<div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=241802.msg12014978#msg12014978">Quote from: RubySlippers on 23-01-2016, 15:49:59</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">I would go for goats for milk, they eat pretty much anything and are cheaper and are good milk producers and the excess goats can be harvested for meat on the male side save some for breeding of course and they are darn cute. And a small sideline could be selling goat cheese and butter not used by the family for drinking milk.</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div>I suggested cows for two reasons: 1) I figure the meadows along the river are fairly good grazing. That might be a bit of a wasted opportunity if you keep goats instead. 2) Goats are pretty much my "standby" for most people in town; I didn't add someone who kept cows to the village yet so I figured this would be a good opportunity. But if you want goats you get goats.  :-)<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=241802.msg12014978#msg12014978">Quote from: RubySlippers on 23-01-2016, 15:49:59</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">I did want to bring something up wouldn't barter be more common than coin, most people in Colonial America would often ,if say having a business or skill, offer some coin and credit (barter) for services say fixing a roof a dressmaker might say give them half the payment in money and half shop goods and services. It must be pretty common in this setting coin is likely something flexible and barter not but could be damned useful if the barter is of value for a later time to the person and many in the community will have good skills and offer other things of value.<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div>Yes, in many cases barter would be common. It makes little sense to ask money from someone when you already know you will soon pay them the same money for some commodity they have. People would also pay some/all of their taxes in goods or services instead of money. In some cases saying you pay 8sp out of an income of 20sp is just a way of saying you spend 40% of your time working the lord's fields instead of your own land. Some people won't even barter - they take their cut from goods they process for someone else. A butcher or miller takes his meat or grain directly from what people bring them to process for them.<br/><br/>But there are cases where the barter system becomes inconvenient. One example are savings. If you need something expensive (which can mean something as "simple" as good winter clothes for many people), you will have to save on it over the course of weeks, maybe months. Grain, cheese, milk, can be kept a while, but not indefinitely. Foodstuffs can spoil, and stores of food take a lot more room than a few pieces of copper and silver. There is also no guarantee that the one you will eventually want to buy somethinng from will have need of your wares when the time comes. And if they still trade with you that leaves the seller with the problem of perishable goods and need for storage space.<br/><br/>Also, while many people may have some useful skills, most people produce the same stuff as their primary occupation. In Kirborg you have maybe two dozen craftsmen or traders who make that their primary business, but that leaves 75% of the 100 or so households as farmers and herders. They grow the same, limited, selection of crops, keep the same animals, and so on. And the households of craftsmen and traders do at least a little planting and growing for their own needs too. If almost every household has their own vegetable garden and keeps a few chicken and a goat, suddenly carrots, eggs, and milk loose their attractiveness as trade goods. Most households will be at least somewhat self-sufficient - most of the time they don't trade at all and live "hand to mouth". Money may be rare, but so will be the times money is spent by the average person.<br/><br/>All that said, in the end we are not playing "Accounting, the Number Crunch" here.  ;D Where I talk about incomes, productivity, taxes, and so on, I do it mostly to give you all a sense of proportion, an idea what "One Gold Piece" actually means to an average person, how seriously expensive a full set of plate armor or a heavy warhorse really is, and so on.<br/><br/>EDIT: What this means is that, in the end, when it becomes relevant or you want to add a little detail to your posts, you describe things how you like. I am not worried about people playing through buying a loaf of bread or some eggs or whatnot. If you make enough money to afford something I am not all that concerned about with what exactly you pay for it. :-)