Trade and Coin
Lore of the Kingdom
Trade in Arnesse came into its own under King Giles I, who encouraged towns and trade hubs. One guild set the prices, and one bank struck the coin.
Markets and Goods
Merchants who wished to stay safe sold at the nearest Moon Market. Those who moved goods between towns took their chances with bandits and worse.
Food could not be preserved for long, so almost all of it was sold locally, apart from livestock. Raw materials made up much of the trade. Exotic goods were beyond the reach of most people and appeared only in the largest markets. Herbs and spices such as pepper, cinnamon, cloves, and saffron were popular among the wealthy, along with silk, velvet, brocade, and damask. Glass was surprisingly rare and expensive.
Coin and Wages
The Grand Bank minted the one common coin of the kingdom, the dragon, in gold, silver, and copper. Each coin bore a dragon on one face and a tower on the other. The bank said that the tower stood for its vault in Orn. Most people took it for the towers of the Bannons.
| Worker | Typical wage |
|---|---|
| Serf or house servant | One or two copper a day |
| Freeman laborer | Two to three copper a day |
| Artisan | Four to six copper a day |
| Master craftsman | Ten copper a day or more |
| Guild member | Six copper to a silver or more a day |
A gold dragon was worth ten silver, and a silver was worth about ten copper.
The Cirque
The Crown gave the Cirque a total monopoly on trade and commerce. It set prices, collected market fees, and answered for quality. Artisans paid taxes to the Crown and dues to the guild. The Guilds tells its full story.
The Black Market
The King's Laws forbade poisons and certain decoctions and drugs, but most of what the Black Market sold was illegal service: forged papers, false signet rings, maps of secure places, and the like. Most major cities were assumed to have a connection to it, and finding one was very difficult. In public, rumors tied it to the Cirque and no one could prove them. In truth the menageries of the Cirque ran it.
The Grand Bank
The Grand Bank predated the monarchy and had existed for over six hundred years. The King's own treasury, the Royal Exchequer, was held there. Its headquarters and mint stood in the Free City of Orn, and it kept offices only in Highcourt, Ember, and King's Crossing. A council of three ran it, and its army of several thousand, the Grand Company, was highly trained and very well equipped. No one outside the bank knew how it chose whom to fund, and its coin could change the fate of the kingdom.