User blog:Blackendedsoul/Law's Bounty and the World Government's Treasury!

Ahoy,

It’s me again, Blackened D. Soul, better known to you as Blackendedsoul or just Soul. Anyways, I would not waste time today by beating around the bush which I normally do in other blog discussions of mine. Just not in the same mood. So let’s get down to business!

Like the title says, this blog is to discuss about Law’s bounty and the wealth of the World Government. After the latest chapter came out, in many blogs, the first issue (Law’s bounty) has been discussed to death. Still, I do have something new to say. Have patience and you will find that out. As for the wealth of the World Government, some users have brought up that issue in various comment threads that how can the World Government afford to pay or to be more precise set these super high bounties (pay would not be a good choice of word, as not many high bounty heads actually got caught in the story so far). In other words it’s a question about the wealth of the World Government.

 Well, first discussing Law’s Bounty: 

Trafalgar Law, who currently is a Shichibukai, was introduced as a Supernova and at that time had a bounty of 200 million beli. It is currently unknown as to how he received that high price on his head but it was hinted that he was extremely brutal and blood thirsty (which earned him the epithet “Surgeon of Death”).

After the time-skip, we see him as a Shichibukai who has a FORMER bounty of 440 million beli, the highest confirmed amount shown by far in the series (did anyone notice that there is something funny here? Pre-time-skip, the highest bounty was the former bounty of Donquixote Doflamingo who is also a Shichibukai – thus the bounty was inactive and it was exactly a 100 million less than Law’s bounty; but that is another issue).

Now people are contemplating whether this bounty of Law is a bit too high and that also brings the thought as to how he received this immense sum on his head. Now here is the thing what made me write this blog. Most people are saying that he should not have a bounty higher than Luffy for just sending a 100 pirate hearts to the Head Quarters. Well here is the thing; he did NOT get his price for that particular act!

Remember Blackbeard? He was a Shichibukai, how did he get the title? Of course he had to accomplish something in order to receive the prize (title in this case). That something was capturing Ace, now the question is, was a price put to his head because he captured Ace? Hell no! That was the reason he got the title not a bounty. In case of Law it’s the same, the marines of Smoker’s party said that he sent a 100 pirate hearts to the Head Quarters to GET THE SHICHIBUKAI TITLE which means he did not receive an increment of bounty for that endeavor.

As for what made him to be wanted that much by the government, it is as of yet unknown. The only known action which could make his bounty rise is the fact that he helped Jinbe and Luffy to escape from Marineford. However that is not that big of an issue which could make it (the bounty) this high (440 million) but, we have to remember another event, he actually was involved in the Tenryubito incident, (the three crews which were named guilty for it was the Strawhat crew – the main culprit, the Kid Pirates and the Heart Pirates and as the Captain of Heart Pirates, he must have gained some boost in notoriety, don’t forget that he also fought against the marines and a Pacifista) so that gives him two known reasons for an increase in bounty.

However, considering Luffy already had a higher bounty that him at the time of the Tenryubito incident (and also it was Luffy who actually beat the Celestial Dragon up) as well as the atrocities Luffy committed in Impel Down and in the Marineford war does pale Law’s deeds. But, Luffy was not active for two whole years, which has to be taken into account, two years is a long time and Law could have done some really terrible (from both World Government’s and a general point of view) acts to climb up on the wanted list. If you look back, you would see that it does not take long time to increase your notoriety in the One Piece world (the Strawhats gained all their reputation in less than a year). Therefore I don’t see any problem with the former bounty of Law being as high as it is.

Now for the issue of World Government’s sources and ability to put and if needed pay off the bounties, I think this is something which is a rather boring topic. Just how much money are we talking about? Say there are 1000 criminal with a bounty of over a hundred million, and let’s say that the average of their bounty ends up to be 300 million each (which is a huge over estimate in my opinion, hope you would agree). Then the total sum would be 300 million multiplied by 1000 equals to 300 billion beli. (I think everyone would agree that in case of an actual calculation involving the actual data, the sum would be less than this). So we are talking about 0.3 trillion beli.

If you look at the value of beli, it is similar to that of Yen (I think most people will agree). Now just look at the economy of a rich nation of our world, say Japan for instance as Oda hails from there and also Yen is their currency. I checked in the internet, Japan’s budget request for the year of 2011/12 is 96.7 trillion yen. I think that gives you an idea of a nation’s wealth. I know that One Piece world is different, but its size seems roughly similar to our world (if not larger). For instance, a barren county like Arabasta alone has a population of 10 million. The World Government is an organization that has control over not only one but more than 170 nations and you think they cannot afford a measly 0.3 trillion beli? Preposterous!

I know most won’t read a blog that is this long, but I wrote what I thought was needed to be written. I welcome valid criticism and arguments. Thank you. 23:05, March 11, 2012 (UTC)