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Tumunzahar makes Menegroth look like a contract project. Which, the Dwarves assure her, it was. The stonework is astonishingly careful and beautiful, silky to the touch up close while from a distance it gives the impression of stretching on forever above, a sky of stone with crystals for stars. Vast natural cave systems are connected by dozens of perfectly smooth, gently sloped broad stone pathways from which the fall, if she fell, would be several miles down. There are handrails. "We use those to move materials carts," someone explains to her, "we're not going to be reckless."
There's an amphitheater, a place where a hundred of the stone walkways twine around to create space for a hundred thousand people to sit in close proximity, and someone is giving a lecture or a demonstration at the base of it, the seats closest to him filled with eager, tiny, bearded Dwarf-children.
And they spiral down, and down, and down, past waterfalls and egg-sized gemstones left half in the rock and halls of crystal. Everything grows gradually more ornate and more perfectly maintained and the clang of hammers fades behind them. "People say," her guide says, "that we only have a council instead of a single King because there were nine winners of the competition to design the throne so we couldn't just select one person to sit it." And they push open the doors to reveal, indeed, nine thrones so elaborate it would be hard to choose between them, and nine squat bearded people sitting them.
purposeful_glory
"They have swords and bows. It'd be a long trade route, although it sounds like you're accustomed to those; and they haven't asked about it but may not have known it was an option."
"We'd be delighted if you'd make it known to them that that's an option. We can offer something in exchange, since sending an emissary would be a substantial expense on our part obviated by your agreeing to take the message."
"Certainly. We'll have confirmation notorized that you conveyed a message across the continent for us and are owed a favor of comparable expense."
"We'd be delighted to see that the lecture hall is booked for any time you care to speak; we will need to expend no effort to see to it that it's full."
purposeful_glory
"In brief, fiat currency is a system where it is customary to trade arbitrary things for various quantities of IOUs - usually not of favors; most places get this system off the ground by backing the currency in something concrete and scarce, but once it's underway it can actually be backed by nothing at all but the sheer momentum of the system and some anti-counterfeit measures."
A considering silence. "That seems to run a serious risk of sudden losses in faith in the system, perhaps resulting from certain kinds of tampering, that would make lots of unrelated trades fail."
purposeful_glory
"That's why you need anti-counterfeiting, and to be very careful with the sorts of institutions that may spring up to do arbitrage and lending and storage. The advantage of the system is that if one person has something another wants but the first person doesn't want anything the second has, the fiat currency is universally desirable and there's no need to run a series of errands trying to find something agreeable and comparable in value. They can just settle on a number."
purposeful_glory
"Gold's a fine thing to back it with starting out; fiat can be made much easier to transport and allows you to eventually inflate to accommodate greater total wealth in the system even if you don't happen to find gold ore at a convenient rate."
Serious nods. "We'll schedule a public debate on the topic beginning after your lecture," someone says, "and suggest to some specific small market that they try it and report results to everyone else."
purposeful_glory
"Good idea. Any other questions before I go dump science and econ on an amphitheater full of Dwarves?"
purposeful_glory
"Likewise. Thank you for your kind reception."
She inclines her head. She thinks she remembers the way to the amphitheater.
She inclines her head. She thinks she remembers the way to the amphitheater.
purposeful_glory
She fusses with her notes, getting them in order and composing a quick fiat currency outline, until it looks like most people who want to be there are there.
Physics and engineering and metallurgy and economics! Visual aids! Wheeeeeeee!
Physics and engineering and metallurgy and economics! Visual aids! Wheeeeeeee!
She has an eager and attentive audience, and there's practically a shoving match to ask questions afterwards.
purposeful_glory
She attempts to call on people and answer their questions fast enough to prevent an outbreak of violence.
purposeful_glory
These are such adorable economist dwarves. She will happily give precedence to the highest bidder once she figures out how that works.