Chris Valentine Asks: Crownlands Economic Development

I haven’t seen any economic plans for the Crownlands or the Iron Throne itself. To be sure, its harder to develop a single systematic approach for the entirety of the 7K, but I’m curious if you do have any particular thoughts on the matter.

Were I on the Iron Throne, my first course would be three of your canals: Mander-Blackwater, Harrenhal, and Seaguard. Between those three, direct waterways are opened to four of the eight realms’ capitals, as well as the bulk of their economic potential.

My next would be a standing professional army built out of the Gold Cloaks. Call them the Gold Guard or King’s Watch or whatever you want. Hire more men, and train them, rotating them between garrisoning King’s Landing, drilling, and patrols of the 7K, particularly the major roads.

Politically, I would adopts a permanent parliamentary style council that represents, at minimum, each of the Lords Paramount, and hopefully all the major noble houses. I woukd expect each house to be represented by a full blood member, which would also serve as a valuable political hostage. Actually authority would be granted to it, though how much, I’m not sure.

Chartering royal cities would also be on the agenda. Ideally, I want them looking directly to the crown, though how much that can be done with the more established cities, I’m not sure. These chartered cities would, ideally, not be governed as feudal fiefs, but by elected councils.

So, this isn’t a bad start, but I do have some suggestions and corrections. The first of which is that you have to remember that if you’re going to do Crownlands economic development, that’s not the same as national development. It means economic development focused on boosting the economy of the Crownlands and King’s Landing, sometimes in ways that help other areas and sometimes in ways that don’t.

Infrastructure

So let’s start with the canals. A Mander-Blackwater canal is a good idea for the Iron Throne, because it means that more traffic will flow through King’s Landing, which enriches the Crownlands and the monarchy specifically. A Seaguard canal should be discouraged, because that would redirect trade from Blackwater Bay to the Bay of Crabs. (This is the same reason why the crown built roads connecting Maidenpool to King’s Landing and not to Lord Harroway’s Town) A Harrenhal canal might be a good idea, but it’s a secondary objective.

However, we’re still not done with infrastructure – namely, bridges. It’s a major limitation that there are no bridges over the Blackwater, which slows down traffic on the Kingsroad, the Roseroad, and the Goldroad. I would once again recommend swing bridges, which would allow river traffic to continue, but also allow me to dictate when land and river traffic could take place (which makes tolls easier to collect, but is important for warfare as well. If you’re dealing with riverrine invasion, you want the bridge blocking the river; if you’re dealing with a land army heading to the capital, swing the bridges away to deny them a crossing).

And down the road, I’ve got some projects in King’s Landing to take care of.

Finance

Now, an army has to come after you’ve got the finances for it. Which means the next step has to be building up the monarchy’s finances. This is where timing becomes an issue: it’s a lot easier to turn the Crownlands into a financial center in 283 AC than it is in 297 AC, thanks to Littlefinger’s embezzlement. Assuming for the moment a fairly stable royal finances, building a Royal Bank of Westeros shouldn’t be that hard. Because in addition to the resources the King gets from King’s Landing and the Crownlands, they also get the taxes they assess both from their vassals and from ports throughout Westeros, making the King one of the wealthiest individuals in Westeros.

Whether the king’s yearly income is 200k a year or 2 million a year, the royal incomes are clearly sufficient to provide the reserves of a bank. Beyond that, the crown also has two advantages that would endow that bank with the genuine power of a central bank: first, as with the regional banks we’ve discussed, the fact that the Royal Bank’s reserves would be funded with tax revenue that will keep coming in in perpetuity as long as I avoid being overthrown gives it the ability to be a true lender of last resort, with the added advantage of drawing in tax revenue from across a continent rather than a single region.

Second, as King I have the unique power of seignorage, both in the sense of having the right to make coins and the profit I can derive from the difference between their face value and their metallic content. This means two things – first, until I distribute the coins I mint, I can count them as part of my reserves, and secondly, the bank’s notes are legally money. Not only does that greatly add to my ability to be a lender of last resort, but as long as I don’t abuse this power to the extent that those notes lose their value, I can print money and spend it.

As with the infrastructure above, this is something I want to make sure doesn’t happen elsewhere. A Lannister bank is all of the sudden a real threat to the sovereignty of the king, because a Lannister banknote now threatens to become an alternate currency. So I will insist quite heavily that a royal charter is necessary to form a bank and very carefully not give one to any house that could challenge me, while using charters to woo the merchant class. However, loyal vassals might want to petition me for permission to operate a branch of the Royal Bank, which I would be happy to grant so that I can count Casterly Rock’s gold reserves as part of my reserves, while still keeping control over monetary supply and policy in Westeros.

Production

Another thing that the Crownlands has going for it is an unusually high concentration of skilled workers. Some of the best smiths, weavers, tailors, cobblers, and tanners, to say nothing of bakers and fishermen, work in King’s Landing. That’s a good industrial base to be getting on with.

However, all of this production is on a typically medieval small scale and it’s not the best in the world. So with all of this finance behind me, it’s time to start expanding production in scale by building large-scale industrial suburbs (which will also help a good deal with pollution in the city). At the same time, it’s definitely time to start practicing some of the immigration and industrial espionage policy I’ve discussed before to start improving the quality of our goods.

Another thing that large-scale industrial policy is good for is to upgrade the quality of my military forces. The Crownlands may only have 15,000 men, but if I can outfit all of my infantry in full plate and have them fight like dismounted knights, while improving the training of the Goldcloaks so that they can actually fight effectively as a military force, they will wipe the floor with the infantry of every other region.

Political Development

So, politically, I’m pretty much in agreement. Basically, the idea is to move to a Parliamentary system by way of Versailles and Edo – generating political consent, but also creating hostages.

Militarily, I disagree. A large standing army is politically controversial (smacks of tyranny) and is expensive. (Remember how ruinous Cersei’s tripling the Gold Cloaks was?) I would instead create a new order of knighthood several hundred if not several thousand strong. A royal order is politically attractive – look at the response to Renly’s Rainbow Guard and the Brotherhood of Winged Knights – and it gets me highly trained soldiers who I don’t have to pay wages for.

Maybe too broad a question, but why were already-wealthy-and-powerful medieval lords’ so eager to enter the dangerous waters of politics for their advancement? I.e. the wealthy and powerful Boleyn’s scheming to marry Anne to Henry VIII; isn’t it a bit like a multi-millionaire gambling with the Mob to see if he can become a billionaire?

Well, to quote the Boss:

“Poor man wanna be rich,
Rich man wanna be king,
And a king ain’t satisfied,
‘til he rules everything.”

To take your Boleyn example, the Boleyns weren’t actually all that rich and powerful. Thomas Boleyn, Anne’s father, was the son of a wealthy mercer who had bought himself a knighthood and a marriage to a Butler of Ireland. That still made him relatively low-ranking, a mere knight and diplomat, despite his incredibly fortunate marriage to a Howard. But through Anne, Thomas became Viscount Rochford, Earl of Wiltshire, and Lord Privy Seal. So for the upwardly mobile, politics offered an opportunity to join the true elite.

For those already there, there’s always more to get. The Kingmaker was born the son of the Earl of Salisbury, but marrying Anne Beauchamp got him the Despenser fortune and through some rather complicated legal maneuverings, the Earldom of Warwick, which was to be the foundation of his empire. The Kingmaker sided with the Duke of York in part because Somerset (the leading Lancastrian) had taken the Lordship of Glamorgan, which had been part of the Despenser legacy. Siding with the Duke of York got him the position of Constable of Calais, and siding with Edward IV got him the Admiralty of England, the Stewardship of the Duchy of Lancaster, his brother got made Warden of the East March and Earl of Northumberland, and his other brother got the Archbishopric of York and the Chancellory of England.

But there’s also the fact that in feudal politics, most of the time, everything belongs to someone. So a lot of people stayed in the game to avoid losing what they already had – the losers in a civil war, or even the people who weren’t friendly enough with the regime, could lose Dukeships, Earldoms, and Baronies aplenty.

Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Tyrion XV, ACOK

“His wits were coming back to him, however slowly. That was good. His wits were all he had.”
Synopsis: Tyrion wakes up to find he’s lost his nose, his job, and the credit for his victory.
SPOILER WARNING: This chapter analysis, and all following, will contain spoilers for all Song of Ice and Fire novels and Game of Thrones episodes. Caveat lector.
(more…)

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Ioseff: Hi, me again, one thing that was misunderstood

I didn’t mean why Daemon Targaryen was a bad person, that, as you exposed long time ago, is quite obvious. What I meant is how was he developed into such an awful person?

For example, we pretty much know Joffrey’s background, how Cersei encouraged him to think himself higher than anybody as Targaryens thought themselves higher than anyone (in a suicidical way, not like others), and how she herself thought so high that she would threaten the wetnurse, and other things, all because Tywin promised her from little to make her even more than Lannister, to make her Targaryen.

So, I hoped that you could provide some insight in how Daemon the Mocker of newborn’s corpses came to be this person. His brother was a “happy go-by” boy, why was Daemon so warlike and even deranged (even though equally charming and “sociable”)?

I see what you mean. I don’t know if there’s a straightforward answer. We know that “In his youth, Daemon Targaryen’s face and laugh were familiar to every cut-purse, whore, and gambler in Flea Bottom,” so clearly he liked to slum it to ward off boredom and enjoyed breaking social mores. We know that during the Council of 101, Daemon assembled a private army to fight it out if the Council didn’t name Viserys (and thus making him the heir to the throne).

I don’t think this is a case of nurture beating out nature – rather, I think Daemon was always temperamentally aggressive and an adrenaline junkie and never burdened much by a sense of conscience.

Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Theon VI, ACOK

“If I die, I die friendless and abandoned. What choice did that leave him, but to live?”
Synopsis: Theon “wins” the Siege of Winterfell. And loses at life.
SPOILER WARNING: This chapter analysis, and all following, will contain spoilers for all Song of Ice and Fire novels and Game of Thrones episodes. Caveat lector.
(more…)

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Did the title “High King of Dorne” wound the pride of other realms? Of the Reach and Marcher Lords at least?

warsofasoiaf:

Thanks for the question, Anon.

The only House I can see ever used the title “High King of Dorne” was House Yronwood, that ruled the largest swath of land among the petty Dornish kings before Nymeria’s conquest (there was also a High King of Dorne by the Greenblood in ancient days, selected among a number of now-extinct houses, but considering that crown disintegrated prior to the Andal Invasion, I don’t think that style made much difference to anyone). I don’t think the reacher and marcher neighbors thought much of the style, to be honest; reacher and marcher lords have long been enemies of their Dornish neighbors (and vice versa), and if a Dornishman called himself “lord”, “high king”, or simply “ser”, his style wouldn’t change the mutual antagonism on that southern border. It would not have likely been in the interest of reachmen and men of the Dornish Marches to study the political makeup of Dorne; there could be a God-Emperor of Dorne, for all they cared, but Dornishmen were still in their minds cravens and liars and enemies. A man could call himself whatever he liked, but since there was little enough respect already held by marcher lords and reachmen for Dornish (and, if Anguy can be believed, by the Dornish for these people), a grander title would not, I think, have really affected the mindset of non-Dornish. Not that the style “high king” limited only to the Yronwoods anyway: after all, Robar II Royce had declared himself High King of the Vale after receiving the fealty of a number of petty First Men kings in his valiant but failed effort to drive back the Andals, and there had been at least 111 High Kings of the Iron Islands before Urron Greyiron made the office hereditary.

The Queen Regent (NFriel)

Actually, High King usually refers to a King who has other kings as vassals, but who hasn’t adopted the title of Emperor, usually because Emperors were believed to rule multiple nations whereas a High King ruled over one nation. So the Yronwoods having petty kings of Dorne as their vassals style themselves as High Kings of Dorne, and Robar II becomes High King of the Vale by having other First Men Kings of the Vale bend the knee.

Had Aegon I not been so insistent that all of Westeros was one kingdom, he might have crowned himself Emperor of the Seven Kingdoms or possibly Emperor of the Andals, the First Men, and the Rhoynar; or if he’d decided to keep the various kings as kings instead of as Lords Paramount, he could have called himself High King of Westeros.

Steven Xue Asks: How can the Wildlings still be speaking the Common Tongue?

One thing I’ve never understood is even though the people living Beyond the Wall have been sequestered from the rest of Westeros for the past eight thousands years, somehow the Common Tongue is still widely spoken by many of its inhabitants. Not only that but there’s also no discrepancy from their vernacular compared to the rest of the continent. In fact quite a few Wildlings we’ve encountered such as Ygritte, Mance and Tormund are able to speak the Common Tongue better than many smallfolk and Mountain Clans in the Vale who seem to speak a completely different dialect from their unsophisticated lingo and gibberish.

Now I get that for Jon’s story to work he has to be able to communicate with the Wildlings, hence we have this Aliens speak English trope going on in his arc. But realistically this shouldn’t be possible. I mean it only took a few centuries for Latin to evolve into completely new languages of many distinct variations such as French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese etc, and the people who spoke these languages were still more or less in contact with one another after Rome fell. Yet even after eight thousands years of being cut off from the rest of civilization without much interaction with the people south of their region, many Wildlings can still speak the Common Tongue unaltered and indistinct from their southern neighbors.

Do you think there is an explanation for this?

This is a case where narrative convenience seems to have trumped coherent worldbuilding, but I say seems because I’m not clear on why or how necessary it was. GRRM’s got no problem inventing multiple languages in Essos, although he does cheat a bit with how Valyrian dialects are mostly mutually coherent, after all.

(However, if I was to give a No Prize, I’d say that because the wildlings steal women all the time from the North, they’re constantly importing women who teach the Common Tongue to their kids.)

So how hard would it have been to decide that, because the North held off the Andal invasion, the Old Tongue survived north of the Neck, although after thousands of years where Andal was an incredibly useful linga franca for trade and diplomacy with the rest of the continent, and three hundred years of Targaryen unification, they’ve gradually merged the Old Tongue and the Common Tongue into a creole like Scots, but where the nobility learn to speak proper Old Tongue (to keep up their traditions) and a more Received Pronunciation Common Tongue as well? That way, Jon could speak easily with the Wildlings because he can speak their language, whereas your average Night’s Watchman might not speak their language at all if they’re southron (hence adding to the Othering going on), or only haltingly in a limited pidgen if they’re a Northerner.

Likewise, why isn’t the Common Tongue in Dorne absolutely peppered with Rhoynish loan words and grammatical constructions, as well as having a distinctive accent? Why don’t the residents of the big cities use a bit of Valyrian loan-words which are handy in commerce, which the rural folk find a bit too foreign for their liking?

Dear maester Steven, in the past you’ve talked about creating new Great Septs in Westeros, but do you have any architectural designs in my mind for these that contrast the white and black marble septs in King’s Landing and Oldtown? For example, what would you think of a Sept that is seven septs in one (similar to how Saint Basil’s cathedral is eight churches in one)?

Well, I think @joannalannister and others have correctly called it that there would be a Golden Sept in Lannisport. (I’m imagining the walls and ceiling in gold mosiacs like St Marco’s in Venice with tons of candles to make the whole thing but larger-than-life grandiose statues in full-blown Baroque style, like Bernini but in gilded bronze)

The Vale’s Sept would probably be called the First Sept or something like that to emphasize their love of tradition and ancestry – given the Vale’s marble industry, the whole things going to be in gleaming white marble and quite grand but austere, with the main feature being huge statues of each of the seven in different colored marble. I’m also guessing that because of when the whole thing would have been built, the Warrior and the Father would be most prominent.

Similarly, I’d guess that the Stormland’s Sept would be made all in glorious, gleaming polished hardwoods and have beautifully carved wooden statues of the gods. I’m guessing the Smith is probably depicted as a woodcarver or lumberjack. So maybe looking like Russian Orthodox Churches made of wooden with onion domes and the like?

Dorne’s Sept would have to be rather unusual, given the ways that their Rhoynish culture clashes with the Faith’s normal attitudes about gender roles, sexuality, and so on and so forth. So I’m guessing hardcore Marianism, but with more of a focus on fertility and sexuality, and also a bunch of former Rhoynish gods reinterpreted as saints and the like. Basically I think of some of the more colorful Hindu temples.

what should court in Winterfell look like? Winterfell always seems to me so underdeveloped. Where are Catelyn laides, shouldn’t she have brought ladies with her as well as had northern ladies too? Where are all the squires and fosterings, where are the young ladies to be with Arya and Sansa and to hope to catch the eye of the heir? Is this realistic for the capital of the north to seem more like an out of the way small keep rather than the bustling core of the north?

I dunno if underdeveloped is the right word. Seasonal might be the better description – if you look at Robb gathering the banners in AGOT, or Bran’s harvest feasting in ACOK, the North definitely gets together at Winterfell to politick and intrigue and propose marriages.

So my guess is that Winterfell’s court in winter is massive, as Wintertown turns into a city filling up with nobles and commons alike. And because everyone’s basically trapped indoors and sharing one another’s company all the time, I expect that you get very intense relationships, both positive and negative. I’m thinking it’s very reminiscent of classic Russian literature, but with more broadswords.

But I think distance works against having a court during the other time of the year. Rather, House Stark seems to have turned to dynastic marriages and tours of the provinces instead.

—-

To answer your other questions:

I think Catelyn didn’t bring any ladies with her because of the war.
Northern ladies I think it’s mainly the distance issue.
Squires probably are de-emphasized due to the lack of the knightly tradition.
As for fostering, Ned seems to have taken against it due to his generation’s experience.

Today I realized: Theon Greyjoy is the Kylo Ren of ASOIAF

Seriously: whiny teen-ager who chooses the wrong father figure, makes horrible decisions, everything goes to hell.

And that got me thinking….

Ned: “Theon, take the viking helmet off at the dinner table!”

Theon: “You’re culturally oppressing me and you’re not my real dad!”

Theon: “Show me again the power of the Old Way, and I will finish what you started.”
Force Ghost Quellon: /facepalm.

Theon in disguise: “I heard Theon’s got an eight pack…and he’s hung too.”
Ros: “Naw man, Theon’s a punk ass bitch.”