1632 Maps: The Money maps

Below is a short, well sort of short, description of how I see the situation represented in each of the money maps.

In the summer of 1632, the New United States was still an iffy proposition. The farther you got from it, the more iffy it seemed. Still, it was already producing goods at a phenomenal rate and the experienced eyes of merchants had come to understand that there was profit to be had in New United States Dollars. There were things that you could only buy with New US Dollars and quite a few things that you could buy cheaper if the up-timers didn’t have to deal with exchanging currency. Most of the up-timers weren’t good at determining the actual value of local currency, and more than a few flatly refused to do it anymore. Those up-timers started directing people who wanted to do business with them to the bank in Grantville. The potential benefits of doing business in NUS Dollars was balanced by the possibility that some army might overrun the place, but not overbalanced because the Ring Wall left by the Ring of Fire was a clear and constant reminder that this place was special. “Touched by God”. The combined effect of this was that while the New US Dollar had risen against the Guilder from a starting price of $200 to the guilder to around $120 in June of 1632, the Dollar was still looked on with caution. People feared a raid killing the goose that was laying the green paper eggs. That is the situation reflected in the June 1632 map.

That would change when the raid did come in the fall of 1632. Three armies. Three of them — all effectively destroyed and less than a dozen up-timers killed, with little damage to the town. With the recognition of the New US Dollar as one of the legal currencies of the CPE, the USE Dollar rose against the Gilder by twenty dollars in a day and continued to rise at a slower pace, which sets up the 1633 map. In 1633, the CPE, while not a free trade zone, is a lot closer to one than might be expected. The railroads are advancing toward the main waterways, and road improvement has continued. Trade is easier and a host of new products are finding markets along the main trade routes of the CPE. Productivity is up, in part because a lot of those new products are labor-saving devices, each of which frees up a few hours of labor — some of which is used to produce more goods and services. The CPE is experiencing an economic boom. While the New US/SoTF FED is insisting on limiting the production of new Dollars to the direct increase in product produced in the New US/SoTF, not the secondary increases in production that it brings about, others with the right to mint money within and without the CPE are not always showing similar restraint. Paper money is catching on with the minters of Europe. So there is inflation in the CPE, but it’s concentrated in other currencies. Not everyone is going crazy; some are being even more conservative with their money supply than the FED. Some are insisting on silver-based money but there is no real correlation between silver coins and conservative fiscal policy. There are a lot of pink coins out there, coins that are nominally silver, but have more copper than silver in them. Electroplating copper coins has also become popular.[1] The Dollar continues to rise against the Guilder, even in countries like Bavaria where it is illegal. Other currencies in the CPE rise or fall depending on the policies of the minter. There is no unified fiscal policy in the CPE. That is the situation reflected in the 1633 map.

In late 1633, Amsterdam comes under siege. That affects the Guilder, which leads to the “Trip to Amsterdam.” In fact, it more than affects the Guilder, because it really was the most solid money in Europe and it is suddenly under question. This has the effect of changing the US dollar from the hardest currency in war-torn Germany to one of the hardest currencies in Europe. Notably, the dollar is trading at the Grantville price in Amsterdam by the time Fletcher Wendell, David Bartley & Co. leave the city. In the meantime, John George’s money in Saxony has become almost worthless. While, after his break from the newly formed USE, he made the dollar illegal, everyone prefers it to his money, even his tax collectors. A similar, but not quite so extreme, situation exists in the electorate of Brandenburg. The dollar is becoming a “money of accounts.” That is, the dollar is one of the currencies you use to keep your books in, even if that’s not what you’re actually doing business with, because of its constant and consistent value. That is the basic situation for the 1634 money map.

Gorg

[1] This is not really anything new. Absent electroplating, they minted coins with very low silver content, then treated them with an acid to bring out the silver color. The silver rubbed off in a few days of use, but by that time the minter’s agent was long gone.