Farstar & Son 1: The Way to Dawnworld by Bill Starr

Author:Bill Starr [Starr, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, Science-Fiction
ISBN: 9780345246431
Publisher: Del Rey
Published: 1975-07-14T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

* * *

"I hope Mr. Hughes didna mean what he said about giving me anything I want here," Dawnboy said, fighting down the urge to take the old man at his word. "I wouldna ken what to choose - everything is so tempting."

"It was more or less a formality," Juan said. "Capitalians are notorious for their generosity. But the receiver of an expensive gift is expected to outdo the giver by refusing it, or donating it to charity."

They had just entered a large room containing the Hughes Currency Museum, the most extensive and expensive private collection of its kind in the known universe.

Shortly after Rothfeller Hughes and Ranger had left them in the grotto room, the twins had awakened hungrily. So Helen had excused herself to feed them and Juan had taken on the duty of showing Dawnboy around the house. It was an exhausting tour, even in anti-grav boots, and the young Apache was so dazzled by the rich variety of things he saw that he wondered if he could ever again be impressed by displays of great wealth.

Juan leaned against the robo-tender, which followed at their heels like a well-trained domestic animal, and gestured carelessly with the glass that seemed to be a permanent fixture in his left hand. "Behold the evidence of intelligent beings' search for the perfect medium of exchange." He half grinned. "I doubt that any other activity has had so much loving attention lavished on it, or has caused so much joy and misery. Before you is a twelve-foot stone tablet once used as money by the Yap Islanders of ancient Earth. Over there is a facsimile of a human slave with his monetary value branded on his forehead. Such unfortunates were once traded like cattle in the Zuju Empire of the Magellanic Clouds, and some say the practice still persists in remote backward areas. Over here, in this case, we have an authentic letter of credit tape issued by the High Intender of Fabrica. His creditors thought the tapes were as good as gold, until they discovered that the tapes erased themselves when presented for payment."

"Speaking o' gold," Dawnboy said, taking something from his pocket. "Could ye explain Capitalian money to me? I listened to a lesson tape on it, but the whole subject is still somewhat a mystery to me."

Juan looked at the thin plastic disk in Dawnboy's hand and smiled. "Oh, yes, that's our basic monetary unit: the stellar. The only reason it is difficult to understand is because the principle behind it is so simple that economists have deliberately tried to make it seem complicated. Economists, like all pseudoscientific charlatans, know that they can hold on to their high-paying jobs only as long as they keep the common people convinced that money matters are so mysterious that only economists can understand them. You see how the stellar is stamped with the design of a ten-point star? Each point can be detached and reattached independently to make up a unit of any desired denomination.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.