Herald of Steel

A touchstone was a small, smooth, dark-colored stone, typically made of materials like jasper or slate, that was used to judge the purity of gold and silver by taking advantage of the fact that different purities of metal left distinct streaks on it.

The way it worked was the testing metal was scraped against the stone and the resulting streak was then compared with one made from a reference ’needle’.

This needle would be of the same metal, with known purity- so for gold it would be like 14, 16, 18, and even 24 karat.

If the testing streak was equally as bright as the reference one, then it would prove it was similarly pure.

This was a relatively easy and nondestructive testing process, needing very few tools and giving accurate enough answers for jewelers and traders.

Thus it was something many, especially those trading overseas heavily relied upon.

….

If any one of them wanted to get even more precise results about their goods, they could also have some of the more trained ’alchemists’ use acids like vinegar or in the case of gold, aqua regia on the streaks and watch how quickly they faded away.

The more impure the gold, the faster this happened.

Some of the most trained testers could even tell the percentage of impurity based on the time it took for the streaks to disappear.

This gold testing profession had even inadvertently led to Tibias making great strides in alchemy such as their discovery of aqua regia.

Aqua regia, or ’Royal water’ as it was more commonly called, is simply a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid, created through a relatively complex process for the time.

The nitric acid was made by taking saltpeter (potassium nitrate), extracted from soil or manure deposits, vitriol (iron sulfate or copper sulfate), and then heating these materials with an acidic substance like green vitriol (ferrous sulfate) or sulfuric acid (called "oil of vitriol" in alchemical terms). This caused the release of nitric acid vapors, which was then condensed or passed through water to create nitric acid.

Making hydrochloric acid was also very similar- just heat common salt (sodium chloride) and vitriol to release chlorine gas, and then dissolve it in water.

Mixing 1 part nitric acid to 3 parts hydrochloric acid got you Aqua Regia, an extremely corrosive acid that could even dissolve noble metals like gold and platinum. That is why it was always prepared and stored in glass bottles.

As a side note, because of this, one of Alexander’s biggest glassware consumers was Tibias’s currency exchanges.

Anyway, given the skill involved in making these acids and then deducing accurate results from them, these testers were very specialized people and thus highly respected by merchants and even their community.

Many were even seen as pillars of the guilds because it was in no small parts to them that Tibian merchants could feel safe while trading with all the various local and foreign coins.

Otherwise, given the prevalence of coin clippers and shady nobles always looking to screw them over, Tibias would certainly not be as prosperous as it was now.

This organized system to combat debasement and counterfeiting allowed trade to flourish much more easily, letting the country be, on a per capita basis, even richer than Adhania, its much bigger and more powerful neighbor.

….

However with increased trade also came increased security challenges- merchants earning those fat stacks also wanted a secure place to store all their hard earned gold.

And like always, these counting houses were there to provide.

These places offered physical security in the form of various types of strong safes and vaults, protected by complex locking mechanisms, with the most prestigious ones even placing their locks in protected areas, such as within castles, deep underground, and even right in the middle of the guild halls.

The last one seem a bit odd, but keeping it right in the open, prevented sneaky attempts like tunneling, while any forceful seizure was prevented using heavily armed guards.

Other than physical security, many of these counting houses also provided secrecy, protecting the identity of their users and other information- such as the amount of stored wealth.

These information were only available to a few trusted clerks and the head of the operation, e.g. a merchant or steward.

They even had a rudimentary form of account verification- such as most withdrawals requiring trusted witnesses.

So most probably the counting house manager would have to know the person asking to withdraw the money on behalf of the client.

Or the client could name a trusted slave, servant, kin, relative, or friend, writing down their distinctive features, kind of similar to how we name beneficiaries when creating bank accounts.

These features could be a specific item the person carries, a birthmark, eye catching features like skin or hair color, or even just a peculiar mark- ’like three moles of different size around the right armpit’.

Anything that is unique to the man.

With years of experience, many counting houses by now even had charts describing the ’standard’ things they looked for in a witness.

And if all these failed, they had one last trick- matching halves of tally sticks.

The way it worked was like this- whenever a new client opened a vault, a twig of a branch would be snapped between him and the counting house, with each party given half.

And because of how each breaking was unique, only the genuine ends of each half would fit when trying to piece it together.

It was kind of like how if you ripped a piece of paper, only those parts would match.

And this type of twig snapping was not unique to only counting houses.

Tax records of this time period were also kept in this way.

Namely, whenever a farmer paid his taxes, the tax collector would give him half of the snapped twig as proof. So if there was any dispute, he could bring his own twig and the tax collector his, matching them to see if it fit.

There might even be additional unique notches on the two halves to prove they belonged together, adding another layer of security. This way even if the ends of the twigs were a bit damaged or rotted away, you could still determine the result.

Truly, collecting taxes was not that easy.

Also, some say this was how the Roman numerals came about- from this type of tally system.

…

Anyway, alongside their contribution to Tibias’s tax system, these counting houses also let merchants access money from their various branches, freeing them of the hassle and danger of carrying so much money with them on the road.

Instead, these houses let you have an account in Thesalie but still be allowed to withdraw money from a branch say in Lilybee, almost a thousand kilometers away.

The way they did this was a bit complex but in short, clients or trusted couriers could carry letters of credit signed by or bearing the seal of the counting house branch’s manager to these other branches.

That branch manager would know this signature and many times even the handwriting on the letter, thus confirming the transaction was indeed legit.

The various counting houses prevented fraud in this way.

And if they wanted, they could even use the same method to allow their accountant holders to access each other’s branches.

This saved the merchants a lot of hassle as now they did not have to worry about a city having that specific counting house’s branch, while the guilds also saved money by not having to open up branches in every major city. They could only have just one or two in each city while sharing the profits.

Now admittedly this type of collaboration was rare, only available to their most valuable customers.

And one did not need to be a genius to guess why.

Imagine just how complicated balancing the books for the various guilds would be due to this.

Whenever a client had an account in one house yet withdrew from a different one, it was not like his balance could be transferred electronically.

Rather, that second house would simply pay him from their reserve on credit, believing the first counting house would honor their word and pay them back later.

While the first counting house had to also ensure the amount of gold they were paying back was not only accurate but it was also paid from that particular client’s account.

Thus it was far more complicated than just counting house A owing counting house B a few million libras at the end of the year.

The amount had to come from specific amounts in the exact proportions, with no margin for even a single libra being misplaced.

If there was ever an error, the money would have to come from those counting houses’ own pockets.

However, despite these hurdles, many of the larger counting houses still provided this service, truly displaying their level of sophistication and mastery over record keeping and accounting.

Alexander was frankly impressed learning this, especially knowing all this was done by hand- just simple pen and paper, and perhaps an abacus.

He would not even be surprised to learn that this catalyzed a few great mathematicians within the country.

The only slight peeve he had with them was how doing this type basically made these houses a monopoly.

Let us say no to piracy! Don’t take part in a crime! Don’t patronize thieves!

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