Yes this is exactly what I'm talking about. I think a well written section would include good advice on evaluating your own saga's economy and what resources and stories the troop wants to deal with in their own saga. Look at how the Magic and Fairy Realms books presented making characters with might. It wasn't just here's how you make a dragon as a character they pointed out how to match it to the power level of your saga.
This model is too simple to be accurate: it has as a consequence, for example, that any two products of a magus-season's work have the same value, which doesn't seem true at all to me.
But I agree with the main points KG made, about providing guidelines and examples for fitting Hermetic prices to one's saga. Seems like a very playtestable idea.
First, I don't think eternal magi are an issue because they are, effectively, independently wealthy, and don't have to worry about their seasons-- and so they're only going to take on tasks that interest them, that further their own research, or pay back debts they might have incurred while mortal. In most cases, they don't hang a plank and start soliciting work because they want a pile of vis. There really aren't more than two or three options for "eternal magi" where they might be interested in commerce any more. What reason does a nature magus (who's effectively a genus locus), or an ascended magus have for selling his services? A living ghost? A newly Become fae? There's no need for that magus to work on anything he doesn't want to work on because he has all the time he could need and the magical power to acquire any mundane resources he might need. Hermetic society is a convenient indulgence when he decides he wants to participate. In that sense, he's removed from the economic picture and becomes a very specialized, very fickle sort of resource. The only one I can see keeping the interest is the alchemical magus, and given the nature of his breakthrough, I can see him wanting to keep a low profile.
Second, in our saga, we require a scribe to have at least a Magic Theory of 2 in order to copy magical texts without introducing errors. That involves a modicum of investment before things even get started. But even without that requirement, you're looking at three seasons of investment before you can even begin considering a return on a summa. That window also presumes there's not only a market for the summa, but a buyer on hand. Just because your magus has written down his innermost insights on Imaginem or Auram or Vim doesn't mean that the members of the local Tribunal want to read what he has to say. Then you've got to either shop the text around yourself or pay a trusted messenger or Redcap to do the job for you, and that's going incur costs-- which you should get back as long as nothing happens to your representative. That travel is going to take time, too, adding more seasons until see a profit. At this point, you're looking at four or five seasons before you get anything back on that book, and you've invested a bit of time into its creation and distribution. A summa is not a vis fountain, waiting to be tapped.
All of this also presumes an Order of Hermes that's relatively open and friendly, rather than secretive and insular. Think about the magi in your covenant, of the magi in the books. Do they seem like happy, fun, book-club-title-exchanging sorts to you? They don't to me. They seem like hard, gruff, generally unpleasant people with access to nearly (and relatively) unlimited power who do what they want until someone steps in and either stops them or eliminates whatever they were affecting. In that kind of Order, people don't hand out their secrets for the equivalent of some coin, because the more you share with those around you, the less you have for yourself and the weaker your advantage might be should something terrible start and the spells start flying. I'm sure some trading happens, but don't think it happens with high quality texts or on a prolific, widescale basis. Each Tribunal is roughly 100ish highly potent individuals with relatively poor social skills. I think Certamen and legal proceedings and even wizards war probably happen fairly often.
So even if you incorporate a small portion of that social environment, a summa becomes a long-term investment, or a gift, not a method for generating sacks of vis hand over fist.
-Ben.
So you are saying it's saga dependant since in your saga:
- even old redcap don't teleport themselves with their goods using some teleporting cart.
- magi don't ask for subscription to a buyer for a book, then write the book, then ask a scribe to do copies, then deliver the book to the subscripter, and sell other copies.
- you feel the Order to be secretive and insular, when the books give IMO social magi with an order full of ideals, passion, and seems "alive" and enjoying their lives as wizard's.. Think about Garus and his code, think about Falke and her goal, think about Philippus Niger and his desire of exchange with Norse culture, think about Jerbiton artists and meddler with mundane history, think about Flambeau and Crusades, Tremere and their desire to protect europe from threats...
IMO, the only way to do an abstract model is by using an intermediary currency which real value will be decided by every storyguide/troupe.
In a new Grimoire I would like to see better rules about writing and learning from books. I'd like summae to have a range between which they are useful (ones with an effectively infinite range - say 1 to 50 - would be authorities). I would like to differtiate knowledge from other abuilities and I would like reading mundane knowledge books - things you don''t really practice - to be quicker. I would get rid of the half-abliity limit on the level of books you can write, at least for knowledges.
It's interesting... on the one hand, I agree that such issues as Hermetic economy are very saga dependent but, on the other, a lot of the books dealing with the Order present a complex canonical view of it. The Houses of Hermes series establish some fairly detailed descriptions of the Order and the Houses. Covenants presents an Order where covenants are often wealthy landholders and establishs concepts like the Hermetic book cycle. Frankly, the game line has gone a long way to establishing a "canonical" Order of Hermes. It seems stange to me that we steadfastly hold back on including Heremtic economy (House Mercere's vis banking notwithstanding) as being "saga dependent."
In the end, everything is saga dependent. Certainly, my saga's take a very different view of the Order then appears in the current canon and that's fine. At the same, however, I think it's also fine that current game line has established a fairly detailed view of the Order. I may disagree with it and not use it, but it's still useful to present a clear model of how the Order could work... and an economy of books, items and the like would be a useful part of that.
I'd also like to see a better described baseline for the Order of Hermes and its place in Mythic Europe. Along with this, it would be nice to see discussion on ways to dial up or down various facets, such as the size of the order, its cohesiveness, legal organization, level of religious involvement, basic fantasy vs. historical, etc., in ways similar to the description in the core book of high-low-baseline levels of vis.
All the talk about 'what happens if ' highlights something that we as a species have known for quite a while: economics is hard. Accomodating magi with scribes, magi with interesting virtues, whether or not senior redcaps teleport around, etc. all adds complexity to the equation, and makes an abstract model less reliable.
Trying to replicate the full extent of the impact of trade with a singular abstract system will always break, and always does when real-world economists try it.
But then, trying to abstract out the rather complex ways that recovering from injury works, or the extremely complex ways in which people learn also results in end-result systems that aren't matched to reality and that, in certain situations, also break. What is important to us as people running/playing a game is that they are close enough that we can achieve the results we want. We accept the wound rules or the character development rules not because they are perfect or even accurate, but because they are a good enough abstraction to allow us to enjoy our game.
The same thing holds true with in-game economies. As a SG, I don't want to have to create every magus in my tribunal, work out all their stats, work out what each magus personally values a pawn of vis at, which books are currently in demand or which are currently flooding the market. These kinds of things I'd prefer to abstract out to a few simple die rolls and a handy reference table.
When my troupe are off three tribunals over on a story of exploration and they get sidetracked into an encounter with some other magi, I don't want to halt the game and say 'hold up, guys. This magus is ~40 years past gauntlet. Let me just write up his character sheet...' - I want a quick-reference to say something like '40 years past gauntlet: primary two arts around 18, secondary four arts around 12, everything else around 7, abilities you care about at 5-7'. I can then abstract a rough-and-ready magus for certamen, have a quick idea of what books he might have/be interested in, etc.
And since I don't want to model every magus in the Order, I also don't want to accurately and precisely model the intricite exchanges between covenants. I care about my players covenant, its nearest neighbours and just enough detail for the tapestry of stories around that to work. I suspect I'm not alone in this.
Yes, some books are more valued at certain times than others. A buyer or seller can probably abstract finding such deals with a combination of Order of Hermes Lore and Bargain. Yes, some people may be withholding certain texts or trying to play the market and creating artificially inflated prices. I can work around that with some Intrigue rolls. Unless the interaction is directly related to the story I am telling, I don't want such decisions to bog down my story. I want quick, dirty, resolved, move on.
So: abstraction it is. Having some learned people who are experienced with the game and system work out some fairly good abstractions and publishing them in a book makes my life a lot easier. As such, I'm prepared to part with my real-world money in exchange for that. 
I disagree to some extent: a season is worth whatever the magus can produce in it, and whatever that magus may barter that product for. So if the magus is a longevity specialist but is really bad at vis extraction, one season is worth more vis than he could extract - it's worth atleast* as much vis as he could get from working on someone else's longevity ritual.
I guess we need to distinguish between the personal value (utility) of an item to a particular magus, which I suppose would pretty much correlate with seasons as you say, and the market value of an item, which I think would be much less simple.
Yeah. For instance
- Magus Hobbes writes a Q11 Creo tractatus,
- Maga Wormwood has passed Creo 30 and spends a season studying Creo vis.
To maga Wormwood, the tractatus is worth 7 pawns of vis (more if the study aura is lower than 5).
To magus Hobbes, the tractatus is worth more than 4 pawns of vis (he can prolly extract 4 and he cannot write another until he goes up 5 levels).
From Covenant, the tractatus is worth 2 pawns of vis.
So the personal value is 7 for Wormwood, 5ish for Hobbes and the market value is 2. Selling tractatus is a buyer's market unless you find at least 5 buyers for your tractatus. If profit is a sin, then 3 buyers are enough.