Water Economy

The only known universal currency used widely in Ret is water. Whether it is simply sold and traded in vials or represented with chit tokens, water is a means for people to trade goods with it. Great care is taken in the storage and appraisal of water. Nearly all tribes have a local cistern that is heavily guarded. Well shrines are meticulously kept and held in the private hands of high ranking nobility. Whatever the case, the sheer physical value of water is well known, making it incredibly simple to conduct trade with.

History & Usage

History

Water has been used to trade ever since the expansion. Back then, quantities of water were kept in sewn bladders and traded by weight using crude scales and stones to measure their value. Bladders were prone to leakage and evaporation, hence water commodity was susceptible to rapid depreciation. The modern usage of water today as a trading currency has steeply evolved, now based on both volume and quality. With the invention of glass in the last few hundred years, aspects such as turbidity and even salinity has been the much more important indicator of water's value even moreso than volume.

Everyday use

Today the average traveler would likely carry a few physical vessels of water, including large corked bottles for large purchases and a handful of vials for smaller ones. Back home, a tribal member might keep their water supply in the tribe's guarded cistern for which they are given an equivalent amount of chit tokens that represent their contribution. This is a more convenient solution to carrying physical water, which is by far more cumbersome to haul around.
A chit token is typically made of bone or wood with the inscribed seal of the cistern or well for which represents the fixed amount of water from the respective source. It also represents a daily water ration, or one standard bottle volume typically. The chit token market is fairly unregulated but is ideal for day to day purchases at the market. The value of certain chit tokens also vary widly form location to location. The token from a well shrine well known for it's pure and sacred waters will be considered highly valuable in a tribe with a cistern filled with questionably potable water. On the other hand, a token from a poor tribal cistern is all but worthless in a city like Aror where one can easily access the waters of the padishah's oasis.

Refinement

Water quality can be improved with expensive distillers. Though the service of improving water quality in large amounts tends to be rather staggering as distillers tend to lose more water through the process than it being even worth to purify in the first place. However in remote areas, areas of extreme poverty, or when there is just simply no other alternative, the practice of drinking rewater is sometimes the only thing available.

Reusability & Recycling

Rewater is in fact urine that has been filtered through various fine membranes and then boiled. Nearly ever settlement and city has a local distillery that collects urine to sell back as cheap rewater. Rewater has been described to be odorous and have a spiked aftertaste to it. As unappetizing as it may seem, rewater is at many times a way of survival for those who are existing below acceptable levels of poverty.
Natural means of water beyond the use of a well shrine or dew farm is nearly impossible to find. If one can hold out, once every ten years or so Ret experiences a monsoon season called the 'Tears of Respite'. Here, all peoples enjoy the abundance of water and store it obsessively as much as they possibly can. Of course flooding the markets with water causes drastic rates of inflation and chaotic markets for goods all over until the value of water once again stabilizes.

Distribution

Trade & Market

The value of water is firstly governed by its volume. A volume that is typically counted as individual rations. A standard glass bottle is known and accepted to hold one ration. There are larger varieties of said bottle, but they all represent the volume of rations therein. The second indicator of value is purity. Many merchants have ways of testing water purity, but typically by smell and sight is the most convenient way to do this, which is why it is important to use glass bottles or vials at market. The sell of rewater is unheard of, and many merchants will spill rewater at the buyers feet if they feel insulted enough by the thoughtless gesture.
Large purchases of trade have been conducted between kingdoms. This is done by ships carrying large metal vessels filled with water under heavy guard. Many pirates take advantage of taking such a prize, but find it very difficult to do so with the other half of the fleet armed to protect the convoy.

Storage

Water can be stored in a variety of ways. For an individual carrying water to market, the common practice is to carry in standard sized glass bottles, which holds a typical daily water ration. With bottles, it is also common to carry several smaller vials for items not valuable enough for an entire bottle.
For larger volumes, it is practical for an individual to store their water supply in a local cistern. In this instance they would be given chit tokens for which they could still use to trade with at market as if it were actually water. Depending on the quality of water at the cistern, the chit token's value would vary. If the chit token happened to represent the source from a well shrine, which is not at all common unless on was a nobleman, then that particular token might be worth dozens of local cistern tokens.

Law & Regulation

Water thieves and scoundrels will always be around to cheat the system. Many times this involves adding chemicals and additives to hide the odor of rewater and pass it off as actual water. Or even more insidious, poisoning a local cistern so that their private water stash suddenly becomes much more valuable. In either case, tampering or stealing of water resources carries very stiff penalties if caught. Many times the sentence is death by sun fever. This form of punishment is when the criminal is locked in a small cage, and hung high above the ground to die of either heat exposure or thirst.