boyutpedia Chapter 219 The Rules of Aure Island
Chapter 219 The Rules of Aure Island
The Beasts Pirates' annual party starts on December 25th and continues until January 5th.
For a full 10 days, banquets, fireworks, and all sorts of celebrations never stopped.
The common people living in Wano Country, in the three villages near Onigashima—Kuri, Udon, and Hakumai—can clearly see the fireworks being set off from Onigashima, and faintly hear the celebratory laughter coming from the island, even across the sea.
Since the Beasts Pirates arrived in Wano Country.
Although the ruling class of Wano Country remained unchanged, the lives of the common people underwent tremendous changes.
The first to be affected were the newly established weapons factories and mining sites.
As per Kaido's request, Wano Country must provide them with at least 6000 qualified swords and 500 kilograms of processed seastone every month.
Of course, Kaido paid for all of these things, and he didn't try to lower the price; he paid according to the standard purchase price for high-quality swords on the high seas.
only……
The money Kaido gave him was definitely not the gold or silver currency of Wano Country, but rather the Beli, which is used throughout the entire sea.
For the people of Wano Country, these Berries are practically no different from waste paper.
Therefore, in order to provide a place for the Wano Country artisans who had obtained Berries to use them, Kaido, during the construction of Onigashima Castle, sent people to build a Beast Supermarket in each of the ports of Kuri, Udon, and Hakumai.
Beast Supermarket mainly sells food and some daily necessities imported from the outer seas, as well as some spoils of war that the Beast Pirates throw over to sell out of interest.
Kaido's move was unsurprisingly met with a cold reception.
After all, the extent of Wano Country's exclusionary attitude can be roughly understood by referring to Japan during Kaido's previous life when the country was closed off from the outside world.
Including Kozuki Sukiyaki, he was extremely vigilant against Kaido's shameless currency exchange methods.
They would rather constantly drain the national treasury to pay the workers' wages than stuff the Beli sent by Kaido into the warehouse as if it were worthless.
only……
Doing this is ultimately just a short-sighted solution; the Wano Country's treasury will eventually be emptied by him.
Moreover, Beast Supermarket does accept gold and silver currency from Wano Country.
Gold and silver are precious metals, and they are actually more widely recognized than Pele.
Furthermore, Wano Country is essentially a feudal system.
The shogun of Wano Country has direct control over the daimyo of each village, but not over the people of those villages.
The so-called vassal of my vassal is not my vassal.
Therefore, even if Kozuki Sukiyaki directly used gold and silver to exchange for Bailey and pay the factory's artisans' salaries, it would be impossible to completely draw funds from the Flower Capital's national treasury.
The bulk of the subsidy will go to the township where each factory is located.
Hazuki Kojiro, the second son of Udon daimyo Uzuki Tenfuro.
As the son of a daimyo, although he was the second son, he was essentially the eldest son because the person older than him was his sister.
Therefore, as the future heir to Udon, he is very worried about the current situation of Udon.
"Young Master Kojiro!"
A pageboy who had grown up with Hazuki Kojiro quickly ran to his side and whispered, "The daimyo has once again used treasury funds to pay the craftsmen's wages."
Kojiro gently raised his long, thin fingers. "Where are the banknotes those pirates sent over?"
"Just like before, it was stored in the warehouse by the Daimyo."
"This can't go on."
Kojiro tapped his fingers lightly on the table.
“If Father continues like this, all our savings will be gone.”
"That……"
The pageboy rolled his eyes. "Young master, why don't you try to persuade the lord to increase the lord's revenue by raising taxes?"
Kojiro gently shook his head. "This method won't work; it will incite public resentment..."
Kojiro thought for a moment and asked his page, "How's the matter I asked you to investigate last time coming along?"
The pageboy's eyes flickered, and he hesitated, clearly reluctant to tell Kojiro what he had discovered.
"explain!!"
Kojiro shouted sternly, knowing all too well his little servant's ulterior motives; he knew better than to try and get away with it.
Seeing that Kojiro's attitude was firm, the pageboy, not daring to disobey his master, had no choice but to tell Kojiro everything he had investigated.
"Regarding that supermarket, they mainly sell food, but besides that, they also have many, many other items that I've never seen before..."
After listening to the pageboy's account, Kojiro asked, "How much does grain cost at that Beast Supermarket?"
"The price is so cheap!!"
Having already said things he shouldn't have, the pageboy is now completely uninhibited.
He gestured wildly and said, "According to those pirates, their rice only sells for 62.5 Berries a pound!"
"But if we use silver here, it would take one tael of silver to buy one pound of rice!"
"Although this price is still unprecedentedly cheap, it is obvious that the price has increased when buying it with Wano Country's currency."
Upon hearing this, Kojiro fell into deep thought.
The currency of Wano Country is mainly composed of three precious metals: gold, silver, and copper.
Because Wano Country itself is rich in mineral resources, it has never lacked these three precious metals.
Therefore, the currency conversion in Wano Country is basically like this.
1 tael of gold = 50 taels of silver = 4000 copper coins.
Then, in the price agreed upon by the Wano Country Shogun Kozuki Sukiyaki, the various daimyo, and Kaido, the Beast Pirates' Beli were valued at the same level as copper coins.
That is, 1 bailey = 1 copper coin.
Based on this ratio, when using Bailey banknotes to buy rice at Beast Supermarket, 62.5 Baileys can buy 1 pound of rice.
However, if you were to use Wano Country copper coins, it would cost 80 copper coins to buy it, a price increase of 17.5 copper coins.
Although this price is more than half cheaper than the price of 185 copper coins for 1 pound of rice in Wano Country, the price using Berries is clearly more advantageous.
[PS: In the early Edo period of Japan, 1 shi (28 jin) of rice cost 65 taels of silver. Converted, each jin of rice was approximately 2.32 taels of silver. Using the exchange rate of 1 tael of silver = 80 copper coins, 1 jin of rice was equivalent to 185.7 copper coins.]
After careful consideration, Kojiro suddenly stood up.
"Come on, follow me to the warehouse!!"
"What are you doing in the warehouse, young master?"
"Use those banknotes called Baileys to buy rice at the Beast Supermarket!!"
"Huh?! Um..." the page hesitated and asked, "Won't the lord be angry?"
"If you're angry, then you're angry!!"
Kojiro bluntly stated, "Our Udon region is characterized by numerous mountains and limited arable land, resulting in insufficient food supplies."
“In the past, we were able to maintain a balance of income and expenditure by importing grain from other townships.”
“Now Father insists on using gold and silver to replace the Baileys that should have been distributed to the artisans, and we simply don’t have the money to import grain from other villages.”
"If we don't use those pirates' paper money to buy their food, what are we, the people of Udon, supposed to eat?!"