Currency

The **currency** during most of the story in Release that Witch is the metal rarity one often seen in medieval fantasy media. The **currency** is thus subdivided as:

* Gold royal (金龙): the most precious coin made of gold (金), with a dragon (龙) depicted and thus worth 100 Silver Royals.
* Silver royal (银狼): a silver (银) coin with a wolf (狼) depicted worth 100 Bronze Royals.
* Bronze royal (铜鹰): the least precious bronze (铜) coin with an eagle (鹰) depicted.

The value of money in this world appears to depend of the purity of the royals, but whether coins are made by the populace or the king's treasury isn't known. As of the beginning of the novel, a common miner who worked for a month would earn 1 silver royal at most, depending of his ore yield. Also, for commoners, 25 gold royals would be enough to live by for a long time, and a crippled allegedly could live off of it for the rest of his life. A witch was worth 25 gold royals to the church. A cart driver could win 20 silver royals per trip when working for the church's transport, which was a good deal for him. The initial annual ore output of Border Town didn't exceed 1,000 gold royals, while an ordinary town has 14,000 gold royals of yearly income.

The cost of general things can be seen below:

* A cold beer costs 1 silver royal, while one at room temperature costed 50 bronze royals (half of it).
* A few silver royals could take someone from Border Town to City of Dawn.
* A simple room in a tavern in the former King's City costed 25 bronze royals per night, and low quality ales costed 10 bronze royals there.

* The steam engines cost almost 20 gold royals to build, but were sold for 500 gold royals.

* A noble house in Border Town costed at least 30 gold royals.

* The price of a two-mast sailing ship is between 80 to 120 gold royals, with crew costs nearing 80 more.

* Even for the great nobles, 80 gold royals is not a cheap sum that can be easily wasted.

* A God's Stone of Retaliation of good quality was worth 50 gold royals, and a Berserker Pill was sold for 5 gold royals.

* Emerald coral from Seawindshire was bought for 20 or 30 silver royals and sold for 1 to 5 gold royals by merchants.

* A decorated Soraya-coated cup was sold for 5 silver royals at Border Town.

* The reconstruction cost for a ship to turn it into a steam-powered paddle steamer was 1800 gold royals.

* Scented soap is sold for 25 silver royals.
* The cheapest single room in the City of Neverwinter would cost 20 gold royals (contains one bed, one table and one bathroom).
* The cost of transportation and food from Neverwinter to Eastern Region is around 20 silver royals per person and 10 to 12 bronze royals per day are needed for food once there.
* A newspaper is sold in Neverwinter for 10 bronze royals.

However, after Roland started recruiting people to work for him, the pay people were accustomed to began to increase, whether due to his policy of just pay for service or due to qualified people or perilous activities demanding more pay. Even life insurance and retirement pension were eventually given (life insurance payout: 5 gold royals; First Army retirement pension: 25 silver royals). Some of the salaries given by Roland were:

* Stone grinder: 25 bronze royals per day.

* Mud craftsmen: 45 bronze royals per day.

* Handyman: 12 bronze royals per day.

* City wall builder: 25 silver royals total.

* First Army's initial salary: 15 silver royals per month.

* Junior teacher: 20 silver royals per month (+5 a month every 5 years)

* Secondary teacher: 50 silver royals per month. (+10 every year).

Later on, Roland implemented paper money as Graycastle's official currency, completely replacing the old currencies with the new one, being mandatory its use for transactions, including the Administrative Office and Convenience Market regardless of it being food or real estate sales. All salaries were from then on paid with paper money and a currency exchange service enabled people to trade between the old and the new currencies. However, a 5% transaction fee would be taken for exchanging the new currencies for the old ones.

With this economical reform, not only was the treasury full of gold safe as collateral, but also tax revenues would be increased. The notes were soft, but durable and looked quite expensive with six kinds of paper notes (10,20,50,100,500 and 1000). Each kind of note had a different color and pattern according to each face value: 1000 had the King and the Queen illustrated in it, 500 had the Witch Union, 100 plants and workers, and the others had the Miracle Building and trains. They all had the Graycastle coat of arms in it as if they were works of art.

## Trivia

* The new currency established by Roland is called Yuan (元) as a reference to its real world counterpart in China, the author's home country.
* 100 silver royals can be exchangeable for 1 gold royal, but it is not always the case since the batch of silver coins must be of extremely high purity, and any blemishes on the coin will drop the overall value of said item.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 6
2. ↑ Chapter 4
3. ↑ Chapter 83
4. ↑ Chapter 16
5. ↑ Chapter 124
6. ↑ Chapter 145
7. ↑ Chapter 185
8. ↑ Chapter 215
9. ↑ Chapter 24
10. ↑ Chapter 149
11. ↑ Chapter 95
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Chapter 74
13. ↑ Chapter 120
14. ↑ Chapter 123
15. ↑ Chapter 147
16. ↑ Chapter 186
17. ↑ Chapter 188
18. ↑ Chapter 210
19. ↑ Chapter 574
20. ↑ Chapter 951
21. ↑ Chapter 1020
22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Chapter 22
23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Chapter 92
24. ↑ Chapter 10
25. ↑ Chapter 133
26. ↑ Chapter 1254
27. ↑ Chapter 1254-1255
28. ↑ Chapter 6