Chapter 84: LXXXIV. The End of the World
The Emperor’s favorite activity was to strip away the right to mint coins and declare the invalidity of such currency every time he conquered a place. The affected currency had to be exchanged into Aran Golden Dragons within a short period. Anyone still holding that currency after the designated time would face a bleak situation at the Northern Realm Elegance Seat.
There was still a vast room for devaluation with metal currency, and its anti-counterfeiting technology was even more preposterous than that of paper bills.
The Divine One-Eyed Brother, who accompanied the Emperor on a military expedition to the Royal Capital and kept a hundred thousand troops from collapsing in hunger for four days, was now not in the military. Instead, he served as the head of the Aran National Bank.
Aran’s authority, overly fierce and aggressive, manifested not just in military expansion but also in a highly dominant currency status.
When a nation’s total imports exceed its exports over a period, it faces devaluation of its currency and reduced purchasing power, a situation called a trade deficit. Conversely, a surplus denotes the opposite.
A trade surplus that’s too high is not desirable either, indicating an over-reliance on the foreign markets.
To address such financial risks and other considerations, it’s essential to have a large foreign currency reserve.
Despite universal detestation for Aran, it was the largest exporter and importer in the Western Continent, and, upon weighing all factors, held a dominant political and economic status.
All nations had to maintain a large reserve of Aran Golden Dragons in foreign exchange, which had become the norm in international settlements, even showing trends of evolving into a universal currency.
The economic ecosystem of Heaven Port, known as the "Pirate Republic," was severely twisted.
Because there were simply no local export goods, pawning off loot didn’t count, being illegal cross-border trade not accounted for by the state, meaning the trade deficit was virtually limitless.