Money - A Lore Question

[Cassandra Lachance]

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.

[Makyn Loneseeker]

-pokes the resident RPC lore master-

 

I'm with you on these, i always wanted to know how big a gil actually was, because we can seem to carry cargo ship fulls of it.

[Melodia]

I run a bank. All you need to do Cass is give me all your gil. I can assure you I will invest only in the safest stocks and bonds and in 6 months I will triple your money! Just mail all that gil to Melodia and this will happen! I guarantee* it!

 

*Note: All guarantees subject to planetary alignment and the presence of not one but twin clones of Steven Segal standing next to Momodi in the Quicksand. Thank you.

 

 

 

On a serious note? I have no clue but it's an interesting question.

[Kalooeh]

I always just went with Hammer space magic. Same way can carry a bunch of items and gear around. I tend to use magic-involvement for sudden wardrobe changes that involve entire outfits and not just taking off or putting on one or two things

[Warren Castille]

Speculation:

 

Gil is the official coinage of Eorzea, but I suspect it's not all 1-gil coins. There's probably an equivalent of nickles and dimes, loonies and toonies.

 

It's my opinion that the highly wealthy wouldn't use a bank like you or I know them, but similar to older version of the banking note: If I've got businesses that are worth thirty million gil and I want to buy something expensive, I can just provision a note for X,000,000 gil and sign off on it.

 

This is making me want to look up exactly how old-timey holdings worked.

 

TO WIKIPEDIA after lunch

[Gegenji]

It's my opinion that the highly wealthy wouldn't use a bank like you or I know them, but similar to older version of the banking note: If I've got businesses that are worth thirty million gil and I want to buy something expensive, I can just provision a note for X,000,000 gil and sign off on it.

 

One of the Postmoogle quests actually has you getting a bank note to purchase stock in ceruleum futures, so there's that. For absolutely massive sums of money, you can use bank notes. For the smaller amounts, I would agree that there's probably the equivalent of the 100 yen coin and the like - most likely gil of a different material with the amount its worth printed on it.

 

So you'd have a handful of 100 gil coins and those of other denominations instead of carrying around the equivalent of a sack full of pennies.

[Khadan]

Speculation:

 

Gil is the official coinage of Eorzea, but I suspect it's not all 1-gil coins. There's probably an equivalent of nickles and dimes, loonies and toonies.

 

It's my opinion that the highly wealthy wouldn't use a bank like you or I know them, but similar to older version of the banking note: If I've got businesses that are worth thirty million gil and I want to buy something expensive, I can just provision a note for X,000,000 gil and sign off on it.

 

This is making me want to look up exactly how old-timey holdings worked.

 

TO WIKIPEDIA after lunch

 

Ye Olde Banke Cheques

 

Anyway yes I just assume that there's multi-denominational coinage for 'street money', and for truly large purchases you'd be authorizing a bank to make a payment on your behalf to a party, etc. Ul'Dah probably has a lock-down on financial institutions etc given the state of their culture but that's just speculation.

[Warren Castille]

Oh, and Allagan currency:

 

I suspect those aren't used in proper trading, but they're likely a collector's item. Either rare enough and made of valuable materials to recover by melting down the piece, or just enough of an antiquity to warrant people wanting to get them. Think of classic coins and the sort that you see on late night television.

[Maril]

Speculation:

 

Gil is the official coinage of Eorzea, but I suspect it's not all 1-gil coins. There's probably an equivalent of nickles and dimes, loonies and toonies.

 

It's my opinion that the highly wealthy wouldn't use a bank like you or I know them, but similar to older version of the banking note: If I've got businesses that are worth thirty million gil and I want to buy something expensive, I can just provision a note for X,000,000 gil and sign off on it.

 

This is making me want to look up exactly how old-timey holdings worked.

 

TO WIKIPEDIA after lunch

 

This pretty much sums up how I've gone about it so far. Especially after doing some research (on a casual level, I'm not great with maths) to get a conversion rate to use for my guild, which seems to show that coughing up 60 gil for an alcoholic drink is alright. I would not trust a drunk to count 60 coins - So maybe, there would be one for 50 and one for 10. 

 

I've seen allagan pieces used in RP before, but I do not remember how they were acquired and I have not seen any lore on it either. The flavourtext states that it was minted during the allagan empire and, considering we have had a calamity and what not since, I wouldn't be inclined to think they were super common, unless a valiant effort was made to keep a lot of them safe so they could re-enter circulation.

[Gegenji]

Ul'Dah probably has a lock-down on financial institutions etc given the state of their culture but that's just speculation.

 

Ah, yes, the 12 Dunesfolk Bankers conspiracy.

[Sounsyy]

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.

 

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.

 

Excellent questions! Let's start with gil.

 

Gil is the common currency of Eorzea first minted and adopted shortly after the Autumn War 100 years ago to commemorate the first formation of the Eorzean Alliance. Massive history lesson aside, the Alliance opened up trade between the five city-states for the first time in history and to more easily facilitate trade, they created gil as the common currency. Gil is made from copper and appears to only come in coin form. However (although it's never stated in lore or game and is mostly headcanon) gil pieces may come in various sizes and shapes to denote various denominations. So that people don't have to literally drag around ten million pennies everywhere they go.

 

A long while back I made a POST on gil lore, its origins, and the depictions on its face and whatnot. I'll spoiler the text below:

 

The currency now commonly referred to as “gil” was officially adopted by the city-states of Eorzea roughly one-hundred years ago, as a means to strengthen trade relations in the wake of the Autumn War.

 

Prior to this, each city-state minted and regulated its own currency, which led to unpredictable exchange rates and prompted many traders to use ancient Allagan pieces in lieu of other coinage. Recognizing the wisdom of the practice (and desiring greater control over the money supply), the leaders of Eorzea announced the creation of new gil, and further decreed that its value would be standardized across all nations. Moreover, to help encourage adoption, it was designed in the image of its precursors.

 

Initially, as an expression of solidarity, these coins were to be engraved with images of the Twelve, rather than those of individuals beloved of a single nation. As time passed and the gil rose to prominence, however, the policy was relaxed, and the coin came to bear an ever increasing variety of motifs. Those minted to commemorate the reformation of the Eorzean Alliance are a notable example from recent years.

 

But to finally answer the question which prompted this discussion: the face on the gil coin icon in the UI is that of Nymeia, the Spinner. For simplicity’s sake, we’ve elected to represent all gil with this graphic.

-Source

 

So gil coins are engraved with the faces of the Twelve as well as the leaders of the Eorzean city-states for the past 100 years. 5 years ago, new gil was put into circulation bearing the profiles of the three Grand Company leaders for promotional purposes.

 

 

As for what metal gil is made out of, I defer to this:

Copperfish

The copperfish's dull orange scales - a hue rare in freshwater wavekin - make this species popular amongst Ul'dahn nobles, who apparently prefer even their fish the color of their coin. Not native to Eorzea, it is believed the first copperfish were brought to the realm by Far East traders.

 

So... copper?

 

 

 

Also, in regards to the fact that we can still turn in Allagan pieces found in dungeons for gil exchange, I imagine there are still places in the world (possibly black market) which would accept Allagan minted pieces as acceptable exchange.

 

Also, each Beast Tribe has their own form of currency. So if your character does trade with the Beast Tribes, you might also have a stash of their currencies.

 

Allagan Piece

Currency minted in the Third Astral Era by the Allagan Empire.

 

Ixali Knot

A carved piece of wood used as currency by the Ixal.

 

Sylphic Leaf

A decaying leaf used as currency by the Sylphs.

 

Titan Piece

A crude piece of flattened metal used as currency by the kobolds of O'Ghomoro.

 

Psashp

A colored shell used as currency by the Sahagin.

 

Amalj'ok

A small, curved blade used as currency by the Amalj'aa.

 

Ququroon Doom-die

A tiny die used as currency by the Qiqirn.

 

Gagaroon Luck-die

A tiny die used as currency by the Qiqirn.

 

Peperoon Fate-die

A tiny die used as currency by the Qiqirn.

 

Gobcog

A tiny, multi-toothed cog widely used by goblins as currency.

 

EDIT: Oh! Also I found this:

Ignus Snail

The fiery red shells of this freshwater snail, also known as "Ifrit's claws," are prized by the Amalj'aa, and are useful when bartering with the beast tribe.

 

 

 

 

As for banks, I honestly couldn't tell you. However, there's several references in game to individual NPCs with very large sums of gil to their name. Where do they store this? Obviously there must be somewhere. The Syndicate boasts the six most wealthy individuals in Ul'dah. The Platinum Mirage is an exclusive club and gambling hall that stores and circulates money. The Manderville Gold Saucer must have a vault for their gil? During the MSQ Alphinaud requests money from various Consortiums to fund his Crystal Braves.

We later find out that it was Teledji/Lolorito using fronts and shell consortiums to fund the Crystal Braves and buy off their members.

There are accountants and retainers in game who keep tabs on this money and transfer like Tataru. So clearly there must be some storage for all this gil circling. We just, as players, don't get to see it or be privy to it.

 

The Ashcrown Consortium, for instance, monitors all trade and purchases of crystals and shards. There's actually a limit to how many crystals a single person or entity may purchase at a time. If Revenant's Toll ships Ice Crystals to Ishgard, the Ashcrown Consortium is aware and approved of the transaction. So... if there's a Consortium which monitors crystal distribution. I can guarantee there's one for gil as well.

 

Anyways, hope this helps! ^^

[Hammersmith]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrip  (reference link)

 

Given that Ul'dah has the lock on banking, there's a good chance that a lot of Eaorzian trading takes place with company/nobility/ backed currency/scrips "behind" the scenes and in local areas within local borders, with Gil being a commonly accepted, backed, and valued thing and proooobably backed by the Ul'dah Syndicate mostly , not to mention also probably manipulated in value to crash/leverage/influence other country's economies or the works of competitors. 

 

This means most local peasents, farmers, and "normal" people don't use gil, or do, but don't stockpile it like PCs and major economic players do.  They don't need/can't afford that kind of leverage of capital like us PCs.

 

The Gil coin is probably wildly more valuable than local nation/corporation/merchant/buisness backed scrip currency because of the combine (Or the combined effort of the three city-states), which means the average joe deals in scrip currency, while international adventurers and Merchant Princes deal in Gil.   (And as such us adventurers deal in gil as well, the international standard)

 

Edit: And this is somewhat supported by the crystals-as-currency/beastman script post above this. edit edit, or even more blatantly by the grand company's seals as scrip currency.

 

There's likely denominations of coins, currency defacement of the gil is probably popular for portions lower than "1" (I see Limsa as a prime criminal for making peices of eight in Olde Timey pirate ways), with larger denomination coins/Ul'Dah bank backed paper scrip used for much higher value of Gil.

 

There's unlikely to be international Banks outside of Ul'Dah, which means most accounting and the like is going to be handled in house, much like it was in old times, or by banking clans/families/entire infrastructures dedicated to it. (Like Ul'Dah for instance)

 

/ramble

[Cassandra Lachance]

So many replies! Thank you all. 

 

Sounsyy, you never cease to amaze me, thank you so much for sharing. 

 

Warren, I would be inclined to agree with your assessment, it makes perfect sense. Also, Hammersmith, Gegenji and Nailah, I really appreciate the help, you've all shed some light on my questions.

[Aduu Avagnar]

Best way to look at it is likely the policies in europe prior to the Crusades. The first banking institution was the order of Templars. Pilgrims would deposit their money at a location operated by them prior to their pilgrimage, and would receive a note that would enable them to withdraw that sum from a location at the other end when they had arrived.

 

All paper money is, is an example of that. It is a promisary note that the owner signs. 'I promise to pay the bearer of this note a sum equal to X currency.' This started between merchants for larger sums of money and started being traded themselves, rather than redeemed, though someone could indeed redeem it.