Market Economics in Gensokyo

[Yumetou]

Jokes in the title aside, I had a question for the lore nerds. My understanding of Gensokyo is that things from the Outside World, while rare, do exist. Sometimes people come through with modern luxuries, like phones or packaged foods. And there are plenty of Humans and Youkai who farm, cook, blacksmith, do news reporting or any number of other services. My question is...is this trade of outside goods strictly goods which come through people who fall into Gensokyo? Or are there humans/youkai who occasionally go to the Outside World and bring things back with them? How do they trade for goods? I've never seen Gensokyo referenced to have its own currency. Given Zun's fascination with pre-Meiji Japan, I don't think it would be weird to see people use Mon or Ryo. Or would smelting gold be too impractical, and using outsider yen or dollars be easier? Or are most things exchanged through a barter system?

 

Idunno. I thought it would be fun to talk about though!

[Juuni]

The first answer is actually relatively simple, as it’s one the locations’s purpose. Muenzuka is a spot in gensokyo where it’s very close to the border, so many things kinda just fall into gensokyo. This is where characters like rinnosuke, yukari, and many of the more treasure hunting types go out there to get strange goods. And as for currency, I imagine it’s a currency that’s “fallen to fantasy” so it’s likely either an older form of yen since Japan used it for awhile(iirc, yen was used in Meiji 18, when gensokyo was created), or an older unused currency.

[Yumetou]

Mmm, I heard of Muenzuka, and I am pretty sure there are other places humans creep in sometimes. But I wasn't sure if there might be...interdimensional smugglers, for want of a better term. 

Not to be overly analytical, but gold or silver was preferred as a currency because there was no central bank to insure paper money's value. Coins of precious metals have self-evident worth, and is probably what they would default to. Though it would be funny to see someone minting coins, considering how old Gensokyo is, chances are they just use Meiji and pre-Meiji era coins. I wasn't sure if they may have specified in a manga or not.

 

What provoked this chain of thought was actually the first Touhou content I ever played to completion. No, not a game or a fan game. Its a mod for Mount and Blade called Gensokyo Warfare. In that game, P-Points are used as a standard currency. Though Outside World currency is considered far rarer and more valuable, to the point a 2000 Yen note (about $14) provides Cirno with life-saving surgery. Its a good McGuffin for the plot, though I'm still not sure why the natives of Gensokyo would care about Outsider money. Dreamers like Maribel probably can't take money with them. The Lunarians have no interest in trade with Earth, and I doubt Yukari shops at Cosco. It would probably be a novelty collector's item at best.

But it did raise the question to my mind.

Edited July 31, 2023 by Yumetou

[Eulogous]

Mon makes the most sense to me to be the currency of Gensokyo. Even though Yen would have existed for a few years before the barrier would go up, there is nothing backing up the worth of fiat currency afterwards. I believe the inhabitants would be more familiar with the Mon due to its longer circulation period.

Also, there's an Ability Card in UM that clearly depicts Mon in it:

 

There's also the golden tiles in UM that represent a currency for buying and trading Ability Cards. It's likely just meant to be an in-game sort of thing only, but I like to think it could be used in a fangame or something since it now exists as a type of currency in canon.

 

18 minutes ago, Yumetou said:

Mmm, I heard of Muenzuka, and I am pretty sure there are other places humans creep in sometimes. But I wasn't sure if there might be...interdimensional smugglers, for want of a better term. 

Muenzuka is pretty much where outside world things turn up. From what I've read, objects from the outside world, especially tech, is kind of worthless. Rinnosuke found and identified Smartphones, and sold them at his shop as fancy paperweights in AFiEU. 

I don't really think there can be a smuggler ring given the microscopic list of characters who can freely pass through the barrier, and even less who'd actually care about that sort of thing. The only character I can think of who would might be interested in that is someone like Mamizou.

[corrytyn]

https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Curiosities_of_Lotus_Asia/Chapter_36

In Curiosities of Lotus Asia, Sumireko works for Rinnosuke while she visits. As payment, he gives her really old 1000-yen bills. He explains that such bills are worthless and only used in Gensokyo as hard-to-reproduce promissory notes, and they don't care about the amount written on the bill. According to him, Gensokyo works on the bartering system, so they are more like easy to carry "credits" than anything (if you are familiar with Canadian history, the HBC used a similar system before a standard currency was established back in the 17th century). It's implied she exploits this by offering to work for him in exchange for the bills, taking them home and selling them as collector's items due to their age.

That said, As stated above, mon must exist as per not only the cards in Th18, but Komachi's spell cards also use them, and as a ferrywoman for the Sanzu, she does take payment in the form of said coins. How exactly they are used in Gensokyo is unknown as far as I know.

Edited August 15, 2023 by corrytyn

[Yumetou]

On 8/15/2023 at 1:23 PM, corrytyn said:

https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Curiosities_of_Lotus_Asia/Chapter_36

In Curiosities of Lotus Asia, Sumireko works for Rinnosuke while she visits. As payment, he gives her really old 1000-yen bills. He explains that such bills are worthless and only used in Gensokyo as hard-to-reproduce promissory notes, and they don't care about the amount written on the bill. According to him, Gensokyo works on the bartering system, so they are more like easy to carry "credits" than anything (if you are familiar with Canadian history, the HBC used a similar system before a standard currency was established back in the 17th century). It's implied she exploits this by offering to work for him in exchange for the bills, taking them home and selling them as collector's items due to their age.

That said, As stated above, mon must exist as per not only the cards in Th18, but Komachi's spell cards also use them, and as a ferrywoman for the Sanzu, she does take payment in the form of said coins. How exactly they are used in Gensokyo is unknown as far as I know.

Thank you for the information, that solved the last of my confusion perfectly. :) Big thanks to Junni and Eulogous as well.