'Towers of Midnight' progress bar

[Majsju]

You are confusing Amadacia with Tarabon. There is nothing cool about high crowned hats. A fez on the other hand... ;D

[Dida]

What this means is that other less affluent nations try to cheat by having lighter coins. That is why merchants weigh the coins they receive.

 

  Or it could be that the Merchants and Traders of those lighter coin States have 'less value added' products to trade internationally?  Lacking Ironworks, Dyes, Mines, Farm products, Timber exports?  Andor's commerce has long arms & good transport next to two main rivers, while Amadicia lacks access to a single long river like the Erinin, Manetherendrelle.  Water transportation is cheaper than Road transportation.  Or Amadicia/Altara/Murandy might have decided to follow a trade strategy similar to the 1970-1980's era Japan as administrated by MITI?  Or they have might have possibly used 'currency depreciation' to remain some what competitive in foreign markets, as Italy & Greek basically did in the pre-Euro days.     

 

 

  If Amadicia was a stronger State it should not have lost half of its former territory years ago, when it was once called "Kharendor".  Ditto for Tarabon, more lost territory compared when it was called "Balasun" years prior.  Ditto for Altara, losing lands & control years ago compared to nation called "Shiota".  Andor on the other hand grew in territory, and now includes parts of seven different former States under one ruler and leadership: Khodomar, Shandalle, Caembarin, Nerevan, Esandara, Aldeshar, Farashelle.     

 

 

 

  Amadicia was a weak State to begin with, to let the Children become the de facto leadership years ago.  Something the Children were not able to achieve anywhere else, even a weak Altara survived their influence for the most part.

 

 

Also, it doesn't get you lynched in Amadicia.

 

Of course, a nation whose main export is fundamentalism is probably not your first choice to go for some shopping ;D

 

  A nation who's main export might be former Whitecloaks as slave labors, probably would be a poor choice.  Yet unless your a farmer looking for supposedly cheap labor, who might end  up killing the farmer?  Who is working the fields of those new forkroot farms, right? 

 

  Or maybe a woman looking for a husband or mate to be, are coming Amadicia now?  Which is what basically Egeanin once did on the island of Cantorin, when she purchased Bayle at a high price from the slave block.

 

 

[CUBAREY]

Or it could be that the Merchants and Traders of those lighter coin States have 'less value added' products to trade internationally?

 

That does not explain the reason why Traders and Merchants need to weigh the coins.

 

 

Also your comparison of Andor, Altara, etc. is somewhat misleading. Andor, etc. are modern states, Shiota etc. are ancient states whose demise had very little to do with trade (most disappered during or after the Trollic Wars or fell to Arthur Hawking).

[Knobs Mahoney]

The reason merchants and traders weighed coins was to make sure that a gold coin from Whereversville was actually a gold coin from Whereversville. With a bit of understanding of metallurgy and tool & die, anyone with enough time and metal could fabricate "gold" coins from whatever cheap, cast-off metal they'd like. The easiest indicator would be to throw said coins on a scale and see if they weigh approximately what they should or are heavier or lighter than what gold/silver/copper/whatever should weigh.

 

This reminds me of David Eddings in the second Sparhawk trilogy where Stragen(?Been ages, was that his name?)finds out that the rich lady he's interested in is rich because her family had been cheating the monetary system...possibly one of the funniest moments of the series. Memmmmoriiiiiiessssss...

[CUBAREY]

The reason merchants and traders weighed coins was to make sure that a gold coin from Whereversville was actually a gold coin from Whereversville.

 

I beg to differ. In the WOT world its commen knowledge that coins from certain countries are "light". Thus whether or not a merchant believes certan coins have adulterted metals he KNOWS that when he is given an Altaran coin he is being cheated.

[Charlz Guybon]

I know how precious metal, coin based currencies work, I just thought that they were the same weight. The glossary simply says that "The heaviest coins come from Andor and Tar Valon", and they have the same denominations. 10 coppers for a silver penny, 100 silver pennies for a silver mark, 10 silver marks for a silver crown, 10 silver crowns for a gold mark, and 10 gold marks for a gold crown.

 

What this means is that other less affluent nations try to cheat by having lighter coins. That is why merchants weigh the coins they receive.

That's obvious. What's the point of bringing it up? ???

[Charlz Guybon]

 If Amadicia was a stronger State it should not have lost half of its former territory years ago, when it was once called "Kharendor".   Ditto for Tarabon, more lost territory compared when it was called "Balasun" years prior.  Ditto for Altara, losing lands & control years ago compared to nation called "Shiota".   Andor on the other hand grew in territory, and now includes parts of seven different former States under one ruler and leadership: Khodomar, Shandalle, Caembarin, Nerevan, Esandara, Aldeshar, Farashelle.      

 

 

The current states are in no ways related to the previous states that existed before Artur Hawking. He broke those states completely.

[TheBeerPatriot]

Going back on topic, the progress bar on the ToM Revisions has been stuck at 1% for 2 days now.  Who's worried?  ;D

[CUBAREY]

That's obvious. What's the point of bringing it up?

 

It was in reply to Dida's economic analysis.

[Razor]

If BS would quit worrying if his son has pants on and got back to work i would be happy, LOL!

\

FYI...BS Twit

 

Me: "Limeboy, why aren't you wearing any pants?" Limeboy: (In a matter of fact voice) "It's not time for pants, Daddy."

[Shard]

Recent update from Brandon:

 

BrandonSandrson    Time for everyone's favorite draft, the one where I cut 10-15% of the book, line by line. TofM is at 362k words. Can I get it under 310?

29 minutes ago via TweetDeck

 

Anyone have the tGS word count handy? I'm having a hard time finding it.

[TheBeerPatriot]

TGS came in at 303,630 words according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wheel_of_Time

[Razor]

He has edited the first 2 scenes and hopes to be done in 10 days.  He plans ot cut 10-15% and cuet 14.5% foprm first and 8.9% from second scene.

[Knobs Mahoney]

The reason merchants and traders weighed coins was to make sure that a gold coin from Whereversville was actually a gold coin from Whereversville.

 

I beg to differ. In the WOT world its commen knowledge that coins from certain countries are "light". Thus whether or not a merchant believes certan coins have adulterted metals he KNOWS that when he is given an Altaran coin he is being cheated.

 

And? It's common knowledge in our world that a peso is "light" in value compared to a US Dollar. Exchange rates between nations aren't really relevant to the point I'm making.

 

A monetary unit's value is determined in a few different ways. What backs the value of the money? In our day and age, money is a promissory note of sorts. The currency itself is worthless and made of paper and inexpensive metals, but represents a contract backed by a gold reserve possessed by the country that writes the money. The strength of an individual country's economy will determine how much the money is worth abroad as well.

 

In WOT land, the money itself is made of a precious metal (gold, silver, whatever), thereby making it more valuable based upon how much gold is in it. Again, the strength of a country's economy affects the value by allowing them to include more of a precious metal in a coin and thereby make it more valuable compared to another competing country. As an aside, the way it's done in Randland has an advantage over how it's done today; if the American government tanked, the currency would be usable for paperweights and extremely gritty toilet paper only. If Andor were destroyed, however, the coins would still have value.

 

The point is, it doesn't matter what coins a man pays with if the conversion ratio is right. Say one andoran gold crown is equated to 5 altaran gold crowns (off the top of my head, I'm sure that's not right). If something sells for 5 andoran crowns and someone pays you 25 altaran crowns for it, it's a wash because the established values are the same. The WEIGHT of the coins matters here because of what I stated before: the ability to counterfeit a coin using an inexpensive metal.

[bronnt]

Going back on topic, the progress bar on the ToM Revisions has been stuck at 1% for 2 days now.  Who's worried?  ;D

 

Did we get off-topic?  On these boards?  Really?

[bronnt]

As an aside, the way it's done in Randland has an advantage over how it's done today; if the American government tanked, the currency would be usable for paperweights and extremely gritty toilet paper only.

 

So you're saying that I'm not getting anything for all that Confederate money I found buried under my Grandfather's house?

[yoniy0]

Just like Americans, to think the value of currency is based on gold reserves held by the country. That you guys have loads of the stuff hidden away (or maybe not, what's the latest conspiracy theory?) doesn't mean that everybody else does as well. No, I'm kidding. Love you guys. It's just your tendency to view America as the entire world that never ceases to amaze me.

[dhill]

Well if you read the maps sold here it kind of is the center of the world.

[TheBeerPatriot]

Going back on topic, the progress bar on the ToM Revisions has been stuck at 1% for 2 days now.  Who's worried?  ;D

 

Did we get off-topic?  On these boards?  Really?

Narg is Slayer.

[CUBAREY]

The WEIGHT of the coins matters here because of what I stated before: the ability to counterfeit a coin using an inexpensive metal.

 

I disagree, it seems to me that the weighing the coins in Rnandland is that the "value" of the coin is directly related to how much precious metal is in it. An Andoran coin buys more not because the Andoran dollar has a higher exchange rate but because it contains more gold or silver then other curriencies.

[Knobs Mahoney]

The WEIGHT of the coins matters here because of what I stated before: the ability to counterfeit a coin using an inexpensive metal.

 

I disagree, it seems to me that the weighing the coins in Rnandland is that the "value" of the coin is directly related to how much precious metal is in it. An Andoran coin buys more not because the Andoran dollar has a higher exchange rate but because it contains more gold or silver then other curriencies.

 

Didn't I just say that?

[Knobs Mahoney]

As an aside, the way it's done in Randland has an advantage over how it's done today; if the American government tanked, the currency would be usable for paperweights and extremely gritty toilet paper only.

 

So you're saying that I'm not getting anything for all that Confederate money I found buried under my Grandfather's house?

 

If you can find a wealthy collector, perhaps.

[Knobs Mahoney]

Just like Americans, to think the value of currency is based on gold reserves held by the country. That you guys have loads of the stuff hidden away (or maybe not, what's the latest conspiracy theory?) doesn't mean that everybody else does as well. No, I'm kidding. Love you guys. It's just your tendency to view America as the entire world that never ceases to amaze me.

 

Of course, I am aware that currency can be based upon anything enough people deem valuable. I didn't mean that the entire world does it the way America does it...pardon me for using an example relevant to where I grew up!  ;D

 

I'm all for switching the American "gold standard" over to wumminz, btw. WUMMINZ.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WUMMINZ.

 

[yoniy0]

Well if you read the maps sold here it kind of is the center of the world.

You know, if that were true, I'd really find that hilarious. Seriously, I'd like to see one. Do you know of any online?

 

Knobs Mahoney, of course you have my forgiveness. All you had to do is ask :)

[dhill]

I just made that up but, its has a ring of truth about it.