When the double moon rose again, Mohadi put away the exhaustion of the day and returned to his room.
This room, not far from Fatuma's room, was as old and dilapidated as the other rooms in the ruins and lacked repairs. Its walls have illegible frescoes left by ancient elves, and one wall has a slender crack like the closed eyes of a giant.
There was almost nothing in the room, a dirty blanket lay on the floor, even if it was a bed. Muhadi's machete hangs on the wall. Fatuma "borrowed" this knife from another elf when it was still in the desert, and she has not asked it back now.
Muhadi reached into a gerbil hole in the corner and groped for a while, then took out a lizard skin bag. This room originally had no furniture, so the teenager had to use a gerbil hole as his storage place.
"Did you only earn seven silver coins today..." He sighed, then carefully placed the silver coins in the bag, and put the bag back into the hole.
Since returning to the tribe that day, Fatumai has ordered Muhadi to earn money to support himself, which is hard for the latter. His knowledge in the previous world was almost useless in Arthas, and he didn't know the grazing, weaving and other techniques on Arthas. At first, he was almost forced to hit the wall.
Fortunately, with an inspiration, he really came up with a way to make money.
In the world of Arthas, there is no country, only large and small city-states and various commercial families and tribes. Due to the lack of a unified and powerful government, the currency issuance on Atas is very chaotic. Each city-state will issue its own currency, and even some large business families and tribes will have their own currency.
In general, the currency of Arthas can be divided into three types: pottery coins, silver coins, and gold coins. For larger transactions, gems will be paid. But in fact, only silver coins can be divided into hundreds of kinds. If you add the types of gold coins and pottery coins, then the currency in circulation on Atas is likely to exceed a thousand.
The reason for this situation is that there will be great differences between the currencies issued by each city-state. Some city-states, such as Tyre, issue silver coins weighing 8.68 grams. Some more black-hearted city-states like Urik, its silver coins are only less than 6.25 grams.
In addition to the difference in weight, there are also differences in the fineness of the currency on Attas. Fine silver coins, such as Tyre silver coins, Ankara silver coins and Sangnan silver coins can be up to 94% fine. Inferior silver coins are often mixed with a large amount of copper, lead or tin, and the actual silver content is less than 50%.
Even more troubling is that there are often differences between currencies issued by the same city-state. For example, the city-state has been issuing a silver coin called Ducat for thousands of years, and its fineness and weight are excellent. But one hundred and fifty years ago, Nibenai and the neighboring city-state of Ankara started a war. The Witch King of Nibenai ordered the issuance of a new silver coin called Grosso. The shape and weight of this silver coin are no different from the old silver coin. That is, the silver content is greatly reduced. In the market, the circulation value of the latter is less than half of the former.
Due to the limited issuance capacity of each individual city-state or tribe, Attas could not produce a dominant currency, and merchants and travelers who traveled through the desert had to accept a wide variety of currencies, which gave birth to the money changer. an industry. And Mohadi's business opportunities are here.
The settlement of the Scorpion tribe is not far from the prosperous mining city-state of Tyre. Many merchants will pass by here to replenish supplies and trade some small things by the way. The people of the Scorpion tribe will also take out some handicrafts and trophies to exchange with the caravan. The loot may even have been obtained from robbing caravans. However, the Scorpios do not rob the caravans within a one-day ride around the settlement, because this will scare them away, but will cut off their fortunes.
Muhadi and the merchants of these caravans and people in the tribe do currency exchange and collect intermediate fees. With the mechanical skills he learned in the previous world, he created the first quasi-precision balance of Athas.
Anyone who sees this scale is likely to find it very similar to the one that Oyerlin exhibited at the 1851 World's Fair in London. It already has scale beams and verniers, and has knobs that can be used for trimming. However, due to the lack of unified weights and measures in Attas, Muhadi had to ask Fahd to borrow a few tyr silver coins and take the average as the weight unit of the first balance on Attas. Then Muhadi went back and forth, trumpeting the potential "money" way of currency exchange, and then persuaded Fatuma to commission a tribal blacksmith to make the balance.
Due to the low level of finishing and the lack of standardized production technology, Mohadi's balance is still slightly inaccurate, and the weights are not completely accurate. But even so, this is arguably the most sophisticated weighing instrument in existence on Attas. Mohadi borrowed the capital from the Fahd brothers and sisters, and then relying on this balance and using the cramming method to forcibly write down information on thousands of currencies, he quickly robbed several other money changers in the tribe. .
Those who are preoccupied with businessmen like to look for Mohadi to exchange currency, for fear of losing a gram of silver. After all, Muhadi was born in a university, and he was good at calculating, so he could easily capture it.
What's even more amazing is that due to the recent coup d'etat in Tyre City and the overthrow of the old Witch King, several nearby city-states wanted to intervene, even at the risk of war. In view of this, the temporary ruling meeting of Tyre City announced that the currency of the surrounding hostile city-states - Ankara, Uric, and Nibenai would be prohibited from circulating in Tyre, and those who violated the rules were regarded as enemies. Therefore, merchants from the east and the south were eager to exchange their currency for Tyre's local currency, which was good for Muhadi. He could net seven or eight silver coins a day on average, and even more often. More than ten silver coins.
In addition to legitimate currency exchange incidents, Mohadi secretly carried out an illegal activity, that is, cutting coins.
Unlike ancient China, in Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia, currencies were mostly stamped from metal, not cast. The advantages of metal stamping coins are clear patterns, low cost, wide applicability, and high production efficiency.
Simply put, coin cutting is to cut off the uneven parts of the edge of the coin. Since the stamped currency is not flat, if outsiders do not weigh it, they will not be able to see that they have moved. An 8.68 gram silver tyr coin can have about a gram of silver cut off the edge. If you add up to a lot, and then cast it into silver ingots, it is also an income.
On earth, the crime of coin-cutting once ravaged Western Europe, so much so that the Tudor dynasty of England once issued a decree, stipulating that "for the stability of the currency value of the kingdom and the credit of the crown, it is forbidden to cut and damage the king's currency and to ensure the passage of good money in the kingdom. ." Violators could be beheaded or executed. In Atas, Muhadi did not find that any of his colleagues were making money in this way, and there was no king or government to crack down on him. People's vigilance against cutting coins is very low, so he has the opportunity to get on and off.
However, for fear of ruining his reputation, Muhadi did not dare to deceive ordinary businessmen, and only dared to attack those careless travelers who came to the desert alone. Most of these travelers have lived in a city since childhood, and they don't know that there are so many ways to exchange currency. Often they recognized that the coins were issued by those big, reputable city-states and agreed to exchange them. Didn't realize that the money was a little lighter to weigh on a scale.
It was the occasional vigilant guy who insisted that Mohadi use a scale to check whether he was short or not, and Mohadi also had a way to deal with it. Although his mind-moving ability is weak, it is very easy to disturb the balance of the scale. Large caravans often have psionic guards who can see through this trick, and alone travelers will only be slaughtered in front of the youth's psionic power.
But despite having a small income to support himself, Mohadi still has a headache. According to tribal laws, slaves actually have no real property, and all their property belongs to "Biku", which can be at their own disposal at ordinary times. But if the owner wants to use it, it must be turned over immediately. It's not that Muhadi didn't think about sneaking into the caravan or sneaking away at night, but there are always scouts around the tribal settlements. If you can't escape for a day, you will definitely be captured by these elves who know the desert like the back of your hand.
Fortunately, things were not all turned around. Fatuma had already mentioned it to him, and in a few days, he would take him to visit an old psionicist who lived in seclusion near the tribe. If Muhadi can become a psionicist, then he has the capital to stand in the world, and the mere desert will naturally not be able to trap him.
At the thought of the opportunity to be free, Muhadi looked forward to the time to learn psionics sooner rather than later. For several days, he fell asleep in this anticipation and anxiety.