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mc776Kolodos and the Xhel Commonwealth have centralized banks backed by statutory monopoly.
The Republic takes monetary centralization to the extreme, using its vast telecommunications network to impose a central money registry that provides the final binding word on how much money anyone has in Kolodos and where. Any cash anyone brings is treated officially as either jewelry, art, foreign deeds, or contraband (if used as money or not declared at customs). The law sets no limit on punishment for tampering with the system, and precedents include everything from the stake to live sky burial to twenty years in the lead mines to mere disgorgement of double all funds affected, typically accompanied by removal of Citizenship if applicable (retrospective to the time of the offence), but sentences are rarely imposed on the worst offenders as persons tasked with protecting the system are immune to all prosecution for killing or maiming suspects if done in good faith (the only exception being a prosecution for negligent obstruction of justice in the event a potential witness to conspiracy is killed in anger, and even for that provocation is a defence).
The Qoduz Confederacy allows private credit unions under certain conditions but is otherwise similar to the Commonwealth by sheer force of convergent evolution. The Confederacy, however, is often taken to task for its currency manipulation while no power in the south has enough backing to challenge Xiniënar on that point.
The Bank of Razval is a private entity but widely considered the Word of God in setting international interest rates and other matters. Razval Province is subject to considerable regulation rarely found anywhere else, consistently upheld and occasionally eroded by the courts as those hurt by it allege this or that infringement on Imperial authority.
Thrazán is usually found playing a game of regulatory catch-up, if discreetly enough not to start riots among citizens resentful of living in their rival's shadow. (A common method to appease the populace is to insinuate that the updates were based on stolen financial information from Thrazani spies among the Razvalin elite; such information is highly confidential in Thrazán but publicly available by law without charge in the records of every major government building in Razval Province.)
There have been some moves towards centralizing the Imperial banking system but these usually get shouted down as inimical to Atharan free-market values. Indeed there has not been a single major market collapse within the Empire since its second proto-Reclamation project about forty years ago in the wake of the Disconnect Wars, but more sober analysts (usually with Razvalin or Kolodonese training) credit the deference to Razvalin markets more than anything inherent in the Atharan system.
The basic unit of Imperial currency is the credit. There is no theroretical limit to how divisible a credit is, though in practice most private businesses will not bother chasing you for any less than a whole cred. For reference, three credits can get you a reasonable breakfast of tea, noodles, bacon and turnip greens at a diner on the outskirts of Razval.
The Kolodonese, having a simple and immediate non-physical system of currency, are far more picky about fractions. Citizens (and inebriated Forest People, Citizen or not) regularly come to blows with each other over whether 1/3 of a credit owing should be dealt with as 1365/4096, 1366/4096 or 5461/8192, or the entire part of the contract leading up to the offending calculation severed as illegal being impossible to express in the system. (The appellate courts frequently overturn, distinguish or just plain ignore each other's decisions on this point. Complaints from security staff have resulted in a royal prohibition on these cases being heard by panels of more than one judge.)
Helots will generally round in favour of a Citizen in any given transaction, if only for want of martial training; otherwise contracts between helots tend to be quite clear and uncontested.
The Republic takes monetary centralization to the extreme, using its vast telecommunications network to impose a central money registry that provides the final binding word on how much money anyone has in Kolodos and where. Any cash anyone brings is treated officially as either jewelry, art, foreign deeds, or contraband (if used as money or not declared at customs). The law sets no limit on punishment for tampering with the system, and precedents include everything from the stake to live sky burial to twenty years in the lead mines to mere disgorgement of double all funds affected, typically accompanied by removal of Citizenship if applicable (retrospective to the time of the offence), but sentences are rarely imposed on the worst offenders as persons tasked with protecting the system are immune to all prosecution for killing or maiming suspects if done in good faith (the only exception being a prosecution for negligent obstruction of justice in the event a potential witness to conspiracy is killed in anger, and even for that provocation is a defence).
The Qoduz Confederacy allows private credit unions under certain conditions but is otherwise similar to the Commonwealth by sheer force of convergent evolution. The Confederacy, however, is often taken to task for its currency manipulation while no power in the south has enough backing to challenge Xiniënar on that point.
The Bank of Razval is a private entity but widely considered the Word of God in setting international interest rates and other matters. Razval Province is subject to considerable regulation rarely found anywhere else, consistently upheld and occasionally eroded by the courts as those hurt by it allege this or that infringement on Imperial authority.
Thrazán is usually found playing a game of regulatory catch-up, if discreetly enough not to start riots among citizens resentful of living in their rival's shadow. (A common method to appease the populace is to insinuate that the updates were based on stolen financial information from Thrazani spies among the Razvalin elite; such information is highly confidential in Thrazán but publicly available by law without charge in the records of every major government building in Razval Province.)
There have been some moves towards centralizing the Imperial banking system but these usually get shouted down as inimical to Atharan free-market values. Indeed there has not been a single major market collapse within the Empire since its second proto-Reclamation project about forty years ago in the wake of the Disconnect Wars, but more sober analysts (usually with Razvalin or Kolodonese training) credit the deference to Razvalin markets more than anything inherent in the Atharan system.
The basic unit of Imperial currency is the credit. There is no theroretical limit to how divisible a credit is, though in practice most private businesses will not bother chasing you for any less than a whole cred. For reference, three credits can get you a reasonable breakfast of tea, noodles, bacon and turnip greens at a diner on the outskirts of Razval.
The Kolodonese, having a simple and immediate non-physical system of currency, are far more picky about fractions. Citizens (and inebriated Forest People, Citizen or not) regularly come to blows with each other over whether 1/3 of a credit owing should be dealt with as 1365/4096, 1366/4096 or 5461/8192, or the entire part of the contract leading up to the offending calculation severed as illegal being impossible to express in the system. (The appellate courts frequently overturn, distinguish or just plain ignore each other's decisions on this point. Complaints from security staff have resulted in a royal prohibition on these cases being heard by panels of more than one judge.)
Helots will generally round in favour of a Citizen in any given transaction, if only for want of martial training; otherwise contracts between helots tend to be quite clear and uncontested.