Patreon Insights: An Introduction to Commerce

Hello! As I said at the end of yesterday's Insight I'm going to be pacing myself with future Insights. I may have gone a bit overboard with the magic series, so hopefully this will be a little bit more digestible. As for what I'll be covering today, I'll be looking at commerce. Specifically, we'll be looking into Midiran currency and some of the more standard trade practices of the Azure Flame Alliance (Llen Færa, Særis, and Ferran).

As for which of these I'll be looking at first, let's go with coin; a subject which I'm sure is dear to many of our hearts. In Llen Færa we have four different coin denominations that are in widespread commercial use. First we have the copper penny. For the vast majority of people, this is the smallest denomination of currency worth thinking about as it's enough to buy a filling meal or two if you know where to look. Halfpennies do exist, but at that point, most people resort to bartering as a more practical form of trade.

Next we have the bronze coin which is more commonly called a bronze wheat as it is how much the average farmhand earns in a week. A bronze wheat is worth ten copper pennies. Continuing on ten bronze wheat will net you one silver link and ten silver links will get a gold crowns. As you can see, I opted for a decimal system because miss me with irregular bases for currency. Like I understand how the black magic that is the imperial system came to be, but currency?

Anyway, moving swiftly on, the silver link gets its name from being shaped almost like a link and the idea for it comes from one of the names for Llen Færa, or more accurately the area as a whole; the chain of fire (Avan in Fær). This name is in turn derived from the fact that Llen Færa (which itself translates to Isle of Flame) is accompanied by a chain of smaller volcanic islands.

Gold crowns are named because Llen Færa is at the heart of the nation and is the seat of the crown. Most people will only see a couple of crowns in their life times at most.

Now for all intents and purposes, Særis and Ferran use the same system. There are a few variances in the names, purities and perceived value, but you won't need to worry about any of that. I'll probably make a few nods to it, but currency is largely interchangeable between each nation. I'm not writing Spice and Wolf or a story about economics, after all.

Still, this does touch on what trade is like across the three nations. Due to the various trade agreements that are in place, there aren't any heavy tariffs placed on goods that are traded between each nation. This allows for fairly open market and has turned the alliance into an economic powerhouse that is able to stand against the Ru'eni empire.

And as promised, I will stop myself here before I go into wider trade relations or taxes. If you want me to touch on those topics in the future, let me in the comments below.