Chapter 1522: Gold Standard

At this moment, in Britain, inside Buckingham Palace.

The Upper House of Britain is also located here, and George III sits in the seat of honor.

The others take their seats in order.

The Councilors are mostly British Nobles; they are dressed appropriately, with a noble demeanor.

The conference hall seems to shine with gold and jade because of their arrival.

But there is one exception: sitting below the Financial Minister is a creature in rags, with hair so long they could be called a primitive savage.

In stark contrast to these bright and beautiful Councilors, everything about their existence seems completely out of place.

Initially, these Councilors ignore their existence.

They believe that their noble status as Councilors has always been a symbol of nobility, and sitting with such a fellow is simply an insult to them.

But they have no choice but to accept this fact.

Because this person's uniqueness makes it necessary for them to sit together.

The looks they cast at them carry a hint of pity.

Yet, this person's face looks as bitter as if they had eaten a bitter melon.

George III looks at the Councilors who arrived today and begins the meeting agenda; he speaks first, asking: "Regarding the formation of the Dreadnought-class fleet, Navy Commander, how is the preparation going?"

The Navy Commander who is asked raises an eyebrow on their old face, lets out a cold snort, and says indifferently: "That must be asked of those ministers in the Ministry of Finance."

"Why hasn't it been finalized yet? Haven't they from the Dragon Flame Nation already come to negotiate with us about the Giant Steam Engine?"

Hearing this, George III's gaze falls upon the Financial Minister, and he asks: "Financial Minister, what is going on?"

"The Dreadnought-class Battleship is the number one priority for our Britain right now."

"This directly concerns our struggle for hegemony on the seas!"

"Don't forget, the Longyan Fleet is far more powerful than ours right now."

Once these words are spoken, the expressions of everyone in the room turn ugly.

Although the British fleet has not clashed head-on with the Longyan Fleet, they have witnessed it countless times.

How the French fleet was utterly vulnerable before the Longyan Fleet.

Britain, which prides itself on being the maritime hegemon, feels a bit terrified after seeing this scene.

Battles between warships are often just the simplest comparison of technological levels.

Britain considers itself to have fleet cannons no weaker than the Longyan military.

But as for the core of the warship, the Giant Steam Engine, ever since they witnessed the speed of the Longyan Supply Ship, they no longer dare to claim to be the world's number one.

Although they do not know what the tonnage of the supply ship is, they have all seen that thing.

With that volume, the tonnage definitely cannot be low.

The fact that the Longyan Giant Steam Engine can make such a massive supply ship move at high speed is simply a miracle.

Therefore, they are desperate to obtain the Longyan Giant Steam Engine to develop more powerful warships.

The British high command has named them Dreadnought-class Battleships.

The Financial Minister, this powerful official second only to the British Prime Minister, now has a livid face as he faces the gaze of all the Councilors in the assembly.

He says in a deep voice: "It is not that we do not want to trade with Longyan, but there has been no precedent for such large-scale transactions between nations."

"The plan we thought of is to use silver for direct transactions, like a civilian organization."

"But looking at it now, the amount of silver we need to pay is too much; this kind of thing is not in short supply in the Dragon Flame Nation, and silver is not that valuable."

"They cannot convert silver into Longyan currency, or they would suffer a huge loss."

"But in our Britain, silver is a hard currency."

"If we use gold, Longyan's losses would be significant, so we haven't come up with a good Method yet."

After hearing this, everyone is at a loss.

Currently, transactions between nations

follow the system of the Silver Standard.

Gold has been very rare since ancient times and is rarely used as currency, but many countries only provide exchange rates.

But you cannot exchange for gold at this rate at all.

Therefore, everyone generally uses silver, which has lower reserves and value, as currency.

That is, the Silver Standard, using the silver exchange rate to determine what price a country's currency should have.

In other words, one tael of silver can buy fifty shi of grain in the Dragon Flame Nation.

But in Britain, one tael of silver might only buy twenty shi of grain.

It is the same one tael of silver, but because the exchange rates are different, it leads to a huge gap.

However, such a system is not suitable for transactions between nations.

The gap between their own domestic gold-silver exchange rate and that of the trading nation often exists as a huge chasm.

Moreover, since the Industrial Revolution, there are far too many uses for silver.

Therefore, the price of silver fluctuates and falls to varying degrees between countries.

Using silver for transactions now is basically impossible.

This leads to long periods of haggling every time a transaction occurs, and sometimes they even have to wait until the exchange rates between the two countries are close before a transaction can take place.

But we cannot wait now.

The preparation for the Dreadnought-class Battleship is already imminent; although Britain and Longyan are currently in a ceasefire and friction has decreased.

But the French fleet is currently floating on the sea, and this war has not yet ended.

If they want to end the struggle for maritime hegemony with France quickly, Britain must possess a sufficiently strong fleet.

"Then why not use gold for the transaction?"

A voice broke the silence of the British Parliament.

Everyone looked in unison at the Councilor who had spoken, who was none other than the previously disheveled Councilor Newton.

He said this sentence with an expressionless face.

The Financial Minister looked at Newton with unkind eyes; Newton was a Councilor, but he was also his subordinate.

However, the Financial Minister had never been able to have any good feelings for this subordinate who only held a nominal position under his name.

As for the reason, it was the same as most Councilors, if one had to say there was any difference.

The Financial Minister was even more annoyed by this idle Newton, who never shared his burdens.

"Heh, this is the funniest joke I have ever heard in my life."

The Financial Minister laughed coldly.

A trace of mocking ridicule also appeared on the faces of the others.

George III looked at the uniquely tempered Newton with complex emotions; he really wanted to say something, but had nothing to say.

In his understanding, Newton was absolutely the smartest person in Britain, and his theories led Britain to become powerful.

Many of Britain's inventions were improved by relying on his knowledge.

But this fellow only knew how to do research and conduct experiments.

He had originally recruited him hoping he would help him solve problems.

But Newton never cared what the topics were, and did not even attend the parliament.

Regarding this, George III was tolerant.

But now he was spouting wild words about using gold for trade, so George III could only helplessly say: "Councilor Newton, do not bring up such a suggestion again."

"Gold is even more important than silver."

Newton looked at George III and asked in confusion: "Who said to use gold for trade? My meaning is that Britain's currency should be pegged to gold, and trade should be conducted using gold."