Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Silly economics of DnD
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Mobius" data-source="post: 386206" data-attributes="member: 6124"><p>I agree and I disagree.</p><p></p><p>One of money's jobs is accounting (I did $108 worth of work today, you owe me $20), but its other job is to facilitate trade by 'representing' goods and units of labour in perpetuity - and not just with the original transaction. The cuniform tablets perform the first function of money, but don't perform the second.</p><p></p><p>I'll give you an example to illustrate what I mean: </p><p></p><p>I sell wheat. Joe sells camels. Joe needs wheat now, but his camel herd won't be calving until the spring. He writes an IOU on a tablet, signs it, and I hand over the wheat contingent upon getting 4 camels when the herd calves. The tablet, in this case, has accounted for our transaction, noting it for later reference.</p><p></p><p>Now, I am fed up to the eyeballs with wheat - cream of wheat, wheatballs, wheat bread - so I want to buy some rye instead. I go to Mary who sells rye and she laughs at me because I don't have any more wheat to trade with her. I could try handing her my tablet showing that Joe owes me four camels, but that is simply a promise from Joe to give them to me and not a guarantee that he in fact will. Mary, being astute, tells me to shove off until I have the camels.</p><p></p><p>The tablet, while accounting for physical wealth in a representative form, did not actually perform as *money*, if you get my drift. I could not trade the tablet for goods, as it were. </p><p></p><p>Money, though, you can trade for goods. Honest to goodness money - without any intrinsic value of its own like a silver coin has - didn't really arise until the late medieval period when certain merchants had so much wealth that their 'promises to pay' were so well regarded they could be traded from one person to another without reduction, with only the last person cashing it back in with the original merchants.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mobius, post: 386206, member: 6124"] I agree and I disagree. One of money's jobs is accounting (I did $108 worth of work today, you owe me $20), but its other job is to facilitate trade by 'representing' goods and units of labour in perpetuity - and not just with the original transaction. The cuniform tablets perform the first function of money, but don't perform the second. I'll give you an example to illustrate what I mean: I sell wheat. Joe sells camels. Joe needs wheat now, but his camel herd won't be calving until the spring. He writes an IOU on a tablet, signs it, and I hand over the wheat contingent upon getting 4 camels when the herd calves. The tablet, in this case, has accounted for our transaction, noting it for later reference. Now, I am fed up to the eyeballs with wheat - cream of wheat, wheatballs, wheat bread - so I want to buy some rye instead. I go to Mary who sells rye and she laughs at me because I don't have any more wheat to trade with her. I could try handing her my tablet showing that Joe owes me four camels, but that is simply a promise from Joe to give them to me and not a guarantee that he in fact will. Mary, being astute, tells me to shove off until I have the camels. The tablet, while accounting for physical wealth in a representative form, did not actually perform as *money*, if you get my drift. I could not trade the tablet for goods, as it were. Money, though, you can trade for goods. Honest to goodness money - without any intrinsic value of its own like a silver coin has - didn't really arise until the late medieval period when certain merchants had so much wealth that their 'promises to pay' were so well regarded they could be traded from one person to another without reduction, with only the last person cashing it back in with the original merchants. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Silly economics of DnD
Top