Economy

Rhizome's economy is broken down into several interworking pieces and parts. The first of these is the currency of Eldys, which has carried over across the sea with the Merchant Barons, who were given a Royal Charter to carry a Royal Mint to Hyphae. Arguably the most important single item that came with the expedition, the mint, once set up, serves as a source of initial coinage for the colony as well as a source to continue supporting the economy. Initially, the Royal Bank of Eldys will have to be built with help of the colonists in order to jump start the colonial economy.

The coins of Eldys:

Coin        Worth               Mass
krone       100 steelheads      10 g
steelhead   100 farthings       6 g
farthing    1 (unit of account) 3 g

As your character gains money, be it from selling to shops, receiving it from other players, or picking it up off the ground, the coins are deposited into an abstracted purse on your person. The command MONEY will display how many of each coin that you have. Typically, shopkeepers will make change in the largest denominations that they can for your purchases, and if you end up with an abundance or dearth of a specific currency, moneychangers at the Royal Bank can convert coins to one another for a modest fee.

The Royal Bank of Eldys can also store excess currency in an account that earns a modest investment. Inheritance can be set in the case of your character's death: once several in-character months have passed, your character's accounts will be presumed abandoned and the money distributed to your inheritors. Automatic charges will be pulled from your bank account, including housing taxes from the magistrate and any organizational dues you personally owe. Taxes owed by organizations to the magistrate will additionally be charged from the organization's account. The Bank is also secure, meaning unlike a shop, the till cannot be robbed.

In addition to the coins themselves, a thriving economy requires places to spend them. Shops can either be run by NPCs automatically, or established by players via building player housing in non-residential zones, hiring the required hirelings, and placing shelving containers for stock and a till for the proceeds -- hopefully behind a securely locked door within the building.

Vendors are NPCs, either independent or hired by a player, that vend the stock from the backroom shelves for the set prices. Vendors, assuming they've been instructed to do so, will buy certain items of the appropriate categories for their shop, either for resale or for storage for later use. Vendors will refuse to buy things that are too large to fit in their stock, that they don't deal in, that are worth nothing, containers that hold other items, or (in the case of player hireling vendors) there is not enough money in the till to purchase.

Shops will automatically sell to virtual NPCs at a fixed rate based on the value of the item, to represent the overall state of the economy. The Merchant Barons will take a cut of all sales for shops within districts they control -- shops within the wilderness pay no tax. The value a vendor is willing to buy and sell at is derived from the quality of the good and what type of item it is, and the markup and margin are set by the NPC or the player owner of the shop.

Command                          What it does
money                            What coins you're carrying
list / list <vendor>             What a vendor has for sale, numbered, with prices
buy <number or keyword>          Buy from the only vendor here
buy <...> from <vendor>          Buy from a named vendor
sell <item>                      Sell to the only vendor here
sell <item> to <vendor>          Sell to a named vendor
appraise <item>                  Estimate an item's value (the appraise skill)