Author: stevenattewell

Were there any Medieval or earlier financial scams on a massive scale?

drewbenoit:

racefortheironthrone:

There were certainly financial scams, but I don’t know of any that were on a massive scale. Mostly because economies were much more localized in the Medieval period, so there’s less opportunity/ability to conduct any kind of economic activity across entire countries or internationally. 

the south sea bubble

A major financial scam, to be sure, but definitely not medieval, taking place as it did in the early 18th century.

Same Anon who asked about Strange and Norrell, but not about North-South divisions of England. This seems to me to be a common conflict in a lot of fantasy novels, that the North is frequently underdeveloped/ignored. I’m from northern Maine, and there’s a lot of similar resentment up here as well. I’m wondering whether the North-South division in fantasy is because a lot of high fantasy seems to be based around medieval England monarchy and society. (Please correct me if I’m off-base here.)

Yeah. There’s definitely an English bias to English language fantasy novels, although center/periphery conflicts are common to all political systems. 

Jumping off the previous ask (about Bernard Cornwell), how do the Sharpe books (which I’m thinking of starting) compare to Patrick O’Brien’s Aubrey/Maturin books or Allan Mallinson’s Matther Hervey books (both of which I’ve read and enjoyed)?

A bit more accessible than the Patrick O’Brien novels, which require a pretty in-depth understanding of naval terminology. 

Havenn’t read the Mallinson, I don’t know. 

Re. The hunting lodges/manors of the nobility – In the normal run of things (if such a thing even exists), would it then be normal for a lord to spend great lengths of time at such places, moving his whole court/family there with him?

Hunting lodges were seasonal dwellings, meant to hold the lord and his coterie during the hunting season for whatever animal was in good supply (deer, boar, birds, etc.). 

Manors were more commonly the permanent dwellings of the nobility than castles. Castles were expensive military fortifications, required royal license, and usually not well-suited for civilian use, although one has to make a significant exception for the castles raised by the upper nobility who could afford to splash out for deluxe castles that could do both. 

Can you tell us anything about how the union between Scotland and England affected Northern England’s economic / political importance?

I see what you’re getting at, but that was a more localized phenomenon, where the “border reivers” on either side of the Scottish Marches were really unhappy about not being allowed to raid across the border any more.

More significantly, the North felt ignored and underdeveloped when the South of England began to boom economically as the wool trade took off in the 13th and 14th centuries, and then the cloth trade exploded from the late 14th century through the 16th centuries.

However, this changed rather dramatically beginning with the Industrial Revolution, as industrial manufacturing tended to center in Yorkshire, Lancashire, the Midlands, etc. Thus, for a period in the early 20th century, a suburb of Manchester was supposed to have more millionaires per capita than any other town in the world. But when deindustrialization hit in the later 20th century, the North/South divide reverted to its earlier pattern. 

Have you read/watched Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell? I read it some time ago, and recently watched the miniseries for the first time, and it struck me that they identified the North of England as the source of English magic, and loyal first to The Raven King rather than to the Crown. It reminded me a bit of how the Old Gods’ power was stronger the further north you travelled, and I was wondering if this is a common trope, that the North is a place of mystery and magic.

Yeah, I’m a huge fan. Mmm, I think the North thing has to do with the fact that there is a long-standing (I mean, to the present day) division between Northern and Southern England when it comes to politics, culture, etc.