Jane Williams asks:
>Who mints the coins in Sartar, anyway? Pre-occupation, that is.
Here is my own interpretation of how coinage was used in pre-occupation Sartar, and after:
Before "civilisation" returned to Dragon Pass (it was there during the EWF, and was lost after Dragonkill) in the form of our august Sartar, the various tribes and clans didn't use any coinage on a regular basis. Occasionally, a trader or adventurer would come through with wondrous tales and metal coins, but no one accepted them as currency, merely as curiosities (as we value tokens today). Folks used the barter system when trading goods and services.
Sartar, in his wisdom, brought civilisation to Dragon Pass when he created the cities and the roads. He also brought the need for standard currency. But, folks were slow to accept this change (being good Orlanthi, they have a love/hate thing with change ...). In the cities, coins imported from neighbouring lands were being used by merchants. Boldhome did not mint its own coinage until after Sartar's apotheosis. That's why we have so many names for pre-Lunar coinage, because many types of coins were used.
During Sartar's lifetime, coinage was not used much by the tribes and clans of Dragon Pass. As an example of how he encouraged the use of coins, he paid his mercenaries in the usual way (housing when needed, food, clothing, basic weapons, mount), but gave bonuses in coin. With their basic needs met, the coins were useless to the mercenaries everywhere except in the cities (and in foreign lands). In the cities, the mercenaries could buy better weapons, better food, and so on, and they could also buy strange and exotic things not found in the countryside.
As the mercenaries became the Royal Guard, and as the mercenaries retired or died, many of them (or their families) would still have coins and could trade them with their rural neighbours. If the neighbour was heading for the city, such a trade could be a very good one! Otherwise, it was a poor one ...
Over the years, more of the oeconomy of now-named Sartar became based on the coins, rather than barter. Although folks didn't often need to go to the city, when they did, they needed coins -- the merchants didn't accept goods or services in trade, as a rule. The same was becoming more and more true of the travelling Issaries merchants too.
After the time of Sartar-the-man, the Kings wanted their subjects to know their faces and know their power, so they commissioned coins to be minted with their likenesses on them. The coins, called Sovereigns by the cognoscenti, replaced all foreign coinage, and became the official currency of the Kingdom of Sartar. These coins were made of Gold, Silver, and Copper because those were the metals of the foreign coins everyone was becoming used to. Although a few Kings in later years tried other metals, none remained popular after the King's death. And although the coins had official names, most folks continued to use the names of the foreign coinage: guilder, star, penny, shilling, etc.
After the advent of the Lunar Empire, all Silver coins were replaced by Silver Lunars by official edict. Gold coins were restricted to religious use. Copper coins were allowed. Although you will still see the old silver coins from time to time, no Lunar official will accept them.
After the coming of Argrath, the Kingdom of Sartar once again mints its own coins. The hostility towards the Lunars causes the most patriotic to destroy the Silver Lunars, but so many of them were in circulation throughout Maniria, that they are still fairly common for at least a decade. They are replaced by Silver Sartars ...
Michael
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael C. Morrison Santa Teresa Laboratory Phone (408)463-4706 IMS User Technology IBM Software Solutions Fax (408)463-3696 Lotus Notes ID: MCMORRIS at IBMUSM50 IBMLink: MORRISON_at_TORIBM IBM Mail Exchange: USIB47H4 at IBMMAIL or USIB4MCM at IBMMAIL X.400 Address: G=mcmgm; S=morrison; P=ibmmail; A=ibmx400; C=us - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------
End of Glorantha Digest V4 #238
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