The idea of gil being used to purchase material components for teleportation is interesting. This "teleportation standard" has some interesting implications, not the least of which is that it makes quantity of adventurers an important element of the economy. Places with a lot of adventurers or others who can teleport end up richer by definition, so they'd start taking steps to attract and build up those adventurers.
IMO, gil as the material component presents some problems, as it reduces the money supply. People would start hoarding gil when adventurers came around, as reducing the money supply increases the value of money if prices remain constant. Adventurers would experience sky-high prices, would never be able to get loans, etc. Because the reduction in the money supply locally essentially removes wealth from those who transact with adventurers, there'd be a strong motivation not to do so; it's not as if that gil is going back into the economy -- it's just going away. The problems end up being similar to that of mercantilism, with adventurers being disliked because they create a net negative balance of trade.
I think that the problem we have with trying to apply economic principles to gil (outside of descriptive analyses of the actual in-game market established by players) is that the concept of gil itself is weird for the setting. Why would the three city-states, who while nominally friendly aren't unified except against the Garleans, use the same currency (excepting the "teleportation standard" argument)? Who controls the mints? Why are beastmen carrying gil around? I'm not sure we can do anything better than declare gil an abstraction of wealth of various sorts. That still doesn't explain why you use gil to teleport, though.
IMO, gil as the material component presents some problems, as it reduces the money supply. People would start hoarding gil when adventurers came around, as reducing the money supply increases the value of money if prices remain constant. Adventurers would experience sky-high prices, would never be able to get loans, etc. Because the reduction in the money supply locally essentially removes wealth from those who transact with adventurers, there'd be a strong motivation not to do so; it's not as if that gil is going back into the economy -- it's just going away. The problems end up being similar to that of mercantilism, with adventurers being disliked because they create a net negative balance of trade.
I think that the problem we have with trying to apply economic principles to gil (outside of descriptive analyses of the actual in-game market established by players) is that the concept of gil itself is weird for the setting. Why would the three city-states, who while nominally friendly aren't unified except against the Garleans, use the same currency (excepting the "teleportation standard" argument)? Who controls the mints? Why are beastmen carrying gil around? I'm not sure we can do anything better than declare gil an abstraction of wealth of various sorts. That still doesn't explain why you use gil to teleport, though.
The Freelance Wizard
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((about me | about L'yhta Mahre | L'yhta's desk | about Mysterium, the Ivory Tower: a heavy RP society of mages))
Quality RP at low, low prices!
((about me | about L'yhta Mahre | L'yhta's desk | about Mysterium, the Ivory Tower: a heavy RP society of mages))
