they think to replace the crystal coin with the free coin in the very beginning. They merely stipulated that the stores under their name accepted both currencies, but there was a certain discount if the trade was conducted through the free coin. Also, the most demanded goods would be supplied to the buyers who used the free coin first.
Such a measure finally kicked off the process of monetization.
But the real effective moves were sales on account and microcredit.
The Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors was best at making profits in the long run. The "South Spirit Planet", Huo Dongling's hometown, was the perfect example.
First of all, they purchased the planets with the potential for preliminary development using their tremendous wealth and connections. Then, by half selling and half offering, they attracted many colonizers to settle on such planets. When the settlements were well-built and the colonizers had devoted their everything, regarding the planets as their new homes with no turning back, they would earn the money back through all kinds of consumables.
In order to develop those "egg-laying hens", the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors provided technical support, microcredit, and even magical equipment on account for the colonizers during the process with enticing conditions, but they did have one requirement, which was that the loans must be paid off with the free coin in the future.
Paying the loans with the free coin would enjoy a discount on the interest rate, while paying the loans with the crystal coin would be charged with a punitive transfer fee. Of course, the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors solemnly promised the stability of the value of the free coin, making sure that its exchange rate with the crystal coin would not change much.
During the period when the crystal coin was most devalued, the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors even associated the free coin with compressed air, water cleaning pills, synthetic food, and other indispensable assets, stating that one free coin could be exchanged for a designated amount of water and food. It was then known as "air coin", "water coin", and even "meat can coin".
"Meat can coin" was such a rustic name that the erudite economists of the Imperium who knew all the theories would be laughing aloud if they heard it.
However, for the uneducated common folks at the edge of the Imperium, it was an appropriate, readily understandable name. The free coin was the real money that could be exchanged for air, water, and meat cans, bringing the hope of survival!
Such measures earned the first batch of real users and believers of the free coin besides the space pirates. It also empowered the free coin with real credit.
Ever since then, the free coin had been rising and snowballing unstoppably. By the time the Imperium finally caught its breath from the economic crisis caused by the failure of the Black Wind Fleet, the free coin was already spreading out at the edge of the Imperium like a wildfire and couldn't be extinguished at all.
Besides, even though the economic crisis had passed, the war between the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance wasn't over yet. In the first fifty years, the army had been engaged in active defense under the leadership of Lei Chenghu, but in the second fifty years, they were gritting their teeth preparing for a battle of revenge. As the war machine fulminated, the unnecessary taxes were soaring too.
When the central government intended to levy one dollar of special war tax, the bottom-level branches were bold enough to collect twenty dollars, from the hominoids and the low-level Immortal Cultivators alike. In such days, it was impossible for ordinary people to live well or for the low-level Immortal Cultivators to complete their primitive accumulation for advancement without tax evasion. The only possible means of tax evasion was to use the free coin.
The plethora of taxes was the most incredible assist for the free coin. It was almost like pouring fuel on the fire.
Naturally, it was impossible to entirely abandon the crystal coin. Most of the deals in real life had to be conducted through the legal tender. However, the crucial, clandestine deals became the fields that the free coin infiltrated and corrupted.
For a hundred years, the free coin was like a "kindhearted plague" that most of the people and the low-level Cultivators would like to see, corroding the body of the Imperium. At first, it was only spreading on a small scale at the edge of the Imperium. Then, it gradually went deep into the traditional central areas of the Imperium. In the end, even a lot of Immortal Cultivators within the four Kurfürst families began to use the free coin in secret. Could there be any Immortal Cultivator who never killed other people and looted their belongings? Could they trade with the crystal coin when they sold the items on the black market? They would be asking to be caught by doing so!
Trading with the free coin wouldn't leave any trace behind when they were robbing other people of their treasures, working as assassins or bounty hunters, or secretly purchasing tremendous resources preparing to kill the nemesis in the family after successfully advancing into a new level. It couldn't have been more convenient!
Chapter 2517: The Utterly Incompatible Belief! |
Just like that, the free coin gradually finished the process of monetization after a hundred years. It was on par with the crystal coin of the Imperium in many fields, if not above it.
That was why the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors was capable of supporting the reformists in their cry for reform and sending tremendous capitals to the central worlds right under the nose of the four families, and the four families could do nothing about it.
On the surface, it was the competition between the reformists and the four families, but actually, it was the competiti
on between the free coin and the crystal coin. That was the mainline of the splendid battles in the past hundred years.
Of course, the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors would never confess everything dutifully. The conclusions above were come up with by gathering the broken information including the theories of Di Feiwen who used to be the deputy commander of the Black Wind Fleet, Li Yao's communication with Jin Yuyan who was the director of the magical equipment in the past, Queen Li Linghai's public declarations, Boss Bai's deep understanding about the space pirates of the Imperium, as well as Xiaoming, Wenwen, and the Fist King's understanding about the free coin.
It was safe to say that not a single person inside the Imperium except Li Yao could get the firsthand information in so many aspects, making it possible to figure out the general picture of everything.
The leadership of the four families might know that the free coin was scary, but they couldn't have known that it was that scary. People who overly worshipped violence would always underestimate the power of money.
Even Li Yao realized that he had been tricked after sorting everything through. Back then, Di Feiwen did not tell the truth to him at all. The man's claims, including that the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors was just a harmless organization of a bunch of small merchants at the edge of the Imperium who were struggling to survive, and that the Imperium had been exploiting and threatening them, were all bulls*it!
The Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors a hundred years ago had already monopolized the logistics and trade network in the peripheral worlds of the Imperium and won the support of the billions of people there. They were also preparing to launch a critical strike on the ruling class of the Imperium with the free coin.
The Black Wind Fleet's rampage at the central area of the Imperium after the debacle and their "expedition" after blackmailing abundant compensations had a lot to do with the Business Alliance of Ten Thousand Sectors too, because the organization at that time was in dire need of a new economic crisis!