Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Theon V, ACOK

“Ned Stark’s tree, he thought, and Stark’s wood, Stark’s castle, Stark’s sword, Stark’s gods. This is their place, not mine. I am a Greyjoy of Pyke, born to paint a kraken on my shield and sail the great salt sea. I should have gone with Asha.” Synopsis: Theon has bad dreams, and then Asha shows up to make his life a living nightmare. So Theon decides the way to deal with his problem is to trust…

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I’m going to go with “plotting the queen’s death.”

madeinmyr:

racefortheironthrone:

You mean in the sense of a de-facto reserve currency? Well, I expect that, given the dominance of the Iron Bank in Essosi finance, it’s probably the Braavosi currency (which annoyingly we don’t have a name for), at least in the Free Cities. On the other hand, we see golden honors circulating in Volantis, Slaver’s Bay, and Qarth, which suggests competing monetary blocs. 

In terms of what the exchange rate is, it’s a bit hard to say. We do know that the golden dragon is much larger than the golden honor or the golden hands that House Gardener minted, due to the consolidation of the entire Westerosi continent and thus the Westerland’s vast gold reserves. On the other hand, Westeros has an undeveloped financial system, so it may be that while dragons are more valuable for their metallic content, Braavosi coins are easier to use in commerce in the east. 

We disagree here. It’s clearly established during Arya’s stay in Braavos that Volantene honors are the most widely used of the Free City currencies.

‘The blind girl went to work in the dark, stripping the dead of boots and clothes and other possessions, emptying their purses and counting out their coins. Telling one coin from another by touch alone was one of the first things the waif had taught her, after they took away her eyes. The Braavosi coins were old friends; she need only brush her fingertips across their faces to recognize them. Coins from other lands and cities were harder, especially those from far away. Volantene honors were most common, little coins no bigger than a penny with a crown on one side and a skull on the other. Lysene coins were oval and showed a naked woman. Other coins had ships stamped onto them, or elephants, or goats. The Westerosi coins showed a king’s head on the front and a dragon on the back. (DwD, The Blind Girl)’

Volantis is rich and all Western ships heading east have to stop at the city to resupply while most Eastern traders drop their cargos off there and turn around. If the precious metal content of Volantene coins is stable and reliable then it would be one of the more convenient currencies for anyone engaged in Summer Sea trade, the Iron Bank included.

1. I interpret that sentence differently. Arya’s saying that of the non-Bravaosi coins, Volantene coins are the most common, not that the Volantene coins are the most common in the Free Cities. 

2 If that was the case, it’s a major worldbuilding flaw on GRRM’s part. Either the Iron Bank is the largest and most dominant bank in Essos or the Volantene currency is dominant, but it shouldn’t be both. The Bank of Amsterdam did not make loans denominated in Byzantine solidi. 

The text points to House Kastark having the smallest number at 2,300 men and House Bolton having ~4,000 men. House Manderly is a bit more vague but seems stronger than the Boltons – we know they sent 1,500 men south but that afterwards “even with the losses I have suffered, I still command more heavy horse than any other lord north of the Neck.” 

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe. 

Bit of a stretch though. (See what I did there?)

(Also, yeah, the war wasn’t continuous, especially since the North had to deal with wildling invasions, Ironborn, etc.)

The throne does keep a standing royal navy, although often with support from Crownlands houses with significant fleets. 

It’s not stated explicitly how many ships Stannis took, but it seems like the bulk of the fleet. The Wiki of Ice and Fire suggests he took 50 ships from the Royal Fleet and had 10 ships from his vassals. 

Robb is supposedly 100 days older than Jon. 

Like many aristocrats who got involved in capitalist ventures, the Redwynes are so aristocratic that they can do whatever they want, because no one gets to look down their noses at them. They’re descendants of Gilbert of the Vine and Garth Greenhand, they were Kings in the Time of Heroes, etc. Also, if anyone dares to make an issue of it, they’ve got hundreds of warships and thousands of soldiers to make a point. 

In terms of the historical attitude to “being in trade,” I’ve read some stuff that suggests that attitude came in a bit later when the “price revolution” of the 15th-17th centuries and the “commercial revolution” of the same period greatly enhanced the wealth, power, and independence of the commercial classes while the nobility found themselves handicapped by feudal contracts that limited the rents they could charge their tenants, because the contracts were written in traditional nominal terms that were being eroded by inflation, at the same time that the rise of cities, guilds, and centralizing monarchies were threatening their political power. 

But as with anything else, it’s not consistent. There were plenty of aristocrats who adapted with the changing economy – modernizing agricultural production on their estates, converting cropland into pasturage so that they could get in on the burgeoning cloth trade by producing wool, trying to get rich in the colonies through investment in merchant venture companies, and trying out this newfangled factory system. 

You have to think about what the relationship is between the King and the Faith – he gets to appoint the High Septon, the avatar of the gods themselves. Why does he need a man of the cloth on the Small Council when you’ve got the #1 guy on tap for holiness? Why give the Faith any scrap of political power? 

You mean in the sense of a de-facto reserve currency? Well, I expect that, given the dominance of the Iron Bank in Essosi finance, it’s probably the Braavosi currency (which annoyingly we don’t have a name for), at least in the Free Cities. On the other hand, we see golden honors circulating in Volantis, Slaver’s Bay, and Qarth, which suggests competing monetary blocs. 

In terms of what the exchange rate is, it’s a bit hard to say. We do know that the golden dragon is much larger than the golden honor or the golden hands that House Gardener minted, due to the consolidation of the entire Westerosi continent and thus the Westerland’s vast gold reserves. On the other hand, Westeros has an undeveloped financial system, so it may be that while dragons are more valuable for their metallic content, Braavosi coins are easier to use in commerce in the east.