Tag: free cities

So I had a thought on the Disputed Lands and slave labor. It seems weird to me that there are so many slaves proportionally in the Free Cities, so there has to be some kind of demand for them somewhere like a need for manual labor to farm large amounts, like the reason African slaves were brought to the Americas. This might be the real reason why the disputed lands are so fertile/how the Free Cities support such large populations. I just wanted to know if you thought that a plausible head cannon

You raise a good point. Slavery of the intense proportions seen in the Free Cities was only seen historically in single-export plantation economies. And yet, the Free Cities’ economies are overhwelmingly focused on commerce, finance, and the production of high value-added manufactured goods. 

So vast latifundia in the Disputed Lands would provide at least a partial explanation for why you see such unusually high levels of slavery in the Free Cities. Not a complete explanation, but better than what we have now.

While I can see what you’re trying to do on the Westros side (I think it’s a stretch), how are you arriving at the conclusion that essos is in the renaissance? I think you said that once. If not, my back up comment is about the importance of old nan in the generations of stark children.

Well, you might want to read this series I wrote on the different city-states of Essos. But the short version is: the Free Cities are (mostly) republican city-states rather than monarchies or feudal aristocracies, their economies are based on finance, commerce, and advanced manufacturing rather than subsistence farming; in terms of technology, Myr is producing lenses, telescopes, and advanced crossbows; Braavos uses the assembly line and interchangeable parts in the manufacture of ships and uses double-entry bookkeeping in its finance; Qohor has advanced metallurgy. Culturally, Braavos has Elizabethan theater for crying out loud!

Why don’t the Lannisters use their money as more of strategic advantage during the war of five kings? They hire Tyroshi sellswords and Vargo Hoat, so clearly they’re not opposed to using mercenaries. Nor is there a “code” against it in Westeros – Stannis hires Sallador Saan, and in TWOW he wants to hire the Golden Company. You’d think given his money Tywin would hire 10 or 20k sellswords and use them to fight Robb Stark. But we never hear about the Lannisters approaching the Golden Company etc.

They certainly did, but there’s a couple factors that prevented them from making full use of those resources in the phase of the War of Five Kings from the outbreak through to Blackwater:

  1. They’re on the wrong side of the continent, and Stannis and his navy stands between them and the Narrow Sea. So getting mercenaries to their army, and for that matter getting envoys to the Free Cities, would be rather difficult. 
  2. Stannis is competing with them for mercenaries. He’s hired around 3,000 already. And mercenaries are not a fully fungible product – mercenaries might be already under contract (the Golden Company was under contract with Myr, and given the then-impending war between Tyrosh and Lys, it’s quite likely a lot of companies had already taken up contracts with them), or be in some other region of Essos where it’s harder to contact them. As the WOIAF says, “when not employed by the three quarrelsome daughters, the sellswords oft seek to carve out conquests of their own.”
  3. The Golden Company is not really a possibility. Ser Jason Lannister died in the War of Ninepenny Kings, and Tywin, Kevan, and Tygett all fought with distinction against the Golden Company. Moreover, the Reynes and Tarbecks both fought for the Black Dragon in the First Blackfyre Rebellion, although they seemed to have reconciled with the Targaryens by the time of the Peake Uprising. 
  4. There’s a timing issue. At the outset of the conflict, Tywin wants to mobilize before everyone else to stack the odds in his favor – the same way he did in the Rains. That means attacking ASAP rather than waiting for mercenaries to go all the way around Westeros to join up with his army.

And then in the second phase, Tywin’s got the Tyrells he can call on, and a rather negative experience with mercenaries maiming his son.