Chapter 587 — Intelligence Exchange and Deployment

The materials Gao Yang had copied out using his formidable memory were priceless treasures to every Cecil researcher — even the simple-minded Rebecca could recognize this beyond any doubt.

"The elves' rune technology is inherited from the ancient era. From the legacy left by the primordial elves they unearthed the arrangement and combination patterns of these runes, along with a vast body of knowledge concerning machinery, biology, mechanics, and the arcane. But they are missing the derivation process for all of these techniques, and they cannot recreate the special environment in which the primordial elves conducted their technical research. This has driven their technological development into a bottleneck in recent years," Gao You said slowly, explaining the problems the Silver Empire faced while Camille and the others stared fixedly at the technical documents. "The elves, like us humans, rely on the spiritual perception of extraordinary individuals to study magic. In the early stages this method of research is extremely efficient, because no tool is more comfortable to use than the innate talent one is born with. But in the later stages..."

"One must step out of the 'comfort zone,'" Camille said, lifting his head from those abstruse and complex runes, the two points of arcane light at his head fixed on Gao Yang. "Their rune arrangements are extraordinarily complex, and keeping a magic circle functioning normally under such complexity is truly no easy feat. They have already pushed the realm of experience to its limit — these rune arrays were likely summed up through a thousand years of groping trial and error... What a pity. Their outstanding magical talent has instead become a kind of limitation; it caused them to fail to realize in time that mathematical tools hold more potential than talent."

Camille's words were quite reasonable, but Gao Yu said that in recent years the elves had in fact already begun introducing mathematical tools into the field of magical research — that astromancer Velania had relied on calculation to derive some of the values of magical fluctuation. But clearly, the elves' exceptional magical talent still constrained their thinking in this regard.

Still, this was not the question to be discussed at the moment.

"Jenny, organize your people to translate these runes and look for optimization schemes," Gao Yang said, looking at the several experts in runic logic present. "Camille, Rebecca, the two of you work together to draft a testing plan. Try to simulate the operating environment of these runes in the Origin Laboratory as soon as possible."

Three voices answered at once: "Yes."

Then Gao Yang turned to Hedy: "How are things running in the domain?"

Hedy stood up: "Everything is developing steadily. I am closely monitoring the old nobles, in case anyone entertains ideas they shouldn't while you are away from the domain. The departments of agriculture, industry, and military industry are all running as usual. As for grain, the total across the whole territory has reached this year's planned target. Some of the new city regions in the west may face grain shortages in winter, so relief has already been arranged in advance... The first test maglev train line has been fully laid and will undergo live testing shortly..."

"Any news from the north?"

"The truce between the royal family and the Eastern Region still holds, but both sides are clearly making preparations to resume war at any time — Duchess Victoria has personally led the mountain legion into the Holy Spirit Plain, and the Eastern Region has reinforced its troops in the confrontation zone. However, the weather is turning colder now; before winter sets in, both sides should halt their reinforcements."

Gao Yang had been away from Cecil for nearly a month, and neither the situation within the duchy nor the internal situation in Anzu had deviated from his expectations, which let him breathe a little easier.

After confirming the domestic situation, Gao Yang turned his attention to Daniel and Mary.

He looked at the old mage: "What is the situation in Typhon?"

"Everything according to your plan," Daniel said respectfully. "I told those investors the methods for running factories, enclosing land, and controlling costs. No one can resist such enormous profits. In Aldernan and the large cities of the northern regions, investing in factories and establishing industry has become a frenzy pursued by the minor nobles and wealthy merchants — some citizens have even taken out large loans to invest and buy shares in those new factories and companies. Before leaving Aldernan, Emperor Luo Yan ordered the parliament to complete the paper currency reform as quickly as possible, to cope with the ever-growing scale of capital flows. That matter is now in the hands of Regent Duke Pei Yi Wendell, and it should begin very soon."

Gao Yan nodded: "Keep a close watch on every problem that arises during the paper currency reform. You may hand the relevant intelligence directly to Hedy."

"Yes, my lord."

Gao Yun let out a soft breath.

Paper currency... As long as the economy develops and the scale of commercial activity grows from small to large, the conversion from precious metal currency to paper currency is an unavoidable topic. Heavy gold and silver coins are inconvenient to carry and difficult to tally in bulk transactions; circulation, management, and storage all have inherent flaws. Paper currency is undoubtedly the best replacement for precious metal currency once the economy reaches a certain level of development. So as the Duchy of Cecil developed and commercial activity within its borders grew ever more frequent, issuing a paper currency naturally rose onto the agenda of the administrative council.

But replacing the gold and silver coins people had used for hundreds of years with a "piece of paper" bearing a number was not so easy.

People's habits were the first problem — they would not necessarily grow accustomed to buying things with "paper." Next came the question of trust in "paper currency": a populace long used to metal currency would naturally worry whether those "papers" bearing numbers could truly retain their value as gold and silver always had. Beyond that, the magistrates and clerks of the administrative council had to consider the order of market transactions during the currency transition, the flow and stability of merchants, the accidental losses and social unrest among the populace caused by unfamiliarity with paper currency, and the question of currency conversion in the duchy's foreign trade...

The first two problems could be slowly resolved through the administrative council's propaganda, promotion, and prestige; the latter problems had to be dealt with one by one, carefully and cautiously.

Gao Yang was not omniscient or omnipotent. In this field he was actually quite uncertain — he only knew the advantages of paper currency over metal currency, but he was not sure what problems would arise once the new currency was promoted.

Fortunately, Cecil could cross the river by feeling for Typhon's stones.

With Daniel's deliberate promotion and Typhon's own accumulated social foundations, the developed cities of Typhon led by Aldernan were entering the age of industry and capital at an astonishing pace. The minor nobles who had lost so much of their interests due to the empire's new policies saw hope of returning to glory and were throwing themselves into commerce almost madly — and this would undoubtedly push Luo Yan Augustus to reform the currency system.