One Piece: A Guide for Ordinary Players

Ace eagerly replied, "Tell me how to light it."

Robert smiled and said, "I'm not really asking you to set fire to the island. Now that we've arrived at Sky Island..."

"It's time for Dressrosa to pay back the money!"

Chapter 35 Knowledge is Power

Dressrosa owes Skypiea a huge amount of money, so much that anyone with even a little economic common sense should be terrified.

The initial borrowers were the so-called high-speed air trade groups, which were the pirates who blocked the entrances of high-speed air routes to collect taxes.

Dressrosa appears to be very sincere, accepting physical delivery, using the Sky Island Ik as the settlement currency, and collateral being the tax revenue share from the rebuilt Dressrosa.

Before Robert and his team took over Dressrosa, it was a world-renowned tourist destination, and those in the underworld knew that Dressrosa's arms trade was a golden goose.

Therefore, when lending money, the Indian man thoughtfully and proactively stated that the collateral included not only the overt fiscal revenue but also all the underground transactions in Dressrosa.

In modern society, anyone with even a little anti-fraud education can guess that if the other party offers so many favorable conditions, they probably have no intention of repaying the money at all.

But pirates, let alone anti-fraud education, most of them haven't even received preschool education, and their only driving force is pure greed.

Faced with such a huge temptation, their choice was to eat it all.

As a result, Dressrosa borrowed more and more, and the debt soon exceeded the so-called High Speed ​​Airline Group's ability to bear it. These uncultured pirates soon learned what it meant to be the boss when you're in debt.

By the time they realized what was happening, all the money had already been transferred to the Sky Island nation and converted into supplies that were shipped to Dressrosa. They themselves were left without even enough money to live a normal life.

When asked to recover part of the debt ahead of schedule, Dressrosa only had one response: the repayment deadline stipulated in the contract has not yet arrived, and no payment will be made.

Furthermore, they are far inferior to Dressrosa in terms of military strength, and they cannot succeed in either violently collecting debts or threatening to cut off the supply of materials to the Sky Island.

So, under Dressrosa's direction, a trading group that had been dealing with the area thoughtfully offered advice—to transfer the debt burden to the Sky Island.

Dressrosa is still in the reconstruction and expansion phase. Now, let alone repaying the money, it even needs to borrow more. Since the High Speed ​​Airways Group can't squeeze out any money, why doesn't it borrow some from the countries in the Sky Island?

If the interest rate for borrowing from the Sky Island Nation is lower than the interest rate for lending to Dressrosa, wouldn't that be like getting something for nothing?

Pirates with no economic common sense were instantly blinded by a plan that seemed risk-free, cost-free, and could yield extremely high returns, and began borrowing money from the Sky Island nations.

Dressrosa essentially succeeded in using a shell company to carry out an economic invasion of the Sky Island. Soon, Dressrosa's own caravans began to travel to and from the Sky Island, conducting espionage activities.

One of the most important steps was to instill a crucial economic concept in the island nations: hiding debt among the people.

The returns on loans in Dressrosa are very tempting, but transportation between Sky Island and the Blue Sea Kingdom is too inconvenient. If the other party chooses to default on their debts, they don't even have the ability to actively collect the debts. Therefore, the officials of Sky Island were very cautious about lending money at first.

However, the High Speed ​​Airways Group made it clear that they were the ones who lent the money. While Dressrosa could default on the debt and never deal with Sky Island again, a group like the High Speed ​​Airways Group that made its living off Sky Island could not.

What truly made the rulers of the Sky Island lower their guard was a concept taught to them by the caravans: transferring the risk of debt to the common people.

Government bonds were created to extend debt to ordinary people. On the one hand, this allows for the precise harvesting of private wealth, and on the other hand, it avoids the risks caused by debtors' malicious refusal to repay.

In the eyes of these feudal officials on this floating island, they don't need to repay the money owed to the common people.

As for how not to repay, the caravans in Qinghai also offered a corresponding suggestion—over-issuance of currency.

The government borrows money from the people, who hand over their labor, but the bonds they receive are currency vouchers denominated in the Sky Island of Ik.

If the government over-issues currency, causing it to depreciate significantly when repayments are made, it's essentially equivalent to paying less money in terms of purchasing power.

No one explained this principle to them, and it was difficult for them to understand it on their own. However, once someone pointed it out, the officials of the various Sky Islands were enlightened.

Their previous methods of exploitation seem merciful under this economic logic.

What followed was a natural progression. Once everything was in place, Dresrosa experienced rapid development. In less than six months, it absorbed the entire high-speed air route group, along with the caravans that regularly operated on the air islands.

Even when the pirates from the High Speed ​​Airline Group were brought to the New World and joined Dressrosa, they still couldn't understand how they had gone from being the ones borrowing money to becoming employees of the debtor.

In reality, the currencies of the Sky Island countries have depreciated significantly. It is worth noting that the purchasing power of the Qinghai Beli is equivalent to that of the Japanese Yen in the real world. The exchange rate between Sky Island Ik and Beli is 1:10000, which means that 22 Sky Island Ik are only equivalent to 1 RMB.

On this basis, the countries of the Sky Island are still competing to over-print currency, because if you don't print money, other countries will, and in this situation, whoever doesn't print more will suffer a great loss.

The four major powers competed with each other, catching up and helping each other, and within six months, they pushed the inflation rate to over 1000%.

The people of the Sky Island discovered that they could indeed redeem the government bond vouchers they held, and that the government had plenty of money.

However, the market is sensitive. With more currency in circulation, prices rise rapidly, with food being the most typical example.

What used to be a stack of large amounts of Ik can now be bought with a sack of money. The Ik currency, made from special clouds, is so hard it's practically unusable even for wiping your butt.

When Robert issued the order to repay the debt to the Indian, the scene that truly brought the Sky Island economy to a standstill occurred.

The promise to use Sky Island Ik as the settlement currency initially reassured the Sky Islanders. After all, if Dressrosa returned a large amount of Beli to the Sky Islanders, they would only be able to buy things from caravans, which was far less secure than a currency in the hands of the Sky Islanders themselves.

But things are different now. The value of the Sky Island Ik has depreciated by more than ten times. This means that if the sky island Ik is used as currency for settlement, only one-tenth of the huge debts in Dressrosa during this period would need to be repaid!

When the first shipment of Sky Island Ik was transported to Sky Island through a portal and handed over to the four nations to demand early repayment of their debts, everyone was stunned.

Who needs this kind of currency that's worse than waste paper? Any country on the Sky Island could print as much of this as they wanted!

But Dressrosa doesn't care about any of that. They agreed to pay back the money with Ike. As long as we pay back the money, the deal will be done.

Sitting across from Robert was Gan Fall, who was covered in sweat. The old man was pale and looked like he was about to die, showing no sign of the joy that his old friend Robert was experiencing.

"Robert, for the sake of our past comrades-in-arms, please save the Kingdom of God!"

"it is good!"

Chapter 36 The Crime Lies with Me

Robert believes he has an absolute talent for being a bad guy. He orchestrated the miserable lives of the Sky Islanders, yet he now hypocritically presents himself as a savior.

Among the nations of the White Sea, the Kingdom of God actually suffered the least economic impact.

The most important point is that the Kingdom of Gods has a huge land called Apayado. Based on this, the Kingdom of Gods can basically be self-sufficient, and its dependence on trade is naturally lower than that of other countries.

In addition, it is the only country located in the White Sea, which is higher than the White Sea, and its unique geographical location means that it has less interaction with other Sky Islands.

Ancient dynasties that chose to close their borders to the outside world mostly had the advantage of self-sufficiency and vaguely sensed external threats, thus choosing this relatively extreme but cost-effective self-preservation strategy.

Most countries that choose to expand outwards are small countries with limited resources and harsh environments.

In places like this, let alone closing off the country, everyone would starve to death if they didn't go out and seize the spoils.

But even the most closed-off countries can't completely prevent trade.

Take the Kingdom of God for example. It had only been liberated from Enel's oppressive rule for less than two years. Even if the Shandians changed their minds quickly and began to accept developing their holy land with the Sky Islanders, they would still have to cut down trees and loosen the soil to clear the land first.

Slash-and-burn agriculture isn't as simple as just lighting a fire and planting crops. It involves digging up tree roots and stones, plowing and loosening the soil, and building fences and walls to defend against attacks from large creatures in the jungle—each step takes time.

This resulted in the Kingdom of God only producing a small portion of food after more than a year, relying mostly on imports.

As long as trade is opened up, it's impossible to only open up the trade of grain. Qinghai's fleet has plenty of novel items that can stimulate the consumption desires of the islanders.

As trade became established, the Sky Islanders grew accustomed to buying various practical items from caravans, and they began to feel the need for money.

At this point, Dressrosa's appropriate lending allows the Sky Islanders to calculate the value of their labor, such as mining island clouds and fishing for special fish in the White Sea. These labor loan vouchers can then be directly exchanged for goods from Qinghai merchant ships, which is practically a windfall.

At this point, whether or not the Kingdom of Gods will be coerced into over-issuing currency by the other three kingdoms is no longer up to them. Not to mention that the Shandians are extremely short-sighted, even the ruler, Gan Fall, is not a person with strategic vision.

While Robert was visiting old friends on the island, Gan Fall and his governing team were receiving the debt repayment delegation from Dressrosa.

These people were initially quite happy to hear that Dressrosa wanted to repay the money. After all, they were worried about having a large sum of money floating around all year round, and the Sky Islanders saw the other party's initiative to repay the money as a sign of good faith.

But when he saw the piles of Ikki stacked higher than mountains, the old man broke out in a cold sweat.

He even found it laughable, because according to their logic, the cost of simply transporting these worthless currencies from Qinghai to Baihai would far exceed the value of these currencies themselves.

The fact that the cost of repaying debts for people in Qinghai is higher than the debt itself sounds like a joke.

But it seems that people from Qinghai can take this kind of joke, while it's the people from the empty islands who really can't accept it!

-----------------

Robert did not reveal his relationship with Dressrosa, only saying that he was doing well in the Blue Sea, having obtained Enel's power to control lightning after defeating him, and that he had recently come to visit his old friends on a merchant ship from the Blue Sea.

Elsa, a little Shandian girl who had met Robert on the Going Merry, was very excited to see him and introduced him to everyone.

After defeating Enel, Luffy and his crew, as liberators, searched for Robert in the Land of God for many days. Everyone knew that Robert was also a warrior who had contributed greatly to defeating Enel, and they were overjoyed to see him this time, even wanting to hold a banquet to entertain him.

Robert was singing and dancing with everyone, seemingly completely unconcerned about Gan Fall's situation.

In Robert's mental perception, the old man remained rooted to the spot after seeing the repayment, barely listening to the Dressrosa representative's explanation of the accounts.

The civil service of the Kingdom of God is in complete chaos. Even the slowest person should have realized by now that settling previous debts with the current currency value is simply outrageous.

The people of Dressrosa also looked helpless, saying that they originally had no money, but recently, due to difficulties in purchasing grain, they happened to have some spare funds, which they used to exchange for the Sky Island Ik to pay off their debts.

The debt was initially settled through the High Speed ​​Airways Group, but what the Sky Islanders didn't know was that the High Speed ​​Airways Group and Dressrosa were now one family, colluding with each other and leaving the Sky Islanders speechless with a written contract.

Gan Fall's good-natured nature kicked in again, and he waved his hand to let the repayment team in Dressrosa leave, kindly saying that it wasn't their fault.

In his mind, this was all a matter of timing and fate. The loan agreement he signed was entirely in his favor, and now the amount being repaid far exceeded the loan amount.

The devaluation of currency cannot be blamed on the Sky Islanders. They don't even know what devaluation means; they only know that Sky Island Ik is becoming less and less valuable.

As for their excessive money printing, these bumpkins don't even think there's anything wrong with it. Isn't it only natural to print money when there's no money?

Once all the people from Qinghai had left, the officials of the Kingdom of God hurriedly and anxiously surrounded Gan Fall:

"Sir, what should we do?!"

"What we gave to the people of Qinghai was all real and tangible. Our initial promise to everyone was that they would provide the labor, collect the materials, and produce them, and after the people of Qinghai repaid the loan, we would give them double the money. But now!"

Everyone felt a chill run down their spine when they thought about the pile of waste paper next to them.

Of course, they could distribute the money as agreed, just like in Dressrosa, and then it would depend on whether the people rebelled!

Gan Fall felt like he had aged ten years in an instant: "You all go back first. I'll take responsibility for this. As soon as it's light, I'll gather everyone together to apologize!"

The Kingdom of God has just experienced a great war, the cause of which was that Gan Fall insisted on distributing food to neighboring countries.

Having just driven away the ungrateful wolves, this happened right afterward, and Gan Fall's confidence plummeted.

He was doing good deeds without any selfish motives, all for the sake of improving people's lives, but the more he did, the more mistakes he made.

He had even planned to end his life tomorrow when he apologized to everyone.

There was a knock on the door. Gan Fall thought it was one of his trusted aides who had forgotten something and had returned, so he straightened up and said, "Come in!"

Robert pushed open the door and entered: "I heard you've run into some trouble."

Gan Fall forced a smile: "After defeating Enel, Luffy and the others searched for you for a long time. They would be very happy to know that you are alright. Anyway, welcome back, friend."

Seeing that he didn't respond, Robert smiled and looked at the mountain of floating islands, Ik, beside him: "I'm doing pretty well in Qinghai, and the country of Dressrosa has also benefited from my kindness. Are you sure you don't need my help?"