/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>6745813
>Do you have any economic info about Gensokyo? What sort of medium of exchange do they use there, or is it mainly a barter economy? I don't expect that there is a central bank, is it commodity money like gold or such?

Good question. Gensokyo uses the Japanese yen, but only those issued at the time of Gensokyo's founding. The original yen was introduced in 1870, which consisted of copper, silver, and gold coins in various denominations. Because these are hard to come by in the outside world (particularly, in the case of the silver and gold coins, their face value is far lower than their metal value), there's very little incentive to smuggle them into Gensokyo today: you'd be far better off smuggling actual items of value. Plus, Yukari secures the border pretty well.

The Youkai who originally came to Gensokyo (particularly those from abroad) were told to convert their precious metals and coins into yen before immigrating. This helped keep the money supply reasonable despite the increase in population.

There was a period of deflation for a time; I suspect Yukari brought in more currency at some point to counter it. With the low rate of population increase today, it isn't so much of a problem anymore.

> If it is, do you think that presence of beings which can conjure pretty much anything impacts inflationary expectations in the Gensokyo economy?

You're overestimating us magicians! Creating gold out of lead or other cheap metals is incredibly difficult, something that alchemists of the Middle Ages spent over 1000 years trying to do (and failing). Either way, if someone did find a way to counterfeit currency, if they created a significant amount, the powers that be would certainly know about it, given how small Gensokyo's economy is.