Spice & Wolf I by Hasekura Isuna Page B

because a currency is based on trust, when it gains popularity its actual value can exceed its face value—or do the opposite. There are many possible reasons for changes in its popularity, and one of the biggest is a change in the gold or silver purity of the coin. That’s why people are so sensitive to changes in a currency—so sensitive that even changes too small to detect with eyeglasses or a scale can still be considered major.”
    He finished his lengthy digression. Holo stared off into the distance, appearing to be deep in thought. Lawrence suspected even the canny Holo wouldn’t understand everything from the first explanation. He prepared himself to answer her questions, but none were forthcoming.
    When he looked more carefully at her face, she seemed not to be trying to piece things together in her head, but rather as if she was confirming something.
    He didn’t want to believe it, but she may well have understood perfectly the first time.
    “Hmph. So when whoever makes the coins wants to change the purity, first they’ll make a minute change to see what the reaction is, then they’ll adjust it up or down, yes?”
    Having an apprentice like this was certainly a mixed blessing. A superior apprentice was the pride of any merchant, but humiliation lurked.
    Lawrence hid the frustration he felt—it had taken him a full month to understand the concept of currency valuation. “Y-yeah, that’s about right,” he answered.
    “The human world certainly is complicated.” Despite the admission, her comprehension was terrifyingly quick.
    As the two conversed, they approached a narrow river. It wasn’t the Slaude that flowed by Pazzio, but rather an artificial canal that diverted water from the Slaude, so that goods coming down the river could be efficiently transported into the city center without having to bring them ashore first.
    To that end, rafts were constantly floating along the river, tended by boatmen whose voices as they shouted at one another were now audible.
    Lawrence was headed for the bridge that spanned the canal. Cambists and goldsmiths had long situated their businesses on bridges. There they would set up their tables and their scales and do business. Naturally, they were closed on rainy days.
    “Oh ho, it’s quite crowded,” remarked Holo as they reached the largest bridge in Pazzio. With the sluice gates closed, flooding was impossible, so a bridge far larger than could ever be constructed over an ordinary river connected both sides of the canal, with cambists and goldsmiths packed elbow-to-elbow along its sides. All were highly successful, and the cambists in particular were kept busy changing money from lands near and far.
    Next to them, the goldsmiths busied themselves with their jewelry and alchemy. There were no crucibles for melting metal, but small jobs and orders for larger ones were common. As one would expect from a place where the bulk of the city’s taxes were levied, the place fairly smelled of money.
    “There are so many; how does one choose?”
    “Any merchant worth his salt has a favorite cambist in each town. Follow me.”
    They walked up the congested bridge, Holo scurrying to keep up with Lawrence.
    The bridges were crowded with passersby even in the best of times, and even though it was now illegal everywhere, the apprentices of the cambists and goldsmiths would jump from the bridge on errands for their masters, turning the milieu carni-valesque. The liveliness inevitably resulted in fraud—and it was always the customers who risked being cheated.
    “Ah, there he is.” Lawrence himself had been swindled many times in the past, and only once he’d made friends with certain money changers had it stopped.
    His favored cambist in Pazzio looked a bit younger than him. “Ho, Weiz. It’s been a while,” said Lawrence to the fair-haired cambist, who was just finishing business with another customer.
    Weiz looked up at the mention of his name and smiled broadly upon