Editing Running Sheet Relmopator (section)

==='''Convo with Tesara about Money and Trade in Adagalasck'''===

"Money... In my limited travels I have seen a number of monetary systems. Gold based, silver based, Gem based, Dorna tells me Dreana has a wood based one. I've seen large and small barter systems. In general, a monetary systems works when someone with goods sets the price for their goods, and someone else provides currency or goods that the seller agrees is equally worthy. That is Buying Stuff & Selling stuff in a nutshell. In general, as you know, this world has a gem based economy."

"These people see the arrangement reversed. The seller states they have goods and services for sale, the buyer tells them how much they can pay. The seller can then agree or decline but the problem is there is no set price. I've seen two buyers, side by side, purchase the same amount of the same food stuffs and pay different amounts. When I asked why, I was told by one that she only had 3 of the small white gems, while the other had 5, and the butcher prefers the white stones. The same stuff was about one green stone. But then I saw 3 green stones buying a large tankard of beer.  The rate is what the seller can part with as fair for any good. While that's interesting its hell on thieves."

"Also, many of the sellers do not watch over their wares. I've seen knife merchants up north lay out a table of knives, hand axes, carving tools, and knickknacks, then leave for the day. They come back at night to collect their gem bowls and put their stock away. Once goods are set out for sale, thieves don't touch them... bizarre."

"That was all up in Northwind but the same seems to work here. The problem you are going to have is that you essentially have endless gems. They will expect you to pay a lot more for things. There does not seem to be a correlation between gems. It's not 100 copper is 10 silver is 1 gold. Its not 50 garnets equals 5 amethysts equals 1 diamond. There is no relative value.  It seems merchants let it be known which stones they find prettiest and which ugliest, and that means they will take less of the pretty stones or more of the ugly stones for their goods and services. This works for a bowl of soup, a keg of beer, or a family farm. Now, you can't buy a farm for 5 garnets no matter how much the owner likes garnets, but the relative values change rapidly. Most people here carry a pouch with a small number of different gems."

"Oh... one other thing. Cutpurses are a staple of thieves guilds across Shadow. They are ubiquitous. Not here. Thieves her might steal goods, they might knock someone down and steal their shoes. But they will not steal a gem pouch. It's not that it's against the law, it's that their hands won't do it. I asked about it up north and the thief looked at me like I was an Azcalan with a glass knife walking into the room.."

"This concept means that the Orc raiders are not gathering gems. Gold, Silver, copper are artisan metals with no commercial value except that people tend to pay more gems for gold then silver, and silver then copper, which in a regular universe would have created a gold based economy thousands of years ago. But it didn't. Thieves steal Art. But they don't steal gems. Art objects here rarely have gems mounted ornamentaly. There are masterful Gemcutters here and they cut gems in many different ways, many artistically, but they have retail value by weight, not artistic skill. I think Fisk might cut his wrists if he had to live his whole life here." 

"It makes me wonder what some of these groups are fighting over? Rich farm land? Good harbors? Some other aesthetic we don't understand? Bragging rights? Honor? Feuds? I don't know. It's perplexing." 

"Oh, and to make my eyes itch more, I watched two merchants trade equal numbers of stones with each other because one had gathered 100 blue stones, despite not liking them and the other had gained 100 white stones despite him not liking them! They traded 1 for 1!"