"So, who do you think is pushing up the value of the Dir?" Madame Winona asked, unable to suppress her curiosity.
Charlotte paused, as if considering her wording, before speaking again a moment later. "Do you know how the Ivy Alliance operates internally?"
"I've heard that the Ivy Alliance is a relatively loose organization of city-states. Although the Fedi City-State is the leader of the alliance, the other city-states all govern themselves. Only when war breaks out do all city-states have to accept Fedi's conscription, dispatching Citizen-Soldiers to obey Fedi's command and participate in foreign wars." Madame Winona shared a bit of her understanding regarding the Ivy Alliance.
"That is basically correct," Charlotte nodded with a faint smile. "But you missed one point. During wartime, the member city-states of the Ivy Alliance not only have to accept Fedi's conscription, but they also must pay huge war taxes to Fedi every year. This sum often accounts for one-fifth, or even one-third, of a medium-sized city-state's annual revenue. Nominally, this money is used by Fedi to pay for war pensions, purchase war supplies and transcendent materials, repair fortifications, and build warships..."
"Logically speaking, the ones responsible for distributing war pensions, providing war supplies and transcendent materials, and building warships are also member city-states of the Ivy Alliance. So, logically, the huge war taxes they pay should flow back into the hands of all the residents of these city-states through these methods. Then, this money would return to the city-state's treasury through taxation, forming a relatively healthy wartime economic cycle."
"However, what is the reality?"
Passing by a magnificent manor, Charlotte raised her hand and pointed at it.
"That used to be the manor of the Capino family, the oldest powerful family in Ambratu. When I took over Ambratu, I only managed to scrape together 1.2 million Dir from the Ambratu City-State's public treasury. Yet, when my vassal, Mr. Jonathan Hackman, was disposing of illegal assets during his tenure as the Governor of Ambratu County, he found 400,000 Dir just in the basement of this manor alone. This was because the Capino family owned the best shipyard in Ambratu City-State, the largest mines, and two seats in the Senate. Facts have proven that whether it is money for war pensions or money for purchasing war supplies, it ultimately flows into the hands of city-state powerbrokers like the Capino family."
"Every year, the huge war taxes make the various city-states of the Ivy Alliance increasingly overburdened and impoverished, while simultaneously creating super-rich individuals with staggering net worths within these city-states. If it were just for a year or two, it would be fine. But the war in the Soqya region has continued intermittently for a full one hundred years. During this century, more and more Dir has flowed into the hands of these people. They hold power and influence in their respective city-states, pay almost no taxes, and find it difficult to consume the massive wealth they accumulate so quickly. Consequently, they bury all the Dir in their basements."
"The Fedi City-State generally only mints Dir on a large scale once every ten years. In other years, they only mint 300,000 Dir annually. Obviously, this speed of minting might not be a major issue in normal years, but over the last hundred years, it has gradually failed to keep up with the speed at which these powerbrokers bury wealth in their basements."
Charlotte finally spread her hands and said regretfully, "In fact, the circulating Dir on the Soqya Peninsula has long been insufficient. All I did was prick this bubble and expose the truth."
"So that's how it is..."
Although what Charlotte said was only very shallow macroeconomic knowledge, it still took Madame Winona some time to understand the meaning behind Charlotte's words.
Actually, Charlotte had been charitable with her words. As far as she knew, while the high-ranking officials of the Ivy Alliance's member city-states had certainly intercepted a large amount of war taxes, the most corrupt was actually Fedi itself. The Fedi City-State squandered the war taxes of the entire Ivy Alliance recklessly, building a magnificent Senate, churches, and divine statues, and purchasing various expensive luxury decorations and fine foods. It could be said that the dignitaries of Fedi were the true colossal embezzlers. Charlotte estimated that the personal wealth of every elder in the Fedi Senate could already rival the public treasury of a small-to-medium city-state.
I really don't know what the use is of them hoarding so much money without spending it, Charlotte couldn't help but want to roast them whenever she thought of these matters.
"So you think the price of Dir will keep rising?" Madame Winona asked curiously.
"Of course not. The Fedi people aren't fools. When they discover that there is truly too little currency on the market, they will naturally mint a large amount of currency and inject it into the market. The value of the Dir will fall sooner or later. However, the fluctuation between this rise and fall is enough for me to buy at least three city-states," Charlotte said.
"Buy city-states? This... how is that possible?" Madame Winona found it hard to comprehend.
"It might be impossible elsewhere, but in Soqya, it is entirely possible," Charlotte laughed disapprovingly. "What do these Soqya city-states have? Mercenaries, wine, wool, ore, pearls, coral... What do they lack? Grain. Therefore, trade and commerce are the lifeblood of the Soqya city-states. By choking this point, buying a city-state is completely possible. How about it? Madame Winona, are you interested in taking a share in this big business of mine?"
Charlotte issued the invitation once again at the end.
Madame Winona did not agree to Charlotte immediately; she indicated she needed to consider it further. Charlotte did not rush her. The family of the former Count of Mihevantin had money in their pockets—lots of money. For a major financier, Charlotte had at least this much patience.
Next, Charlotte received Palacio, the President of the Ore Chamber of Commerce who had just returned from the Lesalei Kingdom, at the Administration Office in Ambratu.
"My Lord Viscount, my Ore Chamber of Commerce has not failed your trust. The acquisition of 150,000 Bito of grain has been fully completed. However, ships are limited; currently, only 80,000 Bito have been transported back, and another 70,000 Bito remain in the ports of the Lesalei Kingdom," Palacio reported to Charlotte.
"Well done," Charlotte praised, then asked, "Was your grain acquisition smooth this time?"
"Thanks to your blessings, it was very smooth. The price of grain this year is also relatively cheap," Palacio answered truthfully.
"Did you encounter any grain merchants from Soqya? Were there many?" Charlotte asked again.
Palacio didn't know why Charlotte asked this, but he recalled carefully before saying, "I met a few, but not many. The Soqya people don't seem to be in a rush to acquire grain this year."
This answer fit Charlotte's expectations perfectly. In previous years, before the summer grain of the Lesalei Kingdom had even been harvested, Soqya merchants would start gathering in the Lesalei Kingdom. But this year, the rise in the Dir's price had attracted too many people's attention. Even the grain merchants wanted to wait for the Dir's value to rise a bit more before acquiring grain, so they could exchange their Dir for more As (the currency of the Lesalei Kingdom). Thus, the action of acquiring summer grain was delayed.
Charlotte nodded, then smiled and said, "Since the summer grain is cheap this year, then I must ask the Ore Chamber of Commerce to go to the Lesalei Kingdom again and acquire some more summer grain for me."
"Acquire more?" Palacio blurted out, then immediately realized he had misspoken. He hurriedly explained, "It is not that the Ore Chamber of Commerce is unwilling to serve you, it is just that we are originally just a group of small merchants. Acquiring 150,000 Bito of grain has already emptied our family assets..."
Charlotte interrupted Palacio's plea of poverty. "Rest assured, I will provide the money for this acquisition. You just try to acquire as much grain as possible for me. Just come to me for reimbursement when you return."
Since Charlotte had already said this much, Palacio had no choice but to bow his head and assent.
Over the next few days, the value of the Dir on the Soqya Peninsula continued to rise. The exchange rate of Fuso to Dir in the Exchange House had already risen to 1:3.2, rapidly approaching the major milestone of one Fuso exchanging for three Dir. However, almost no one felt that this milestone was any sort of obstacle, because the exchange rate shouted by Dir merchants among the populace had long since broken through 3.0, reaching 2.9. Even 2.8 or 2.7 were common.
Corresponding to the increasingly high value of the Dir was the increasingly depressed market within many Soqya city-states. A 'Dir famine' was spreading southward across the peninsula. Dir could hardly be seen in the markets of some rural villages, and farmers were forced to enter an era of barter once again.
The noble elders of the Fedi City-State, who were busy regrouping, were also forced to pay attention to this situation. For the first time since the disastrous defeat at Bronze Pass, the Fedi Senate convened the elders to discuss a topic unrelated to war.
"Gentlemen, you must already know that Dir has become increasingly scarce recently. Many city-states have a serious shortage of coins in their markets. Their Senates have written petitions to us, requesting that we approve the minting of more Dir as soon as possible."
Agostino, the Chief Elder of Fedi, waved the stack of letters in his hand and briefly described the situation to the elders attending the meeting.
"If their currency is insufficient, let them mint their own coins. Why come to urge us to mint Dir?" an elder named Al McCutcheon said with a laugh.
This question, asked despite knowing the answer, immediately caused a wave of laughter.
The reason those city-states didn't mint their own currency was simply that it was useless even if they did. The only currency with universal credit on the Soqya Peninsula was the Dir. On this point, the Fedi people undoubtedly had the greatest sense of superiority.
"Elder McCutcheon," Cleon said with a frown, "We gathered here not to listen to your jokes. Our allies need our help, and you should not mock our allies on such a serious issue."
McCutcheon curled his lip. He hated Cleon's pretentious manner the most; he always felt there was a sense of falseness to Cleon's solemnity.
However, just as McCutcheon wanted to retort to Cleon, Agostino spoke again. "Correct. The issue we are to discuss today is whether we need to permit the large-scale minting of Dir. Let us discuss a conclusion as soon as possible. City-state affairs are numerous right now; do not waste too much time on such unimportant questions."
"I don't think it's necessary. It has been eight years since the last large-scale minting of Dir. In another two years, it will be the year for large-scale minting again. Why do it two years early?" an opposing elder said.
"Indeed," someone agreed. "Every time there is a large-scale minting of Dir, some city-states always stir up a lot of trouble. We are in a troubled time right now; why add another major event?"
Although the Dir was issued by Fedi, many Dirs were actually not minted by Fedi, because most of the easily minable mineral deposits near Fedi had already been exhausted. Therefore, whenever the decennial large-scale Dir minting day arrived, the Fedi Senate would allocate the required number of Dir to be minted to four member city-states of the Ivy Alliance with relatively strong economic power. These four city-states were Eliot, Sassinian, Erto, and Badan. Among them, the Erto City-State had already fallen into the hands of the Delmore people, so only three remained. The Fedi Senate needed to send elders to be responsible for supervision, counting, and acceptance of those Dirs.
For the pampered Fedi elders, this was undoubtedly tiring and hard work. They were all wealthy families and didn't need such opportunities to take the chance to embezzle that bit of money. Therefore, at the mention of large-scale Dir minting, some elders were not very willing to do this extra work.
"I think it is necessary," Cleon stood up and said. "Since our allies have such a need, we should give some response. The recent conscription matter has already made our alliance harbor great dissatisfaction toward us. There is no need to provoke them further over some unimportant trifles."
These words immediately garnered the agreement of many elders. Although Fedi had ultimately assembled over ten thousand Citizen-Soldiers, the entire process had been dragged out, and the quality of the Citizen-Soldiers who eventually answered the call was also quite poor; many were old, weak, sick, or disabled. This was enough to show the resistance of the other city-states of the Ivy Alliance toward Fedi's renewed conscription.
But McCutcheon still couldn't help but voice his doubts. "You make it sound simple. Large-scale minting of new coins requires at least five or six elders to be busy for a month. Nowadays, which elder doesn't have a pile of messes in their hands and isn't burnt out? Who has the time to be responsible for minting new coins?"
"We don't necessarily have to send elders," Cleon, having considered it thoroughly, immediately said. "We can send several prestigious old citizens divided into three teams to go to Eliot, Badan, and Sassinian to supervise the minting of new coins. It will be enough to have one elder responsible for overseeing the whole matter. These three city-states all have experience minting Dir many times; it is not necessary for elders to guide them on-site."
The Fedi elders debated for a while and finally took a vote. The result of the vote was in favor of the large-scale minting of Dir. The reason most people agreed was just as Cleon had said: the allies needed to be appeased.
As for the temporary shortage of Dir on the market, these elders didn't pay too much attention to it. Firstly, they rarely went out on the streets themselves. Secondly, the shortage of Dir was not yet very serious in Fedi. Thirdly, the Dir had been issued for so many years; when had a major problem ever occurred?
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