Chapter 66: CH 65

She wasn’t aware of it either, but a smile tugged up on Reina’s lips.

‘Day in and day out, you guys either just kept doing crazy things or just kept fooling around, so I was wondering what the country’s future is gonna be like, but…’

Contrary to her expectations though, their reactions seemed to be positive.

‘In the end, leadership is leadership.’

Honestly, she was quite surprised.

“But at least the outflow of silver will be markedly reduced, and it will be more stable than it is now.”

Can you guess who said this remarkable point?

“You’re right, Paul.”

Him, yep.

To her utter surprise, it was that same Paul, who always seemed like he left his brain at home.

Genuinely shocked, Reina stared blankly at Paul.

‘So you don’t just play around all the time, my spiraea…’

Indeed, the children of the nine households would receive rigorous education ever since they’re young.

Well, there’s always the exception of Reina and Douglas, who both proudly walked down the path of the true idiot, but…

“Paper is easier to damage than silver, so countermeasures must be in place.”

“Yes, and paper is also much easier to forge.”

But even if you take all of those shortcomings, it’s true that this alternative policy is quite viable enough.”

As Reina was watching the discussion between these members of the nine households, she suddenly looked towards Lehman.

Just as she had expected, there was a cold, subdued expression on his face right now.

‘What are you thinking? You feel terrible because you’re being ignored, right?’

Or, he might be feeling majorly offended by the treatment he’s getting, wherein they look like they don’t care about him at this very moment.

Thanks to this, Reina’s frustrated inner feelings were completely unraveled, and it’s as if her garbled insides had transformed from a teeny tiny alleyway to a wide, refreshing open highway.

So, Reina stood up from her seat without any hesitation.

Then, her small palms hit the table as if she had just realized something.

“What?”

“You thought of something again?”

“You have another theory?”

Look at this presence she had now, so completely different from before.

As everyone’s eyes turned to her, they were all shining.

“Yep. I thought of something just now—convertible paper money.”

Everyone nodded, excited to hear more from Reina.

‘What the heck… These cuties.’

They looked like students who were concentrating real hard on what their teacher was about to say because they’d been promised to get hints in the upcoming test.

“To be honest, this is something for the far, far future, so, um… It might sound too unrealistic… But I also thought of inconvertible paper money.”

Well, not her. Actually Richard Nixon.

“Inconvertible paper money?”

“Yes, it’s a completely different concept from the standard system, so…”

When Reina stopped talking to look for a glass of water, Fran from across the table hurriedly handed her a glass.

‘Instead of acting like a stalker around him, should I have targeted him with economic knowledge instead?’

Who knew that he’d go as far as taking care of her like this here?

After taking a sip of water, Reina started speaking again, taking the volume of her voice up a notch.

“A system wherein money’s value is convertible to gold or silver.”

The shocking concept rendered everyone speechless, and they all looked up at Reina with a stunned face.

“What…?”

“…Is that even possible?”

Truthfully, Reina found it difficult to explain in detail how inconvertible paper money would work.

There were so many things to be explained, such as the integration of the global economy, the establishment of a key currency, the emergence of the empire as the world’s number one strongest power, and the key currency itself becoming a means to guarantee the value of other countries’ currencies.

So, she just threw the idea out roughly.

“What I mean is, the government is the entity that would guarantee the numerical value of its currency.”

“…And what goods or commodities will be exchanged for that currency’s value?”

“Nada.”

She could have expounded on her answer and allowed them to understand, but it’s complicated, so she gave up.

“Isn’t that something that hoodlums would do…?”

Maybe he’s really that confused, but Fran’s pupils started to quiver to the fullest.

“It’s just like saying… ‘Hey, my paper’s worth this much, so give me what I say it’s worth’…?”

Oh. That’s exactly right.

“Yeah, that’s why it’s practically impossible right now.”

Reina waved her hand languidly, as though to calm down the sprouting economic dream.

“But you know, if the Empire’s economy grows like crazy, if our trade with other countries becomes very active, and if our Empire dominates the global economy with unparalleled power… Dunno, maybe it can be possible by then.”

“…Ah.”

Fran and the others nodded.”

“Still though, it’s a bit… unscrupulous.”

“Yeah. Paper money is sort of like a post-dated cheque… Isn’t it no different than borrowing money and saying that you won’t pay it back?”

And this was the reason a historical phenomenon called the ‘Nixon Shock’ happened on Earth.

“That’s why I’m saying that the Empire should have a ridiculous amount of power before doing that.”

“……”

“And if that becomes reality, it’s not the act of a hoodlum anymore.”

In this system, a country that wants to establish its own currency as the key currency must eventually give up on the manufacturing industry.

If the domestic currency were to be circulated on a global basis, only then would it maintain its position as the key currency. And to do this, the home country would need to continuously purchase products from other countries.

So, thanks to trading and circulating the paper money with other countries, this currency would escape its convertibility to commodity (i.e. gold and silver), while at the same time, it would escape the notion that it’s an unconditionally wicked trading tool.

‘But I mean, this is a very out there kind of idea. It’s gonna take so long to explain.’

“Anyway, I only thought about it in passing, so I can’t describe it in detail. And there’s probably so many other things that need to be ironed out to supplement that idea alone.”

After all, the inconvertible paper money system was the result of a lot of trial and error.

In other words, it’s not going to work just by one person saying, ‘I’m gonna use the inconvertible paper money system from this day forth!’

It must go through the proper steps for it to work.

‘So, just don’t ask me any more questions. It’s hard for me to explain, too.’

Just in case anyone might catch her, Reina quickly rushed out of the dining hall right then.

t/n: never expected this novel to be so informative but omg im genuinely enjoying Reina’s impromptu lessons :0