Economy of Ogretopia

Ogretopia's economy is infamously based on rocks. This system developed from the traditional economic systems of the ogres, namely thuggery, thievery and bribery.

Originally, ogres would take what they could from weaker ogres as the only form of trade. Over a period of centuries a system of bribery, blackmail and protection developed, allowing weaker ogres who were skilled in certain trades to make their product and remain relatively un-pummeled. Exceptionally strong ogres would hold sway over many weaker ogres who all had different professions, becoming the forerunners of today's chiefs of industry.

As other peoples developed systems of monetary trade, ogres were compelled to try it out themselves. Unfortunately they did not entirely understand how money worked. They based their own version of currency on what they saw others doing, altered with the "ogre touch."

This system worked like this: an ogre would gather a bag of rocks, which was taken to be the ogre currency. The ogre would then go to another ogre and demand a product from them. The other ogre than had the choice of accepting the bag of rocks in exchange for what the first ogre was asking for, or getting pummeled and having the product taken from them anyway. If they thought they could take the buying ogre in a fight, they would refuse the transaction. If the selling ogre was weaker than the buying ogre, though, the offer was accepted.

As time went on certain weaker ogres who made good products would build up large amounts of rocks. They would then try to go to other ogres and buy things with the rocks, usually resulting in the other ogre laughing at the buying ogre and refusing the transaction.

With the increasing use of the rock system, though, large ogres started watching over the bags of rocks they had traded to other ogres to watch what those ogres did with them. If they tried to use them to buy things but were refused, the original owners of the rocks would go to the ogre who refused to accept their rocks and demand what was wrong with the rocks that they weren't good enough for that ogre. The ogre who had refused trade to a smaller ogre would thus find himself being threatened by a larger ogre and be forced to start accepting rocks.

This system is still in use today, with certain large ogres marking their rocks to track them and enforce their worth with brute strength. International trade has, however, required a second rock system to be implemented. This second system uses a standard rock size and shape to set the value and has denominations of rocks just like other systems have denominations of coins. Within Ogretopia, however, this system is considered overly complicated and the first system is usually preferred.