Chapter 57

In reality, Ezekiel's previous statement that there isn't a single bank in the world is incorrect. Strictly speaking, there is definitely a bank. Otherwise, who would issue the Berries? But in some sense, it can also be said there isn't a bank. The correct way to say it is that there is no bank in the way Will understands.

Banks perform functions such as currency issuance, currency management, deposit storage, and lending. They can even manipulate the value of a country's currency and promote development on a national level by regulating the economy. Generally speaking, they can do everything related to money.

However, the banks in this world have only one function—they can store money, and there's absolutely no guarantee of security. The World Bank, established by the World Government, is the complete opposite. It cannot store money but has the authority to issue Berries. Because of the meaningless production of money, Berries are so cheap, and the Celestial Dragons do not use Berries as currency.

The biggest problem at present is not the production of money, but rather how to make people wealthy. This problem is difficult to solve on Earth. It might be feasible here because this world has its advantages.

The physical capabilities of an individual person are much higher than those of people on Earth.

The Devil Fruits are magical items, and sometimes they can indeed perform miracles.

For example, on Earth, even several trillion Berries wouldn't necessarily guarantee the completion of a superengineering River of Life. But in this world, with Devil Fruits and the workforce, this project is truly completed…

"Your Majesty, the Royal Bank of Alabasta has opened one hundred branches across Alabasta with a total investment of over 5 billion Berries." In accordance with your requirements, all offices operate using exclusive application permissions provided by you on the mobile phone. However, currently, too few people are using the new currency, the bank treasurer said to Will.

Ezekiel is not worried about this; they will accept it sooner or later.

The exclusive application of the Royal Bank of Alabasta will soon be launched on the mobile phone. Anyone can store their Berries in the Royal Bank and choose the new currency that Alabasta uses in the country, and the current exchange rate of Alabasta's official currency to Berries is one to ten.

In other words, one hundred Berries are equivalent to ten new dollars, and one hundred million Berries are equivalent to ten million new dollars.

Although Ezekiel has initiated the exchange of new coins and Berries, not many Alabasta residents have used the new coins. But Ezekiel did not use coercive means and did not force people to exchange money.

However, the mobile phone charge and the water bill are only charged in dollars instead of Berries, so people have to go to the bank to exchange Berries for dollars to pay. Although this is not significant, it already means that the dollar is truly becoming an integral part of the Alabasta people, so it also has value.

Additionally, all Alabasta employees have started receiving their salaries in dollars, which means that all civil servants will use the dollar, even if they immediately go to the bank to exchange it for Berries, they first receive dollars.

Ezekiel wants people to smoothly accept the new currency.

So far, only the water bill and mobile phone are paid for. But there are too many things to pay for in the future.

...….

The new port city of Alabasta, Eruma.

Ship after ship through the Sandora river brought stones quarried from desert pits somewhere deep in Alabasta.

Smoker smoked a cigar, followed by Tashigi. Both of them were following Zephyr to Eruma. Shortly after they arrived here, they were summoned by the King. They went to meet with Ezekiel .

Captain Smoker! That man seems to be... Tashigi's gaze was fixed on Kuro.

Smoker nodded. He remembered that this was once a pirate, and the bounty on him still reached tens of millions.

The teacher told me to ask His Majesty myself.

He wanted to know the reasons for using pirates.

He didn't want to just leave the World Government and join another World Government.

Kuro noticed Smoker, but he wasn't afraid because he was no longer a pirate...

Calmly looking at the marine, he reached out to touch the massive stone in front of him. The stone quickly merged with him and transformed into a giant hand, then gradually absorbed all the surrounding stones and finally became a gigantic boulder. The stone giant stretched out its hand and swallowed all the stones that hadn't been unloaded from the ship as if they were food, and its body grew larger and larger.

Soon, a colossal stone giant, hundreds of meters tall, appeared in the port. Most people weren't surprised because this scene had happened many times recently. This man was the general manager of the Royal Construction Company "Alabasta" and possessed the power to manipulate stones.

Crunch! - a massive boulder transformed into a towering castle that stood on the shoreline, even taller than the Marine Headquarters at Marineford. Such an enormous headquarters like Marineford would typically take years to construct manually, but under the power of the Ishi Ishi no Mi, it took only a few minutes!

Chomp! - another batch of stones was absorbed by Kuro, and he once again turned into a giant.

Smoker and Tashigi stood in shock.

The cigar fell from Smoker's mouth to the ground, and he didn't even notice. He stared blankly at the constructed castle. This scene left a strong impression on Smoker.

"So that's how Devil Fruits can be used?"

For the first time, Smoker's worldview was shaken. Smoker possesses the power of a Devil Fruit, but even before he acquired this power, everything he had heard about Devil Fruits was that their strength was used to kill and fight.

But now, Smoker saw everything in a different light.

He was wrong.

This is the right way to use a Devil Fruit!

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