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"Money
indeed may be considered as the most universal and expressive of
all languages. For gold and silver coins are no more money when
not in the actual process of being voluntarily used in purchase,
than words not so in use are language.
Crown, penny, and
farthing are recognized covenanted tokens, the outward and
visible signs of an inward and spiritual purchasing power, but
till in actual use they are only potential money, as the symbols
of language, whatever they may be, are only potential language
till they are passing between two minds.
It is the power and
will to apply the symbols that alone gives life to money, and as
long as they are in abeyance, the money is in abeyance also; the
coins may be safe in one’s pocket, but they are as dead as a log
till they begin to burn in it, and so are our words till they
begin to burn within us."
- Grendel the Wise, Keeper of the
Library of Evermist
"On Economics"
 
In the ancient past, wealth and commodities were
either taken from the weak by the strong or, in more civilized
fashion, exchanged through trade and barter. And although trade
and barter is still used in some cultures in Ithria, it is
limited. Trade and barter become complex and unwieldy when too
many variables such as the variety of commodities, availability
of goods and the needs of the people are involved.
Barter is a means of direct exchange of one good
for another. The use of money creates an indirect exchange. A
farmer spends money to buy a wagon. This common transaction is
easy to understand. What is not ordinarily noticed is that the
person who sells the wagon for money is at the same time using
the wagon to buy money, which is no more than a substitute for
all possible products and services.
No one knows exactly when the first money was
used. Most scholars accept as true that the long-lost
elves whose ruins dot the landscape used money, but of this
there is no concrete proof. It is known that the dwarves
were using currency when mankind was little more than savages
cowering in caves.
Humans first came to use true money during the
dawning of the now-fallen Samarkh empire (which once ruled all
of the land south of the Sea of Horses), roughly 7,000 years
ago. Before then, barter was the only economy.
However, people who wanted to trade goods and services gradually
realized that exchange would be easier if there were some single
commodity that everyone would accept as valuable.
There are many things that might work as money,
but above them all, there is one thing that all cultures
consider valuable: precious metals. Gold, silver, and
copper are all valued for their beauty, the multitude of uses to
which they can be put, and most importantly they are highly
regarded because of their scarcity. Since gold is the scarcest,
it is more highly valued than the other two; most nations use
silver as their primary exchangeable medium.
While there are substances in Taranche that are
much more rare and are more highly prized by all cultures, most
are too rare to work as a ready and recognizable currency. When
such substances do become available, they can command exorbitant
prices.
Gold and silver have advantages over other kinds
of goods. First, they have universal purchasing power. That is,
everyone agrees they are valuable. Second, they can be molded
into a variety of sizes and shapes to stand for a variety of
different values. Third, they are very durable; they will not
rust or decay; they can be stored for long periods of time.
Fourth, since even small amounts of these metals are valuable,
it is easy to carry them around.
Currency is a complicated subject, made more
complicated by the fact that most nations agree that currency in
one form or another is necessary , but cannot agree on a
standard. It is for this reason that there is such diversity in
the manner in which nations store and use their wealth. What
follows is a description of the major systems of currency in use
from the most prominent to the least.
Some
Basic Rules About Money
Silver Standard: Taranche operates
on the silver standard. This means that your starting
money will be quoted to you in silver pieces.
System Standard: Unless otherwise
specified, all money and accounting will use the Imperial
System, as detailed below.
Starting Money: Each
character beings with an amount of silver pieces equal to his
total point cost. Players may take less than this amount
at their discretion. In addition, GMs may increase this
amount depending on the needs of their campaign.
The
Imperial System
The Imperial system
is perhaps the most widespread currency system in the Young
Kingdoms; Imperial coins are still being minted and exchanged in
the Border Kingdoms, the Broken Kingdom, Soravia, Tyressel,
Beurenist, Goertha.
The Imperial system
is a very formalized and mathematical decimal structure designed
for Imperial economic culture. The coins are all
standardized and there is little variation on purity of the
metals or weight of the coins.
1 gold consalte = 10 silver
predes = 100 copper pisantes
Imperial coins are
about the same size and weight as an American quarter.
Each coin has a hole in its center, through which is run a thin
metal rod. The usual length of such rods is such as to
hold 100 coins. Such a system aids in sorting, counting and transportation. Each
type of coin has a differently shaped hole to prevent
intermixing of coins: consaltes have triangular holes, predes
have square holes, and pisantes have octagonal holes.
The
Lemenari System
The currency used by
the people of the Lemenar Archipelago is perhaps the second-most
widespread type of currency, if only because the Lemenari trade
nearly everywhere. You can find Lemenari coins as far
inland as Bor Aladorna. The Lemenari system has been in
use for almost 800 years.
1 gold drokmire = 5 silver genai
= 100 copper drenth
Lemenari coins are
small, averaging the same size and weight as an American dime.
The
EasterSea System
The third most
widespread system of coinage is the so-called EasterSea System.
Through centuries of interkingdom trade, Soravia, Calafia,
Gallesgna, and Keleven have developed a unified and coherent
currency system.
1 gold crown (c) = 10 silver pennies
(p) = 20 copper farthings (f)
These coins often
end up in neighboring nations.
The
Jarisian System
Unique among the
various peoples of the Young Kingdoms, the Jaris use paper
money. Called dinars, these bills of credit are
painstakingly created by talented craftsmen using printing-press
technology (a technological secret which has not yet found its
way to the wider world). Each Jarisian kingdom prints its
own currency, and each bill carries the signature of the King,
his picture, and his seal. The bills are printed in 1, 10,
100, and 1000 dinar values. Dinars are considered utterly
worthless outside of their native lands. Some, however,
can be found in the purses of the more well-to-do Beurenisti and
sometimes in the Border Kingdoms.
The
Dwarven System
Dwarves cling stubbornly to tradition, which is
how this system of currency has remained unchanged for thousands
of years. Raw iron forms the backbone of dwarven currency.
A dwarf plucks his own wealth from the ground with his own
hands. Purified iron is used as wealth based on weight. This
follows the dwarven belief that hard work is rewarded and the
lazy should go hungry.
Beyond mining iron from the ground as wealth,
dwarves use large and decorative coins. The krona is a
large copper coin with intricate etchings. It is the least
valuable and most common coin. A kegran is a large
silver coin with an embedded jewel, usually a ruby or emerald.
A mourin is a highly decorative golden disk about seven inches
in diameter. A mourin is etched with runes and simple images and
is almost always crusted with small gems. A mourin is more like
a small work of art than a coin. Many dwarves specialize in the
manufacture of these items. Others pay for them with raw iron.
1 mourin = 7 kegran = 49 krona
While dwarven currency is prized in many nations
for the materials and workmanship that go into them, the dwarves
themselves care little for the money of other nations and
usually melt such coins down for the metal.
Mixed
Economies
Many nations, because of their nature or
geography, conduct trade with many other cultures. These include
Dentraver, the cities of the Lost Coast, the Frontier cities,
the Free Cities, Povero, and Last Point. These nations,
for various reasons, accept virtually all currencies, either at
face value or for the base weight of the metal in their make.
Many of these nations allow trade and barter right along side
the various currencies. So, a citizen of Dentraver might pay for
goods with silver predes, copper pennies, or even a chicken.
Such an unorganized system might seem unstable, but in practice,
such systems tend to balance themselves due to internal economic forces.
Trade and Barter
Some societies exist using nothing more than
barter, tempered by tradition, custom, and common law.
Such societies include the Chayk, Rostok, and Nerulk barbarians,
the Aateni, the people of Alebron Island, and the goblin tribes.
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