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Re: (TFT) Jobs table: 100,000 simulated soldiers and farmers



While modern economic theory as we know makes for interesting discussion, it has no meaning at all in a medieval society, or pseudo-medieval / Dark Ages society where TFT takes place. There's very little specialization of labor, the economy is 'poor' by our standards, and no one actually understands anything about theory altho supply and demand have some bearing (as has been pointed out, the biggest pile of gold can't buy a sword where there is none). Also, there's no free market and no price tags - everything is done by haggling. If there's such a thing as a "market" at all, it would be tightly controlled and manipulated by interested parties (guilds, nobility, etc) and the cost of transportation drastically raises 'price' since everything is carried or transported by very slow wagons on very poor roads (marked pairs of ruts, really). Most people grow their own food, or most of it, and trade with their neighbors for whatever additional items they might want. Women weave cloth for their families. Most people own two tunics, one for dirty work and one that is 'best', which might never see the light of day until there was a wedding.

If you'd like to read something about these times, you might consider the many works of the Gies, husband and wife, wrote many books on specific aspects of medieval society, like towns, feudal system, etc. It's extremely difficult to get our heads wrapped around how these people lived unless any of us have lived in an african village for a few years (and even there it's not a closed system anyway)

My honest opinion is that for the purpose of something like TFT, you should just manipulate the 'economic system' as you wish for the purposes of dramatic effect and the storyline. There's no point in trying to make an 'objective' economic system, it has no meaning in this context.

-----Original Message----- From: Joey Beutel
Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2011 7:35 AM
To: tft@brainiac.com
Subject: Re: (TFT) Jobs table: 100,000 simulated soldiers and farmers

Still, making too much surplus isn't good (and it will  drive up your
prices, though having no wait could be nice for some  more commonly
sold items).
Too much surplus drives prices down, not up.
Right, but if you are just making a few extra things here and there,
wouldnt' that increase their price, as they are paying more for not
having to wait to get whatever item you are selling? Basically, you
are beating the competition in service, so you got to make a bit
more....



So lets say that old Bilbo has gone on his adventure, dealt with  Smaug,
but the battle of the Five Armies never happened. So these guys are
sitting on a mountain of treasure and the >nearest settlement is Dale.Gold is
fixing to become very cheap in Dale in that scenario.

Probably not.  Within the context of the whole of Middle Earth, gold  is
still a valuable commodity... unless they get so much gold that it ruins it (like for the Spanish in real life, to an extent), which would need to be a
LOT  relative to how much was in Middle Earth before, the effect  isn't to
make gold cheap in Dale, per se, its to make Dale rich- EVERYTHING will be cheap, given how wealthy everyone is (cept, of course, they dont' all get the
gold, as I recall).

Mansa Musa of Mali went on hajj to Mecca, he devaluated gold for 12  years
in Egypt and in what is now Saudi Arabia. Price on goods super- inflated as a
result of his generosity and wealth.
Yeah, but if anyone from Egypt went to France, or wherever, they'd
still be rich. Its just like how in America, everything (basic
commodities) is more expensive, but more people are richer than in a
third world country... we rarely think of America as poor, however, in
part because when trading outside the US, they have more relative money.

But, of course, prices will rise in Egypt, or Dale.

If your campaign is getting unbalanced, 1 way to right things is to  make
taxes and fees and tithes. Then tinker with your economics by introducing a change at Court off-stage. Another thing that medieval kings also did was to
recall the currency and devaluate it. This was hard on the economy  but it
is a  way to raise prices realistically.



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