The History of Capitalism

<Lala>

The economy thrives on trust.

That very idea likely had its roots in another-world Europe—in the medieval, alternate-world version of Italy, before capitalism had taken clear form, in the city of Venice. At the time, double-entry bookkeeping was invented, and managing and recording credit in commercial transactions was highly valued.

Eventually, in the early modern period, with the onset of the Industrial Revolution in England, many scholars began to theoretically reinforce and systematize this idea of "economic development through trust."

Today, this notion is often invoked by elites—investors, governments, and bankers—when large sums of money are in motion, such as in stock investments and finance.

But at its core, it is perhaps a far simpler and warmer philosophy. Society flourishes on a foundation of mutual trust—between corporations and states, local communities and families, men and women, the young and the old, and even between humans and demons.

It’s not hard to imagine the heartfelt efforts of our predecessors during the long journey from a global barter economy to one where we place faith in money, a mere abstraction of numbers.

However, when something massive continues to betray the trust of the small, and when the pursuit of visible metrics overrides that trust, the very mechanisms of society become corrupted. Even a society that once seemed to be on a path of growth will inevitably head toward decline.

When modern people, dazzled by cutting-edge technology, begin to dismiss the wisdom of ancient humanity, they risk overlooking the critical lessons left behind by our ancestors.

Even the Karma Points, calculated using future-prediction magic to forecast dopamine levels three years ahead, will likely cast a dark shadow over humanity if they continue to dominate as a societal metric.

Just as a giant corporation, led by a salaryman CEO, chases superficial business indicators for the sake of the next year’s shareholders’ meeting—neglecting the hundred-year plan—and ends up collapsing over decades, the same fate awaits us.

In agriculture, it's widely known that if you keep harvesting without sowing seeds or fertilizing, the land will eventually go barren and stop producing crops. The same holds true for economics, politics, and even magic.

The newly reborn Karma Points are now calculated by taking the geometric mean of dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin. Happiness, security, and stimulation—unless all three pillars are well-balanced, you can’t earn high scores. At least this way, the metric might evolve into something that genuinely reflects human well-being.

The current limitation of the macro-magic library is that it can only predict three years into the future. What we really need is the ability to predict a century ahead. We can only hope for breakthroughs by future magical engineers.

In fact, it would be ideal if we could do away with such numbers altogether.

Numbers were originally just tools to describe a single facet of human society.

Theory should be primary, and mathematical models should remain secondary.

There’s been a recent trend of data-driven approaches, but even then, statistical proof and scientific rigor are essential.

When models that were merely simplified tools created by great thinkers to explain ideas more easily—models not necessarily rooted in hard data—are treated as scripture, and scholars lose themselves in solving math puzzles adorned with calculus, economics and management studies cease to reflect human activity. That kind of misstep can lead to societal decline—and even Nobel laureates in economics are not immune to falling into such traps.

But should we reset civilization entirely just because of this error? Certainly not. One dictator who attempted to revive a primitive society ended up killing a quarter of the population.

Science must build upon the accumulated wisdom of the past.

It’s not unusual in human history for the evolution of social science to end up in a dead-end. But once we realize the mistake, we must trace our steps back slightly and, through a process of trial and error, continue progressing as a whole.

Sharp-kun begins to stir.

“Thank goodness… I thought you might never wake up.”

“W-wait, don’t hug me like that! It’s embarrassing.”

“Hehehe.”

When Forlun hugs him, Sharp-kun blushes. Apparently, his wish was to have a yuri moment—was that wish fulfilled?

“You guys… you erased it, didn’t you? The Karma Points. I saw it faintly, even as my consciousness faded.”

“Yeah. It was thanks to you—because you played the hacking song.”

“Sis… I wonder if she’s watching from the afterlife.”

And it was in that moment that we finally learned why Sharp-kun had transformed into a girl, and why he had become a pawn of Edge Shadow Corporation.