The Minister for State Security begs leave to report that they are now, in security terms, a protectorate of the Ash Tree. He cannot meaningfully guarantee... anything... in case that situation changes or the security guarantees fail. He is accordingly requesting directions from the Pharaoh, and is also eagerly awaiting word from Diplomacy. (He manages to make this sound very innocent; of course Diplomacy know they should be working on the security aspects of the situation!)

The Minister for Diplomacy indicates that while of course his people are Working On It, it would not be appropriate for him to comment with Olive and the Pharaoh both being present.

Olive notes that her self-tree takes people's right of to self-governance without interference very seriously, and that the Axis prediction markets currently give very bad odds for them changing that stance or acting counter to it, but that of course diplomatic discussions should wait for another time.

"That is reasonable. Proceed." He nodes to the next minister around the table.

The Minister for Economy and Trade begs leave to report that they no longer have either one, as conventionally understood. "Or we can keep using the same measures and declare ourselves enormously rich, but I don't think it serves our original purposes to keep counting our wealth in pounds."

"All debts and loans denominated in pounds, goods, or services are also as good as annuled." Being a responsible Abadaran state, Osirion does not stand to wildly profit by this, unlike some other countries he could name. "That includes debts between people. However, some contracts include services which must be provided at the cost of one party's personal time and efforts. If we need something scarce and valuable," because he has no idea how to even define an economy without any such thing, "such contracts may provide a temporary measure of value, although I am very far from recommending that as a policy and would appreciate a consultation with Abadar on the matter."

The Minister for Public Works begs leave to report that they likewise have no need of public works anymore! Can he skip the rest of the meeting to go prepare his resignation letter? 

He then breaks down in nervous giggles.

"Compose yourself," says Khemet, and casts Calm Emotions. (He so rarely gets to act as a cleric.)

I am terribly sorry, your majesty.

The Minister for Agriculture begs leave to report that they have no need of that either, but this is actually excellent news, it means they are permanently and absolutely food secure! He is willing to spend the rest of his life in this meeting if it pays for that.

The Chief of Staff would like to refocus this meeting on urgent matters, please.

The Minister for Justice has a somewhat urgent matter! A central example of contracts obliging service that cannot be substituted by money are indentures, which commonly specify a period of so many months or years instead of 'until they have produced this much economic value', and some slave deeds that use similar language. Also, while Osirian law forbids permanent (lifetime) enslavement in new contracts, it allows foreign legal residents to import their own slaves who may be enslaved for life.

He is afraid that another slave uprising is likely, in a new world where everyone but bondsmen has been enormously enriched, and where no-one is likely to sign new indentures or sell themselves into slavery.

The Minister for Economy points out that slaves are now more likely to run away and leave the country instead of rising in rebellion. Also, the new security arrangements seem to indicate that a rebellion could not succeed anyway?

The Advisor on behalf of the Council of Liberated Slaves points out that it is harmful to people to be forced to leave their lives and families for a new country, even if it is now cheap and safe, and they should not encourage or rely on it in lieu of fixing the situation. Surely now that they are fabulously rich, they can afford to free all the slaves?

"This is a very well-settled matter of law. Private contracts can be annulled by force of law, if some behavior obliged by the contract is made illegal, but to pass such a law the state must fairly compensate everyone who is presently in such a contract. There must also be a period of waiting of at least six months after proclaiming the new law and before it takes effect."

"Someone who desires to keep his slave must be getting something that the fixity field cannot provide them, some non-fungible personal service such as sex. If the state is no richer than every citizen, we cannot fairly compensate them, because we cannot give them anything they do not already have. Actually, this will probably affect many more issues besides this one." He frowns.

Olive desperately avoids pointing out that the Minister for Economy and Trade just pretty much suggested putting Osirion on the sex standard.

"Although this may not apply to all the intangibles someone gets from owning slaves, in the specific case of sex, there are now other avenues for people to get high quality sex-work, in the form of better access to foreign sex workers, Succubi, and just a larger pool of potential sexual partners," she says instead. "So the fair price of easy access to sex will have dropped. Also, the government does still have some potential funding sources not available to private citizens, just not in the form of physical goods."

The room is briefly filled with the silence of men calculating the expected fair price of sex on the free market.

"If the sellers also have unlimited material wealth, what would the buyers be paying them in?"

"There are lots of things which still have value, even when everyone has unlimited material wealth," she explains.

"For example, positional goods -- like access to limited space in prestigious locations, or deliberately scarce items like concert tickets. Also intellectual labor, such as art commissions, education, investment advice, etc. Right now, my self-tree is buying magic research, help re-designing our first-contact protocols, help getting people from Creation who do not wish to return to their former lives integrated and resettled, and many other forms of intellectual labor. We also have bounties out for pointing out certain categories of problem. In exchange, we're selling art, noble titles, sex, access to exclusive clubs or vacation resorts which we own, customized programs and magic items, and our own specialized intellectual labor. Right now, I'm not charging you for giving good advice, but my time is getting charged to our fund for ensuring a smooth integration with Creation for internal accounting purposes. We're also collecting information and defect-correction bounties where we can."

What a good alien! She really sounds like someone from an exotic part of Axis.

The Minister for Cultural Heritage would like to remind the council that the state of Osirion owns some uniquely valuable resources! They are the reason his ministry exists!

"I was in Axis earlier to conclude a deal selling a heirloom of one of the Four Pharaohs to a very wealthy petitioner. He is very old, and has moved to the part of Axis where mortals are not allowed, so I had to work through intermediaries. He may even have been the original owner!"

"These things have sentimental value. The richer everyone becomes, the more people will pay us for them, including access to the ones we don't sell. We can reopen the old pyramids, under safer conditions this time, and finally crack down on tomb-robbers. And we can - oh, we can find and uncover so many relics now! The wonders of ten thousand years, restored from the desert sands! Tours to Azghaad's tomb alone would be enough to back our coin!" His eyes glitter.

The Minister for Economy objects that you can't back your coin with something if you're not able and willing to trade all the something to people in return for the coin! What if there's a run on the bank and they can't give everyone a tomb-tour at once, they would have to default. And if they back the coin with salable items, they'd run out of items to sell.

However, he thoroughly approves of some of the suggestions made for valuables which can keep trade going! With these, the state of Osirion has some credible long-term sources of wealth and, on the basis of that, can secure short-term loans (once they figure out what to denominate the loans in and get Abadar's approval).

Another part of the problem is that he's unsure that all private citizens will have access to a source of funds. Most people don't own anything or anywhere very interesting, and don't have any art or intellectual labor to sell. Or sex. Well, technically everyone or almost everyone has sex to sell, but he'd rather it not come to that. But everyone has food and shelter now, so he is willing to call this Not A Terribly Urgent Problem for the next few hours at least.

"In that case, can we issue a proclamation that we intend to enable and encourage the buying-out and freeing of all slaves, indentures, and possibly other contracts to be determined later, on the grounds that it is useful and proper for the state to work to remedy long-term contracts which have become economically inefficient and which would be grossly unfair if proposed today?"

That sounds reasonable. Put it on the draft list of decisions.

The Minister for Justice would like Law's and the Crown's opinion on rebalancing all the penalties in law, since fines are now meaningless, as is execution if Raise Dead is now free. Corporal punishment is at least less effective with free Delay Pain and healing, and while the law can prescribe corporal punishment without magical remedy, it seems like a socially undesirable policy because it would benefit people with higher pain tolerance. 

That leaves only exile, which they're probably going to use much more of, and... public shaming, like the stocks? But new penalties can be introduced which were previously unaffordable or unnecessary, most obviously imprisonment in dungeons.

"How urgent is that?"