A type of low-power yet very functional magic is common enough that the kingdom's economy is based entirely on a common...

A type of low-power yet very functional magic is common enough that the kingdom's economy is based entirely on a common magical ingredient, rather than silver or gold.

What is tippyverse?

Should I Google it or would you tell me?

Funny you should ask, there's literally a thread about this right now.

>tippyverse
>low power
>having an economy at all

There's a screencap I want to post in response to this, but sadly I don't have it saved.
The common magic reagent is gold.

If gold is so common, why're all the alchemists struggling to make it?

Lyrium?

> the kingdom's economy is based entirely on a common magical ingredient, rather than silver or GOLD.
> The common magic reagent is GOLD.

Eh wot.

If magic uses gold, and you use magic to make gold (alchemy), there's three possible scenarios.

1) You lose more gold to magic than the gold you gain with the transmutation, so it's a waste of time.
2) You break even, so it's a waste of time.
3) You gain MORE gold than what you put in to transmute it, so you fuck up the universe.

Gold and silver are good currency because they have no practical use

A valuable neccesity makes poor currency

Not if everyone's a wizard (then you meet with the "eating money" problem) - but what if only, say, one in so and so is a wizard but their services are completely essential to the functioning of society? It's like being paid in replicator rations and the wizard is the replicator, and the rations are the ingredients he'll use to provide you with essential magical services.

Acquiring a natural resource doesn't equal synthesizing it.

You can pick up a gold nugget, making gold requires nuclear fusion.

Bitcoins

>common magical ingredient

Oil?

It's semen isn't it? It's always semen.

What is Ankh-Mopork by the end of discworld?

Their money is based on the theoretical labour of thousands of buried golems

This one perhaps?

That is EXACTLY the one I was thinking of.

Uh oh. Their value derives from their inherent rarity (making forging them difficult) and that gold and silver crafts are luxury goods. Even though they were not practical in day to day living, that is not what made them the currency for mercantilist economies.

Ever heard of beaver hides in North American history? They were used extensively as a currency. According to wikipedia, one male beaver skin (known as a Made Beaver) was worth 8 knives or 1 kettle.

There's also salt, used a lot in food preservation and was once a currency in Mediterranean trade.

And cacao beans, in some parts of South America.

Wasn't that a myth?

>A type of low-power yet very functional magic is common enough that the kingdom's economy is based entirely on a common magical ingredient, rather than silver or gold.

Oil?

Yeah, but people still don't actually use oil as currency. You don't buy your groceries with so and so milliliters of gasoline.

>Yeah, but people still don't actually use oil as currency.

Was that what op's statement was about?
I read it more as that's what their economy revolved around or that was the big item they were passing not necessarily using it as currency.

No, yeah, it'd be stupid using a magical reagent as currency.
Trading raw-reagents for other goods would make sense, but just flat out reaching into your pocket to pull out -material- would be silly.

...

The lack of practical economic value (and the relatively large amount of it in the ancient middle east) is why ancient Sumeria used gold and silver for their granary tokens, making it possibly one of the first (but definitely in the top 3) currencies where a representation of the item of value was traded, rather than the item itself (goods, foodstuffs, labor).

Back to OP, don't use a single magical ingredient as the backing material, use multiple to prevent massive inflation and deflation from a cabal of producers playing games with the market.

>dust
>low power
>magic

>endless series
>low power

You need to hand over your T1 melee glassteel weapon you mindless necrophage

Modern currency does not reflect medieval currency. The modern dollar is a fictitious currency that is based on the value of goods. It used to be directly related to the value of gold. The concept of coins of precious metal is that the currency is not fictitious, the value is intrinsic to the coin itself. A one dollar silver coin would contain one dollar worth of silver. That being said, oil still wouldn't be used as a currency in a non fictitious economy as its value per weight and volume is two low. Imagine having to carry around a milk jug of gasoline to buy a loaf of bread.

What if it's something like the Dust from -
Nvm.

>what is ICE
>what is oil

Metallic standards didn't actually exist until the modern era
Barter is a myth
The value of coins was arbitrary and subject to change even the next hill over. Venice was, for a while, unable to convince the rest of Europe to accept its gold coinage.

>imblying
Not only inherent value of silver or gold in medieval times wasn't a thing (there were very little things you could do with the metals except for showing your wealth), and the amount of silver in it varied considerably. Prague groschen in 1300 had 3.527g silver. In 1500 - 1.255g. All the same coin.