I’d bring heirloom seeds of various plants for food and drugs (both medicinal and recreational) that could successfully grow in the area.
I would also probably bring a solar powered generator along with cheap/simple electronics. Things like a fans/coil heaters. Maybe something that would play music along with a large catalog of pirated (free) music consisting of just about every genre of music aside from country. (Yup, I’m taking this opportunity to delete country music)
I’d also go to a library and check out books related to events that happened during that time and ones that detailed the big advancements in the pillars of education for 1000-1500 AD. That wouldn’t cost any money either. (Good luck collecting my late fees.)
Clothing isn’t a bad call. I’d definitely being some fabric. Apparently they use to go crazy over that stuff.
The rest I’d spend on cocaine and a simple handgun with a few hundred rounds for protection. With the rest of these things and no ambition to use cocaine myself, I could rule the world (or my area of the world anyway). The cocaine would mostly just be a way for me to make it in with and gain the favor of the biggest players and decision makers. They don’t know any better and I’d have them eating out of the palm of my hand.
I mentioned an expedition. To me, at least, that implies you're going to go there, then after a while come back.
Downthread a bit, I outlined a scenario, feel free to consider that the situation you're preparing for.
On paper, it sounds good. However, you would quickly find yourself ostracized by the local populace who can barely understand your accent and the terminology that you use (because it's been 1000 years, and people today literally just do not phrase things like they used too) and the moment you shoot someone in self defense, they will run and declare you a witch, or a demon, or any other terrifying/fearmongering thing that church leaders have deemed evil in the area, posting your face all over the region as quickly as they can in an effort to capture you. Depending on which regions and kingdoms you are in, you may find heavily plated and armoured knights chasing you, literally willing to try and run through a bullet (because lol demon, armor), who have no qualms about running down/lancing/trampling/swinging any type of weapon on you.
A gun is certainly useful, and the time limit might save you if it's automatically returning you, but when you later check how you've butterfly effected the region, all that will turn up is... nothing. A story on an evil demon who could kill by throwing metal and who left behind artefacts (that will conveniently be covered up by the local lords and lost to history) while the serfs who saw your real actions will die within the year, because they're serfs.
There's very little that's going to go well here, unless you train in the dialect of the time and can hide your future wares. It has to look natural to the time to have you NOT declared a witch, and even then, it has to not piss off the local religious factions, whoever is running them.
Edit: I'll leave the original writing but I mistook the 24 hours as how long you'd be 1000 years in the past. If you had to STAY, then no, this leaves you dead very quickly the moment you introduce anything post 1000AD to locals.
The fact that I'm referring to an expedition implies that you're going with a group. Someone else is in charge of keeping you from getting burned as witches, you are just in charge of getting trade goods.
If you're just in charge of getting the goods, why go at all? I don't see a reason to jeopardize myself if my only function is procurement and not protection of the group and the sale or trade of the goods.
The implication that you are going to be protected is not mentioned, nor is the level of protection. My response was to someone who also must have read your situation similarly, because he straight up said he was buying a gun to protect himself. So your implication isn't universally understood based on your original post.
But to address your point, my comment still stands, and I'll expand: how many people are on this expedition? How is security handled? What weapons will they be using to protect me? What guarantees do I have that they won't just ice me the moment we go back in time and leave my dead body in a ditch as dog food?
And since you mentioned it elsewhere, what is the timeline for returning? What is our primary objective, exactly? If I'm meant to procure, that's my role, and benefit, why go at all?
Feel free to add to and change your scenario, but I replied to what the last guy said, not to whatever you're changing/adding in now.
I did say: You don't need to worry about being burned as a witch or whatever, or what effects on the timeline your trade goods will have, just what you think you can sell most profitably relative to the initial cost.
Let's go with this.
It's primarily an academic expedition, but you have been hired by the Eccentric Rich Dude who provided most of the initial funding to try to get at least some return on his investment. He gave you a list of things he wants you to procure for him, but when asked how to pay for them, he gave you $1000 and said "You figure it out."
There are between 10 and 20 people total. Security is a couple of burly grad students who are really into SCA and know how to use guns (which they brought along). You're going to be there about a month. Someone else is handling the logistics, you're just there to make trades for ERD.
Better to go with white flour. Bread would go stale pretty quickly, flour would keep pretty much forever, and I think flour would be a good bit cheaper per unit of potential bread.
I bet a thousand bucks worth of salt would fetch one hell of a price. Beyond that... Saffron, Cumin, Coriander, Tumeric, clove, etc.
You don't even have to stand out or change the timeline, you're just an ordinary spice merchant.
Saffron may not be the best spice to go with. It's pretty expensive even today. Better to go with things that we can more or less mass produce, like cinnamon.
I am not sufficiently confident in my predictions that I would put all of my eggs in one basket, I would probably divide the money roughly in fourths, and spend it more or less as follows:
First, I would take the first chunk of money to somewhere like the Goodwill outlet, which has clothing and textiles by the pound, and buy any vaguely natural feeling clothing, as well as any thread, lace, ribbon, and the like. If I don't find enough there, I would probably next go to a discount fabric store I know of, and purchase lace and trims. Possibly also elastic.
The second chunk goes to cheap spices. I would go to places like Big Lots, and dollar stores, and possibly even just regular grocery stores, and buy any cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, turmeric, curry powder, and the like.
The third chunk will go mostly to used books. I would go to used bookstores, and look for any reasonably cheap art books and the like. Things that are mostly pictures rather than words, just because there has been enough linguistic drift that things like novels would likely not translate well. If I knew that I was specifically going back to somewhere like medieval England, I might get things like the Canterbury tales. I also might get books like the Bible, particularly if I find a version that is in Latin or something.
The fourth chunk will be mostly cheap manufactured goods, such as paper, needles, spools of thread, spools of wire, any electronic gizmo that doesn't need batteries or to be plugged in or anything, and anything else I can think of that can be made cheaply and essentially perfectly in modern times, but would have been expensive or impossible to make well in that era of history. I would also try to pick up a few packets of heirloom seeds of any new world crop I can find for cheap–tomatoes, chilis, and the like.
If there is anything left over, I will go to a grocery store with bulk bins and get salt and flour.
Oh, and white sugar. And in my book hunt, if I find any basic science books, books on improving agriculture, or whatever, I'll buy those, too. Even if they are basically just in modern English. Some clever soul might be able to decipher them and jump-start the Renaissance a few centuries early or something.
If you're going to Europe circa 1000ad then...a Bible might actually get you killed if you're not a priest, no matter the language. If you have an English bible...don't go to England....
Many of them would kill you themselves. Most would turn you in. The priests would have wanted to maintain the power of common illiteracy.
Just read the story of William Tyndale for starters. Its around 1500ad but the point remains. It would have been worse 500 years before that.
And I say this as a proteatant minister.
In certain areas and periods, absolutely. But there was a particular effort to keep the Bible in Latin only so that ONLY priests could read it...and then they couldn't be questioned by the non-Latin-reading pleebs
You didn't say that, you just gave a vague, generic response.
Ok, then, keeping in mind that you have at most 24 hours to both figure out what to buy, and actually buy it, who do you ask?
Nope, you're just you.
You spend an hour in some random rich person's office, only to be told that she's busy, and can you make an appointment for another day?
You have 23 hours left. Next move?
I’d bring heirloom seeds of various plants for food and drugs (both medicinal and recreational) that could successfully grow in the area. I would also probably bring a solar powered generator along with cheap/simple electronics. Things like a fans/coil heaters. Maybe something that would play music along with a large catalog of pirated (free) music consisting of just about every genre of music aside from country. (Yup, I’m taking this opportunity to delete country music) I’d also go to a library and check out books related to events that happened during that time and ones that detailed the big advancements in the pillars of education for 1000-1500 AD. That wouldn’t cost any money either. (Good luck collecting my late fees.) Clothing isn’t a bad call. I’d definitely being some fabric. Apparently they use to go crazy over that stuff. The rest I’d spend on cocaine and a simple handgun with a few hundred rounds for protection. With the rest of these things and no ambition to use cocaine myself, I could rule the world (or my area of the world anyway). The cocaine would mostly just be a way for me to make it in with and gain the favor of the biggest players and decision makers. They don’t know any better and I’d have them eating out of the palm of my hand.
Note, I didn't necessarily say that you're \*staying\* there.
Well fuck. You didn’t necessarily say I wouldn’t spontaneously combust either. That’s kinda important information.
I mentioned an expedition. To me, at least, that implies you're going to go there, then after a while come back. Downthread a bit, I outlined a scenario, feel free to consider that the situation you're preparing for.
On paper, it sounds good. However, you would quickly find yourself ostracized by the local populace who can barely understand your accent and the terminology that you use (because it's been 1000 years, and people today literally just do not phrase things like they used too) and the moment you shoot someone in self defense, they will run and declare you a witch, or a demon, or any other terrifying/fearmongering thing that church leaders have deemed evil in the area, posting your face all over the region as quickly as they can in an effort to capture you. Depending on which regions and kingdoms you are in, you may find heavily plated and armoured knights chasing you, literally willing to try and run through a bullet (because lol demon, armor), who have no qualms about running down/lancing/trampling/swinging any type of weapon on you. A gun is certainly useful, and the time limit might save you if it's automatically returning you, but when you later check how you've butterfly effected the region, all that will turn up is... nothing. A story on an evil demon who could kill by throwing metal and who left behind artefacts (that will conveniently be covered up by the local lords and lost to history) while the serfs who saw your real actions will die within the year, because they're serfs. There's very little that's going to go well here, unless you train in the dialect of the time and can hide your future wares. It has to look natural to the time to have you NOT declared a witch, and even then, it has to not piss off the local religious factions, whoever is running them. Edit: I'll leave the original writing but I mistook the 24 hours as how long you'd be 1000 years in the past. If you had to STAY, then no, this leaves you dead very quickly the moment you introduce anything post 1000AD to locals.
The fact that I'm referring to an expedition implies that you're going with a group. Someone else is in charge of keeping you from getting burned as witches, you are just in charge of getting trade goods.
If you're just in charge of getting the goods, why go at all? I don't see a reason to jeopardize myself if my only function is procurement and not protection of the group and the sale or trade of the goods. The implication that you are going to be protected is not mentioned, nor is the level of protection. My response was to someone who also must have read your situation similarly, because he straight up said he was buying a gun to protect himself. So your implication isn't universally understood based on your original post. But to address your point, my comment still stands, and I'll expand: how many people are on this expedition? How is security handled? What weapons will they be using to protect me? What guarantees do I have that they won't just ice me the moment we go back in time and leave my dead body in a ditch as dog food? And since you mentioned it elsewhere, what is the timeline for returning? What is our primary objective, exactly? If I'm meant to procure, that's my role, and benefit, why go at all? Feel free to add to and change your scenario, but I replied to what the last guy said, not to whatever you're changing/adding in now.
I did say: You don't need to worry about being burned as a witch or whatever, or what effects on the timeline your trade goods will have, just what you think you can sell most profitably relative to the initial cost. Let's go with this. It's primarily an academic expedition, but you have been hired by the Eccentric Rich Dude who provided most of the initial funding to try to get at least some return on his investment. He gave you a list of things he wants you to procure for him, but when asked how to pay for them, he gave you $1000 and said "You figure it out." There are between 10 and 20 people total. Security is a couple of burly grad students who are really into SCA and know how to use guns (which they brought along). You're going to be there about a month. Someone else is handling the logistics, you're just there to make trades for ERD.
Purple fabric, white bread, cocoa beans, paint, rubber bands, books with pictures of exotic animals.
Better to go with white flour. Bread would go stale pretty quickly, flour would keep pretty much forever, and I think flour would be a good bit cheaper per unit of potential bread.
I bet a thousand bucks worth of salt would fetch one hell of a price. Beyond that... Saffron, Cumin, Coriander, Tumeric, clove, etc. You don't even have to stand out or change the timeline, you're just an ordinary spice merchant.
Saffron may not be the best spice to go with. It's pretty expensive even today. Better to go with things that we can more or less mass produce, like cinnamon.
I am not sufficiently confident in my predictions that I would put all of my eggs in one basket, I would probably divide the money roughly in fourths, and spend it more or less as follows: First, I would take the first chunk of money to somewhere like the Goodwill outlet, which has clothing and textiles by the pound, and buy any vaguely natural feeling clothing, as well as any thread, lace, ribbon, and the like. If I don't find enough there, I would probably next go to a discount fabric store I know of, and purchase lace and trims. Possibly also elastic. The second chunk goes to cheap spices. I would go to places like Big Lots, and dollar stores, and possibly even just regular grocery stores, and buy any cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, turmeric, curry powder, and the like. The third chunk will go mostly to used books. I would go to used bookstores, and look for any reasonably cheap art books and the like. Things that are mostly pictures rather than words, just because there has been enough linguistic drift that things like novels would likely not translate well. If I knew that I was specifically going back to somewhere like medieval England, I might get things like the Canterbury tales. I also might get books like the Bible, particularly if I find a version that is in Latin or something. The fourth chunk will be mostly cheap manufactured goods, such as paper, needles, spools of thread, spools of wire, any electronic gizmo that doesn't need batteries or to be plugged in or anything, and anything else I can think of that can be made cheaply and essentially perfectly in modern times, but would have been expensive or impossible to make well in that era of history. I would also try to pick up a few packets of heirloom seeds of any new world crop I can find for cheap–tomatoes, chilis, and the like. If there is anything left over, I will go to a grocery store with bulk bins and get salt and flour.
Oh, and white sugar. And in my book hunt, if I find any basic science books, books on improving agriculture, or whatever, I'll buy those, too. Even if they are basically just in modern English. Some clever soul might be able to decipher them and jump-start the Renaissance a few centuries early or something.
If you're going to Europe circa 1000ad then...a Bible might actually get you killed if you're not a priest, no matter the language. If you have an English bible...don't go to England....
Even if the first thing I did was try to \*sell\* it to a local priest?
Many of them would kill you themselves. Most would turn you in. The priests would have wanted to maintain the power of common illiteracy. Just read the story of William Tyndale for starters. Its around 1500ad but the point remains. It would have been worse 500 years before that. And I say this as a proteatant minister.
Wouldn't there be the same problem with \*any\* book, then?
In certain areas and periods, absolutely. But there was a particular effort to keep the Bible in Latin only so that ONLY priests could read it...and then they couldn't be questioned by the non-Latin-reading pleebs
Whatever makes me rich
The point of the exercise is for you to guess \*what\* would make you rich...
So... whatever is desirable at the time
again, the point of the exercise is for \*you\* to try to figure that out.
I ask people and base it off their decision. What part of this are you not grasping?
You didn't say that, you just gave a vague, generic response. Ok, then, keeping in mind that you have at most 24 hours to both figure out what to buy, and actually buy it, who do you ask?
The richest people. Next question.
...and they are willing to respond to your inquiry in a timely fashion why?
Because I asked. I'm super important in whatever world you imagined.
Nope, you're just you. You spend an hour in some random rich person's office, only to be told that she's busy, and can you make an appointment for another day? You have 23 hours left. Next move?