On Currency

[Deleted member 98605]

Since all currency is just some manufactured/natural object we assign value to, from shells to gold to cash, why, in NV, is Pre-War Money not a currency?

No one can really make it anymore, the mint's a glowing hole, so that solves the problem caps face (there could be a old, but functional, bottling plant for Nuka Cola raiders and nations are fighting for ad infinitum out in Vicksburg, Mississippi for all we know). It's rare, and it's canvas-plastic (I'm guessing) so it decays eventually, and it's not like a polity can't comb their local waste to obtain all caches before using it.

But in 3 and NV, they're worth like 10 caps at most. In 4, it's 8 caps. 4 also basically says that a unit of pre-war money ingame is around 100 dollars pre-war, so it might be a stack of 1s. There might be a concern that due to how massive the pre-war United States was there might be literal double-digit trillions of bills out there; but we're looking at 200 years of decay on top of a nuclear war which burned most cities down.

But then again, if a currency is just a mix of 'rare/hard to make/obtain thus valuable', we might end up seeing crystals or w/e used somewhere.

 

[Black Angel]

As a disclaimer, I'm not exactly in the know how economics works to such a degree that a mere piece of paper could have a value that can be used to buy something, or sell something to get said piece of paper.

If we're talking about New Vegas, however, you also need to take into consideration that the NCR has its own currency in form of their own Dollars, at first backed by the gold from Redding (as we can see in Fallout 2), but then devalued by the time of New Vegas since their reserve were destroyed during the war with the Brotherhood of Steel. And not to mention the Legion also has their own currency... Caps, just like in Fallout 1, is backed by water in New Vegas, so why should Pre-War Money become the currency? What's there to back its value?

 

[Einhanderc7]

From my understanding with how "paper" currency works is that it does indeed degrade over time. If you want you can run an experiment, take a 1 dollar bill and place it outside for a month. By the time you get back it should be consumed by something, or stolen by an animal to make bedding.

Another reason I can see why they didn't continue to use the pre-war money of the long forgotten past could be because of the great war. Like a sickly reminder of a long forgotten atrocity that completely ended the world. Or another way to look at it, the money could simply be no longer understood as a viable form of payment. In other words since there is no government backing the currency, there is no trust in it.

For an example of a currency that has no trust in it, look up the weakest currencies in the world. The Iranian Rial is complete garbage when compared to the American dollar, so in this case Caps vs. pre-war buckaroos the caps will win mostly because the caps are backed by water and the long standing trust of the locals.

Even if the prewar money was worth more than caps, the local vendors must observe the currency as a valid form of tender. Take Bitcoin for example, its currently worth a stupid amount of money, yet only a few businesses actually accept the crypto currency.

There was also a similar dispute with the miners of Sloan from the NCR in Fallout New Vegas. They were paid in NCR dollars, but their value of the NCR denomination was worth little when compared to caps in the Mojave. So the population of the Mojave focused on trade with caps, and viewed the foreign currency (NCR) to be of lesser value.

However if the NCR was smart they could do what America has been doing for years, which is boost the local economy of a territory or country with their currency by providing specific labor or commodities that view their currency as preferable. There by assimilating the local population by having them adopt the currency as those needs and goods are purchased over time. For example lets say the NCR makes clothing of high quality cheaper than what the local region can produce only if they use NCR money. The locals will identify this trend and begin using the currency to take advantage of the cheaper commodity.

 

[Black Angel]

However if the NCR was smart they could do what America has been doing for years, which is boost the local economy of a territory or country with their currency by providing specific labor or commodities that view their currency as preferable. There by assimilating the local population by having them adopt the currency as those needs and goods are purchased over time. For example lets say the NCR makes clothing of high quality cheaper than what the local region can produce only if they use NCR money. The locals will identify this trend and begin using the currency to take advantage of the cheaper commodity.

Iirc the Crimson Caravan company has been doing this kind of shit, but not exactly what you said. If you take a moment to read some of the notes made by Alice McLafferty (I forgot where exactly the note can be found), she's planned to flood the New Canaan with cheap goods and overwhelm their economy so it would tilt to their advantage or something like that. Why NCR don't do what you mentioned above, could've been affected by this, OR could've also because Crimson Caravan had absorbed the Water Merchants, thus they preferred if the global/regional economy favors the caps much more than a national currency. Not to mention they never spoke of ever using NCR's currency nor complaining its inferior value compared to caps.

 

[Einhanderc7]

The Crimson Caravan is unique in the wasteland. They dictate their own actions as well heavily influence NCR politics. They do this by leveraging their services and goods in a capacity others simply cannot. As for the New Canaan market approach, that is literally the best way to dominate a new market. The idea is to make your business's presence the majority of the market share there by out competing the competition. The Crimson Caravan does this not only to make profit but to also forge a monopoly.

If I remember correctly the Crimson Caravan also had local caravans sacked by paying off the Van Graffs to do the hits. They covered their tracks by making it look like it was either the fiends or natural causes. Business in the wasteland is cut throat, similar in style to the American West oil barrens.