Way of Overlord-Chapter 274: Tides of Time

But when he unify the entire Steppe, that is when the true power of the Steppe could be unleashed.

At that time, he would introduce a standardized currency system

Aeryon wanted to use paper money

But since the people of the Steppe is still used to the barter system, Aeryon formulated a plan of his own to encourage the use of paper money

Educate the people of the benefit. This is step one. To refine this, he would ask Mayeux to help him

And he knows that to suddenly introduce paper money would create a shock. So, Aeryon had written it down and though of using local currency tokens first

These could be small metal disc or carved wooden pieces and assign an agreed upon value to each token

For instance, one token might represent a certain quantity of grain, livestock, or other commonly traded goods.

Establish a central exchange points in key locations. These could be near water sources, crossroads, or tribal meeting places.

People can bring their goods to these points and exchange them for the local currency tokens.

Then he would do regular barter markets where people can bring their surplus goods. While at the same time Introducing the local currency tokens alongside bartering.

For example, someone trading a sheep might receive both grain and a few currency tokens.

At that time, there would be merchant guild, money lenders, and they can manage currency exchanges , loans and investment. And as people become accustomed to using currency tokens, he would introduce paper money.

And just like in his history, the paper money could be backed by a reserve of valuable goods (like gold or silver) held by the central authority...initially.

At this time, the golden words would be Standardization and Regulation

Set clear standard for local currency, define its denomination, symbols and security features and set out currency inspectors to ensure quality and prevent counterfeiting

This is only a few of the method he had think off and more would come later.

But all of this is strategy on paper unless Aeryon could conquer the whole Steppe.

Even if he could control the Southern Great Steppe, it is enough to start this reform.

But Southern Great Steppe alone is not enough to fulfil his ambition.

Economy is something that Aeryon is very concerned about. Yes, he could conquer the world on horseback.

And his plans did not change.

But he also knows the limit of force.

And he always reminded himself of this. To the Yan, the people of the Steppe is barbarians. And it is also the same to the many empires all around the Steppe.

He did not want to change this image. But, he also knows that if he succeeded in his conquest, the image needed to be change

Prosperous nations could educate its people, educating the people improve technology, technology leads to development, development lead to a better world for everyone.

This is an oversimplification of the world and its affairs.

Because unchecked development is not entirely good and inequality would breed if it is not regulated, and where greed knows no bound, the pursuit of benefit harms the world

But to a certain extent development does benefit the world and could benefit everyone. The wheels of history would move forward regardless and all he could do is try to grease that wheel so it could go faster.

"It is a pity that I could not implement all of it. I doubted that I could even implement all of the plans in my lifetime" he thought to himself.

But at least, he would try to improve the economy and at least kickstarted some kind of economy in his tribe and in the regions that he had conquered.

And the city is his masterpiece.

There is the road project, the bridges, but who could trump building a city freёnovelkiss.com

Not to mention, for the slaves all he must provide is food and that is already enough for them to even praise him as a good leader.

This is winning the hearts of the people. Yes, they are slave in the Steppe, but they could eat. In Yan, they are free, but they are starving and beaten

Those who are not starved, have to work every day. If they work every day, and they could enjoy the reward of their effort, then that is fine.

But seventy percent is given to the landlords and the noble aristocrat and then they also give to the officials and to the imperial court and they are left with nothing.

They are free in name but a slave in reality. The rich uses loyalty, etiquette, righteousness to restrict the people

It is easy to be civilized when all the food are in your storage.

These people that yelled loudly about righteousness is the same person who would rather let their grain rot than give it to the common people to stave off their hunger

To the nobles, the common peoples are slaves and untouchables.

Aeryon did matters differently. They are slaves. But they eat two meals a day. Meat and vegetables are given

Those who work harder , get more rewards. Those who is loyal and exemplary is freed and given responsibility.

Effort is rewarded, and diligent people is honoured.

A slave under Aeryon is better than free in Yan. That is the mentality that Aeryon wanted these Yan people to have.

And a slave under Aeryon could be freed. Aeryon did not do it casually but he is sowing the seed to change a bit of this world

Bit by bit is better than doing nothing.

Because some people could only starve in Yan but if they work they would get food.

That is why Aeryon felt that even if the system did not give him anything else, and just gives him the ability to get food, he could conquer the world

Food is the one thing that is needed by humans no matter the era. No food, and you die. No water, and you die.

At that time, gold means nothing

Aeryon has a lot of thought as he rides around the area. He is not rushing to enter the city. It is a wonderful feeling of seeing something being build.

He doesn’t know about anyone else but Aeryon feel a sense of accomplishment when he sees things are getting built like this.

Each day when he look at the city wall, he feel this feeling. It is like playing a city builder game and seeing your city is slowly taking shape.

That is the kind of feeling he have when he is supervising the city construction.

"It would not be bad to have more people. If wars between the tribe become more intense, those small and weak tribe could be persuaded to join my tribe" he thought to himself

Aeryon wanted more people to join his tribe. Whether that tribe could fight or not, Aeryon would find a use to them

If not military, economy.

If not economy, agriculture.

If you put wrong people at the wrong position, even if the ruler has ten thousand subject, he would not find anyone that he could use

Give the ruler ten thousand people and if the ruler could put each one at their right position, why would the monarch complain not having anyone to use?

Aeryon focused on the military because it is the factor that could bring his tribe out of weakness as fast as possible.

But now, that he has strength, power, and influence, he also need to balance it with other governance of a state.

Economic power would bring improvement into military sector.

"It is a pity in my tribe, no one could see as much as I could. And no one is richer than me in resources"

Aeryon did think of doing something akin of public private partnership where he would collaborate between the public and private sector.

But there is no such thing as a private sector in the Steppe.

There is the merchants that passe through Brolgadhr but none of them would invest in him right now.

But it is slowly changing.

Economy must be improved so that the people of the Steppe would not be chained by Yan people and the other empires that surrounded the Great Steppe

Yan tries to impose such thing to the people of the Great Steppe before. But, it is not like the people of the Great Steppe is an idiot.

The Yan might like to denigrate the people of the Great Steppe in their writings and like to underestimate the people of the Great Steppe, but that is their bias and not the reality.

Just like how in his world where the people of that certain nations always like to downplay the barbarians strength and ingeniousness while proclaiming themselves as civilized and invincible

What history prove is that there is no invincible civilization. And each civilization has good and bad points

There is the rise and fall and the rise and fall is sometimes out of the control of man. Natural disaster, geography, bad luck could always be the reason a civilization fall.

It is only the future politicians that likes to revise history based on their perceived understanding of an uncertain past.

Hence, there are cases where some emperors are blamed when sometimes the decline of civilization is rarely the responsibility of one person

Just as the rise of an empire does not depend on one person effort, so does the fall of one.

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