[MathYouF]

This makes me wonder what laws and tedium of administration merchants of the 1320's would complain about. I'm sure they still had a few depending on the region, and maybe more severe possible outcomes (highway robbery, unlawful arrest because of the influence of a rival merchant, arbitrary taxation and tariffs, etc.).

[ben_w]

Yup. I think also languages were much more variable, and doing accounting in Roman numerals was so hard they did it twice and averaged the answers, and contracts and tax receipts were done by carving marks in sticks (hence, apparently, the etymology of "stocks").

[simonh]

Even the Romans didn’t use Roman numbers much for actual maths, they used the Greek system.

[ben_w]

Huh, TIL. Thanks :)

[simonh]

You’re welcome, I learned that here too a few years ago. Love HN.