James counts the grains again, there are fifteen he mentally repeats to himself. He takes the ones he needs and puts the rest back in the small bag. He wraps the bag carefully and hides it in a false brick in the wall, where it is very difficult for anyone to find it.
Hurriedly he goes out into the street with several of his handicrafts. As he walks along, he thinks that any vendor will accept the fifteen grains in exchange for a loaf of bread, which will be enough to complete his lunch... James belongs to the third generation after the great tragedy...
At the end of the year two thousand and thirty an unforeseeable, devastating event occurred, the activity on the surface of the Sun increased. Suddenly the solar explosions became more frequent and more intense...
In a few months the electromagnetic waves coming from the solar surface rendered the satellite system orbiting the Earth useless.
Without satellites, communication systems collapsed all over the world. The Internet came to a standstill, computers stopped receiving and sending information. Nuclear power plants ceased their activity and some of them let out lethal radioactive charges. Electric power was only maintained in small spaces. Billions of people died because they no longer received the medical treatments they needed.
Cities became ghostly. The world almost returned to the times before the industrial revolution...
During the first fifteen years chaos took over the world, the law of the jungle was established, criminal groups made life impossible...
Without communications it was not possible to use the armies to establish order, they were immobilized, even though they had enormous reserves of fuel...
After the initial impact, rudimentary communications began to be established using small drones. These ships, controlled by radio waves, put distant groups in contact with each other. In less than five years, this communication system made it possible to resume a moderately civilized life...
But the radiation had also affected the crops, including coffee. Now each bush barely produced a few beans a year, so it was no longer a product of mass consumption. Hardly anyone could enjoy a cup of coffee...
With the scarcity of beans, drinking coffee became a source of conflict, there was simply not enough for everyone...
In the James area, the productive activity was taking off and there were problems to make exchanges, the old money was no longer used because there was no way to produce coins and bills again.
A council of elders in charge of making decisions came up with a quite successful solution, they would use the grains as currency. From that moment on, the bushes were protected with armed men and all the production was concentrated in a facility where a very strict account was kept of what came in and what went out.
At the beginning this system of exchange was quite similar to barter, but as social life was reactivated, production increased and coffee became an efficient currency, retained value and could not be counterfeited in any way.
The beans worked perfectly to pay for work done by third parties and were also used to sell goods of any kind. This new currency would soon become the center of economic activity...
James returns home satisfied, he managed to sell all the handicrafts. With a smiling face he feels the beans in his pants pocket. He takes the bag from the wall and spreads the contents on the table, adding the ones he has taken out of his pocket. One by one she counts each bean and smiles again. There are still a few more to go, but he is getting closer...
When he has the right amount he will be able to fulfill an old dream, to make his wedding ritual. In this new era coffee beans not only serve as a currency of exchange, they are also used to maintain certain rituals like marriage...
No one knows when the custom began but one day the elders established that to give legality to marriages the bride and groom should take a small infusion of coffee, which was like taking a few shots of money.
Having those extra beans was not easy and it could take a long time, but James is very close to achieve the goal and that's why he keeps smiling...
Thanks for your time.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version).
Logo creado por @themanualbot