deal with a fight.”
“Don’t treat me like a pup, then.”
“It’s hard to see you as anything else when your mouth is covered in sticky honey.”
“...”
For a moment Lawrence thought she was sulking in anger, but a wolf was not so easily provoked.
“Am I charming, then?” She looked up at Lawrence with her head cocked slightly, whereupon he slapped her on the head. “You certainly can’t take a joke,” she grumbled.
“I’m a very serious person,” said Lawrence.
Her faintly flustered demeanor went unnoticed.
“So, what was it you were thinking about?”
“Oh, right, right.” It was better to bring up the previous topic of conversation than stay in this uncomfortable territory. “So, back to the trenni coin. Zheren may well be telling the truth.”
“Oh?”
“There are reasons to raise the silver content. So...here, take this coin, a silver firin . It’s from a nation three rivers south of here. It’s got a respectable silver content and is quite popular in the marketplace. You could say it’s the trenni ’s rival.”
“Huh. Seems one thing never changes: a nation’s power is in its money.” The always-quick Holo munched away on her bread.
“Exactly. Nations do not always fight through strength of arms. If your country’s currency is overwhelmed by a foreign coin, you’ve been just as thoroughly conquered. All the foreign king needs to do is cut off your supply of money, and your marketplace will die. Without money, you can neither buy nor sell. They control your economy.”
“So they’re increasing the silver content in order to gain advantage over their rival,” said Holo, licking her fingers after finishing the bread.
Having come that far, Lawrence imagined that Holo might realize she had something to say.
“I suppose my ears aren’t completely omniscient.” Evidently she did.
“It’s entirely possible that Zheren wasn’t actually lying,” agreed Lawrence.
“Mm. I quite agree.”
She was being so reasonable that Lawrence found himself taken aback. Even though she’d admitted she wasn’t perfectly accurate, he fully expected her to angrily chide him for doubting her senses.
“What, did you think I was going to be angry?”
“I surely did.”
“Well, I might be angry at that !” she said with a mischievous smile.
“In any case, Zheren might not have been lying.”
“Hmm. So where are we going now?”
“Now that we know which coin to look into, were going to look into it.”
“So, to the mint?”
Lawrence couldn’t help laughing at her naive question, which earned him a sharp, angry look. “If a merchant like me showed up at the mint, the only greeting I’d get would be the business end of a spear. No, we’re going to see the cambist.”
“Huh. I guess there are things even I don’t know.”
Lawrence was understanding Holo’s personality better and better. “Once we’re there, we’ll see how the coin has been performing recently”
“What do you mean?”
“When a currency’s value changes drastically, there are always signs.”
“Like the weather before a storm?”
Lawrence smiled at the amusing analogy “Something like that. When the purity is going to increase a lot, it increases a little at a time, and when it’s going to drop, it will drop gradually.”
“Mmm...”
It didn’t seem like Holo fully understood, so Lawrence launched into a lecture, sounding for all the world like a determined schoolteacher.
“Currency is based on trust. Relative to the absolute value of the gold or silver in them, coins are obviously more highly valued. Of course, the value is set very carefully, but since what you’re actually doing is arbitrarily assigning a value to something with no inherent worth, you can think of it as a ball of trust. In fact, is long as the changes to a coin’s purity aren’t large, they’re impossible to detect. Even a cambist has difficulty with it. You have to melt the coin down to be sure. But
“Don’t treat me like a pup, then.”
“It’s hard to see you as anything else when your mouth is covered in sticky honey.”
“...”
For a moment Lawrence thought she was sulking in anger, but a wolf was not so easily provoked.
“Am I charming, then?” She looked up at Lawrence with her head cocked slightly, whereupon he slapped her on the head. “You certainly can’t take a joke,” she grumbled.
“I’m a very serious person,” said Lawrence.
Her faintly flustered demeanor went unnoticed.
“So, what was it you were thinking about?”
“Oh, right, right.” It was better to bring up the previous topic of conversation than stay in this uncomfortable territory. “So, back to the trenni coin. Zheren may well be telling the truth.”
“Oh?”
“There are reasons to raise the silver content. So...here, take this coin, a silver firin . It’s from a nation three rivers south of here. It’s got a respectable silver content and is quite popular in the marketplace. You could say it’s the trenni ’s rival.”
“Huh. Seems one thing never changes: a nation’s power is in its money.” The always-quick Holo munched away on her bread.
“Exactly. Nations do not always fight through strength of arms. If your country’s currency is overwhelmed by a foreign coin, you’ve been just as thoroughly conquered. All the foreign king needs to do is cut off your supply of money, and your marketplace will die. Without money, you can neither buy nor sell. They control your economy.”
“So they’re increasing the silver content in order to gain advantage over their rival,” said Holo, licking her fingers after finishing the bread.
Having come that far, Lawrence imagined that Holo might realize she had something to say.
“I suppose my ears aren’t completely omniscient.” Evidently she did.
“It’s entirely possible that Zheren wasn’t actually lying,” agreed Lawrence.
“Mm. I quite agree.”
She was being so reasonable that Lawrence found himself taken aback. Even though she’d admitted she wasn’t perfectly accurate, he fully expected her to angrily chide him for doubting her senses.
“What, did you think I was going to be angry?”
“I surely did.”
“Well, I might be angry at that !” she said with a mischievous smile.
“In any case, Zheren might not have been lying.”
“Hmm. So where are we going now?”
“Now that we know which coin to look into, were going to look into it.”
“So, to the mint?”
Lawrence couldn’t help laughing at her naive question, which earned him a sharp, angry look. “If a merchant like me showed up at the mint, the only greeting I’d get would be the business end of a spear. No, we’re going to see the cambist.”
“Huh. I guess there are things even I don’t know.”
Lawrence was understanding Holo’s personality better and better. “Once we’re there, we’ll see how the coin has been performing recently”
“What do you mean?”
“When a currency’s value changes drastically, there are always signs.”
“Like the weather before a storm?”
Lawrence smiled at the amusing analogy “Something like that. When the purity is going to increase a lot, it increases a little at a time, and when it’s going to drop, it will drop gradually.”
“Mmm...”
It didn’t seem like Holo fully understood, so Lawrence launched into a lecture, sounding for all the world like a determined schoolteacher.
“Currency is based on trust. Relative to the absolute value of the gold or silver in them, coins are obviously more highly valued. Of course, the value is set very carefully, but since what you’re actually doing is arbitrarily assigning a value to something with no inherent worth, you can think of it as a ball of trust. In fact, is long as the changes to a coin’s purity aren’t large, they’re impossible to detect. Even a cambist has difficulty with it. You have to melt the coin down to be sure. But
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