Perhaps the measure remains the same and the buying power of the commodity based coinage rises and falls based on the crop yields? So, a senine and others of the supposed currency float in relation to the yields? So, if there is an abundance, prices of other items get inflated due to the inflated monetary values that are based on the increased yields and if there is a low crop yield, prices fall? More grain to trade means more disposable income and more income to spend on nephite junk?Gabriel wrote: ↑Wed Mar 05, 2025 3:32 amI don't want to bury your lede so I am quoting the entirety of your post, but I do want to add what for me is the most unbelievable part of the entire Nephite money system: What possible reason did they find it necessary to fix it to measures of grain? Of all commodities, crops are certainly one of the most variable. Due to weather conditions, there are always going to be years of dearth and years of plenty. In a relatively free market society, prices would naturally rise and fall accordingly. To keep the same measure of grain fixed to the same price year after year after year would require draconian measures to regulate supply, labor, and distribution -- not to mention the robust police force required to clamp down on any black market activity. And for what purpose? Just to ensure that a measure of grain is sold for a senine and only a senine, and not a penny more or less?Gadianton wrote: ↑Wed Mar 05, 2025 2:54 amThanks to both Gabrial and Shulem for the fascinating contributions. The testimonies of the lurkers must be in shambles given that MG is too busy trading barbs on the other thread rather than correcting the misinformation from the rest of us on this thread. Oh, also Brack who gave the full Peterson quotes; his weight argument is important.
From Gabrial:
More proof that the Nephites had coins as medium of exchange, rather than the weight and unit of account system that existed in 600 BC. Peterson sells it as a sophisticated weight system. What's striking in the Bible quote is the scale. A talent is 3,000 shekels. As a weight system, the Nephite system is wholly inadequate. How would you ever facilitate a large transaction?
Rome had the Areus, which was 25 Denarii, which is 16 Assarion, which is 4 Quadrans. That's pretty good coverage for coins, but Rome also fell back to weights, even the talent, for large transactions. (6,000 denarii)
As a system of weights, the largest weight is 7 (onti) x 8 (lowest is 1/8) = 56 times the smallest weight. There's just no way. As a coinage system it does the job, covering about the same scale as Roman currency (64x) without the Areus, which was a special coin anyway. It was obviously intended to be a coin system.
And unbelievably, I stumbled across this by accident a few minutes ago, proving myself (partially) right on one point:
It's worse than I thought as judges weren't paid professions back then. Okay, maybe they were for the Nephites, but it's an obvious case of self-selection to make senum equivalent the pay of a judge rather than a laborer.
Not going to get to Shulem's stuff tonight. Yeah, that description of a real weight system from the Bible proves definitively that the Book of Mormon system is a coin system. (definitively falsifying Dan's argument. Though I give Dan credit because he knew it was the only way out)
I hear the nephites were the first to have markets like those in tijuana, mx. I was down there a few years ago and the market barker in front of his store was jokingly advertising that his junk was way better than the competitors.
