Vietnamese "Paper Money" Tech?

[TheCaravel]

What's exactly is the point of this technology? It only tributes 500 gold to allies only, and it cannot be used multiple times...

[TheBattler]

The Vietnamese player gets 500 Gold out of it, too.

Food is way more plentiful than Gold. If you have one ally, then you are essentially exchanging 800 of a less valuable resource for a net (1000 -200) 800 of a more valuable resource. If you have four allies, for example, you and your teammates have gained 1800 Gold in exchange for 800 Food, which is a very, very good bargain. You and your allies can then coordinate the gained Gold to someone else who can better use it.

In 1v1s, it's still useful if it's late game, Gold has run out, and the Market trade is 100 Food for 37.5 Gold or below.

[The Very Hungry Caterpillar]

Its a really weird tech that is similar to the card system in AOE3. The card system doesn't fit well with AOE2'S design and Paper Money, which functions similar to said system, never should have existed in the first place.

[{FU}TheForgeryTTV]

It can be used to generate (additional) trade carts to produce more gold, or even 5 monks/missionaries to convert enemy trade carts.

Otherwise, I do think it's a wierd tech to research since most of the time, it's faster to just sell surplus resources.