Running a Campaign without Currency

[Mark]

Mark, this could be similar to the feudal japanese system. I believe that a koku is defined as the amount of rice required to feed a peasant family for a year. Bottom line is that you effectively have a currency at that point, since abstracting this piece of metal to be worth that bag of rice is the short next step.

John

I see. So at some point these "pledges" for goods do not take place immediately, become written down on paper (for their records) and then effectively become currency?

 

[Greybar]

Mark,

I don't have the historical economics background to say that is exactly the way that Japan moved, but yes that's my understanding.

I'll give you another cultural example. I was recently reading a book on the development of numbers (and eventually abstract math) and that's pretty much the way the Sumerian path went. I'll try to make it brief. (FAIL!)

The shepherd wants to make sure he hasn't lost any livestock. As the sheep come back into the enclosure from grazing, he moves a pebble from one stack to another. A black one for a ram, a white one for an ewe. If all of the animals are back, then all of the stones will have been moves from the first stack to the second.

Now the shepherd wants to sell livestock. He and the buyer count (using the stones) as the animals to be sold are ushered out of the enclosed. The shepherd then gives the stones of the sold animals as a proof and token of exactly what was sold. This is all effectively pre-numbers so to speak.

Generations later, a Sumerian wraps black and white stones into a clay "folder" to designate the contract. Later yet, two kinds of marks that designate black and white stones (and thus rams and ewes) are inscribed on the clay. Those later become expressions of value for taxation, inheritance, etc.

well okay, enough of the math history. I now return you to your regularly scheduled discussion.

John