Chapter 235
Dany pulled Pate to an empty table in the corner, and asked, "You're not a Maester anymore?"
"Of course Maester could ride a great horse from the lord and proudly Walking in front of the people in the street—the best thing I've ever dreamed of. But I'm too stupid to make a link in five years." Pate frowned.
Realistic and self-aware.
The class in this world is too rigid, and there is almost no way for the people at the bottom to ascend.
Maester can indeed be higher than ordinary people, but they are only one of the lord's staff, and their treatment is hundreds of blocks worse than the 'Master Jinshi'.
But it is far more difficult to become a Maester from a noble family than a jinshi.
Let's not mention which one is more profound in academics, Jinshi is rounded every three years, and a group of people can always be selected each time. Westeros has only two or three hundred lords (earl and above titles) who are eligible to raise Maester, and Maester is a lifetime.
What's more severe is that Maester doesn't pay attention to "Thirty old Mingjing, fifty young scholars", under normal circumstances, lords will choose young and promising teenagers before their old Maesters will die Maester came in as a substitute.
Similar to Pate, even if he finally became a real Maester at the age of 40 with his hard work, 90% of the time he would have no choice but to spend the rest of his life in Citadel, just like Citadel's countless gray robes without employers Maester is the same.
Not to mention Maester, the second son of the aristocracy, the competition is too fierce.
Dany asked again: "How much money do you have now?"
"Nine Silver Stags, forty Copper Stars, and two hundred copper plates."
A bit miserable.
One Golden Dragon = 210 Silver Stags, one Silver Stag = 7 Copper Stars, and one Copper Star = 16 Copper Plates.
Well, the currency of Westeros is very complicated. Only Copper Coin is divided into copper star, copper wheat, semi-copper wheat, copper cent coin, and copper plate, a total of five, from high to low, in binary form exchange.
For example, one copper star = two copper wheat
Do you think this is for easy change?
No, very few people can change between currencies of different metals.
The exchange ratio between various currencies is too complicated, not to mention those illiterate farmers, mercenaries, and even many merchants who can't do the math. Without an abacus or calculator, they often find the wrong money.
Dany's personal experience, a Silver Stag bought the same thing twice, but the amount of copper coins that the Boss got back was inconsistent.
Before she didn't understand why people in this world made currency so complicated. After becoming Queen and getting tens of millions of Golden Dragons in Slaver's Bay, Dany gradually understood.
In a word, social wealth is extremely unevenly distributed.
Take Westeros as an example, more than 10,000 years of history. Casterly Rock has dug gold mines for thousands of years. According to Lannister's shrewdness, there are definitely more in and less out, thus accumulating innumerable gold coins.
If nothing else, Tywin lent Robert at least three million Golden Dragon, a solid amount of cash.
And the entire Westerlands has a population of less than one million. On average, a beggar in Lannisport has at least three Golden Dragons.
But we all know how ridiculous the "average GDP" is, and more than half of the people are actually "holding back the country".
Westeros has a huge gap between the rich and the poor, almost...
Alas, it's hard to compare, but you can look at the miserable green boy Pate opposite.
His status has actually surpassed 90% of people in the country, but under normal circumstances, it would be difficult for Pate to save enough Golden Dragon that belongs to oneself in his whole life.
Even if he has good luck, his lower body is smooth sailing, without worries, he can save money at his speed, and when he gets a Golden Dragon, Rosey has already become Emma (her mother).
It can be said that "Golden Dragon", the highest level of currency, has little meaning to him.
Golden Dragon is meaningless to the ordinary person, but for the normal development of the national economy, there must be a currency system with a balanced face value.
Just like the real world, there are currencies with one dollar, five dollars, ten dollars, twenty dollars, fifty dollars, and one hundred dollars.
See?
It's almost the same as the five copper currencies of Westeros, almost rising in binary form - I'm afraid many people have never used two yuan rmb, right?
If there are only Copper Coins, most people can still calculate the account clearly. The number is small, and the highest level of copper stars can only be exchanged for 16 copper plates.
Addition and subtraction within ten digits can be calculated by a businessman with no problem.
But with the addition of Silver Coin, especially the terrifying "Golden Dragon", the terrifying astronomical amount can almost make anyone who counts with their fingers collapse.
One Golden Dragon = 23520 copper plates!
If Dany uses Golden Dragon to go to the street to buy two copper sausages, how will the other party find money?
Counting copper plates?
By the time you've counted the 23,518 copper plates, let's not say if you can count them. While waiting to find the money, Dany will have enough time to eat 100 sausages - if she can eat them.
You can only find money in mixed currencies, which then involves complex calculations.
How many Silver Stags, how many copper stars, how many...
motherfucker, if I can calculate the exact answer quickly, Lao Tzu I went to Citadel early to build a gold chain (representing arithmetic), so why sell sausages on the street? !
That little vendor must have thought so.
In fact, it is very simple to solve this complex currency problem. Divide the property among local tyrants, and turn over the local tyrants of Lannister, Iron Bank, and Dragon Queen who are crazy to hoard gold coins, so that gold coins can truly be circulated as currency.
There are more gold coins on the market, and the exchange ratio with Silver Coin will naturally decrease.
According to the huge gold reserves in this world and the extremely small population, it is possible to create a simple and direct currency system like "one Golden Dragon = 10 Silver Stags = 100 copper plates".
But still the old saying, Ice and Fire's world wealth gap is too terrifying.
If the nobles do not buy luxury goods, the economy and food crops in the territory will be enough for him to live happily for a lifetime, that is to say, the "stingy" lord will only have income and no expenses in his life.
Even if you only save ten Golden Dragons a year...
In Westeros, your family does not have a history of more than a thousand years and will be laughed at as "the rich man's "—provided you have a lot of money.
Poor and shallow like Littlefinger, the nobles never laughed at him because they didn't take him as a companion at all.
For example, when someone was splashed with a bottle of mineral water at a speech conference, the big horse must have teased someone in private, but even if someone pushed the hot dry noodles into the river, the big and small Will the horse follow him?
Obviously not, even if it is mocking, it will only happen in circles with the same rank.
Returning to the topic, a thousand-year-old "small" family, ten Golden Dragons a year, can also save 10,000. Counting the entire aristocratic circle, it seems that the newly mined gold is not enough for them.
In this way, the social class below the nobles and big merchants has almost no Golden Dragon available.
Golden Dragon is rare, and its value will naturally increase - it is said that the state should intervene at this time.
But the nobles are equal to the country, and the nobles own all the Golden Dragons. The appreciation of the Golden Dragon is equal to the wealth of the nobles, and the wealth of the nobles is equal to the wealth of the country. Such a country will only strive to promote the appreciation of the Golden Dragon and make the exchange rate of metal currencies. increasingly unbalanced.
——In the end, the common people were oppressed on the baseline of subsistence (only in Summer), even if the nobles were drunken stupor, they could be rich, and if they had money, they would have power, and if they had power, they could Maintain the rule of ten thousand years, so happy!
This is the reason why Tywin can easily throw millions of Golden Dragons to buy a sword, while Pate struggles all his life but can't keep his girlfriend's virginity.
Dany pondered and asked, "If you run away with Rosey, will you be able to support your oneself family in the future?"
Pate said, "I'm here with Citadel for the first two days. I have studied astronomy every year, not passed through an Archmaester's examination, but I also know some basic stargazing and calculation of seasonal changes, and may be able to help the nobleman manage the village."
Dany nominates, this season is unknown. In the world, with Pate's ability to distinguish the time of sowing, it is more than enough to be a village head.
Pate continued: "After failing the subject, I realized that oneself is a bit stupid, and becoming a Maester is a bit dangling, so I chose a more applicable subject.
Well, I put More focus on Ebrose Medical Archmaester lectures.
Three years later, I still don't have the silver chain link (silver is for medicine), but I also know how to set bones, and how to bleed with leeches to reduce fever. It's not bad among the countrymen who travel around."
"Yes, not bad." Dany praised with a nod.
Although leech bloodletting is a bit pitiful, in this world with backward technology, leech therapy is almost one of the most mainstream branches of medicine.
No matter what kind of disease you have, you can let the leech take a couple of breaths first, maybe it will be fine?
There are no major side effects anyway.
As a result, the "leech industry" in this world is very prosperous. It is better to go to the river to catch a few fat leeches to make money after a hard day in the fields.
Well, Maesters buy unlimited leeches.
Get praised by Dany, and the scumbag Pate is also very excited, and continued: "After failing the medical examination, I took the hairdresser course, and it won't be long before I can cut and shave people's hair. With a beard, you can support Rosey as a barber in town."
"Very good, very good!" Dany appreciates the brat more and more.
Although my studies are a bit sloppy, I am not stupid. I have mastered several skills to support my family. I can work as a barber in the city, I can wander around as a barefoot doctor, and I can return to my hometown in the countryside. A small village chief.
It seems that Citadel is not without merit!
Dany thought for a while, stared at his brown eyes, and said seriously: "A Golden Dragon and a copper plate are no different to me, but I will never help a client pay for a whore.
If I hear you eloping with Rosey one morning, I will immediately pay you a 'bonus' that pleases Emma. In this way, you and your little girlfriend will be completely free ."
"How?"
"Thank you, Miss Rhaella, I'll take it seriously." Pate said seriously.
It's easy to give him a Golden Dragon now, and it doesn't mean anything to Dany, but in case this product is only a temporary heat, it cools down after venting, and decides to go back and continue to be a promising Maester apprentice, Then...
Dany will be sick to death.
"I'm afraid that your hard work will be in vain," the old Knight appeared beside Dany like a ghost, sitting in the place of Pate and said, "Young people's passions come fast, go It's faster. It was just a fanatical ideal before. If you go back and think about it for one night, you may regret it. More importantly, he has many close friends in Citadel, and the fetters of friendship are not so easy to let go."
" Maybe, there's a chance to do a life-changing 'little favor' to someone else, why not?" Dany shrugged and asked, "What do you think of the current situation in Seven Kingdoms?"