The language about the Golden Tooth only appears in AGOT and disappears from all later books, and since the Golden Tooth is described at all points as a castle in a mountain pass as opposed to a mine, I think that’s out-of-date information. 

There are Westerlands Houses that have substantial gold mines – the former Reynes of Castamere, and whoever the overlords of Nunn’s Deep and the Pendric Hills are. 

As to whether they pay an excise tax, or just pay their feudal taxes in gold, I don’t know. In terms of a historical parallel, I happen to have found a perfect source for you, which explains that historically, monarchs claimed the rights to mining, which they then granted to others in return for mining taxes, although in England this was later changed to just refer to gold and silver mining. 

It seems to be mostly the latter, but there may be some sort of selection by existing maesters. 

He did the only thing he could have done. Karstark had committed treason and murder in flagrant defiance of his king, and to do anything else would have destroyed Robb’s standing among all of his other lords.

Moreover, and this is easily forgotten because of the quick sequence of events and differences between book and show, Karstark had already ordered his men to desert and hunt down Jaime by the time that Robb passed judgement on him. The damage was already done, Robb had already lost those men. 

Not liking it. It’s making the Marvel comics I am reading depressing and sad. 

I’d like a moratorium on superheroes fighting each other for a while. 

The Iron Bank was created in the early days of Braavos by a group of twenty-three artisans and merchants who pooled their funds together into a single reserve, which they stored in an old iron mine with only one entrance, which they had guarded by men who were paid partly by all of them in order to ensure they were loyal to the group. 

Today, the Iron Bank is governed by two bodies of people. the 1000+ keyholders who are the descendants of the original 23, and the bank’s shareholders, who rank among some of the wealthiest families in Braavos. The two groups together elect the Bank’s executive leadership and make up its councils. (Incidentally, they also elect the Sealord of Braavos, so the lines between Bank and State are blurry indeed)

In terms of how it works, it’s a bank: it lends money to people and it accepts deposits, and it makes sure that the interest rates it charges for the former are larger than the rates it pays to the latter. It’s primarily a commercial bank, although it also does a bit of retail banking to shopkeepers and artisans as well as merchants and banks and princes. We don’t know whether it is also a merchant or investment bank, but it wouldn’t surprise me. 

As the largest financial institution in the world in terms of reserves, the Iron Bank acts as the banker of last resort for the other banks of Essos (a status it guards jealously – just ask the Rogarres) and to the various governments of Planetos. And unlike most banks, which historically were ruined when sovereigns defaulted on their debt, the Iron Throne has the capital and the nerve to finance coups, revolutions, usurpations, and assassinations to ensure that its repayment rates remain pristine. 

Part II (the North) is now up to 15,000 words (now you know why it’s taken so long to come out, although thankfully this should be the longest of the series) and is almost, almost done. 

But while I was working through the Cregan Stark section, one of the last sections I have left, I came up with a great bonkers theory about the Pact of Ice and Fire. 

So you have that to look forward to!

RFTIT Tumblr Weekly Roundup!

Hey folks! It’s that time of the week again, as Tyrion I is finished and work on Davos I (which should be a much quicker write-up) gets underway. So let’s see what the Tumblrs have in store: Why do nobles care so much about the right of pit and gallows? Why do the Ironborn like tidal flats? If Rhaegar funded the Tourney at Harrenhal, how did he afford it? Judicial reform in Westeros. Medieval…

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Northern clan surnames are probably due to the fact that they still have their lands and other properties, which means that you want to clearly delineate lines of succession and rights of ownership whereas the Vale clans were dispossessed and have more of a communal lifestyle. 

The Gardener Kings are not Mary Sues. They historically suffered some pretty awful reversals. But that’s a subject we’ll have to get into later. 

Working on an essay about that very topic.