>Sandy, you are wrong. 100% markup is waaaay too high - we are almost into
>"fiduciary currency" territory with that sort of markup (a fiduciary
>currency is a currency that whose agreed value is higher than it's
>intrinsic value - ie a modern US dollar)
>[deleted evidence of 5 to 15% profit.]
Were they making a profit calculated on the basic value of the metal or calculated on the coins produced?
>If people really want, I will dig up more extensive references but just
>trust me when I say a 100% markup is pure fantasy for a pre-modern
>currency vis a vis price in metal.
Hmm, there may be a slight confusion. I understood the coining into the doubling of value to refer to the basic value of the metal. From the markup (the 100% in dispute) the coiner recieves, he has to fund his workers and equipment (and probably pay of the government for the right to coin money!). The amount left over (5 to 15%) would be the profit which the coiner would recieve to fund a lifestyle to which he is accustomed. It's not mentioned in the rulebook but RQ was written for the adventurer in mind, not the preindustrial economicist.
Admitedly the Lokarnos Merchant can cast 'Coin Metal' eliminating Hoi Polloi artisans but then he has to pray to the Celestail Wagon for so many days before he can get the spell back, time which could be profitably spent on trading and so forth.
David Dunham:
I wrote
>>At the Dawn, tho, what use would a Humathi have for
>>money? Cows are out as a substitute for the geases as it would require
>>widespread cattle-raiding for the Humathi clans.
>Yeah, so? There probably _was_ widespread cattle-raiding.
True. I was thinking they went into sacrificing moo-cows after the Swords became sick and tired of being stabbed in the belly-button every HHD. To avoid wasting their own cows, they went into nicking other people's cows for the sacredotal abbatoir. Later on, the Humathi dispensed with the need to sacrifice the cattle. Then the ducks (cf Eric's tale) transmuted this into a general tithe.
>I think far more likely is that the original Humathi geases are quite
>different from the ones known today. We're talking 1500 years.
And I suggested a possible geas which might have survived, (not neccesarily attached to the same gift, mind you) to filfull a specific cultic need (ie the sowrds to pay an excessive tithe). Similar archaic pratices have survived for long periods of time (Jewish circumcision etc)
Stephen Stair:
I proposed
>> I propose the Geas originally dealt with giving blood in return for the
>> gift.
>Would make the day AFTER Humakt's HHD a really good day to attack
>Humakti troops.
Not really. Only a few would be affected (ie only those stup^H^H^H^Hfanatical enough to also have the geas 'accept no magical healing').
>Also, other tithes go somewhere. (MPs to Humakt, money to heirarchy, etc..)
>Where does the the blood go?
I had an idea that it originally might have gone to feed the dead swords to keep them intelligent (a la greek ideas on shades in hell - somewhere in Greek myth). The Chief Priest could then ask the shades whatever questions he needed. I presume they now give it to the temple spirits to whet their appetite?
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