Without the jingle of gold and silver, wars cannot be fought.
The old Duke Lotar once said to his son-in-law—Emperor Richard IV of the Holy Muro Empire, "Three things are needed to wage war: money! money! and thirdly, still money!"
With periodic financial bankruptcies, Richard IV lost his finest generals as well as all the territories south of the Sheltering Mountains.
But essentially, money cannot be used directly for war.
Gold cannot serve as gunpowder, and turning silver into weapons and armor is economically impractical. War requires money because it can purchase the resources for war.
Monk Reed once told Winters, "The weapon that kills the most people in the world is not swords, but mobilization."
At that time, Winters did not understand, thinking it was just old priestly gibberish.
But after seeing the common folk of Horsehead Town waving war bonds and hearing the old begging monk analyze how the Republic of Palatu raised one batch of war funds after another,