Rosharan Currency

[antgrgmn]

Have we tried to figure out how much different denominations of spheres would be worth in today's money? Or like put together a list of all the denominations of spheres? I think it would be interesting to take the prices and figure out how much all the spheres are worth. Thoughts?

[Brightness Enna]

Well, there's THIS on the Coppermind... but I don't recall having seen anything that relates it to USD or whatever else.

[If.you.die.I.go.stupid]

Interesting idea. In WoR does it say how much chouta cost? I'd say it is economical close to a Big Mac. Big Macs are often used to compare the value of currencies, so we could probably figure it out that way.  

[+hwiles]

A good epic-fantasy rule of thumb for estimating the purchasing power of each unit of an in-world currency is to first try to determine the average seasonal wage of a small household of farmers working as much land as possible without over-extending themselves.  A number of authors in the genre have made a habit of setting this gross wage as a single "Gold Mark."  Wheel of Time, Saga of Recluse, and (I believe, but am not totally certain) GoT used something akin to this formula.  Unfortunately...Roshar's ludicrously top-heavy Feudal economy might be difficult to analyze this way...

I believe it's been established that most street food and cheap beer/wine costs between one and three diamond chips and a bridgeman, which appears to be the lowest paid and least respected profession we've seen, makes two diamond marks (or 10 diamond chips) per day (half that if they're a slave like Kaladin).  Unfortunately, this still doesn't let us create an apples-to-apples comparison between Rosharan spheres to real-world currency because soulcast food is much cheaper and abundant than traditionally sourced food.

It's an awkward time in Roshar's history for attempting to draw this comparison because it's been hinted that the whole eastern side of the continent may be spiraling toward a complete economic collapse due to the influx of massive emeralds harvested from chasm fiends.  Emeralds are used to create grain (and all other plants and woods) and giant emeralds can be used repeatedly to soulcast large amounts of grain without breaking.  This could eventually result in a rapid decline in food prices, making members of the lower nahns destitute over night and casting doubt (the killer of economies...) on the relative value of the gemstones.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out; my guess is rioting and civil war with the central issue being: Should soulcasters be used freely, or should their use be restricted to preserve stability?  Roshar's entire economy is pretty much based on soulcasting, which is artificially restricted by something like the top 0.01% of the social elite.

@If.you.die.I.go.stupid I like this idea; I think a serving of chouta is said to cost one or two diamond chips.

[Brightness Enna]

I've always sort of made the comparison in my head that a diamond chip is like one USD. Sure, there's fluctuation, and not everything makes complete sense that way, but it helps me envision relative costs. Using that idea, an emerald broam would be worth $1000. I think $1-$2 is an accurate estimation for cheap soulcast food (I mean, what is McDonalds food but soulcast? )

[+hwiles]

One clearchip equaling 2 USD is as good an equivalency as any.  It would put non-slave bridgemen's wages well below modern minimum wage and the poverty line (which is by no means scandalous for a pre-modern society).  This seems pretty reasonable and consistent with in-book references to bridgemen being able to afford drinking and whoring occasionally throughout the week, but nothing else.  I believe Shallan's books cost something like one emerald broam apiece (1000 clearchips).  Assuming that Rosharans haven't discovered the printing press yet this would actually be pretty cheap compared to what a book used to cost in real life.

Granted, spanreeds could be used to scribe two books at once (or an arbitrary number at once if you're clever about it, but it would eventually make the pen feel heavy), and crummy scrap parchment and water could probably be recycled into the finest vellum and ink with ease using a soulcaster, so this reduced price isn't unreasonable.

Sidenote:  Kaladin and his fellow slaves were bought by Sadeas for 1.5 emerald broams apiece, which would be unrealistically low (by an order of magnitude) for a slave in a pre-industrial economy, however, since they're in Alethkar, they aren't technically slaves, but indentured servants with greatly reduced rights.  They can be executed or beaten with impunity by their "owner," but they still have to be paid for any work they do.  A slave bridgeman's yearly wages would be 2.5 emerald broams (although it seems unlikely that one would live a whole year...) which, interestingly, if you consider 1 clearchip to equal 2 USD, is $5,000.  In the US, if you earn $5,000 or less in a year you're basically exempted from paying income taxes (it's way more complicated and convoluted than that, but still basically true)...So...at least they won't have to worry much about their W2's...

[thegatorgirl00]

@hwiles, Roshar also has Parahmen. They serve some of the functions of human slaves, but are better. I'd guess that on Roshar the demand for slaves is lower than in an Earth pre-industrial economy. Do we ever find out how much a Parshmen costs? 

[The One Who Connects]

28 minutes ago, thegatorgirl00 said:

@hwiles, Roshar also has Parahmen. They serve some of the functions of human slaves, but are better. I'd guess that on Roshar the demand for slaves is lower than in an Earth pre-industrial economy. Do we ever find out how much a Parshmen costs? 

More than regular people, but IIRC nothing more specific. One of the parshmen topics (breeding/new parshmen from/something..) has a decent argument over why that is. Raising them and all that until they can be sold

Edited September 22, 2016 by The One Who Connects

[+hwiles]

@thegatorgirl00 I'd guess between 3 and 10 emerald broams.  The context in which the price of Parshmen is discussed in-book suggests they're notably higher in price than human slaves, but not outrageously so.  This figure, along with the cost of human slaves, might vary quite a bit from region to region however.  If I'm recalling my American history correctly, I believe the perceived value of slaves varied by up to a factor of 5 just between different southern states in the early 1800's.  This was partially due to government regulations though, and Alethkar strikes me as a highly unregulated place, so who knows.