- [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.