Chapter 688: The Paper Money Business

As time passed, everything developed in a positive direction.

Yun Hua also gradually took charge of part of the business; for the Central Heaven United Merchant Association, their daily work was not simple.

Either they conducted market research or sought more cooperation from merchants.

"Although the Heavenly Spirit Realm is the trade center, transferring resources through it is very convenient, but wanting to expand to an entire region is still quite difficult," Zhang Wang said.

Yun Hua nodded: "So the ground promotion model of the Great Sinful Sect is excellent."

"Not bad," Zhang Wang laughed: "They discovered business opportunities among loose cultivators and low-level cultivators, and through early massive investment of resources, expanding their own resources' influence without regard to cost, they have today monopolized the Youming Jie spiritual material market. Conversely, the original Dragon Void Cave and Central Heaven United Merchant Association have seen their market share dwindle, becoming their sole dominant entity. For us, naturally we cannot achieve that level."

"Why?"

"Because our resources are not scarce enough," Zhang Wang said: "This is also a basic theory within the industry. When your goods are sufficiently rare and you can keep up with supply, using this ground promotion model to expand influence to the extreme, money flows in like water. But if others also have your resources and can promote on a large scale, the final result can only be mutual undermining, a vicious cycle of price cuts."

Yun Hua suddenly realized: "So that's how it is."

Speaking, Zhang Wang took out a document and handed it to Yun Hua: "Look at these resources; which do you think is suitable for a ground promotion product?"

Yun Hua received the document and examined it carefully.

Suddenly, Yun Hua realized: "Isn't it not necessary that a good product be used for ground promotion to expand influence? The ground promotion model itself is meant to expand influence, so one must be able to reap sufficient profit after expanding influence, otherwise it's a loss."

Zhang Wang smiled satisfactorily: "It seems you've improved quite a bit."

"Thank you for the praise; I think, compared to goods, since ground promotion can expand influence so much, why not try using it to issue currency?"

"Issue currency?"

"Hmm, cultivators need to spend spiritual stones to buy things, but not all cultivators have large amounts of spiritual stones on hand. If we used anti-counterfeit paper notes as a substitute and promoted them via ground promotion, could we collect all the spiritual stones from loose cultivators?" Yun Hua spoke, eyes lighting up, thinking it a great idea!

Zhang Wang furrowed his brow and fell silent.

Seeing Zhang Wang silent for a while, Yun Hua asked: "Did I say something wrong?"

"It's not wrong, but if you follow your suggestion and use paper notes to replace spiritual stones, several problems would arise."

Zhang Wang smiled: "One, how to make cultivators trust the value of paper notes; two, how to implement anti-counterfeit technology for paper notes; three, under large-scale promotion, we need sufficient credibility and strength to backstop; four, how to convince those merchants."

Yun Hua frowned, deep in thought.

But after Zhang Wang finished speaking, he felt this matter could be tried by mentioning it to the superiors.

Without considering the initial investment, if the Central Heaven United Merchant Association truly issued paper notes to replace all cultivators' spiritual stones, their association would develop to unprecedented heights, possibly even rivaling those superpowers!

Of course, the Central Heaven United Merchant Association also has the strength to backstop, but this proposal is unlikely to pass, because aside from these, many people are watching the association's every move; any problem would require unknown effort to resolve.

While Yun Hua was deep in thought, Zhang Wang also sought out Steward Long and brought up the matter.

"'Oh? Issuing paper notes?' Steward Long laughed: 'You're quite imaginative.'"

Zhang Wang gave a wry smile: "If the Central Heaven United Merchant Association fully commits to this, what do you think the chances of success are?"

Steward Long shook his head: "There is no chance of success."

"'Why?'"

"'Because aside from our Central Heaven City merchant association, there are other merchant associations, and no one knows what they think. Moreover, once we gather enormous wealth, we will definitely be targeted.' Steward Long implied as much."

Zhang Wang nodded, not asking further.

However, from Steward Long's words we can infer that if the Central Heaven United Merchant Association fully commits, this could be accomplished, but due to differing circumstances across the Five Regions, even if it could be done, it shouldn't be.

"'Then what timing do you think would allow us to issue paper notes?'"

"'Unless we wait until we control the lifelines of the Five Regions, or until our influence permeates people's hearts, otherwise don't even think about it.' Steward Long laughed."

"'That's also true.'"

"'For ordinary dynasties, issuing currency is a means of controlling the economy. Likewise, to avoid many troubles, private minting of currency is a capital crime. But we are different; the cultivation world's powers are intertwined, and if we issue currency, someone will produce counterfeit notes to exchange for our spiritual stones, thereby siphoning off our spiritual stone reserves. If you produce paper notes, you cannot avoid giving money shops where cultivators exchange notes for spiritual stones; the problem lies in that exchange.' Steward Long said."

Zhang Wang also realized this point.

"Because if you want everyone to trust your paper notes, they must be redeemable for spiritual stones to be effective; otherwise they're just worthless paper."

"And when the Central Heaven United Merchant Association truly gives its all to this, if someone produces counterfeit notes to exchange for spiritual stones, it's fine if we can tell them apart; but if we can't, what then?"

"Even if all members of the Central Heaven United Merchant Association can distinguish real from fake notes, but as long as someone openly uses counterfeit notes to buy goods in the market, they cannot possibly monitor everywhere, thus causing a severe trust crisis."

"When no one trusts the paper notes anymore, wouldn't all their previous efforts be wasted?"

"In fact, Steward Long is not unaware that producing paper notes to attract cultivators and gather their spiritual stones would enrich oneself; the profits of this business are enormously terrifying."

"But precisely because of this, the higher the profit, the greater the danger of collapse; even if everyone in the Central Heaven United Merchant Association went all out, it could not be accomplished."

"To accomplish this, unless we win the support of the top powers in each region, plus the vigorous promotion and self-maintenance of sects everywhere, the involved allocation of authority and profit would be enough to give anyone a headache."

"That is also why this matter cannot be done."

"Without a strong, powerful voice to lead this, it's impossible for the upper echelons to obtain satisfactory results."

"Since the upper level gains no benefit, the lower level need not even be mentioned."