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Money in Orlanthi Society


azrooh

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 Well one thing Magic could be used for is detecting if a letter of credit is real or not.

 I bring a note from the Casino Town bank that States it worth 1000 wheels and try to trade it in at the Issaries  Temple in Prax. People can use magic to detect if the note is real and did I steal it if it is. Of course I will still have to pay a large handling fee , but then I did not have to take a large sum of money across the waste of Prax.

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On 3/27/2017 at 10:21 PM, Jon Hunter said:

Darius,

What constitutes a modern bank in technical terms  and what constitutes a bank in common parlance relating to an ancient or mythic world are probably two different things.

I think most readers would be happy to understand the process of deposits, credit, money changing and interest to constitute something which could be described as banking.  5 mins on wiki gives us this as the opening line.

Look, it all sounds like that to a layman, but it really isn't the case.  You probably think that a bank is a place that stores money and lends it at interest.  That simply isn't the case, that's money lending, and I promise you I am not splitting hairs but discussing a fine point of institutional history that had a major knock-on effect with global consequences.  A money lender is not a banker, though they seem superficially similar.  Why?  Because Money lenders don't engage in credit creation and use compound interest. Banking literally triggered the Renaissance, financed the exploration and colonization of the world, financed the growth of European industry, and pushed European technical achievement to the point where it overtook even China, despite China having technical supremacy since the fall of the Roman Empire.  More importantly, it wasn't large countries that obtained these benefits, but small ones.  It may seem like a small point, but it is a pivotal point for world history.  To give you a weapon analogy, it is like you are calling a flintlock a machinegun because it has a mechanism which might charitably be called a machine and appears superficially similar to look at because they have a barrel, a stock and a trigger.  Glorantha as a whole has money lenders and money changers, not banks.  As I have said elsewhere I think the Jrusteli and the Vadeli probably had or have banks, and there is a fair chance that Goldgotti may understand what happens financially at Casino Town and will talk Argrath into letting him set up a similar system.  That stroke of the quill will sign the death warrant of the Lunar Empire if real world history is anything to go by, magic or no magic.

Edited by Darius West
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20 hours ago, Jeff said:

Bladesharp lasts 2 minutes, so even if you can cast it on a plough (which you can't), it doesn't last long enough to be much use.

Easy, just cast Mobility on the oxen as well :)

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Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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On 3/25/2017 at 6:55 PM, azrooh said:

Specifically in rural areas. I figure in most pre-modern rural areas exchange would be handled on an informal system of credit ('I'll scratch your back now, but expect me to ask you to scratch mine later'), but then most pre-modern rural areas don't have a god of commerce - much less a god of commerce that holds weekly markets.

How do you handle this in your Glorantha?

In canon Glorantha, Orlanthi measure wealth in cattle, swords are so epensive as to be family heirlooms and nobody sees coin except to pay taxes, baretering for everything.

When I play, I cannot be bothered haggling ot bartering. If I want to play hillbarry hicks who have heard of these coin things, fair enough, but normally I don't.

The Issaries cult has had coins for a long while. Orlanthi are used to using coins. They might not like using Lunar coinage and prefer to call them Guilders, but they use coins.

Prices are in coins, weapons and equipment are in coins, magic is bought and sold in coins, potions and training are available in coins. Why would I want the hassle of bartering? "I want to buy a healing potion", "OK, it will cost you one month of service", "What, one month is too much, I can offer you a broken head of Mostal instead", "OK, we have a deal", "Thanks, now, what about some basilisk venom antidote?". Not for me, bartering is OK once in a while, as a roleplaying treat, but that would bore me to tears every time I wanted to buy something.

Credit Notes in my Glorantha go through the Issaries Temple and Issaries divination is enough to work out whether it is valid or not. Easy peasy, no need to make in complicated as it is just a game. If you want problems then offer a Lokarnos Credit Note in an Argan Argar temple.

Cult credit acts as a form of savings, which you can use to pay for training and magic. I can see Issaires extending this to non-worshippers, moving money between temples for a fee. The ransoms are a form of credit note, really, you pay money to the ransomers and get a piece of paper in return that says "Don't kill me and you can collect a thousand silvers fron the ransomers".

Money is just easier to use and work with than cattle and bartering.

 

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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I keep thinking things and seeing them in print before I get the chance to post them... :)

The KT was the first thing to come to mind when we got to banking.  Frankly, I don't care what you call it, dealing with cultures as ancient as Gloranthan ones moneylending and -changing is enough for me.

Really interesting stuff that has lots of import for defining societies in the game.  As was also said previously, with what other RPG would you see at once such detailed and important analysis that helps to visualize the experience of the world?  (Although, to be fair, I could see EPT/Tekumel following along similar lines.)

Too many posts to like 'em all.  Nice job, folkses.

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