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Minato felt a growing distance between himself and Gojo Kaigetsu, a sense that they were from different eras.
Perhaps even the closest friendships could be strained by differing perspectives. Determined to maintain their bond, Minato pressed for details on Gojo's "ideas."
"First, there's the lottery."
"Gambling—everyone dabbles. But most people, due to financial constraints or rationality, keep it under control. Others—aren't so restrained."
"Tsunade is—a prime example."
Minato nodded, somewhat uncomfortably. "And then?"
"We'll set the price low—ten to a hundred Ryō per ticket. The grand prize for a ten Ryō ticket will be—one million Ryō. For a hundred Ryō ticket, a tenfold return. Smaller prizes will be scaled accordingly."
"With Konoha's backing, we won't just sell tickets in the village. We'll even add ten Ryō to the price of [Iki] and include a lottery ticket with each issue, selling them throughout the Shinobi world!"
"Excluding essential costs, we could make tens of millions of Ryō each cycle. And if we expand to the entire Shinobi world—hundreds of millions!"
"Of course, we'll invite representatives from other nations to—witness the drawings, to ensure—fairness."
Minato felt a chill. He wasn't a gambler, but he understood its allure.
Ten Ryō—for a chance at a million? They'd sell like—hotcakes!
It was practically—free money. People would go—crazy for it.
He could almost—feel the Ryō flowing into the Hokage Tower's coffers. A billion Ryō a month? It was—unimaginable.
"And the—bonds? Stocks? Futures?"
"Stocks and futures—they're complicated. We'll need time and—experts. We can—pilot them. Bonds, though—war bonds."
"Konoha needs ten million Ryō for military procurement, to equip our Shinobi, to—secure our borders. We've already—liberated three in the Land of Snow, generating at least twenty million Ryō in—transit fees. It's a—profitable venture."
"Before we even—start, we can issue war bonds. We'll promise a—ten percent return. Minato, how many clans, how many wealthy merchants will—jump at the chance to—invest? To share the—burden?"
Minato took another sharp breath. His heart—pounded.
Military spending was a major expense. And this—war bond scheme…
With Konoha's strength and—reputation, no one would doubt their ability to—repay. It was practically—free money. And if it was offered to the public…
There might even be—scalpers, reselling the bonds at a premium.
A bond was—a loan, backed by the village's—credibility. And Konoha's credit—it was—unimpeachable.
It was—the safest investment in the Shinobi world.
And the collateral? The Minato administration, and Konoha's—invincible military.
Minato felt—tempted. He could—pre-order a few bonds himself.
He suddenly understood Gojo Kaigetsu's other—ideas.
Development bonds, stocks, and futures—they were all—similar, ways to—leverage future earnings to fund current projects, to accelerate Konoha's growth.
"Brilliant—simply brilliant," Minato murmured.
Shinobi relied on—physical labor, on completing missions. They couldn't imagine—making money without—lifting a finger.
But this—this was different.
Of course, it required—a strong village.
If Gojo Kaigetsu had suggested this earlier, Danzo and Homura would have—objected, accusing him of—warmongering.
Back then, a war with Kumogakure would have been—uncertain. War bonds would have been—worthless.
"Kaigetsu-kun—if we issue war bonds and development bonds, how much could we—raise? What's the—purchasing power of our villagers?"
"Not just Konoha's villagers, Minato," Gojo Kaigetsu corrected him. "Imagine—we declare war on Iwagakure. We sell war bonds in Sunagakure and Kumogakure. How many would buy them?"
"And if we declare war on Kirigakure, how many in Iwagakure would buy?"
"Perhaps—even those we're fighting would—invest."
Minato couldn't help but stand up, and start to think about tasking people to design the new bonds for Konoha.
"Wait, if we print bonds, won't that cause problems with our paper supply?"
Minato's face suddenly changed, if he remembered correctly, the various printing houses in Konoha had reported to him that the current paper production had reached its limit, and the consumption was basically in balance.
Konoha's paper consumption, placed in the Shinobi world, is definitely worthy of being number one.
Even adding up the paper consumption of the other four major countries, it is not as much as that of Konoha.
There is a lot of production and a lot of use, and even Konoha sometimes has a shortage of paper.
In terms of paper production, the production tools are backward. Nowadays, the method of paper production is still in a very primitive way, requiring printing workers to sell their blood and sweat to print it out; ordinary lumberjacks are too slow to cut down trees, and commissions are required.
The famous Shinobi cut down trees to get the cost—The Shinobi world is still in the traditional manual production mode and has not transitioned to the machine production mode.
In terms of paper consumption...
Gojo Kaigetsu wrote an article "A Village That Relies on Reading to Strengthen the Village", although it is not as exaggerated as what is written in it, Konoha is indeed moving in that direction now.
The per capita book ownership rate is the highest in the world, and bookstores are often overcrowded.
All kinds of books, except for banned books like "Intimate Paradise" and "Boy Shinobi", which are still very popular, all kinds of literary works and various ninjutsu tutorial books are constantly emerging.
This is an era of double blossoming of material and spirit!
Taking Konoha's spiritual world as the Star Dome Railway train, the massive amount of paper is the original stone, which constantly pushes the train to gallop...
In addition to this, the first thing Gojo Kaigetsu did when he became an Elder Advisor was to design 'Soft white paper' that could be used to wipe the butt.
Once it was launched, it led the trend.
Rarely, even the old farts like Mitokado Homaru and Utatane Koharu, did not raise any objections to this matter. Perhaps the soft toilet paper also severely hit the weakest part of their bodies.
In short, this paper is not enough! If we want to maintain and promote the use of paper for lottery tickets, stocks, and futures, we must expand the paper production chain!
...
"To implement these plans—we need to expand paper production. That's—more expenses," Minato said, his voice filled with—resignation. The more money they made, the more they—spent.
"And Don't worry, Minato. We might not even need to—spend anything."
"What do you mean?"
"Though the lottery is backed by the Hokage Tower, the drawings must be—transparent. We need—international observers."
"This means—there may indeed be someone who got lucky and won the lottery, and came to the Hokage Building with the lottery ticket to ask us for the prize!"
"Huh? Isn't this a matter of course?"
Minato looked confused. Winning the lottery and receiving the prize is a matter of course! I'm afraid even the Six Paths Sage would nod in approval.
"Of course there is a problem!" Gojo Kaigetsu said as a matter of course: "We are doing this lottery business to make money, how can we pay out millions or tens of millions of prizes?"
Even if it is really necessary to accept the prize, the winner must wear a headgear and let our internal staff pretend to be the winner and go on stage to accept the prize.
"Even if a time traveler who knows the winning numbers comes, he won't be able to take away the grand prize from me!"
Gojo Kaigetsu showed a mysterious smile.
In a corner that Minato didn't know, Konan had already infiltrated the Land of Fire, and had even already entered Konoha.
With this master paper maker here, the efficiency and cost control of printing paper in Konoha will be greatly improved.
As for when the prize is drawn—Whether it is to manipulate gravity and attraction to change the winning number, or Konan can use paper to separate it from a distance and let the person who came to claim the prize on the way.
In short, outsiders don't want to take a single grain of rice from the Hokage Building's pocket!
'You can get small prizes, but you want big prizes? Go dream your Spring and Autumn Dream!'
Gojo Kaigetsu has made up his mind. At least before Konoha unifies the Shinobi world and everyone becomes a Konoha citizen, he will not give any money to outsiders.
Before the unification of the Shinobi world, lottery tickets can only be used as a tool for the Hokage Building to collect money.
Lottery tickets are lottery tickets—it has neither past nor future.
This kind of thing is the same as when a college student is in class. The main course is to escape first, and the elective course is to escape.
Putting the formula on the lottery ticket means that outsiders will definitely not be able to redeem the prize, and the villagers will choose to redeem the prize.
...
"Kaigetsu-kun, you're speaking in riddles again," Minato sighed. "So you'll rig the lottery? They're just—paying us for the—privilege?"
"Exactly"
"And you mean, there is no need to expand the paper production line?"
"That's right! There's no need. I have my own plans for this. Soon there will be free labor coming to our door."
Regarding the existence of Konan, Gojo Kaigetsu chose to keep it a secret.
Of course—After Minato knew about Konan's dangerous identity, he would inevitably have to argue with him for a while.
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