Super Righteous Player
Chapter 880 - 417: The Storm of the Era

Chapter 880: Chapter 417: The Storm of the Era

The elderly Pope began slowly, "Noah’s rich in resources and has a favorable climate, which has led to many people from Winter and the United Kingdom seeking work in Noah.

"This has resulted in an abundance of labor in Noah... nearly every town has multiple factories."

"That’s the complete opposite of Winter."

Annan replied softly.

His Holiness the Fourth Glorious nodded, "Indeed, but Noah has its own unique set of problems... and that is freight transportation."

Due to the obstruction of the Mist, long-distance maritime shipping had become nearly impossible.

Even if ordinary people wouldn’t die immediately from the Mist, commodities prone to spoilage or decay, such as alcoholic beverages, textiles, and delicate metal products, would rapidly lose value in the Mist.

Only things like gems, gold and silver, and materials with magical properties could be transported normally through the Mist. And these items were almost universally possessed and didn’t necessitate long-distance sea transportation.

Thus, the only solution was subway cargo transport.

"The Noah royal family’s restriction on the subway usage by the common populace isn’t actually to limit the movement of illegal Transcendents and Ritualists. Everyone knows that such things cannot be completely controlled or blocked. No matter how stringent the checks, there’s always a possibility for some to slip through... And if just one gets through unnoticed, it can cause a tremendous disaster."

The Pope spoke gravely, "So, we’ve always tacitly assumed that ’each gathering place inevitably harbors illegal Transcendents and Ritualists.’

"The real reason for prohibiting ordinary citizens from using the subway... is actually because the subways passing through Noah are nearly all used for transporting goods. Even so, there are still a great deal of goods that are difficult to ship out."

Because the power holders in Noah were actually proxies for the nobility. These nobles, each managing their own factories... so this was indeed something they could achieve and were willing to do.

Hence, they directly legislated restrictions on the common people’s use of the subway, ingraining the notion that ’the subway is for transporting goods’ into their common sense.

"Even so, the scale of the factories in Noah continues to expand."

The Fourth Glorious said solemnly, "The number of factories keeps increasing, technology continues to improve, and local farmers, fishermen, and herdsmen are being gradually transformed into workers. This has led to a continuous increase in Noah’s production quantity..."

Annan nodded.

He understood the situation.

Many people hold a mistaken belief—that if the market ’currently needs five hundred units,’ they should only produce five hundred units. If one were only chasing demand, they wouldn’t even catch a northwest breeze.

The goods they were producing were actually in preparation for future demand. In other words, by the time the market starts to need five hundred units, it actually indicates a deficit of at least two thousand units.

And at this point, there arose a question:

—Why should only you make this money?

Others saw the opportunity too, and they weren’t fools. So there was competition... whether in price or quality, but overall, it was about dividing up this massive pie.

Those who developed well would start to absorb their competitors. They would produce more, better, and cheaper products, hire more skilled workers, and seize more market share.

Up to this point, there seemed to be no fundamental difference from the business development on Earth in the eighteenth or nineteenth century.

But the only difference lies in... due to the limitations of the Mist, they could not dump these products onto less developed countries, nor could they trade freely with more advanced nations.

—Because the number of subways was limited and entirely subject to the stipulations of the ’sages’ in the Underground City.

On Earth, if something was produced well and sold well, they could just build more ships and ship these items further away to earn foreign exchange. And the process of shipbuilding itself could also absorb some of the excess production capacity.

But this didn’t work on the land shrouded by Mist.

Because there were only so many subways.

Initially, they might have been sufficient, but as factories sprang up everywhere, there would always come a saturation point. When the people of Noah no longer needed these goods as much, the factories were still relentlessly competing, seizing ever-dwindling market slices.

Even if all subways were fully commandeered for cargo transport, with the continuous expansion of the factories and the gradual saturation of the market, there would always be a limit.

—Because they couldn’t sell.

Goods piled up, and silver coins turned into inventory in warehouses. Who could sell off first, who could earn money, had become a power struggle among the guarantors.

They didn’t even plan to lower the price of goods anymore, to wage a price war—reducing the price of similar goods would lead to further market saturation.

Their thinking was very simple.

— They were set on seizing the metro rights.

Whoever had higher rights would get more access to the metro system. They would transport the hoarded goods to cities where they could still be sold, to the Underground City and the United Kingdom...but each day only so much could be transported, and everyone else just had to wait.

Moreover, the Underground City and the United Kingdom were not some defeated nations.

They had their own industries and factories.

Although they didn’t reach the terrifying level of Noah, where "every settlement has multiple factories," there was no need to accept everything just because you brought goods over.

The main consumer market was still within Noah.

But unlike the concurrent economic crisis on Earth, they wouldn’t rapidly go bankrupt due to a break in the capital chain—because in Noah, private entrepreneurship was not encouraged.

To open a factory, you needed a "guarantor" behind you. Their families had a substantial foundation, which meant they wouldn’t die off anytime soon.

However, with nobody going bankrupt and everyone deadlocked—this would only exacerbate the issue.

"...I see."

Annan muttered.

He finally understood why the Eldest Princess, knowing well that Noah was impoverishing its resources for war, still refused to give up.

She probably realized early on—that only war, a war where Noah would emerge victorious, could digest these hoarded goods within Noah and turn them back into circulating currency.

This was not a wise choice.

But there was no turning back.

It seemed that Noah was in a much better state than Winter and the United Kingdom.

However, the crisis brewing within Noah was the most severe.

"So, do you plan to save them once?"

Annan pointed out the real meaning behind Radiance IV’s words: "To make them owe Pope Your Holiness a favor?"

The ten million Gold Coins, in reality, that could reach Annan’s hands was only a million every year. The rest would be converted into goods and transported from Frostwater Harbor to Winter by sea...and this also constituted support for their "restoration of maritime trade" policy.

If all went as expected, this would be the first major policy to appear before the public after the new king’s coronation.

The goods hoarded in Noah would be purchased by the Silver Baron Church and entered into Winter under the guise of a "donation" or "the transaction to set up a bank."

This would ease the problem of Winter’s scarcity of resources on one hand and relieve the impending crisis in Noah on the other. It made Annan owe him a favor while also making the nobles of Noah owe him one.

At the same time, the banking industry directly controlled by the Silver Baron Church could extend its influence to the Principality of Winter, achieving coverage of all the countries above ground... with this in place, the Silver Baron Church would have a reason to form an international financial institution, to control the exchange rates and tariffs of all member countries, bypassing those "middlemen" of the Underground City and promoting international trade.

This was beneficial for everyone.

But the Pope’s side could do so without giving up anything—the level of currency printing could even stimulate consumption in return.

Compared to this "ten million" investment, the position of a cardinal and the Fragments of Truth were mere favors he knew Annan would agree to.

It was to save some face for Annan—because even with just the ten million, Annan would certainly agree. Yet if it were only the Fragments of Truth, Annan might feel like he was being extorted.

—This Pope was truly talented.

Without a doubt, this unnamed "international financial institution" would probably emerge soon. The Silver Baron Church would use this organization as a springboard to become the first truly influential entity over all countries.

And with such preparations and such a significant headstart, he couldn’t possibly do nothing.

Annan became acutely aware of one thing.

The storm of the era... was coming.