...and the only way for an unarmed, unarmored newbie to get it is to Salvage. Now, I don't want to deny the age-old traditions of beg, borrow and steal, certainly you can make money that way. But salvage offers the you a more honorable income without risking your reputation.
In Iridine there are a variety of items that you can collect and sell to shopkeepers for money. The variety is not extensive, gathering these things can be difficult and you won't get much for them but if you work hard and stick to it you'll soon earn enough to afford your first pieces of armor. And with armor you can venture into hunting areas that offer a much more generous living.
 
 

When expressing a large quantity of money Iridinians often refer to the 'talent'. It is not a unit of money (there is no
'talent coin') but does represent a set value.
Unit              Value in Denar        Value in Gold Cents
"Talent"                   1562.5                             62

There are four items (that I know of) that newbies can salvage in Iridine. Burnt torches, rat pelts (and heads), bandit chests and thug items. Now, the problem with salvaging should be obvious. It's done mostly in the hunting areas where dangerous animals wander. And certainly you can expect to be approached by a vicious osecar or fierce hound while salvaging. The thing is, if you are salvaging in the first place then it's probably because you don't have any armor. And fighting even a sewer rat without armor is a bad idea. So when an animal (or whatever) enters the area just leave, go somewhere else to salvage.
Burnt torches can be found all over Iridine. Probably the most common place to find them is in the Sewers, where a light source is always needed. Remember that the game does not give a detailed description of every area you enter, items on the ground are usually not shown. When hunting for burnt torches you must look at every area you enter to find your torches. When you have a full load of torches go to Sesquillicus' Supply Shop and sell her your torches.
Rat pelts and heads are usually only found in the hunting areas. Now when characters get to a certain level they usually stop skinning their kills, the money it gets them is less interesting to them than the experience they get from the fight. So, you'll often find unskinned animals in abundance in the sewers and dumps. (Note: the dump rats, however, often have gems in their stomachs so you'll find that they will almost always have their stomachs removed while pelts and heads are left intact).
Caprarius, the Carcass Buyer, buys the pelts and heads of rats that you find. But his prices have been known to change without warning and he occasionally buys other parts as well. Since no one knows what Caprarius is buying in a given month, skin the whole animal and bring the parts to him. Make note of the parts he buys and from then on skin only those. No point in weighing yourself down with animal parts you can't sell. But when you do find what he is buying right now, you probably don't have to worry about that for a while. He doesn't change things up that often and usually sticks with pelts and heads.
[Update: Dump Hounds are now skinnable and can be found to have gems in their stomachs as well. Also, some sewer rats, it is reported, have also been found with gems in their stomachs. Thanks to Jetal for this update!)]
Thug items are found in the alleys west of the Toga (see Directions). Again, some players will hunt the alleys merely for the experience and may leave items from thugs and brutes laying around. Thugs wear leather armor (a one-piece torso armor), daggers and pouches of coin. Brutes usually only have armor, leather helmets and pouches of coin. You will find that the armor and the coin is usually taken (but check all pouches anyway, sometimes you get lucky) but many players simply leave the daggers because they don't want to walk all the way to Thimaro's shop to sell them. Gather these daggers and sell them to Thimaro. If you are lucky enough to find armor or the leather helmets of brutes, you can sell them to Venina in her leather shop. Venina will also buy pouches (any pouch) for 1 sen. Be warned, however, that you will be less likely to find the more valuable thug and brute items just laying around compared to the cheap animal parts or cumbersome bandit chests.
Bandit chests can be found in the Bandit Woods. They can sometimes be found scattered somewhere in the wood in groups of as many as 5 or 6. Now, the reason why the more experienced players leave these empty chests laying around is simply one of logistics: two chests won't fit in one sack. So, if a warrior in the bandit woods hunts and kills 3 or 4 bandits, he has to be wearing 3 or 4 sacks to carry those chests back to town with. Most don't bother wearing that many containers. It's a pain sorting out all the contents of a sack, pouch, backpack, etc. without adding even more sacks. So, if a warrior doesn't bring a locksmith with him or find one hanging around in the woods, he learns the skill himself. Then, he can open the chests, get the loot and let the empty chest fall to the ground for some lucky newbie to find.
Luckily, bandits wear sacks, too. And it is in these sacks that they carry their chests. So, you are lucky enough to find a few chests in the woods, you'll probably find a few sacks as well. Get and wear every sack you find. Put a chest in each sack. Gather as many sacks and chests as you can carry (I once gathered about thirty-five, the most I could carry at one time) then head on over to The Locksmith Shop and sell those chests to Apula for about 7 denarii each. If you are lucky enough to find one still locked (you should check each one just in case, Apula will buy locked chests for the same price and tell you no different) you are in luck! Chests often carry a respectable amount of coin and/or gems. Any locksmith in town will be glad to open the chest for a small percentage of what it contains. You will, in fact, probably find an out of work locksmith hanging around Apula's.

To skin an animal use the following command strings. You must be holding a knife or dagger to skin.
*To skin all the animal parts from an animal: Skin <animal>, repeat until all parts have been skinned.
*To skin a specific animal part: Skin <head/pelt/whatever> from <animal>.
Get <part> and put it in your sack/backpack/whatever and continue on salvaging.
*To look in a dump rat stomach for gems: Get stomach
Look in stomach
Empty stomach in my <sack/backpack/whatever>
Discard stomach (will prompt with y/n, type "y")

*To sell a pelt to Caprarius, a torch to Sesquillicus or a dagger to Thimaro type:
Get <torch/pelt/head/whatever> from <sack/backpack> (or wherever you're keeping it).
Offer <head/pelt/torch/whatever> to <Cap, Ses or Thim>.
When they have accepted the item type:
"cap change or "ven change or "thim buy
They will offer you coin or, perhaps, a small sack of coin:
Accept Cap/Ses/Thim
A shortcut if you have a sack full of items to sell is to simply offer the entire sack to the shopkeeper. They will take what they want from the sack and put the empty sack on the counter. However, make sure that you have something in the sack that they DON'T want or they will keep the whole sack.
*To sell leather armor to Venina or daggers to Thimaro:
Thimaro and Venina not only buy these items but they repair them also, so when you offer your goods to them they will ask whether you want them to buy it or repair it. Of course, you want them to buy.
Offer dagger to Thimaro or offer armor/helmet/pouch to Venina
When prompted answer "ven buy or "thim buy
Then, as usual, when they have received the item(s):
"ven change or "thim change
accept ven or accept thim
Apula will simply accept chests without the repair/buy query, but the exchange is otherwise the same.