Weekend World-Building: money!
Sep. 24th, 2016 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alpharaposaAnswering another weekend world-building question, this time about money. What currencies, if any, exist?
The elves don't use a common currency, per se. No coins, and no paper money. What we consider to be precious metals are in common use as the base of many alloys. (Iron is, in fact, rare, and also avoided. This is a realm in Faerie, after all.) Instead, most people use gemstones for trade. Gems are graded by clarity and size for easy reckoning.
Dunny elves provide most of the gems used for trade, but some wift elf families have trees that can be coaxed to grow them. Sunlish elves get theirs through business.
When bargaining, somebody might set a price by number, by size, or by weight. “Five cloudy grains” (small, occluded gemstones the size of a wheat grain), or “A palmful of clear color” (any size of gemstones, so long as they fill the elf’s palm and have no faults) are both easily understood terms.
The elves don't use a common currency, per se. No coins, and no paper money. What we consider to be precious metals are in common use as the base of many alloys. (Iron is, in fact, rare, and also avoided. This is a realm in Faerie, after all.) Instead, most people use gemstones for trade. Gems are graded by clarity and size for easy reckoning.
Dunny elves provide most of the gems used for trade, but some wift elf families have trees that can be coaxed to grow them. Sunlish elves get theirs through business.
When bargaining, somebody might set a price by number, by size, or by weight. “Five cloudy grains” (small, occluded gemstones the size of a wheat grain), or “A palmful of clear color” (any size of gemstones, so long as they fill the elf’s palm and have no faults) are both easily understood terms.
