- [Narrator] So we all know
who the best straw hat is,
with handling money.
But who do you think the worst is?
Well, this may surprise you.
But it's actually Robin. Who
has this very nasty addiction,
to purchasing subscribe buttons
for the grand line review.
Which to be fair does give her
regular one piece of content,
uploaded straight into her YouTube feed.
However, she only needed
to buy one for that.
And also she didn't need to buy it.
It's perfectly free.
So click, the button.
Hello, and welcome to the
grand line viewer source
for everything one peace.
And today we are going to be heading deep
into the realm of economics.
And quite specifically,
understanding the economics of one piece.
Now I know that economics might not be
a particularly appealing
term for a lot of you,
but stick with me here because
when applied to one piece,
we have some really fascinating,
and surprising stuff to talk about.
And you know if it helps
entice you to this topic,
then every time I mentioned
economics or money in general,
just picture this dollar
bill, with a bikini.
Yeah, I thought that
might take your interest.
As it turns out, economics
can indeed, be sexy.
But basically in case you're unaware,
economics is the study of wealth,
and how wealth moves among society.
And we are going to begin
our journey by attempting
to Identify, what type of economy,
the One Piece world operates in.
Which given that a large
majority of the planet,
is united under the world government,
we can safely say that the world
is predominantly a mixed economy.
A combination of government spending,
and free market systems. And
I know, lots of words there.
But basically this means
that the government,
can control production of
certain goods, and institutions.
Meanwhile, random morons like say, Wapol,
can also rise out of nowhere
to become wealthy businessmen,
thanks to accidentally
discovering a new type of metal,
that the global marketplace
rewarded him with.
And now, he's a king again.
Hooray! For capitalism.
And I should say this system will vary
amongst individual kingdoms,
especially those with a more,
shall we say, archaic
system of government,
like, say, the Goa Kingdom,
or especially those who are not aligned
with the world government, like say, Wano.
Both of which could probably
be more accurately described
as planned economies.
But for the sake of
very general simplicity,
We're going to call the world
of One Piece, a mixed economy.
So that's nice. But how does
this whole thing function?
Well, global trade tends to
operate on a single currency,
known as, the ever delicious Berry,
also known as Belize, I suppose.
Doesn't really matter which one
you use. But I'm going to go
with Berries because I
enjoy eating berries.
But this is a monetary system designed
to mimic our modern day
real world ecosystem.
Probably for the sake of relatability
with readers and watchers.
Because despite the fact
that one piece takes place
in the world of cyborg
pirates, hiking bears,
and magical fruit,
Oda is supremely good at
inserting elements like this,
to make things more familiar,
and easy to insert ourselves into.
But berries are of course a fiat system,
which basically means bits of paper,
imbued with, imaginary value.
Ooh. Value, which is also wildly elastic.
Denoting that its exact
value, is liable to change,
in response to any
number of global events.
With that said, the value
of the berry seems to be,
fairly consistent and in one piece,
and is very much based
on the Japanese yen.
So much so, to work out
the exact value of a berry
in your local currency, you
could effectively just convert,
using yen as your basis.
So for example, in one piece,
we have seen that the
going price for a cabbage,
is 150 berries. Which
using the yen conversion,
ends up being about $1.40.
United States dollar reduce of course.
And from here on out,
anytime efer to dollars,
just be aware that I
mean, American dollars.
And admittedly, I don't
know how much cabbage costs
in the US, but $1.40 feels,
just a little bit too cheap to me.
However, that's not necessarily a problem,
so long as the value is consistent,
within the one piece world itself.
And we can take other
examples to help explore this,
one of which is, Hatchan's Takoyaki.
Which was priced at 500
berries per serving.
Meaning that it would be worth
about three and a half cabbages,
or we could even look
at the bigger picture,
at the estimated value of the
Sandai Kitetsu, for example.
Which Tashigi appraised
at, 1 million berries.
Which would be the value
of well over 7000 cabbages.
So it is fairly safe to say that
there is some sort of
internal consistency,
when it comes to the value of a berry.
But the most fascinating
thing about the berry,
is that it is for all
intents and purposes,
a global currency.
We'll get into some exceptions, of course.
But there are at least, over
170 countries in this world,
who trade using the berry.
But in addition to that,
there are also many nations,
not affiliated with the world government,
who also use the berry,
such as Fish-Man Island.
Here we saw Nami visit
Pappag's clothing store,
and a clerk stated that
an item of clothing
was 10,000 berries, which
using the rough conversion
would equate to about $93.
And then Nami, quite
rightfully, in my opinion,
complained about how expensive that was.
But then again, criminal
is a brand name outlet,
and that was probably to be expected.
The greater point is that
the dominance of the berry
is such, that most open
nations are more or less forced
to adopt it as their local currency.
However, this does not
apply to isolated countries
like Wano for example, their
currency is gold, silver
and platinum coins, but they only trade
within their borders.
Similarly, you can look at Amazon Lily.
Because despite Boa Hancock
being a wallet of the sea,
this is a closed nation.
And the Kuja tribe have their
own currency known as gor.
Another interesting example
though would be Skypiea.
Because they are
generally open to visitors
from the blue sea, but
they use their own currency
known as extol. And not only that,
but they have an
established exchange rate,
with 10,000 extol, being
worth exactly one berry.
And so if you remember
the Skypiea arc amazon,
the station master of Heaven's Gate,
said that the Straw Hats
needed to pay, 1 billion extol,
to enter Skypiea safely. Which
is about 100,000 berries,
which is roughly $930 per person.
Which is, quite a lot.
Yes. But then again,
international travel,
can be quite expensive.
Also, Fun fact. Eventually Amazon
also opened up an amusement
park, called Wago Muland,
in honor of Usopp, who
introduced the sky citizens
to rubber bands. Tickets for which are,
30 million extol per person.
Which is about 3000 berries and $28.
So that actually sounds
fairly, reasonable.
But extol is one of the rare exceptions
of the one piece world.
Which is as stated before,
dominated by the berry currency.
And while one global unit might seem
like a nice and simplistic idea,
it actually brings a whole,
ton of issues with it.
Namely that individual nations
have next to no control,
over their greatest financial positions.
So what do I mean by that?
All right, let's begin a
very long winded example,
and say that for argument's sake Dressrosa
had its own currency. We'll
call it, doffy dollars.
And we'll start out with the idea that
it has a one to one exchange
rate, with the berry.
So one doffy dollar,
equals one berry. Splendid.
But now let's say a terrible
crisis struck Dressrosa,
like a mad warlord being defeated,
but also practically
destroying the entire nation,
and crippling Dressrosa's economy,
for the foreseeable
future. Well, never fear,
because they hold the
power of doffy dollars.
And what King Riku could do to combat
this economic crap hole, would
be to devalue doffy dollars.
Essentially meaning that
instead of selling one doffy
dollar for every one berry,
he could instead sell, 2
doffy dollars for 1 Berry.
Now that might seem like madness
at first, because ideally,
you'd always want the
currency you're using
to be strong and powerful.
But what this does is make
the nation of Dressrosa,
far more appealing, because
it is now much cheaper
to do business there. For
example, entrepreneur Pappag,
might decide to open up a
new clothing factory there,
and employ a whole ton of its citizens,
thus bringing money into Dressrosa.
And the logic behind
that would be primarily,
because it would be cheaper
to open up the factory
on Dressrosa, rather than
to open up a second one
on Fish-Men Island,
where the berry system
is still being employed.
Or someone considering a
holiday in the new world
might choose Dressrosa because
it is now much cheaper,
and they can get more
bhang for their berry,
thus revitalizing Dressrosa
from its complete economic crash,
all thanks to the power, of doffy dollars.
Unfortunately this is not the
reality of Dressrosa though
because they operate on berries.
And king Riku cannot
artificially change the value
of a berry, to benefit his own country.
Meaning that Dressrosa
and every other nation
under the umbrella of the boat government,
is completely at the mercy, of
this locked financial system.
So basically, it's fantastic for nations
that are already rich because
their value is secured.
But for poor countries, it
severely limits their options
to elevate themselves.
So that means that whoever
controls the value of the berry
really does have unparalleled
power in this world.
And it's not clear exactly
who or what that is,
because I don't think we've ever
actually seen a bank in one piece,
let alone a centralized bank,
that is responsible for global stability.
So I suppose you have
to assume that this task
falls under the duties
of the Five Elder Stars,
because anything that requires
any degree of administration,
seems to fall to them. Very interestingly,
we also don't know what berries come from.
I.e, where they are printed or minted.
Once again, I would have to
assume that the world government
has a dedicated centralized
facility for this,
because the other option would be that
each individual nation has their own mint,
to produce berries, but
that is very dangerous,
because then what would be to
stop nations of printing them,
and causing massive amounts of inflation,
in an attempt to increase
their wealth in the short term.
And yeah, there's just as many reasons
why that would be a bad idea.
But having the supply
of berries come directly
from the government,
is also a strange idea
in and of itself. Mostly because
banks don't seem to exist.
So, you'd have to assume
that it goes directly
to a Kingdom's Treasury.
But then again, every Kingdom associated
with the world government, is
required to pay a regular tax
known as a heavenly
tribute. And in many cases
this tribute can cripple poorer nations,
and leave them on the verge of starvation.
So in this case, what government
would be printing money,
then distributing it to kingdoms,
for the sole purpose that
they can have that money
handed straight back to them.
And that sounds oddly pointless.
But hey, that's the wonder of circulation.
But one thing I would
like to do is give us all
a basic impression of just how much money
might be out there in the one piece world.
And we're going to do this
by attempting to calculate,
the annual budget of the marines.
And we're going to do
this in a very roundabout
and not at all scientifically sound way.
But to begin, we need to
find the average salary,
of an enlisted marine.
And given the berrys correspond
strongly to Japanese yen,
We are going to use
the wages of a soldier,
enlisted in the Japanese
Special Defense Forces.
Which is just over 2 million yen, annually
for lifelong enlistment.
Which is the model that
the Marines tend to follow.
So we're going to choose
that as well. Amazing.
So let's assume that the annual
wage, of the average marine,
is this many berries.
Now we need to find out
how many marines there
are. Which is not at all,
an easy thing to determine.
There is an awful lot,
and the only solid number we really have,
is that 100,000 foot soldiers,
who were summoned to Marineford
in order to participate
in the Paramount war. And
I need to emphasize that
this is definitely not the
full extent of the marines,
nor is this going to account
for basic pay increases
as you move up the ranks, but
the very rudimentary estimate
of the annual cost of
these 100,000 soldiers,
would be this, ungodly number.
Which I think is, 203,880,000,000 berries.
And that would equate to
just under $2 billion.
And that probably doesn't sound like a lot
for military spending of such a power,
but this barely scratches
the surface there.
Because it doesn't take
into account equipment
like weapons, assets such as battleships,
or even basic clothing
because uniforms are not free.
The enlisted men and women of the marines,
is probably by far the cheapest expense,
of the entire organization.
But it does give you some idea
of what it takes to keep an institution
like the Marines running. And
if you were curious, like me,
the annual cost of those
100,000 foot soldiers,
equates to about 1.3 billion cabbages.
That's a lot of cabbage.
And with that in mind,
it might also be interesting to examine
some of the higher priced
items in the one piece world,
such as the Ope Ope No Mi for example,
which was valued at, 5 billion berries.
And it's actually to this day,
the single most expensive
item that we have encountered
in the series. Which
for the record would be
about $46 million,
so it is a very
prohibitively expensive item.
As for devil fruits in
general, their average price
was stated to be around
100 million berries,
which would be just over $900,000.
So it's still a not an all easy
amount of money to come by,
to say the least.
And while were on that train
of thought, 100 million berries
was the amount that
Arlong was charging Nami,
to buy back Cocoyasi Village.
So just think about
how impressive that is.
That Nami managed to steal
almost a million dollars,
in her career as a thief in East Blue.
Devil fruits are of course
sold in the underworld though.
Which brings up another
important economic point,
being that this planet has
a thriving black market.
Which sells everything from
weapons, to devil fruits,
to, quite literal slaves.
All three of those
aforementioned practiced
being primarily patroned
by the world nobles.
Which is somewhat interesting,
because in theory,
they're the ones who set global law.
But then again, each
individual nation also
has its own sovereignty and laws.
Which is why sovereignty
would be the perfect epicenter
of black market activity,
because groves 1-29, are lawless areas.
So I cannot imagine the
sheer amount of berries,
that would likely be
exchanged in this area,
of the Archipelago. But
that is the bare basics
of the one peace world economy.
It is simplistic, but mostly
internally consistent.
And I'm sure that Oda certainly
doesn't consider things too carefully
when writing one piece, but every time
he places a price on something,
he must at the very least,
briefly seriously consider it,
whether it be a bounty,
a sword, or a cabbage.
And I also just want to give a shout out,
to another YouTuber named JoyGirl,
who surprisingly, willingly
engaged in a very,
very long conversation with me
about economics in one piece.
And there is a link to her channel
in the description below, if
you'd like to check it out.
She is a very very new YouTuber,
and also comes from the land of Australia,
which is always nice. But
what do you guys think?
Please do leave your thoughts
in the comments below
or even join my Discord server.
And if you'd like to see
more videos like this,
then please do go and check
out some my other content
or even subscribe to the channel,
for more glorious one piece
business, uploaded straight,
into YouTube feeds.
But for now, this has been
the ground line review,
and I'll see you next time.
