trading, clothes, etc.
Attempt two since bearblog logged me out and I forgot to save my draft :(
So this all started cuz I was thinking about money/currency I think... it's weird, I know we've talked about it before but I have trouble picturing Yarrow selling stuff at a market stall or anything, but moreso I can imagine him bartering for things, i.e. trading surplus foraged goods, etc. Having done some reading it seems mixed on how common it was to use coinage but it seems like barter was well established and common in medieval times as well as the introduction of coinage. In more rural settings I think barter was practiced more often.
I think this makes more sense cuz I keep wondering how they'd even get any coins in the first place. He would have to sell things at a marketplace, I guess. Which as I say I'm struggling to imagine, as well as the fact that these marketplaces were, I think, regulated by guilds, and possibly folks needed to be licensed to sell things at a market. Seeing as Yarrow is non-human and not recognised as a citizen by any government I think he would have a hard time doing this lol. Having said that, it does make me wonder about other species. I think wizards are off doing their own thing and also are not subject to any human laws ... people definitely interact with them, e.g. as a means to conjure an imp or for other magical purposes, but, I think it's kind of "off the books", not exactly lawful, perhaps ? but then I wonder about if folks are "allowed" to be seen to have employed a domestic imp.
Anyway I'm getting way off track here. For whatever reason, I don't think Yarrow is a stallholder. But I do think he and Jesper still bring their lil wagon of goods and trade for what they need. Which... I believe the general idea is, trade something hard for the other person to obtain. It can be produce, but it could also be things like dyes which we know Yarrow makes, or valuable stones, shells. Will have to think on what else they could trade besides food.
And also, what do they actually want to buy? I believe fabrics, and baked goods. Potentially small amounts of meat (Sam you can answer this one cuz Yarrow doesn't really eat meat. But I know they can catch fish and whatnot, and the imps hunt for meat, so, do they need to buy meat?)
And then the thing about fabrics brings me onto my next thought. Firstly, some information I have gathered about clothing in medieval times: 1) Most people only owned a few items of clothing -- a couple of undergarments, and possibly just one... overgarment lol, that they would wash less often, which is because clothes were SO expensive, and they would even pass down clothing through generations; 2) the poorest people would make their own clothes from the point of spinning yarn, weaving fabric using a loom of some kind (mixed results on which would be used), and sewing them by hand using shapes that wasted the least amount of fabric possible; 3) OR they would produce the fibres and pay someone else to make it into textiles (as equipment to make fabrics was large and expensive); and 4) slightly wealthier / working classes would sometimes buy clothes second-hand from a... fripperer's store, or make their own from fabric bought at a marketplace. I believe. https://rosaliegilbert.com/acquiringclothes.html
All this to say... Yarrow would be buying fabric. OR potentially also second-hand clothes that he could tailor to his/Jesper's size.
The other thing that crossed my mind was this -- what the heck was Yarrow wearing as a young sprite, journeying into Wynwood for the first time? As I do not think sprites take things from humans like imps do, I figured that Yew would have had to make her own fabric. Which I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it was made from cotton or an equivalent fluffy type of plant... where it would be feasible for her to singlehandedly turn the fibre into textile and then into clothes with few / simple / handmade tools. I was having a quick google and established that there are hand-weaving techniques, which obviously there had to be methods before looms existed, but I'll have to do further research to establish exactly what Yew's process would be, and also, probably, most sprites, as this would be something passed down through generations.
Anyway, so I'm imagining Yarrow rocking up to town for the first time wearing a damn rectangle with holes for the head and arms, with a bag full of foraged fruits, vegetables, whatever... and just being like 🧍♀️ ... in my head his first interaction with a human he just looks up at, like a woman selling ... something... and she's like "what on earth are you meant to be then?" ... Yarrow introduces himself very timidly. she calls over the neighbouring stallholder like "look at this little fella! Says he's a sprite!" bearing in mind this is when he is first assigned male by humans lmao. Anyhow, it occurred to me that if humans are familiar with imps, and especially domestic imps (Sam -- are domestic imps bigger than wild imps on average? cuz if they are, one could argue that a human might think Yarrow is some overgrown domestic imp lmao), then they might not really see Yarrow as a potential threat.
He tries to trade with this woman I think, and I'm not sure if she's actually interested in what he has to offer or if she just takes pity on him and tells him "you can have (thing) this time, but other vendors might not be so kind." and tells him he should bring more, or different, stuff next time.
This is SO LONG but last thing, I'm also excited by the discovery of these, perhaps annual fairs, which would happen in larger cities and have more things to offer, and would go on for days, I think I read 40-50 days somewhere, and that people would travel days to get there and stay at an inn overnight. We gotta have Jesper and Yarrow go to one of those. They would have entertainment, performances and such going on too... very exciting stuff. https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1301/trade-in-medieval-europe/