Wealth and Riches

Dwarves trade gold bullion, ingots included, but each dwarf places his bullion in one of two pools.

Wealth is an isolated pool of bullion. It is never traded away except as bullion, for dowry or ritual, and in effect it is sealed off from the broad market. The assignment is made in the owner’s own mind. Once a dwarf assigns an ingot to his Wealth, nothing short of dire and devastating penury would drive him to "bust an ingot." The behavior resembles a gambler who sets his winnings aside instead of staking them. Among the metals, Wealth accrues only to gold and platinum. Wealth has a social dimension, so ingots and mithril artifacts carry cultural meaning, and the loss of Wealth is as much a reputational disaster as a financial one.

Dwarven culture is traditionally hard-asset only. In some holds, those more exposed to dealings with the Markish, dwarves can run book ledgers.

Riches are what a dwarf spends. They are normally not ingots but imperfect items: rings, coinage, jewelry, gold grit, and the like.

See also: The Ratchet, First Ingot, Ingot, Gold