Chapter 132: The Birth of an Interstellar Trading System

There’s no universal currency.

Trade is, without a doubt, a huge problem.

Sure, there’s still the classic barter system, but that’s more of a last resort than a real solution.

Honestly, it’s not a good way to run things.

Mu Qingxue, as the governor of the Proxima Administrative Zone, spent a whole month working day and night with Commerce Officer Ye Lan and a team of administrators.

Only then did they finally come up with a plan.

According to it, during future trade negotiations, the Elven Race would rely on the Federation’s status as a ‘Tier 3 Civilization’ to assert dominance and insist on using the Federation’s trading system.

So what exactly is the Federation’s trading system?

Well, that’s why Mu Qingxue and her team spent an entire month on it.

With Mu Qingxue taking the lead, they built a brand new trade system from scratch, specifically designed for dealing with other civilizations.

At the heart of this system lies the Federation Trading Point—the core and most vital part.

Every trade revolves around this trading point.

First, the Federation will publish a buy list covering just about everything you can think of.

It starts with the most basic elements.

The stuff you’d find everywhere in the cosmos.

Iron: 1 trading point per ton.

Copper: 10 trading points per ton.

……

And it goes all the way up to super rare elements.

Tritium: trading points per kilogram.

Polonium: trading points per kilogram.

Americium: trading points per kilogram.

Helium-3: trading points per kilogram.

And so on…

This basic list alone has over 500 types of elements—not counting what already exists in the Solar System.

Some are even things only the Klein or the mysterious Alien Civilization Cube have identified.

Beyond the basics, the extended list includes over 100,000 types of materials.

Of course, the Federation doesn’t expect much—those Tier 1 or 2 civilizations probably don’t have any of this stuff.

But hey, you never know…

After all, it’s not about technological level. Sometimes, it’s just about luck.

Because no one really knows what the other side has, Mu Qingxue decided early trades would stick solely to the raw materials buy list.

Everything else would wait until they learned more.

So let’s say you sell your resources to the Federation and collect those trading points.

What can you buy?

Honestly, Lin Yu wanted to sell weapons.

Things like energy weapons, Bai Ze Mechs, maybe even Tier 2 or 2.5 warships—those would be on the table.

Selling this kind of tech means the other civilizations gradually become dependent on the Federation, plus you could slip in a few backdoors on the side.

And if war ever breaks out down the line…

Those backdoors could be a lifesaver.

Besides, selling weapons is always a goldmine.

Just price the mechs a thousand times higher than the raw materials buy-back rate.

Take the materials you collected, build a thousand units, then sell just one to recover all your trading points. Easy money.

But Lin Yu isn’t the only one who gets to call the shots here. New sales need Earth’s approval.

So what did Mu Qingxue decide to sell?

The answer is…

Everything!

Under her leadership, the Governor’s Office even set up the Proxima Interstellar Chamber of Commerce, opening participation to all one million Proxima V settlers.

Turns out, those million people are all incredibly talented.

After all, if you don’t have real skills, how else could you have made it into the first wave of Proxima V colonists?

So don’t be fooled by the fact they’ve only been here less than two years. Besides city-building and working on the spaceport, they’ve done plenty more.

For instance…

Planting tea trees and making porcelain—just the basics.

They’ve also started large-scale animal farming and are brewing alcohol from local grains and fruits.

Basically, if it exists on Earth, chances are they’ve already tried it here in the past two years.

Why? So once direct flights between the Solar System and Proxima start, they’ll be ready to ship their goods straight to Earth’s markets.

Oh, still prefer grape wine? Try some of our Proxima fruit liqueur—it’s made from unique local fruits and has visible health benefits if you drink it daily.

As for pork, beef or lamb?

Forget it—none of those can compare to our Proxima specialty meats. Not only do they taste better, they’re also packed with health benefits.

What about tea leaves?

Even if you skip the taste, you can’t ignore the health-boosting claims.

That alone is enough to make Proxima tea a must-buy, no matter how high the price is. The wealthy will always fight for it.

That’s what everyone was banking on.

But now, Mu Qingxue has told them the good news: their business plans can launch early—the only twist is, their target market just shifted from Earth to alien civilizations.

Everyone is thrilled.

Everyone knows—if you want to make big money, sell to outsiders.

Especially if those aliens have no idea what things should cost. With the right setup, you could mark up prices by hundreds or thousands of times.

The best part? No competition—at least at the start.

According to Mu Qingxue, if multiple people sign up to sell the same product, they’ll have to team up instead of undercutting each other.

Come on, if you’re out there making money from aliens, why turn it into a price war among yourselves?

And once you’ve sold something for trading points, you can buy local alien specialties and bring them back to sell for even more.

One trip back and forth turns into a string of business opportunities, and most people could get rich overnight.

Even with Mu Qingxue setting a 70% tax rate on the Chamber of Commerce’s alien sales,

it can’t stop people from signing up like crazy.

——

Three more months passed.

Once again, Lin Yu led the fleet away from Proxima V, reaching the stream mouth heading toward Alpha Centauri.

Just as he was about to order the fleet to enter,

a sudden transmission came in from Earth.

That’s right—the hyperdimensional communication tech Lin Yu secured over a month ago had already been delivered to the Solar System, and all the data was sent to Earth.

Now, Earth had finished building the necessary equipment and established its first direct link with the Houyi stationed at Proxima.

A short while later…

Federation President Friedrich, Fleet Commander Mu Xingchen, Vice Commanders Vladimir and Ryan all gathered in the conference room.

Lin Yu and Mu Qingxue joined in through holographic projection as well.

“Lin Yu, about that proposal you sent back with the others, the three of us old-timers have discussed it. We can do it, but…”

“No selling off-the-shelf goods!”

Mu Xingchen didn’t hesitate to make it clear.