Chapter 2359

Xia Duo had long anticipated the questions from Xiwate, or rather, from all the Elders; he just hadn't expected the Elders to be able to hold back until now to ask.

This showed the Elders' trust in him, yet it was not to the point of blindness, and Xia Duo felt quite satisfied with this.

"Elder Xiwate, the question you ask is, in my view, actually quite easy to answer."

As he spoke, Xia Duo used Spellcasting to conjure a Projection of a scene of wasteland, and pointing at the Projection, he continued to explain: "Elder, please look, this is currently a piece of wasteland."

"Suppose there is a pair of Elf spouses who have just acquired this land; how do you think they would manage it?"

"Clearing the land, planting?" Xiwate answered subconsciously.

"That works."

Xia Duo nodded. "Clearing and planting is certainly one way of management. Let me use clearing and planting as an example. Suppose they are currently penniless; would they need to first find a way to borrow a sum of money to start this business project?"

"Although I don't quite understand being penniless while having land, there is no problem with putting it that way."

"Very well, let us continue. This pair of Elf spouses finds a way to borrow a sum of money. They use a portion to purchase various living supplies for the coming year, including food, and only invest the remainder into this land, starting from clearing and leveling the land, all the way to planting moon wheat, until that money is completely spent."

"If it is completely spent, it means they didn't borrow much money, and the total harvest from this piece of land will likely only be enough to pay off the debt."

"The Elder is correct. The reason I only set up such a piece of land is precisely because it corresponds to the level where, under primitive planting conditions, planting moon wheat is only enough for the couple to sustain their lives."

"Then what should be done?" Xiwate asked curiously.

"This question, Elder, you have actually already answered a part of it—the money they borrowed was too little, only enough to develop this batch of land."

As Xia Duo spoke, he expanded the land in the Projection tenfold. "Elder, please look. Now they have borrowed more money and bought more land, but because their own consumption is fixed, the surplus moon wheat income will be nine times what it was before."

"Although the money to be repaid is more, the repayment period is not much longer than before, even including the land costs."

"I think I understand. As long as the overdrawn money is used for production, there is no need to worry about not being able to pay it back in the future, is that it?"

"More or less, but it goes far beyond that."

Xia Duo continued to change the Projection, creating a small village next to the Elf couple's farm, then pointed at the Projection and asked Xiwate: "What if the food produced by this couple cannot be sold?"

Upon hearing this, Xiwate was stunned. "That's right, what if the food cannot be sold? Wouldn't such an overdraft be self-destruction?"

"For an individual, this might be a high-risk investment that is difficult to choose, but for a tribe or a nation, it is not difficult to make the trade-off."

Subsequently, Xia Duo projected more villages, towns, and more Elf couples around this small village. "As long as planning is done in advance and the output of each production unit is fully coordinated, there will be no situation where they cannot sell to each other."

"Let me think!"

Xiwate seemed to have discovered a new world; he muttered to himself, and his fingers began to gesture, but unlike ordinary gesturing, it carried faint, mysterious Magic Aura.

Xia Duo just watched him think slowly. It is unknown how much time passed when Xiwate suddenly shouted, "I understand, I understand everything!"

"What does the Elder understand?"

"According to the model shown by the leader, the final result is that the wealth of all individuals in society continuously increases!"

Xiwate, having said this, seemed to have discovered another blind spot. "The wealth of all individuals continuously increases? How is this possible?"

Because in his simple cognition, any society would have a distinction between rich and poor. Could it be that the wealth of the poor can also continuously increase? If so, would there still be poor people?

Xiwate could not figure out this question, no matter how he thought about it, so he turned the question to Xia Duo. "Leader, can you answer this question?"

"I can!"

Xia Duo gave an affirmative answer without hesitation, then further explained, "In the model I just demonstrated, there are no poor people, or rather, there are no poor people in the usual sense, because there is no currency at that time. Even if one is poor, it would only be poverty on a spiritual level."

"How is that possible?" Xiwate screamed, his eyes full of disbelief. "How can a world without poor people exist!"

Just as Xia Duo was about to explain, the other Elders could not help but jump out. It seemed that although they were not there just now, they had been monitoring the situation here through their own methods.

"Leader, unless money is constantly issued from above, how can there be no poor people? As long as there are differences between individuals in society, it will eventually be reflected in the amount of wealth. For example, smart people can obtain more through business, powerful people can directly plunder through war, and even the weak, as long as they find the right way, can obtain wealth far exceeding that of ordinary people through various means."

Seeing that several Elders were deeply interested in the world without poor people he had mentioned, Xia Duo felt a strange sense of being moved for some reason.

"Elders, this question is actually not that easy to answer, and I can only briefly introduce my own thoughts."

"Leader, do not have any concerns; we will try our best to understand."

"Hmm."

Xia Duo pondered for a while and gave the first explanation: "The reason there are poor people is that the value created by their labor is plundered by others."

"Plundered by others? How is it plundered?"

"Let's not even talk about Slaves; everything they have belongs to their masters, not to mention the value they create, which is also plundered by their masters for no reason."

Xia Duo was undoubtedly opposed to the Slave system, but his ability was limited, and his awareness was limited; he could not liberate all the Slaves outside his Territory.

"And poor people in the general sense, such as the Druids in Evereska or the Apprentices in the workshops, they also get wages for their labor, but is what they receive really more than what they create?"

"We can understand the Druids; the Elves owe them too much. But why are the Apprentices in the workshops also the plundered ones? If there were no workshops, where would they work, and where would they get the money to support their families?" The Elders were very puzzled by this.

"This is the cunning of the plunderers. This is not just one workshop, but a structural plunder of laborers by the entire society."

"Let us assume such a scenario: if the owner of a workshop suddenly disappeared, would this workshop continue to exist?"

"Of course, it is impossible."

The Elders answered almost in unison. "The owner of the workshop has disappeared; how could the workshop still exist?"

But after answering, one Elder gave a counterexample with some uncertainty: "I remember there were cases in Evereska where the workshop owner disappeared for several years, and the workshop could still continue to operate."