[Glorantha] Re: Rune Magic

[Stephen Tempest]

donald at grove.demon.co.uk (Donald R. Oddy) writes:

>Given that 90% of the population are peasants and they will be
>involved in 90% of the transactions the economy as a whole isn't 
>monetary. Even in the Lunar Empire where some Heartland provinces
>have taxes assessed in coinage they are likely to be paid in goods 
>at the lower levels.

The following information on Anglo-Saxon England in the year 1000 or
so might be interesting to some, since it shows just how far coinage
had penetrated into a society that is generally considered a good
model for certain Gloranthan cultures:

England had approximately 70 licenced mints: basically, one per market
town. (In Sartarite terms, maybe one per tribe, bearing in mind that
Sartar is much smaller than England).  In large urban centres these
mints would be full-time businesses: in smaller settlements, coining
money would be a sideline of the local jeweller.

There were approximately 10 million coins in circulation at any one
time... given that England's population then was a million, that's ten
coins per person, or 50 - 60 per household.  Even if you accept that
wealth distribution was probably grossly uneven, it's still likely
that your average peasant would certainly *recognise* a coin...
probably, five years out of seven he wouldn't actually use any, but in
the good year out of each seven he'd take his surplus crops or
livestock to market and sell them for cash, and on the bad year he'd
have to spend the hoarded money to buy food...

Each coin was issued for a limited period of about two to three years
- the official coin stamp given to licenced moneyers would vary with
each issue.  When new coinage was issued, people would have to return
their old coins to the mint where they would be melted down and
re-coined; normally you would be given 8 - 9 coins back for each 10
you handed in; in effect a 10% or 20% wealth tax.  People accepted
this system, rather than using old coins and just weighing them,
because the government guaranteed the purity of the silver used in the
coins. (Moneyers using too much alloy and not enough silver in their
coins would have their hands chopped off and nailed above the door of
the mint).

Stephen