As I'm writing my character's backstory, I've started to wonder more and more how money works within the lore of the game. I hope my thoughts and questions haven't already been answered in another post, I tried to look for old posts discussing this but I didn't find anything. Also, it seems that Google searches on this subject tend to lead to gold selling websites, so I once again bug you all with silly questions.
The official currency of Eorzea is gil, and it exists only in the form of coins, no paper money. Correct? Are there alternative currencies though? Allagan pieces, for instance. Those would seem like a good candidate for an alternative currency that would allow someone to carry larger quantities of money without dragging a cart of coins around. How common are Allagan pieces though? Would it be something that any wealthy character could or would get their hands on? Also, are there other alternatives that are generally used instead of gil?
Secondly, what about safekeeping? There seems to be no banking system within the lore of the game, as far as I can tell. It all goes through retainers. But the retainers aren't associated with any type of banking institutions, as far as I know. So, if someone wealthy wanted to keep his money safe, short of building his own vault for it, he would have to find a retainer he could trust, correct?
I know these are probably oddly specific questions, but the lack of a banking system in particular sort of confuses me, so I just want to make sure that I'm not missing anything. Also, please do let me know if I've made any incorrect assumptions, I would really appreciate any information on this subject.
The official currency of Eorzea is gil, and it exists only in the form of coins, no paper money. Correct? Are there alternative currencies though? Allagan pieces, for instance. Those would seem like a good candidate for an alternative currency that would allow someone to carry larger quantities of money without dragging a cart of coins around. How common are Allagan pieces though? Would it be something that any wealthy character could or would get their hands on? Also, are there other alternatives that are generally used instead of gil?
Secondly, what about safekeeping? There seems to be no banking system within the lore of the game, as far as I can tell. It all goes through retainers. But the retainers aren't associated with any type of banking institutions, as far as I know. So, if someone wealthy wanted to keep his money safe, short of building his own vault for it, he would have to find a retainer he could trust, correct?
I know these are probably oddly specific questions, but the lack of a banking system in particular sort of confuses me, so I just want to make sure that I'm not missing anything. Also, please do let me know if I've made any incorrect assumptions, I would really appreciate any information on this subject.
