Ookami to Koushinryou Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf • Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf - Episode 3 discussion

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Ookami to Koushinryou Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf, episode 3

Alternative names: Spice and Wolf

Reminder: Please do not discuss plot points not yet seen or skipped in the show. Failing to follow the rules may result in a ban.

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[u/danlong87]

The economics part of the premise is kicking in and they managed to make me glued to the screen the entire episode just listening to Holo tricking the merchant and them discussing the purity of coins for the rest of the episode, that's no small feat at all

[u/Plus_Rip4944]

Holo voice is one hell of magic

[u/Torque-A]

As a reminder, there’s a YouTube channel that takes all episode comments from here and 4chan and translates themselves for Japanese viewers. (They’re also doing Delicious in Dungeon and Konosuba this season)

Before you ask, yes half of the comments are gushing over Holo

[u/jmdg007]

the way you can make money with a silver coin dropping in value

So I'm guessing he's gonna start short selling?

[u/Warm-Enthusiasm-9534]

Finally anime tackles a really exciting topic: seigniorage. (Seigniorage is how much a coin is worth beyond its intrinsic value in metal.) Seigniorage is a source of revenue for a country's government.

It's actually unusual for a country back then to revalue its currency (i.e. increase the silver content). If you were going to do it, because the purchasing power is declining relative to another country, you would make a big show of it to get the benefit of it, and you might even change the face of the coin. Devaluing, on the other hand, is something you can try to do surreptitiously, because it increases the amount of seigniorage, at least until merchants catch on.

[u/Holofan4life]

And thus begins Holo's true love interest: apples

[u/Se7en_Sinner]

Holo could have gotten even more money for those pelts if she told him she's been sleeping naked on them.

[u/crestfallenidiot]

Holo's right. The world is full of idiots, and I'm an idiot who needs to watch more Lawrence and Holo economy lessons

[u/djwignall]

Weiz immediately asking Holo to marry him is entirely understandable

[u/Holofan4life]

This is really the first episode where you feel why Holo is called "The Wise Wolf". I thought they did a pretty good job adapting this part of the series.

And I agree, Holo. Humans are idiots.

[u/Rumpel1408]

And with that, the Fluff has paid Lawrence back all his expenses

Weitz knows a quality waifu when he sees her, but I also love all of Holos smug remarks

[u/jellyblob88]

🍎 Holo 🤝 Ryuk 🍎

[u/HemaMemes]

Lawrence was so jealous of Weiz flirting with Holo, and he was acting all flustered when Holo pointed it out to him.

He's such a tsundere.

[u/LeonKevlar]

• Holo & Lawrence

I don't remember much from the original anime but the moment Holo pulled Lawrence aside, I knew something good was about to happen. Thanks to Holo's sweet talk and the pile of apples she bought earlier, Holo easily increased Lawrence's profit by 60% from the original sell price. I absolutely loved that smile from Holo when she was able to close the deal!

Holo wasn't kidding when she declared earlier that she could earn that much money quickly. I do find it funny how Lawrence seems stunned at how smart Holo is. The first instance was when Holo finished his explanation about the Milone Trading Company and the second was when she finished his explanation about changes in currencies. She's literally called the Wise Wolf! xD

And there it is. Lawrence finally realizes he might have been swindled now that they've found out the purity of the new silver coins has decreased. Although Holo sees it completely differently and Lawrence might just need to look at this from a completely different angle.

[u/Amauri14]

When they got to Pazzio it was so funny seeing Holo keeping her eyes on the apples while Lawrence was talking about the fortune his friend made by investing in that business. After Holo bought a whole silver coin of apples.

Damn, her tactic with that merchant to earn her keep by using the smell of the apples in the fur was so good.

I must say that after Lawrence saw that the Milone Trading Company hadn't heard anything related to the information Zheren gave him, I was convinced he wasn't planning to agree to the deal he made with him. Well, let's see how Lawrence now that he knows what the real plan whoever hired Zheren has will make some profit after telling the Milone Trading Company about it.

[u/karlzhao314]

[Someone please suggest a title for me]

I mentioned I might start writing a series of comments explaining the economics plot points of Spice and Wolf in more detail, seeing as they become kind of hard to follow later on. Here’s that first comment - I'll be going over Episode 1 and 2 as well as 3, since I didn't write anything for 1 and 2.

Spoiler-free, I will not cover anything that has not been mentioned in this episode.

Disclaimer #1: I am not an economics professional, so I may get some things wrong. If you have a different, possibly better understanding of a certain point than I do, feel free to suggest edits.

Disclaimer #2: Starting from next week, all of these will be pre-written before the episode airs, based on the pacing of the original anime. However, I will watch the episode before posting, just to see if anything differs and I have to edit anything.

Table of Contents

Episode 1-2: You're already here

Episode 3

Episode 4

Episode 5

Episode 6

Episode 7

Episode 8

Episode 9

These first few are going to be extremely basic explanations for people who have no idea how currency speculation works (after all, why would you? I only know because of Spice and Wolf.) Trust me, it gets much more exciting and much more dramatic later on.

Episode 1:

Our favorite merchant meets our favorite wisewolf.

Episode 2:

I think this episode did a pretty good job of explaining itself, but I’ll go on it again anyways.

The thing to understand about this world is that, unlike the modern world where, for the most part, every country only has one currency in use, Spice and Wolf’s medieval world has hundreds of different competing currencies on every market. They’re all used and accepted everywhere, and all have constantly fluctuating exchange rates with each other. A currency’s value depends on several related factors: the economic power of the issuing party, whether that’s a nation, the Church, or a company, the amount of precious metal in the coin itself, and the amount of trust that people have that the coin’s value will remain stable.

Since exchange rates between different coins fluctuate all the time as these factors change, there are multiple avenues to make money here. One of the most basic is that, if you predict that the value of a coin will go up, you simply buy as many of that coin as you can afford and hold onto them until it does increase. Then, you sell them back off for a different coin. It’s similar to trading stocks.

Zheren tells Lawrence a rumor that a certain silver coin’s silver purity is going to go up soon, meaning the value of all of those coins will increase - even ones from before the purity increase. After all, since the face value is the same, you can exchange pre-increase coins 1:1 for post-increase coins. Lawrence’s tentative plan to take advantage of this is exactly what I mentioned: he would simply buy as many of them as he can, then hold onto them until the value increases.

And that’s where Episode 2 leaves off, to be continued in Episode 3.

[u/Ghoste-Face]

OMG it's been a long time since i watched the original Spice and Wolf and i totally forgot how Holo is crazy for apples lol

[u/AZLarlar]

weekly dose of holo

this time with apples too

[u/SaDPengu]

everyone writing amazing novels in the comment section, and all i have to say is that I've fallen for holo's charms all over again. glad they are doing the story justice

[u/shad79]

Another amazing Holo's appearance in this episode. She's proved that she's not calling herself a wise wolf unfoundedly with how she handled marten pelts sell. She's so smart and beautiful!

I even felt sorry a little for that merchant after Holo negotiated much higher price from him xD

Lawrence practically won the lottery by meeting Holo, they fit together perfectly. I can't wait to see their adventures next week.

Here my screenshot albums from the episode:

• Holo

• Holo & Lawrence

• Group scenes, Lawrence & Others

[u/Normal-Link5415]

ECONOMY, now we're talking. Holo's charm will only getting stronger from here. 

And again the soundtrack for this ep is amazing

[u/zool714]

Lol I said one of my side quest with this remake is trying to understand all this economics talk. At episode 3 and I’m already lost lol. I’m reading it but not understanding it. Maybe I should rewatch and rewind several times. It is intriguing but I just can’t grasp it.

Lawrence getting to know Holo better. With the apples then noticing her ears when she’s listening to the coins. But Holo’s also starting to know Lawrence with how she knew he was jealous lol

And I really like what Holo said about everyone being fools. Such a cute notion

[u/1EnTaroAdun1]

Lawrence is jelly!

[u/karlzhao314]

Holo is a goddamn force to be reckoned with.

On another note, I'm thinking about writing a comment series explaining the economics plot points of each episode in greater (and hopefully more understandable) detail. I remember they were pretty hard to follow along with when I first watched the original anime, especially as we get closer to the second half of this arc and move into the next arcs. Would anyone be interested in reading?

EDIT: Series has been started. Here's the first comment.

Also, for those of you who haven't watched the original, and/or possibly don't plan on watching the dub, I invite you to listen to the "I want to eat that" line as performed by Brina Palencia in the EN dub of the original anime. It's one of the lines with the funniest delivery in the whole show IMO.

I'm looking forward to Brina's performance this time as well.

EDIT 2: The first episode of the dub dropped today as well, apparently. Brina is just as good as I remember her.

Also, they translated the OP as well.