#westerosi economic development

[racefortheironthrone]

In a world where Robb Stark wins his war and manages to consolidate his realm, with the 7K being no more, lets assume he also annexes the northern crownlands too, what kind of council or burocracy would he establish to govern and how much of your economic development plans could he reasonably carry out in his lifetime and how could he unify his 2 realms economy into a cohesive unit?

In a Stark victory scenario, I think annexing the northern Crownlands would be an overstretch and something of a distraction from more important tasks (like bringing the Iron Islands and the Vale into his sphere of influence so that he can govern a geographically, economically, and politically coherent kingdom/coalition of northern Westeros).

To quote King Robb:

"Duskendale, on the narrow sea? Why would they go to Duskendale?" He'd shook his head, bewildered. "A third of my foot, lost for Duskendale?"

What matters in a brand-new Kingdom of the North is things like whether Gulltown accepts silver coins minted in White Harbor with Robb's face on them as valid payment for debts and taxes, or whether the Ironborn agree to keep their reaving south of Ironman's Bay, or whether the Stark navy can keep the Trident open all the way to the Bay of Crabs so that the Riverlands can keep trading directly with Braavos.

I did some back-reading through various economic development posts to see what I'd said in the past about the tricky scenario of how one balances the interests of multiple kingdoms in pursuing economic development. One of the things I'm noticing is that there are some reforms where there is real issues with competition/duplication of efforts (a Kingdom of the North can probably only support one Bank, one canal scheme, one sub-treasury system, one purchasing/marketing cooperative, etc.), some reforms where individual kingdoms can pursue their own goals but where there would be an issue about how the king balances the rewards he's doling out between the kingdoms (do you put your marginal dragon into winter schools and greenhouses for the North or church schools for the Riverlands or roads for the Vale?), and some where every kingdom can pitch in in a common effort (if there's going to be one sub-treasury plan, you're going to need a network of granaries along waterways from the Last River down to the Trident, the same information about how to improve agricultural productivity can be shared between the North, the Riverlands, and the Vale basically for free, etc).

That being said, one of the major political challenges of the Kingdom of the North was always going to be how you balance the interests of the component kingdoms and make everyone feel like the central government is giving them a fair deal and being attentive to their interests - and as you say, forging them into a cohesive economy would go a long way into doing that. So for example, one priority should be in working out reciprocity in trade between the newly-chartered cities. It certainly helps that a bunch of them (White Harbor, Gulltown, Maidenpool, Lord Harroway's Town, Saltpans) are along the same coast of the Narrow Sea or just upriver from the Narrow Sea, which makes close trade links more likely. However, you're going to want to make formal legal arrangements that, when it comes to port fees and staple fees and warehousing fees and the like, all of the North's cities agree to set them as low as possible for other Northern cities (if not an outright zollverein), and that burgher rights are transferrable between cities and that city ordinances will be honored by other cities, and so on.

In terms of "council or burocracy would he establish to govern," Robb was already taking a decent first step to bolster Lord Paramount Edmure Tully by appointing Brynden the Blackfish as Warden of the Southern Marches.

As I've written before, issuing city charters would be a crucial element of governing the Riverlands effectively. Giving Maidenpool, Lord Harroway's Town, Stoney Sept, Fairmarket, and Seagard a combination of economic and political self-governance would paradoxically allow King Robb to project royal authority more effectively - especially when it comes to generating revenue and manpower and enforcement of economic regulations.

[thevelaryons]

What do you think the Velaryon’s trading looked like during the Corlys’ peak time as Lord of the Tides?

House Velaryon became rather “isolated” from the Crown’s influence within a couple of years after Corlys became the head of the family (due to their conflicting political aims from Jaehaerys and later, Viserys). So I think Corlys would’ve focused more on trade with Essos over Westeros. While trade with Westeros would still exist, it would be to a lesser degree than with Essos, and I believe Corlys would’ve encouraged trade in Westerosi port towns other than King’s Landing (White Harbor/Gulltown/Oldtown/Lannisport). He definitely wouldn’t want to provide direct economical support to the royal family he’s at odds with.

Driftmark is already conveniently situated in spot where many ships pass through. The book suggests that Corlys merely took advantage of this by further developing the shipping ports there.

Sitting athwart the Gullet, Driftmark was closer to the narrow sea than Duskendale or King’s Landing, so Spicetown soon began to usurp much of the shipping that would elsewise have made for those ports, and House Velaryon grew ever richer and more powerful.

Not only that, but I think it’s likely Corlys would maintain the same tax policy as his grandfather, which would help to build wealth in the long run (Corlys doesn’t really need to worry about building short term wealth at this point since he’s already so rich).

Port fees were tripled, certain goods were to be taxed both coming into and out of the city, and new levies were asked of innkeeps and builders.

None of these measures had the desired effect of filling up the treasury vaults. Instead building slowed to a halt, the inns emptied, and trade declined notably as merchants diverted their ships from King’s Landing to Driftmark, Duskendale, Maidenpool, and other ports where they might evade taxation.

If Driftmark is not charging the same tax rate as King’s Landing, it diverts even more trade away from the royal family and towards house Velaryon.

It is actually stated that King’s Landing wasn’t seeing as much profit from trade as Driftmark.

So much trade came to flow to and from Driftmark that the towns of Hull and Spicetown sprang up, becoming the chief ports of trade in Blackwater Bay for a time, surpassing even King’s Landing.

Any ships coming in from Essos would be more likely to make port at Driftmark just because it’s closer and because there might be advantages in place, such as lower taxes.

Corlys also gave priority to the shipping lanes in the Narrow Sea as well, especially when the Triarchy took power in the Stepstones. He was obviously concerned with the loss of profits through trade going to and from Essos.

Of themselves the isles were of little worth, but placed as they were, they controlled the sea lanes to and from the narrow sea, and merchant ships passing through those waters were often preyed on by their inhabitants. […] Order had replaced chaos, and if the Three Daughters demanded a toll of any ship passing through their waters, that seemed a small price to pay to be rid of the pirates. The avarice of Craghas Crabfeeder and his partners in conquest soon turned feelings against them, however; the toll was raised again, and yet again, soon becoming so ruinous that merchants who had once paid gladly now sought to slip past the galleys of the Triarchy as once they had the pirates. […] Of all the lords of Westeros, none suffered so much from these practices as Corlys Velaryon, Lord of the Tides, whose fleets had made him as wealthy and powerful as any man in the Seven Kingdoms. The Sea Snake was determined to put an end to the Triarchy’s rule over the Stepstones.

Since Corlys originally betrothed his daughter to the son of the Sealord of Braavos (a city known for its seafaring culture which includes trade), this further adds to the idea that Corlys was more focused on trade with Essosi ports.

Though once house Velaryon reforged their relationship with the Crown, I can definitely see Corlys allowing more of the trade to go to King’s Landing.

[aliandramartell-1]

Negociations, with: @daltongreyjoy-asoiaf-rp

THE GREYJOY FLEET WAS NEVER A SIGHT FOR SORE EYES. The princess of Dorne knew, however, that incredibly this time it didn't mean trouble.

Dorne had stood strong and alone during the reign of the Targaryen dynasty in Westeros. Of course, they had been at odds with Westeros.

Multiple times.

Even though her father made sure Aliandra Martell was well versed in history, especially dornish history. Aliandra couldn't recall all the conflicts they had with the Targaryen family.

The Targaryens’ desire for Dorne to join Westeros was almost as strong as the Targaryens to inbreed among themselves.

Dorne would stand alone, however, Aliandra knew that they needed allies.

Strong allies.

The free cities had been less focused on trade and their economic success. Instead had developed some political ambitions. Aliandra couldn't imagine what would happen if Dorne didn't catch up.

So when she received the letter from Dalton Greyjoy, the Lord of the Iron Islands, it was almost like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

When Dalton Greyjoy entered Sunspear. He was alone.

Perhaps a sign of good faith or a sign of foolishness.

Dalton Greyjoy was known for his multiple numbers of wives and children so Aliandra had prepared to host all of them. Her servants had to rush, of course, Dalton Greyjoy didn't even wait for her answer to arrive.

It was probably only arriving now.

Aliandra’s brown eyes analyzed the Lord of the Iron Islands for split seconds, almost trying to avail his character.

The Greyjoys weren't known for their good intentions, they were ruthless.

As were the Martells, afterall “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken” was their motto. Her family was just well more versed in politics, the Greyjoys sneaky ways were shown in more violent ways.

“Welcome Lord Greyjoy, I hope our journey was easy. Most westerosi nobles don't come here under their free will. Should we cut to the chase and start our talk?”, Aliandra asked directly as she began to walk towards the inside of the castle.

[horizon-verizon]

Martell’s stans pretending that they’re representatives of Global South in ASOIAF where instead they’re a region who’s constantly in clash with their neighbours cause they can’t stop looting and raiding the Stormlands and the Reach.

*EDITED* (11/5/23)

I haven't come across a Martell stan yet, in all my 7-month life here on Tumblr. But I already wrote a post on why the Martells aren't exactly PoCs (because race, as Americans and modern peoples know the thing, doesn't exist in this fictional universe) so much as "Others" are seen as ethnically different but not enough for there to be concern over "miscegenation" or "dirtying the blood" or losing actual social privileges the Martells still had like other "white", nonDornish nobles.

Ethnicity doesn't equal race, and "people of color" denotes "non-white" people, and "white"/"PoC" are racial terms.

Nationality also does not equal race, nor does it equal ethnicity, though in some racial hierarchies it def gives whatever racial meaning of black/poc the society in question has. "Race"--as in just the practical applications of their real modern realities and economic and social structures as a result--is not accurate or a paltry thing the further you go back in time. There were definitely racializations, racial & ethnic biases, and ethnic & racial tensions/violence, but religion and/or language more often defined a person's belonging and identity within a different hegemony until maybe the late 14th to 15th centuries.

The Rhoynish would definitely be considered PoC in our modern American & British racial categorization; in the world itself, yes they were a "foreign" and literally foreign people and a different ethnicity from First Men and Andal.

However, ONE -- Dorne is not progressive in terms of class, not at all, and TWO -- these two are both Essosi in origin while several of their original cultural aspects [the Faith, the symbols, chivalry, court culture, oaths, the kin slaying taboo, the importance placed on swords, guest rights, etc.] still exist in the main events of ASoIaF right now. These didn't change or get lost upon their arrival to the Westerosi continent.

Dorne, by virtue of the fact that their succession customs are equal gender, will inevitably be Othered and thus they have that sense of "not white-ness" but this doesn't really pin them down as "PoC" bc the emphasis of why the Dornish are Othered is much more about there being less misogyny than religion, region, etc. and the Martells still independently/non-coercively share Andal cultural aspects then they do Rhoynish. Because, how can the whites (nonDornishmen) racialize a region based on skin color or principles of "purity" seen through the outside (as this has been used to create current racial categories) with people with different skin colors?

The First Men are not Andals, the Andals and FM fought several times in past history, come from different regions of Essos, have different religions and both typically have paler skin. Both have misogynist practices and are more stringent about male primogeniture and able-bodiedness mattering to leadership.

The "salty" Martells and other Dornish--even those who are "sandy" or "stony" as Daeron I categorized them--are more analogues of both Welsh vs. the Anglo-Saxons or Normans (all "racially white" ) because of their constant wars with Reach people and Stormlanders. AND Spaniards (European people, so racially white) because Spain has a history of Moor, Hebrew/Jew, and pre-Moor Spaniards having intermarriages and other types of exchange or interaction LONG before King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella expelled the Jewish and Muslim peoples. Even then, she and her King husband were not at first the rulers of all of "Spain", but of the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile freshly uniting these to develop and become what we know as "Spain". Like how England used to be Kent, East Anglia, Essex, Mercia, Northumbria, Sussex, Wessex, the Welsh peoples (a Celtic people) before the Normans arrived (Northmen/Scandinavian/Swedish/Danish/Viking originated) and conquered the English islands.

Once again, do we consider Spain a "white" country, or not?

[makerkenzie]

Countdown to Red Wedding: 7

Let me jump back a ways in the timeline for this one.

At some point between Whispering Wood and the totally pointless sieges of Darry and Duskendale, Tywin Lannister developed a "quills and ravens" strategy for dealing with the Stark-Tullys. He realized he didn't know how to beat them on the battlefield, so instead he made it so the battlefield didn't matter.

All those victories Robb won after Whispering Wood were low-hanging fruit, at best. He spent so much time raiding the Westerlands because he was trying to bait Tywin back there. Which means even he knows all those captures don't amount to much.

Tywin decided he didn't have to be an enemy on Robb Stark's terms.

I theorized he first went after Roose Bolton. Didn't need to convince him 100% at the start, just needed to get him into conversation.

From there, Tywin heard about stuff happening, like...the Greyjoys taking over the North, for instance. That much was all over the realm. Possibly from his correspondence with Roose Bolton, or possibly from other spies in the Stark camp, Tywin heard about Rickard Karstark acting like the war wasn't meeting his expectations. It wouldn't take a genius of espionage to find out some of the river lords were getting antsy.

I'm sure Tywin knows Walder Frey is a weak link in the alliance, at best. He also knows if Robb loses the Freys, the bottom falls out of his army. However, I've also theorized that Tywin would rather not interact with Walder Frey if he can avoid it. For dealing with the old weasel, he goes to Roose Bolton.

At some point, Tywin decides the most efficient way to defeat the Young Wolf is to take away his allies. This strategy allows him to devote most of his military resources to defeating Stannis Baratheon.

In the process of taking away Robb Stark's allies, the greatest gift came from Sybell Spicer.

For Sybell, I'll have to do some speculating that'll look sort of like writing fanfic.

Sybell is married to Gawen Westerling, lord of the Crag. He gets captured at Whispering Wood, but don't worry, Sybell has her brother, Ser Rolph Spicer, to serve as castellan of the Crag.

House Spicer is a fairly new house, which is kind of a point against them, in Westerosi nobility. Sybell and Rolph's grandparents were spice merchants from Essos. Economically successful, yes. In terms of their place in the culture of noble Westeros families, they still have a lot of work to do.

Sybell and Rolph's grandmother was Maggy the Frog. That's not the sort of image they want to project now. At the same time, Maggy passed some skills on to her grandchildren, and they still utilize those skills. Quietly.

Sybell developed her noble cred by marrying into the Westerlings, a much older (and poorer) family. When her husband was taken prisoner, that may have left Sybell feeling a bit insecure. Maybe she felt like she had to do something to shore up her family's position and her children's futures.

One of those children is her beautiful and sweet eldest daughter, Jeyne. Based on what we see of Jeyne in AFFC, she was not knowingly a part of her mother's scheme. She really, really loved Robb and she is devastated at his loss. So I'm thinking, maybe Sybell got her idea starting with Jeyne developing a ridiculous fan-crush on the King in the North. It would annoy the shit out of her mother, especially after Gawen was captured.

I'm thinking, maybe Sybell had some conversations with Rolph, and at some point they realized they could put Jeyne to good use. They must know the Freys are part of Robb's alliance. It's not a leap to say they know how much the Northern cause depends on having the Freys on their side. They've probably heard about King Robb being promised to an unspecified Frey girl.

At some point, before the Blackwater, Sybell sends a raven to her liege Tywin Lannister and tells him how she'd like to help. She doesn't need to go into detail about the skill set she learned from her foreign grandmother. She can just say...she has a daughter about the same age as Robb Stark, and she's totally enamored of all the tales she's heard about the King in the North. She can say her Jeyne is much prettier and more cultured than the Frey girls, and if they can get Robb behind closed doors with Jeyne, she will be able to seduce him. Once he's been seduced, Sybell will make sure they marry. Meanwhile she will also make sure Jeyne doesn't get pregnant before Robb bends the knee. In order to make this happen, they need Robb to capture the Crag.

Let's say Tywin gets the raven from Sybell shortly after the ambush at Oxcross. That was low-hanging fruit; would've been nice if Cousin Stafford had succeeded at training new soldiers, but Tywin wasn't exactly betting the castle on Cousin Stafford's success. That's near the Golden Tooth. From there, it's a quick trip to the Marbrands at Ashemark. They're related to Tywin on his mother's side and he has a good rapport with them. From Ashemark, it's a quick trip to the Crag.

Relatives or no, Tywin's not gonna tell them everything. He tells them as much as they need to know, which is that he needs them to do something for him, and he's got their backs. His instructions to the Marbrands could be something like: First, send most of your garrison to my camp, as I need them for fighting Stannis Baratheon. Let the Northmen see them on the road. If Robb Stark comes to capture your castle, let him do it. Once he's in there, gently encourage him to move on to the Crag. Once he goes to the Crag, let's just say it won't be long until the Northmen leave your castle.

Oxcross is a "meh" victory, and Ashemark is hardly even a tale worth telling. Then he moves on to the Crag, where Ser Rolph has made sure to leave the castle "weakly garrisoned," so it doesn't take much for Robb to get them under his control. Ser Rolph puts up just enough of a fight to get an arrow in Robb's arm. He's playing Evil Cupid by putting a little something extra on the arrowhead, so the wound "festers" and Robb has to stay and recover. They put him up in Jeyne's room, where Jeyne takes excellent care of him. Around this time, news reaches the Starks of Theon Greyjoy having burned Winterfell and killed Bran and Rickon. That's when Sybell puts a little something extra in Robb's wine, but Jeyne doesn't know that. Jeyne only knows Robb needs her to comfort him. There's the "comfort," IOW fucking, and of course Sybell keeps on slipping Robb a little something extra while she gets the young lovers in front of a septon the next morning.

Meanwhile, at the Blackwater Rush, the Lannisters defeat Stannis Baratheon. Now the Lannisters look more like the winning side, so the Freys start thinking maybe they shouldn't be fighting for the Starks.

We know the story of the Late Walder Frey bringing his army to the Trident only after Robert Baratheon had won. That much is known. With or without Robb reneging on the marriage agreement, the Freys likely would have abandoned him soon after the Blackwater. They would've abandoned him because they wanted to be on the winning side.

It's totally possible to abandon a leader without murdering him.

Then before Walder Frey can make plans to bend the knee, transparently, to the Lannister regime...then there's the news of Robb having married someone else's daughter. I suspect that's when the Freys switched from "let's stop fighting for King Robb" to "let's murder King Robb."

[warsofasoiaf]

Racefortheironthrone made a series about economic development of Westerosi kingdoms, have you ever thought about doing a military oriented one for each?

Like this?

-SLAL

[apocalyptic-mailman]

bits of northern (westerosi) culture I would’ve liked to see

Masonry stoves. Masonry stoves, also known as tile ovens, Finnish or Russian stoves, or Kachelofen, are a space heating technology developed in Northern Europe in the Late Medieval to Early Modern period. The advantage to masonry heaters is efficiency--they use about half as much wood as a cast-iron woodstove or a three-stone hearth--which, at the time in Central and Northern Europe, was a major concern, because it was cold as shit and they had limited wood thanks in part to Venetian shipbuilding. While the North is apparently heavily forested and thinly populated, I think an efficient home heating system would be popular since it’s so fucking cold.

Saunas. Again, the North is fucking cold, so bathing in rivers or lakes as people might in more temperate climates is kind of a non-starter; saunas are most popular in Finland and Russia, partially for that reason. People need to bathe and they need to do it in warmth.

Geothermal heating. It’s already canonically in Winterfell, and the North is pretty geologically active, so I’m surprised we don’t see more geothermal space heating. I guess that’d require a fair amount of infrastructure; the only buildings in Westeros that’d likely be using them would be castles and septs, and the North doesn’t really do septs. Although, going with the sauna idea from earlier, public saunas could be married to public geothermal bath houses.

Herding culture. There was a fanfic that went into depth with this, where Torrhen Stark discovered a particular breed of cattle in a blizzard that was uniquely suited to the cold, and that turned the North into a superpower by having a steady food supply during winter, but a more small-scale version of this would also make sense. The North almost certainly gets most of its food from herding, if the lack of good farmland and cold climate are anything to go by.

White Harbor as a trading port. It’s the only major port in the North and it’s kind of huge and it doesn’t show up at all in the TV show. White Harbor should absolutely be a major center of Northern culture and economics, given its proximity to the Free Cities and especially Braavos.

Cross-cultural exchange with Braavos. Speaking of, since Braavos is the closest of the Free Cities to White Harbor, so we should absolutely see some Braavosi culture infiltrating into Westeros. I don’t know how that might manifest, since we don’t see a ton of Braavosi culture, but seeing Braavosi merchants and goods in the North shouldn’t be uncommon.

Idk just some ideas

[empressaryastark]

old meta. 2014? for all 3 people obsessed with in series book Braavos like me.

city in progress

Braavos Post-ADWD

“Braavos was a city made for secrets, a city of fogs and masks and whispers”.

           When it comes to the ASoIaF universe, I find that most fans tend to focus most of their attention on the politics and plotlines that occur specifically in Westeros. Given that Westeros is where the series begins and will likely end, I think that inclination is natural. However, I also think it is imperceptive to ignore the future of Essos and its impact on the series after the contienent became the backdrop for many PoVs after ASoS. The view that Essos politics doesn’t matter and won’t affect the Westerosi plots is not only false, but it will limit readers that wish to make predictions for the outcome of the series. So, in an effort to raise more discussion on my favorite ASoIaF city and Essos by extension, this post is my attempt to explore the possibilities for the city in The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring while also putting my thoughts and totally definitely **slightly** cracky theories about the city into words.

While Braavos did not make a proper debut in the series until Arya arrived in AFFC, the free city has had a presence since AGoT. From Daenerys’ sentimental musings on the lost home of her childhood in her first chapter to Syrio Forel’s account of how he became the first sword of Braavos, the city has lingered in the background of the series, waiting to emerge as a power. Of course, the city always existed as a powerful state in the general ASoIaF universe, but it did not have much visible influence within the politics of Westeros until AFFC and ADWD. There are only a few cities in A Song of Ice and Fire that are given so much life, so much detail, and so much character and world significance within the series. King’s Landing, Meereen, and Braavos are those three. Like Meereen and King’s Landing, Braavos will surely have strong impacts on the rest of the series based on what happens post-ADWD and specifically in TWoW.

The Iron Bank, the Faceless Men, Braavosi Politics, Dragons, and Westeros

                              Braavos is, in many ways, the city that connects Essos and Westeros. Placed along the northern western portion of Essos, Braavos is the closest free city to Westeros. As a result, Braavos does a good deal of trade with Westeros and they possess more political clout with the continent than most other cities in Essos. Commerce between the Iron Throne and the Iron Bank has a long history that goes back to the days of Targaryen rule. Yet, this long relationship has not made the Iron Bank any more forgiving of the Iron Throne’s debt problems since, as the Braavosi say, the Iron Bank will have its due. Cersei refuses to pay up on the crowns debts and rudely sends off the Iron Bank envoy sent to her in AFFC. These decisions are what led to the schism in relations between the Iron Bank and Lannister-Baratheon crown. However, the clash was long coming since even Tyrion turned the bank away when they first came hounding after their money in ACoK. The continued respect and refusal to make payments were catastrophically bad decisions made by those in power in King’s Landing. In contrast to this behavior, The World of Ice and Fire states that Iron Bank envoys are traditionally treated with great respect as almost equals by even kings. Thus, the War of the Five Kings, the legacy of Robert’s massive debts, and Lannister greed and pride ultimately forced the Braavosi banking institution to become an unlikely ally for Stannis Baratheon and the Night’s Watch. The soured relations between the Iron Bank and the Iron Throne is unexpected turn of luck for Stannis Baratheon. Stannis’ hard up kingdom and quest for the Iron Throne suddenly gets bank rolled by the wealthiest, most ruthless group of loan sharks in the world. Of course this contract literally written in Stannis’ blood is a gamble, but it’s one that may work in his favor. As Jon Snow notes, “When princes failed to repay the Iron Bank, new princes sprang up from nowhere and took their thrones.” By all accounts, the Iron Bank is not only the wealthiest bank in that universe, but it is also the most powerful. With the loss of this powerful ally, the Lannisters have severely weakened their already tenuous hold on the Iron Throne. This choice by the Iron Bank is a calculated strike against the Lannisters, as is their decision to call in every loan in Westeros. More ominously, the Iron Bank is rumored to send assassins, presumably the Faceless Men, after their debtors according to TWoIaF. Of course, that does not necessarily mean that the Iron Bank will employ assassins to kill Tommen or Cersei. So far as the readers know, they have only decided to go with backing Stannis’ claim by funding his war efforts in addition to setting up an economic conflict as the result of their loan ban. Certainly, the loan ban has been effective in the wake of Aegon Targaryen’s arrival. The Iron Throne on the orders of Kevan and Cersei, in fear of the rebellions that may be incited by raising taxes, send Harys Swyft to the city as an envoy to mend relations with the bank and bring money back to the city. Though the outcome of this decision has yet to come, I think “Mercy” hints at future conflict between the Iron Throne’s representative and the Iron Bank. The question that remains is where the Iron Bank will place their bets if Stannis Baratheon is dead as he is reported to be by the end of ADWD. Now, I personally don’t have a definitive opinion on whether Stannis is or isn’t dead. But for the sake of theorizing on the Iron Bank and their political maneuvers in Westeros, I will assume that he is dead or soon to be dead. In those cases, I imagine the bank will take up the causes of Daenerys Targaryen or Aegon Targaryen.

                              However, the Iron Bank is not the only powerful, secretive institution of Braavos. The Faceless Men, rumored partners in crime with the Iron Bank, seem to be an essential part of Braavosi culture. Indeed, the House of Black and White exists openly in Braavos, and all the Braavosi who have been met with “valar morghulis” usually respond immediately with “valar dohaeris.” In Braavos, the slave past of Old Valyria remain a vivid part of the city’s cultural conscious. This cultural inheritance informs their respect and fear of the Faceless Men (FM), an order with their origins in the slave mines of Old Valyria. Even though the order of the FM is a mystery to most of the world outside of Braavos according to The World of Ice and Fire, readers have received portions of their origins and practices from Arya’s PoV. But given Arya’s status as a guest, and eventual acolyte, in the institution, I think it is safe to assume that Arya has not been fully informed of all the order’s inner workings. At least, she seems distant from the proceedings that take place among the full FM in the HoBaW in ADWD. Although she is still low ranking in the FM’s hierarchy, Arya has gathered a good deal of knowledge about the order so far. But I there is far more to learn about the FM in the next novels, specifically the nature of their relationship with the Iron Bank, the Sealord of Braavos, and dragons.

                              One shouldn’t forget general politics apart from the Iron Bank when taking the city into consideration. So far, the series has yet to produce a Braavosi politician that is actually active in the story. This makes sense considering the fact that Arya has been our eyes in Braavos. Seeing as she’s only assumed the identities of young girls low on the social hierarchy of Braavos, Arya has yet to see many prestigious parts of that city including both the Iron Bank and the Sealord’s Palace. Despite those limitations, Arya has been privy to some of Braavos’ politics. During her time as Cat of the Canals and Blind Beth, Arya was asked to return to the House of Black and White with the demand that she tell the Kindly Man three things she learned. Though some of what she learned was seemingly inconsequential, there are some standout details about the political climate of the city. One example can be found in ADWD when Arya tells the Kindly Man that the current Sealord of Braavos, Ferrago Antaryon, is ill to the point of death and his expected successor is Tormo Fregar. The Kindly Man responds by telling Arya that her piece of news was not new information and a new sealord will be chosen if Antaryon dies. In response, Arya thinks, “When he is dead, there will be a choosing, and the knives will come out. That was the way of it in Braavos. In Westeros, a dead king was followed by his eldest son, but the Braavosi had no kings.” With this plot point, GRRM introduces the prospect of an upcoming election for a new Sealord of Braavos. However, there is little information on how the process takes place. In The World of Ice and Fire, it is stated that the Sealord of Braavos is “chosen by the city’s magisters and keyholders from amongst the citizenry by a process as convoluted as it is arcane.” I have a hunch that the limited information about the sealord election process is an intentional omission on GRRM’s part by using the excuse of mystery. My assumption is only furthered by the fact that GRRM uses this excuse to provide very little information on the Faceless Men in the Braavos section of TWoIaF as well. Although the exact details of the election process are currently shrouded in mystery and complication, it can be understood from Arya’s thoughts that the election of a new sealord is known to bring considerable tension and danger to the city’s political climate. Moreover, the politics of the series are becoming more visible figures in Arya’s PoV. In “Mercy,” there were a total of five keyholders present for the performance of The Bloody Hand. While all that information may seem unimportant in a casual reading, I think that the steady and subtle inclusion of the city’s political developments is intentionally done by GRRM in order bring the politics of Essos and Westeros to a convergence.

                              Post-ASoS, the land of Essos was no longer restricted to Daenerys’ PoV. Tyrion Lannister, Arya Stark, Victarion Greyjoy, Quentyn Martell, Barristan Selmy, Samwell Tarly, and Jon Connington all spend some, if not most of their PoVs chapters in the continent for various reasons that have some effect on the politics of Essos and Westeros.

To briefly (edit: I looked over my list and my eyes determined that this was a lie lol) go over the causes and effects of these eastern excursions, I’ll make a short list since I’m mainly concerned with Braavos in this post.

·         Tyrion’s escape at the end of ASoS leads to Cersei’s rise to power and all the political fiascos that follow. The fact that Varys is forced to hide him on a death threat from Jaime also sends Varys into hiding while shipping Tyrion off to Essos where becomes entangled in the plot to put Daenerys to Aegon Targaryen, the alleged son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Elia Martell, on the Iron Throne. His involvement is cut short by an ill-timed trip to a brothel where he is abducted by the exiled knight, Jorah Mormont. After many more misfortunes, the two are sold into slavery. With exceptional cunning and good luck, Tyrion and his friends are able to escape the confines of their dead slave master’s camp and land spots in Ben Plumm’s mercenary company, the Second Sons. As of TWoW’s released chapters, Tyrion is attempting to not only survivie the battle of Meereen, but bring forth a victory for Daenerys’ cause. It has been hinted by show and GRRM that Tyrion and Daenerys will join forces in some fashion.

·         By the end of AFFC, Victarion Greyojy is sent by his brother, Euron, on a mission to bring Daenerys from Meereen so she can marry Euron and help him conquer Westeros. Victarion accepts the mission, but he intends to marry Daenerys himself and steal the throne from his brother. This mission is resumed by the end of ADWD where Victarion becomes involved with a red priest named Moqorro. He is involved in the battle of Meereen.

·         Barristan came to Essos storyline before the other Westerosi PoVs aside from Dany. His goal was to get Dany back to her throne in Westeros, but he ultimately has to hold together her crumbling occupation of Meereen in her absence. He’s involved in the battle of Meereen. He makes an agreement with the Tattered Prince to take over Pentos.

·         Quentyn Martell, with a little help from his friends, journeys his way to Daenerys on the orders of his father so that they can fulfill a marriage contract (more on that contract…) and conquer Westeros together. Quentyn fails to convince Dany, tries to steal her dragons, and is burned to death. This death will likely have negative impacts on Dornish/Targaryen relations if Arianne’s feelings in her TWoW sample chapter are any indication.

·         Samwell Tarly made a brief stop in Braavos on his way to the Citadel. During his time there and on the ocean with Maester Aemon, he learns of Daenerys Targaryen and her dragons, the prince that was promised prophecy, and meets Quhuru Mo. Mo takes him to Oldtown, where is able to inform Maester Marwyn about all he’s learned. Maester Marwyn is determined to get to Daenerys before other parts of the Citadel can influence her.

·         Jon Connington, the exiled lord of Griffin’s Roost, spent time with the Golden Company before he was enlisted by Varys and Illyrio to be Aegon’s guardian. He returned to Westeros with Aegon and their host by the end of ADWD. By Arianne’s TWoW chapter, Jon has contacted the Dornish with the intentions of creating an alliance by confirming Aegon as Doran’s nephew.

                              In all of these plotlines, the east and west cross paths in order to create some shift in the politics of the regions whether they intend to or not. Specifically, each storyline is influenced in some way by Daenerys Targaryen and her dragons. Yet, the one major PoV taking place in Essos has not made a firm connection with Daenerys and her dragons. So far, Arya Stark’s PoV and the city of Braavos have been conspicuously absent of any influence from Daenerys Targaryen and her dragons. This is contrast to other major Essos spots like Pentos, Volantis, and Slavery’s Bay. Considering Daenerys’ substantial following and notoriety or widespread esteem depending on who one asks in Essos, it should follow that her reputation would be a special topic in Braavos, the city built on slave rebellion. In fact, Daenerys’ reputation has even reached Westeros as evident by the mummer’s plays in King’s Landing and the word of Dany and her dragons in the Citadel from the prologue. With all those points in mind, I feel like it is suspicious that she’s not a bigger topic in the city of Braavos. Of course, Arya has heard a few mentions of the dragons while in Braavos, but they were brief.

 Here’s where I go into Speculation Mode:

                              I think that the absence of Daenerys’ influence in Braavos is going to be short-lived. Sooner than later, Daenerys will have to go back if she wants to move forward if I may loosely use Quaithe’s words. And if Daenerys should go in a reverse of her journey to move forward to her destiny, that means she will have to arrive at her first home in Essos before she lands on Westerosi land. That home is Braavos. Now, I am aware of theories that Daenerys has confused the location of her childhood home with Willem Darry based on the trees quote in “Mercy.” However, I do not believe that she is confused about her early in Braavos. Yes, the presence of lemon trees in Braavosi is strange, but it’s no stranger than the rest of all that is fantastic in A Song of Ice and Fire. If Sealord’s Palace can support tree life in official maps of the city, I’d wager to say that a wealthy man like Willem Darry could afford a luxury garden. Also, I think the marriage pact made by Oberyn and Willem in Braavos, and witnessed by the Sealord of Braavos, tends to give credence to Dany’s assertion that she and Viserys lived with Darry in Braavos. Now, there is much that is suspicious about the pact. Namely, why would the Sealord of Braavos get involved with a pact between House Martell and House Targaryen after Robert Baratheon took the throne? Did they wish to seek favor with the Targaryens and the Martells? Was this Sealord the current Sealord or a predecessor? Given what little information is supplied about the inner workings of Braavos’ politics, it’s anyone’s guesses on these questions. Indeed, they may remain unanswered if Ferrago Antaryon dies soon as expected and Tormo Fregar takes his office. Once he takes office, an event apparently already anticipated by the common people of Braavos, the most likely turn of events include Fregar taking a stance on Daenerys Targaryen and her dragons. Braavos is a wealthy city known for hard anti-slavery policies in addition to possessing an extraordinarily impressive and powerful naval military. I find it hard to believe that Daenerys and Tyrion (two characters who have expressed desires to see the city) won’t find the city a considerable ally, by choice or force on the city’s part.

                              And what does the future of the city hold for Arya Stark? As I said, there’s far more to learn. Arya’s only ventured around the outskirts of the city, homes to tourists and the poor. Eventually, she will have to break out of her usual haunts and explore the parts of the city that she was almost destined to discover---the Iron Bank, the Sealord’s Palace, and the Moon Pool. So far, Arya is the only major PoV residing in Braavos. While others may speculate on her TWoW arc taking her to other places, I am firm in my belief that she will remain in the city. As a disciple of Syrio Forel, Arya is probably going to be lured to the Moon Pool and the Sealord’s Palace based on Syrio’s tale of the Sealord’s Palace and the prospect of water dancing in the famous, magical Moon Pool seems like it would be too good for Arya to pass up. Since the Iron Bank is apparently so connected to the Faceless Men, I think the chances of her getting involved with the institution in some fashion are high. The fact that she’s carrying around an iron key in “Mercy” for no discernable reason is a hint that she’s either been given or stolen a key from the powerful keyholders of Braavos aka Iron Bank officials.

           I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the keyholders, the sealord, election voting areas, the iron bank, and the iron key are all mentioned in “Mercy.” Those inclusions are all a set up for the rest of the Braavosi narrative that will be tied with Arya’s PoV. How one will affect the other remains to be seen, but they will impact other characters and how the rest of the series turns out. So far, Arya’s actions will likely cause further strife between King’s Landing and the Iron Bank.  She could also meddle with the Justin Massey’s Iron Bank envoy on behalf of Stannis Baratheon, the upcoming Sealord election, the Hardhome refugees, or the Faceless Men’s objectives. On that note, I do wonder how the Faceless Men will impact the story. If Jaqen is working on behalf of the group at the Citadel, what is his end goal? To destroy the dragons? To the control the dragons? To destroy the means of destroying dragons? The answer to the Jaqen question is uncertain at the moment, but seeing as the Faceless Men don’t take kindly to dragons as legacies of their slave past, I don’t think they want the dragons to live.  The desires of the Faceless Men could put them at odds or in unity with how the Iron Bank and the Sealord’s Palace wishes to deal with their future of their city and how they deal with the dragons and Westeros.

           After hundreds of years in solitude, I can’t imagine how the major institutions of Braavos are not tied with each other. The survival of the city relied on building a community of trust within the shroud of secrecy. But what happens to the city once crisis falls when the world of the series realizes the apocalyptic peril from the beyond the Wall? The Faceless Men are an order with their own god and set of doctrine to follow, the Iron Bank is an absolutely ruthless institution, and the Braavosi government is one of volatile politics. These institutions can easily conflict with each other once the world’s dangers present themselves. And from there they may act on their own intentions. Eventually the city and especially the major characters involved will have to follow in that Braavosi tradition of unmasking secrets.

[racefortheironthrone]

What texts would you recommend to develop the sort of general knowledge needed to write something like your economic development plans? I am currently trying to write a setting which has a few major reformist leaders with big plans, and it would really help to know a bit more about how to come up with a workable economic development plan for a fantasy region - I really admired your work on the subject, and thought you were the person to ask.

This is a great question!

Something I've discussed before wrt economic development, is the need to avoid presentism as much as possible. So I've always taken as a central limiter of my economic development proposals that they have to fit within the boundaries of what was known/technologically feasible during the Late Middle Ages through to the Early Modern period.

In this fashion, I try to avoid the Connecticut Yankeee in King Arthur's Court scenario where all of the sudden steam engines appear hundreds of years early out of nowhere - because we shouldn't be assuming that economic development is some teleological process that has to go through the same stages as Western European economic development did in our timeline. The result is that I got really into reading about the Commercial Revolution and the technologies that drove economic development during that period - hence why I became obsessed about canal-building, because canals were a key technology that the Early Modern nation-state used to create and reshape markets.

So here is a meta-list of books I'd recommend on economic development in the Middle Ages through the Early Modern period:

books about medieval and Renaissance governments.

William Cronon’s Nature’s Metropolis, Lawrence Goodwyn's The Populist Moment, and Will and Wong's Nourish the People on the making and remaking and regulating of agricultural markets.

books about Medieval and Renaissance urban development.

books about medieval guilds.

Robert S. Lopez' Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages.

Joseph Gies' Merchants and Moneymen: the Commercial Revolution.

Pamela Smith, Paul Findlen ed. Commerce, Science, and Art in Early Modern Europe.

Ralph Davis' A Commercial Revolution.

Anthony Burton's The Canal Pioneers and The Canal Builders.

John Blair ed. Waterways and Canal-Building in Medieval England.

A.E.J Morris, History of Urban Form Before the Industrial Revolution.

[aegor-bamfsteel]

How do you think Rohanne’s perception of slavery changed from her time in Westeros? And how would the westerosi handle slavery during their exile?

Xen, could you go back to asking me which of the Great Bastards is ticklish? Because this is a hard one. It involves knowing about both Rohanne’s personality and background, of which we have no information. It also has me make assumptions about the history of Golden Company based on very scant information from A Dance with Dragons. For the first question, I will try to suggest some factors that may have contributed to Rohanne’s views of slavery, and how they may have changed in Westeros. For the second, I’m going to take what I assume about the character of the first generation of Westerosi exiles and compare it to information about the asoiaf-era Golden Company.

Question 1: How do you think Rohanne’s perception of slavery changed from her time in Westeros?

I think that Rohanne’s views on slavery before she got to Westeros were influenced by her:

Social status: We know very little about Rohanne’s background other than that the Archon was responsible for arranging her marriage, suggesting  that he was something like her paterfamilias or male head of house. As a high status woman in a city that lives off of the slave trade (so says Xaro Xhoan Daxos. I’m rolling my eyes at how unhistorical that a tiny island with no arable farmland has a population of 3 slaves for every 1 free person, but that’s the world building GRRM has created), she almost certainly came from a family who owned slaves. GRRM seems to base his slavery off of the ancient Roman model (it isn’t ethnically based, there doesn’t seem to be a ban on slaves reading/holding specific occupations, there is a reasonable chance of gaining one’s freedom), so if she were the lady of her household, she would have been responsible for tending to the basic needs of all of the slaves of her house—their food, clothing, physical health, and lodgings; even if she weren’t, her older female relatives would have taught her. Rohanne must have lived in a house mostly managed by slaves, and interacted with them on a personal level in her day-to-day life; would have been tutored by a slave in mathematics/science, her family accounts were seen to by a slave, her family’s agents were likely mostly slaves, and all the domestic chores were done by slaves. Perhaps she even had a personal maidservant from girlhood who slept beside her bed on a mat, as upper-class Roman women did. Due to her education, she may have developed a maternalistic attitude toward slaves, in which she considered it her moral duty to tend to her family’s dependents. However, she may not have necessarily considered them inherently inferior because…

Family background: Rohanne does not have any surname, let alone one with the Tyroshi-Valyrian “-is” suffix (Quaynis, Uhuris, Tumitis, Naharis), which might mean any number of things: that she was not of immediate Valyrian descent (likely, as the name “Rohanne" does not look or sound like any Valyrian names that we know, whereas the name “Kiera” is similar to the Lysene/Targaryen-Valyrian names Shiera and Shaera) or that her family was originally of a lower class that only recently reached the upper echelons of power (in Westeros if not in Tyrosh, a lack of a surname indicates smallfolk status; since Tyroshi culture is based on wealth rather than birth, those families which do have surnames could be Valyrian “old money,” although much reduced in circumstances). I don’t know if her lack of a surname definitely means that Rohanne’s family were originally slaves themselves; in Planetos, many ex-slaves don’t have surnames (though some like Rylona Rhee, Marq Mandrake, and Tumco Lho do have last names that belong to their own Ghiscari or Westerosi or Naathi culture, although these people were born free. If Rohanne’s ancestors were born slaves, they may not have surnames), but neither do most of the Myrish (close to Tyrosh, also many not of Valyrian descent). What it does mean is that she likely came from a “new money” family, and that doubtless had an effect on how she saw slaves. To clarify, the Valyrians believed themselves superior to all other peoples on the basis of blood, and many of their descendants (the Volantenes, the Lyseni, and the Targaryens) adopted the same attitude; Rohanne did not belong to this “in-group” and may have even faced passive-aggressive snubbing because of it, so she could have had a very different point of view on slavery than the “old money” families. Like many slaveowners who came from poor or even ex-slave backgrounds, she might have had the understanding that slaves were not enslaved because they were naturally morally/intellectually inferior, but were subjected to slavery through kidnapping or being born to a slave mother. The idea that slavery was a moral rather than an economic institution might have already seemed strange to her before her arrival in Westeros. 

After her arrival in Westeros and marriage to a Crownlands knight, Rohanne’s position on slavery may have further changed due to…

The Faith of the Seven: Daemon followed the Faith of the Seven, and while he did not spend a great deal of his time with septons, he was considered such an exceptional knight (who was required to take oaths based on each of the Seven) that his prowess was tied to the religious figure of the Warrior; whatever Yandel might say about his apathy to religion, he seems to have been bound up in Faith principles to a considerable degree. We don’t know whether or not Rohanne converted to the Seven before or during her marriage, as other interfaith marriages did not require the bride to convert (Catelyn Tully didn’t convert to worship of the Old Gods when she married Eddard Stark. In fact, he built her a sept for her worship, hired Septon Chayle as a librarian, and had Septa Mordane educate his daughters), although she may have done so to better integrate with the King’s Landing elite, especially due to the influx of septons in Daeron II’s court. If she did convert, she may have been taught that slavery was wrong on a moral basis, as all men belong to the Seven and owning them was to equate oneself to the divine (that was the argument of the 4th-century CE Christian bishop Gregory of Nysa, the only known abolitionist in antiquity). Even if she did not convert, the Faith was still present in her daily life because it was the religion of her husband, children (her daughters would have been educated by a Septa), smallfolk, and was centered in the nearby capital, so she would have been familiar with its teachings. Yet at the same time, her views on slavery might also have been influenced by…

The smallfolk: Tyrion Lannister observed that the smallfolk were similar to slaves because of the cruel treatment they suffered at the hands of their masters/lords with no hope for justice, but I believe the smallfolk have more rights than slaves. It seems that they were treated even better than serfs in at least one aspect; Brynden Rivers ordered them back to their lands following the Great Spring Sickness, indicating they had the right to move around and seek better employment as they wished. That leads into another point that gives smallfolk an advantage over being slaves: as primarily agricultural workers, smallfolk are spread out over a wider area and certainly don’t see their local lord on a day-to-day basis, whereas in tiny Tyrosh all of the slaves would have been familiar to their masters because everyone lives so close together. Rohanne may have even thought that the relationship between lord and smallfolk was rather distant for this reason, or she wondered why Daemon was not keeping his smallfolk close by in order to avoid potential rebellions. As she spent more time in Westeros, it may have occurred to her that the reason they didn’t rebel (and in fact raked their lives to pay tribute to him after his death) was because he was an honest man who made a fair liege; they had the freedom to follow him out of love, and were all the more loyal for it.  People are willing to fight for the preservation of that freedom. She could observe that the economic arguments for slavery she’d learned—that it was an integral part of the economy, that slaves would become lazy when freed, that fear of harsh punishments was needed to keep them obedient—just didn’t apply in this society. So I believe that Rohanne would have become less maternalistic toward her servants (as she now realized that they were capable of not causing trouble when independent) and may have come to see enslavement as a moral wrong due to the influence of the Seven/her family/her tenants (rather than just a “misfortune of circumstances”).

Question 2: How would the Westerosi handle slavery in their exile?

In the asoiaf era, the Golden Company disallows slaves from joining, calling themselves a “free brotherhood;” however, one of their prominent members is an ex-slave, Marq Mandrake (who has a hole in his cheek where his branding scar was), so they don’t appear to discriminate against men for having slave backgrounds. On the other hand, the Yunkish attempted to contract them by offering a “slave for every man in the company, ten for every officer, and a hundred choice maidens for the captain-commander” plus twice of what Myr would give them, so they obviously don’t have problems working for slaving cities. At the same time, it’s not made explicitly clear that the Company accepts slaves as a form of payment (Harry Strickland only pretended to think about the offer because he thought a blunt refusal would make their real plans too obvious); it would make more sense if they didn’t, since it’s said that they wear their wealth in gold and that their itinerant profession makes it hard to keep slaves. One could say that they have a sort of mercenary (heh) attitude toward slavery: they don’t mind if a slaver is willing to pay them to do a job, and they don’t care what a man’s background is as long as he is currently free, but don’t own slaves themselves for largely pragmatic reasons.

I assume that they felt differently in Aegor Rivers’ time; as many of Daemon I’s supporters were born in areas where the Faith has a greater presence (the Reach areas around Oldtown, the Riverlands close to the Crownlands where the Faith is centered, the Vale where the Andals first landed), and were loyal to the him in part because he embodied the knightly ideal of fairness and honor, they must have found the slavery reprehensible. Jon Connington’s words indicate that the grandfathers and fathers of the present members held more to Westerosi and Faith-inspired notions of chivalry and mercy than their descendants. Yet even by the asoiaf-era they still pay tribute to the legacy Aegor Rivers left behind, as breaking a contract is still seen as a stain upon the honor of the Company; it could be that the original members objected to slavery on moral grounds, but over time their prohibition became more pragmatic and a nod to tradition.

[geekamarie]

This is not a pro-monarchy blog, but...

Can we stop romanticizing Westeros as seven independent kingdoms? Seriously, I understand the appeal - especially of a free and independent North - but most of the discourse around this hand waves the geo-political complexities of the show (not to mention the more substantial ones present in the books). If we’re going to demand this as an outcome for the series, we should be at least able to talk about what this will actually look like.

(Note: I would love to see other peoples thoughts on this. I know there have to be significant dialogues out there. I’m honestly just reacting to the surface level discussion that is running rampant in the fandom.)

So let’s pretend that Dany, the Night King and Cersei all decide to abandon Westeros for an inter dimensional super villain conference, around the timeline of ‘Spoils of War.’ The wights are given a proper burial. The Unsullied and Dothraki go back to Essos. And Cersei blows up the Red Keep on her way out of town. All those terrible tyrants gone in one fell and relatively painless swoop. Westeros rejoices! What does this mean for the North?

The first step is settling things with the Knights of the Vale. Perhaps the best case scenario is that they decide that their role in returning the North to the Starks has atoned for their absence in fighting the War of the Five Kings. They promise to be allies and head home, probably with supplies (provisions, furs, etc.) from Winterfell to aid their journey.

However, we know that Lord Royce and others seem to have bent the knee to Jon Snow and House Stark. Even without the threat of being ruled by the Lannisters, they may want to honor their oath. Unfortunately, the Vale and the North don’t share a land border and annexing the Riverlands would geographically tie them together. Both Sansa Stark (and her now returned siblings) and Robin Arryn are tied to House Tully and the Riverlands through their mothers. The North and the Knights of the Vale set about conquering the Riverlands and restoring House Tully. 

With House Frey gone, the power vacuum in the Riverlands has been filled by Lannister men. Depending on the state of House Lannister, these troops may continue occupying in order to annex the region themselves, be allowed to return home, or individually find opportunities for advancement and attempt to make themselves lords in the Riverlands. Assuming the North is successful, they now have a geographically vulnerable territory to defend - no natural defense like the mountains and the Neck here - and, in controlling three regions, look like aggressors in this newly liberated continent. 

All of this assumes the Littlefinger is happy with either outcome. We know that his personal ambitions mean that he will try to seize power from this chaos and the easiest way would be organize a rebellion against Jon Snow. It wouldn’t take much effort to persuade ambitious, minor lords from the Vale that the North owes them for winning the Battle of the Bastards, and it wouldn’t take much imagination to convince them that they could take the North with little effort. The Starks themselves recognize the need for keeping the Knights of the Vale close - the Northern armies are pretty decimated at this point. Even if Littlefinger’s rebellion wasn’t successful long term, the North would be thrust into open conflict (be it described as civil war or invasion) for the foreseeable future. And, within the North, factions may rise around individual Starks as well (Bran Stark, for his legitimacy; Sansa and Arya Stark, so that their husbands could rule through their claim), not because of their own ambition but because they are now vulnerable to the demands of their allies.

Dorne, the Stormlands, and the Reach have lost their ruling families. The best case scenario is that an heir is quickly established and widely supported. The worst case is that all three regions immediately dissolve into a protracted civil war. Depending again on what we are to believe about the number of Lannister troops still standing, one or more of these regions will be facing a similar fall out to the Riverlands as well.

The Crownlands will need to be either annexed, conquered or establish leadership. This region of the country has typically owed fealty directly to the Iron Throne. Historically, I believe the land was split between the Stormlands and the Reach, but these ties have frayed in the centuries since this was true.

The Westerlands have been stretched thin. The loss of the Red Keep and the Iron Throne would devastate local moral. The gold mines that have been their economic advantage for years have been depleted. Casterly Rock has been sacked (and abandoned by the Unsullied). While House Lannister will survive without Cersei (either through Jaime, Tyrion or a part of the extended family), their ability to continue to reign in the long term is doubtful, if for no other reason that their are plenty of houses with grudges to settle against them. The question immediately becomes whether or not they consolidate their troops and shore up their resources, or push their advantage in a territory they are already occupying and immediately try to conquer it.

Euron Greyjoy and the Iron Islands are actually in the best position to move forward. With Yara captured, her rebelling faction has been quelled - and, with the fall of Cersei and central power, their ability to reap, rape and rove down the coastline with relative impunity has been restored. With Euron’s ambition, I don’t doubt that he would make a play for conquering, likely the Crownlands and/or the Riverlands. That he would likely not be able to establish a dynasty would just prolong the unrest in the South.

None of this would stop the rise of new tyrants or other ambitious men and women. Depending on how expansive the North becomes, for example, it wouldn’t be surprising for a central leadership to be established amongst some combination of the Crownlands, Stormlands, Westerlands, Riverlands and the Reach - which share similar cultural values and have fewer geographic barriers between them. This goes back to why Robert became king after the Rebellion. Westeros was reshaped around centralized rule and, more significantly, it became something ambitious men knew could be accomplished.

A more egalitarian society is actually more likely under a unified Westeros. With multiple factions competing with one another for control, the lords with the most power and resources stand the best shot of victory. In the upheaval, people will look for familiar power structures for reassurance - a benefit to those whose strength is derived from inherited titles and rule. This is not to say that new houses and new ‘nobility’ will not be created, but even these new lords and ladies will want to be able to enforce the privilege that will become their due. Following what has now been years of conflict, the common man and woman, torn between survival and gaining a voice, will chose the safest route. (Think of the Brotherhood without Banners - it never gained enough traction to be much more than a nuisance to the establishment.)

All of the major players in Westeros have had untraditional paths to power. Dany was given to the Dothraki for their army. Jon was a bastard sent to the Wall. Baelish was a minor lord that made himself invaluable to those with more influence. Euron was banished for starting a rebellion. Even Cersei, by law of succession, should not have the influence she does. If any one of them were to gain control of Westeros, with the devastation that war has had on traditional regional leaders, they would have the ability to rebuild the structure of power within the Seven Kingdoms. This is not to say that any of them would favor a democratic or republican (little d, little r) system, but it isn’t hard to imagine Jon being more forgiving of the illegitimate seeking advancement or Littlefinger having an affinity for the merchant class.

Noticeably, this doesn’t address the more practical everyday concerns that would now be facing each independent kingdom. The North, for one, would certainly need to build up its ports and Southern borders in order to have more reliable trade routes and prevent marauding. The exchange of goods, people and ideas between the kingdoms would get more fraught as each region sought to reestablish a local identity. Each kingdom would also be a more appealing target to foreign invaders. And so on.

There are a lot of real world comparisons that we can draw on. The Westerosi economy is not as developed as the one the UK has today, but its not hard to think of Brexit as a model for pros and cons. It bears noting that the longest peace in Europe has been under the EU. We can also look to the American Revolution (and Civil War) for further comparisons on how separate and distinct regions tend to react when a tyrannical monarchy is overthrown.

Which brings me to: why is Northern independence so important to fans in the first place? The circumstances that drew the North into the last two wars aren’t necessarily going to change - a king and a lord paramount can both be killed in hostile negotiations in the south, their daughters still taken hostage. The North will still have allies and trade deals with the south. There will still be blood ties to be exploited and honor to be upheld for different oaths made. What is truly gained by independence except the possibility that one favorite or another will get a royal title and not have to bend the knee?

[joannalannister]

do you have any ideas as to what myrish lace might look like, perhaps compared to a lace that we may have (in our world)? i never know what to visualize, and grrm does seem to mention it quite a lot so it has been bugging me! thank you so much!!!

Hi! It’s hard to say what Myrish lace might look like, because GRRM doesn’t describe it in detail, and there’s actually lots of different types of lace in our own world. Let’s see what the text says about Myrish lace, and maybe that will help us visualize it.

Myrish lace is made in a variety of colors. Ivory, white, black, gold, silver, pink, pale green, and pale buttery yellow are mentioned in the text. There are probably other colors too.

Myr seems to be the primary manufacturer of lace.

“lace from Lys” is mentioned in Tyrion’s pov. However, the passage is talking about Littlefinger buying low and selling high, so it may be the case that Lys imports Myrish lace and, when the Lyseni market is glutted, Myrish lace is effectively “on sale” and Littlefinger seizes the advantage. 

While domestic lacemaking is never discussed, I think southern Westeros must have knowledge of rudimentary lacemaking techniques, something descended from net making. 

While Cersei probably wears lace the most often in the text, even she considers Myrish lace to be “costly”. According to Maester Yandel, Myrish lace is said to be worth its “weight in gold and spice”.

It’s typically not something one character would passionately tear off another, even if you’re a Lannister. (What? Bodice-rippability is always an important factor to consider when planning your wardrobe with your drapers and dressmakers.) Note that Margaery changed out of her “ivory silk and Myrish lace” gown for the wedding feast and put on a dress without lace, so the lace dress wouldn’t have been ruined had the bedding actually taken place. (Of course Joffrey was never going to bed Margaery, but the Tyrells need to keep up appearances.)

Myrish lace is “delicate” and “intricate” and “filmy”. If you don’t layer it, you can see the wearer’s skin beneath it. It tears easily if you aren’t careful. 

You can get an entire gown of Myrish lace made in Westeros, although such a gown would be extremely expensive. A less expensive option that still displays your wealth and status is to make only the sleeves of your gown from Myrish lace, with the rest of the gown done in silk.

Lace is also used as trimming or accents, on hems, collars, cuffs, and bodices. Ladies’ veils might also be made of Myrish lace.

Myrish lace is also used to adorn handkerchiefs and dolls in Westeros. For example, Sansa had dolls dressed in “linen and lace”. 

Both men and women wear Myrish lace, but lace seems to be much more common among women. The only two men I was able to find wearing lace (at the “cuffs and collar”) were Daario Naharis and Glendon Ball. 

A lot of times lace seems to carry a feminine connotation in the text, or at least that was my impression. (Daario exhibits a lot of traditionally masculine traits and has a warrior physique, but he sort of reminds me of Liberace or some other boundary-breaking rockstar from GRRM’s younger days. Also Glendon Ball’s doublet is probably second-hand or something; it’s “old”.)

Myrish lace comes on bolts. 

A captain stopping at Lordsport has only a single bolt of Myrish lace aboard his ship, and he considers that single bolt to be worth advertising. (Obviously the Iron Islands are very poor and there isn’t much of a market for expensive lace there, but I also think that most merchants don’t get the chance to carry much lace.) 

A couple things:

From what I understand (and I might be wrong here, so hopefully someone will correct me if I am? paging @argelladurrandon, you are my costume expert), lace wasn’t super popular for the clothes worn by medieval lords and ladies, at least not until the verrrrrrry end of the medieval period. Medieval lace was more commonly used for ecclesiastical garments until the 16th century. Queen Elizabeth I wore lace, but I believe that was considered the start of the Renaissance / the Age of Discovery, rather than the medieval period? So it feels like GRRM isn’t being strictly historically accurate when he has so much lace incorporated into clothing. The popularity of lace in Westerosi clothing (at least “lace” as we understand the word) might be a bit of an anachronism. 

Also, I would think Myrish lace would be worth a lot more than its weight in gold, because in our own world, the finest laces historically took many years just to make a small piece. For example, this piece of a lady’s cap consists of ten thousand stitches per square inch and took five years to make. I have to assume Yandel doesn’t pay much attention to textile prices.

The big thing that stands out to me in the text is that Myrish lace comes on bolts. If you’re making enough lace to put it on bolts (which seems wildly anachronistic to me in a medieval-ish society but anyways), you’re making several continuous yards at least, and you’re probably not making something as fine as ten thousand stitches per inch. 

The kind of lace that is manufactured by the yard to go on bolts is probably some sort of decorated net, or maybe this type of cutwork to decorate cuffs (see the artwork in the sidebar). 

It might also be a type of bobbin lace, which is often used as trimming (like GRRM describes) and could be made by the yard. Look at the sleeves in the picture of the woman here, which seem similar to what GRRM is describing with ladies’ lace sleeves, though that seems more of a renaissance style to me. (However, GRRM has had characters like Joffrey wear more renaissance styles in official artwork, so maybe that is what he’s thinking.) If you look at this picture, you can see see some gold bobbin lace. 

However, I think there must be more than one type of lace manufactured in Myr. I think there have to be some very delicate individual pieces that are not made by the yard. The Free Cities are more economically advanced than Westeros, more similar to the Renaissance, which makes me think of cities like Venice, and Venetian lace, a very fine needlepoint lace like the collar this man is wearing.  So the more expensive and more intricate Myrish lace might be made in much more specific pieces (not yardage), like this Venetian collar from 1610:

I’m sure that Myrish lace makers get special orders from the wealthier great houses to make custom pieces, like lace with a rose pattern that will be shipped to Westeros for Marg’s wedding dress. Or something like a golden lace collar for a man’s wedding. Or whatever else they wanna use lace for. 

In terms of what to visualize … I was talking a while ago with @sansaregina and @bethwoodvilles and they suggested costumes more like those in Magnificent Century for ASOIAF. While the Magnificent Century costumes aren’t exactly historically accurate, they have a nice style that I agree would work really well in ASOIAF. And the women’s costumes use a lot of lace :)

What I imagine when I read is probably closest to a very delicate Venetian lace, like these Venetian lace cuffs:

Just add on lions or dragons or sunbursts or other appropriate patterns and embellishments. 

If you want to imagine some other type of lace, though, I don’t think GRRM would mind :) Like I said, I think the lacy fashions might be a bit anachronistic anyways, so I would just imagine something frothy, delicate, light, and intricate. Somewhat see-through for sleeves.

imo the most important things to be aware of with regards to lace in ASOIAF are (1) lace-making is primarily done in the more economically developed Free Cities rather than more primitive Westeros, (2) if a Westerosi character is wearing lace, he or she is very wealthy, with more lace meaning more wealth, because all that lace had to be imported on a ship, (3) the money-wealth correlation is slightly less true for Essosi characters, who have easier access to lace due to lower transportation costs, and (4) I think GRRM associates lace with traditional femininity, and sometimes uses lace to underscore characters that don’t conform to ideal Westerosi images of what people of different genders should look and act like (see: Samwell, Sweets, or Satin and their associations with lace in the text). How you imagine the lace specifically looks isn’t as important imo.

(Srsly tho those “bolts of lace” really throw me, friends, because I’ve been to lace museums and the really old lace I’ve never seen on a bolt??? It’s like … smaller???? If someone wants to explain more about “bolts of Myrish lace” to me that would be cool, because all I can imagine for that is … a whole lot of bobbin lace or decorated net.) 

(In the unaired HBO pilot, Aerys Targaryen was wearing something like an Elizabethan ruff in the background, and @bidonica drew me a really awesome Elizabethan style lace net ruff for Rhaella Targaryen, isn’t the world just the most wonderful place? I like to imagine the Targaryen court still retained a more Essosi-flavored style with big ruffs, it makes me so happy. I really like lace, ok)

[thennholdfair]

Westeros and the Resteros

Westeros is not Europe. 

It is not an economic or cultural center beyond the continent it occupies, and is influenced economically, politically, and culturally by happenings in Essos. Outside a few urban centers in Lannisport, Oldtown, and Kings Landing for instance, Westeros produces low-end goods, raw resources and basic manufactured goods for internal functioning of the Westerosi socio-political structure (ie swords good enough to cut people, basic clothes, masonry). Given the decent chance the latter two centers are going to be thaumaturgic rubble, and vast swathes of particularly good land are devastated from several years of intense fighting, the Westerosi economy will not be in good shape for decades to come. 

It was never too very complex to begin with, given the stagnation since the Andal invasion and adoption of iron tools and weaponry. Certainly Ghiscari, Summer Islander, and later Valyrians influenced the continent, but we are unsure of how. The history before Aegon’s Conquest is spotty and illuminates only so much. The political systems haven’t changed much, which indicates a lack of corresponding economic changes, given the especially close relationship between the two in feudalism. Even massive political shake-ups like the Doom of Valyria, Aegon’s Conquest, and the Dance of the Dragons did not fundamentally change any economic realities of Westeros. Even with the massive calamity of the next War for the Dawn, there little evidence for a more free or dynamic economy forming in Westeros. 

There’s a feeling among many people that the future of Westeros will be very much like the modern European experience, with a transition from peripheral backwater to core of the global economy via finding and exploiting a new resource rich continent or two. All our favorite factions will become colonial empires and get rich and remain important and interesting.

There’s no reason to believe that this future is likely within the story. The historical circumstances that created the European Imperial age are a far cry away from those of the ones in Westeros. We have no evidence beyond the known world of any other continents besides the four known ones. If there are more, and they aren’t simply filled with centaurs, deathworms, or hrangan minds, the societies may not be as susceptible to the nightmares of the Columbian exchange as the Native Americans were. ���Americos’ is at best an interesting conjecture, at worst an imperial fantasy. 

This blog will be filled with thoughts as to the geopolitical future of Westeros as we know it. Not as the economy should develop, but how trends in place since time immemorial will likely impact the future development of Westeros, Essos, and the Summer Islands. These are not prescriptions, but portraits; no canals or ascending the value added ladder without an objective incentive to do so, more uncertainty of social stability, trade imbalances, and the legacy of the events of the books. Europe never had dragons, and it seems unlikely Westeros will ever get potatoes, and though GRRM and many fantasy writers flavor their fantasy with European edges, this dynamic world takes on a life of it’s own beyond a mirror of our world.

[benrleeusa]

[Ilya Somin] The Politics of Game of Thrones Revisited

The imminent start of the final season of Game of Thrones is a good time to consider the series' political message, and reprise some of my work on that subject. Plus, a discussion of the political economy portrayed in George R.R. Martin's recently published prequel to the series.

The final season of the of the hit TV series Game of Thrones begins this weekend, on April 14, ending a long wait that began when Season 7 ended in 2017. One of the many interesting aspects of the series and the books by George R.R. Martin on which it is based, is the attempt to address a variety of political issues. While some might consider it frivolous to assess the political message of a fantasy show, it's worth remembering that far more people consume science fiction and fantasy media than read serious nonfiction analyses of political issues. And social science research indicates that science fiction and fantasy, such as the Harry Potter series, can even have a significant influence on fans' political views. At the very least, discussing the politics of Game of Thrones is less painful than analyzing the much grimmer politics of the real world! Valar morghulis - "all men must die" - is all too true. But at least we can have some fun with fictional political economy first!

Over the last several years, I have written a good deal about the politics of Game of Thrones. My most extensive analysis is a 2017 article focusing on what it might take to fulfill Daenerys Targaryen's vow to "break the wheel" of Westeros' awful political system:

In a famous scene in Season 5 of Game of Thrones, Daenerys Targaryen compares the struggle for power in Westeros to a spinning wheel that elevates one great noble house and then another. She vows that she does not merely intend to turn the wheel in her own favor: "I'm not going to stop the wheel. I'm going to break the wheel."

In the world of the show, Daenerys's statement resonates because the rulers of Westeros have made a terrible mess of the continent...

Daenerys's desire to "break the wheel" suggests the possibility of a better approach. But, what exactly, does breaking the wheel entail?...

Even in the late stages of... Season 7, Daenerys seems to have little notion of what it means beyond defeating her enemies and installing herself as Queen on Westeros's Iron Throne....

Unlike most of the other rulers we see in the series, Daenerys has at least some genuine interest in improving the lot of ordinary people. Before coming to Westeros, she and her army freed tens of thousands of slaves on the continent of Essos. She delayed her departure from Essos long enough to try to establish a new government in the liberated areas that would — hopefully — prevent backsliding into slavery.

Nonetheless, it is not clear whether Daenerys has any plan to prevent future oppression and injustice other than to replace the current set of evil rulers with a better one: herself. The idea of "breaking the wheel" implies systemic institutional reform, not just replacing the person who has the dubious honor of planting his or her rear end on the Iron Throne in King's Landing. If Daenerys has any such reforms in mind, it is hard to say what they are....

Daenerys's failure to give serious consideration to institutional problems is shared by the other great leader beloved by fans of the show: Jon Snow, the newly enthroned King in the North. Perhaps even more than Daenerys, Jon has a genuine concern for ordinary people....

Perhaps to an even greater extent than Daenerys, however, Jon does not have any real notion of institutional reform....

But in Medieval Europe, on which Westeros is roughly based, parliaments, merchants' guilds, autonomous cities, and other institutions eventually emerged to challenge and curb the power of kings and nobles. These developments gradually helped lead to the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the economic growth that led to modern liberal democracy. Few if any such developments are in evidence in Westeros, which seems to have had thousands of years of economic, technological, and intellectual stagnation.

The characters in the books and the TV show are not the only ones who largely ignore the need for institutional change. We the fans are often guilty of the same sin.....

Most of us read fantasy literature and watch TV shows to be entertained, not to get a lesson in political theory. And it is much easier to develop an entertaining show focused on the need to replace a villainous evil ruler with a good, heroic, and virtuous one, than to produce an exciting story focused on institutional questions..... Game of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire is comparatively unusual in even raising the possibility that institutional reform is the real solution to its fictional world's problems, and in making this idea one of the central themes of the story.

However understandable, the pop culture fixation on heroic leaders rather than institutions reinforces a dangerous tendency of real-world politics. The benighted people of Westeros are not the only ones who hope that their problems might go away if only we concentrate vast power in the hands of the right ruler. The same pathology has been exploited by dictators throughout history, both left and right.

It is also evident, in less extreme form, in many democratic societies.....

For all its serious flaws, our situation is not as bad as that of Westeros. But we too could benefit from more serious consideration of ways to break the wheel, as opposed to merely spin it in another direction. And our popular culture could benefit from having more stories that highlight the value of institutions, as well as heroic leaders. However much we love Daenerys and Jon, they and their real-world counterparts are unlikely to give us a better wheel on their own.

Back in 2016, I discussed Game of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire in an article on the politics of several science fiction and fantasy series where I highlighted the series' skeptical view of political elites. In this 2013 post, I discussed the significance of the "Red Wedding," one of the most shocking and controversial episodes in the history of the series. Back in 2011, when the series first began, I commented on some of the political issues raised by the struggle for the Iron Throne, building on an Atlantic symposium about the series.

In August 2017, I participated in a panel on the politics of Game of Thrones, sponsored by the R Street Institute and the Cato Institute, along with Alyssa Rosenberg (Washington Post), Peter Suderman (Reason), and Matthew Yglesias (Vox). We are hoping to reprise our discussion during the final season.

During the long interregnum between the end of Season 7 and the start of Season 8, George R.R. Martin published the first volume of Fire and Blood, the history of House Targaryen's rule over the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. The book predictably divided fans, many of whom would have preferred that Martin finish the long-awaited Winds of Winter instead. But I thought it was fascinating. At the very least, it did provide a lot of information about Westeros' political system. Here are a few examples (with spoilers largely avoided):

1. Even when the king is both competent and relatively well-intentioned, the political system doesn't function all that well. When he is either malevolent or incompetent, all kinds of disasters happen. And badly flawed kings seem to be more common than good ones. The high frequency of bad kings and the inability of good ones to make much progress is a strong sign that the monarchy's flaws are mostly systemic, rather than the fault of a few flawed individual rulers.

2. Like the Roman Empire, Westeros under the Targaryen kings never developed any generally accepted rules of succession. Thus, civil war breaks out over such issues as whether male offspring of the king take precedence over female ones who are older and/or more closely related. It is also not clear whether the king has the right to designate his own heir, or whether there are laws of succession that he cannot set aside (and if so, what they are).

3. Despite the above, Fire and Blood actually deepens the mystery of why Westeros has had so many centuries of economic stagnation. It shows that the kings invested in useful infrastructure (e.g. - ports and roads) and that there are many sources of investment capital other than the Iron Bank of Braavos. Plus, several of the great houses engage in extensive trade with other parts of the world. All of this should stimulate considerable innovation, growth, and technological progress. Yet very little seems to occur.

4. Fire and Blood makes clear that the stagnation probably is not caused by dragons, despite speculation to the contrary by commentators on the earlier books and TV show. There are never more than about 10-15 domesticated dragons in Westeros at any one time, and they don't seem to be used for anything but warfare and transportation for their riders (mostly members of the royal family). They clearly do not substitute for labor-saving devices or provide transportation for trade. And, while they are powerful battlefield weapons, they are clearly not invincible and their presence should stimulate military innovation, not stifle it.

5. Based on what we see, it is far from clear that Targaryen blood is actually necessary to become a dragonrider. If it is, only a tiny bit seems to be enough. This suggests that the number of domesticated dragons and dragonriders could be greatly expanded. If so, dragons could actually help jumpstart the economy! There is a lot they could do to increase Westerosi productivity, if they started to take on jobs other than killing people and transporting VIPs.

6. Women are clearly second-class citizens in Westeros. But they seem to have higher social status and more autonomy than their real-world medieval equivalents. We even see a number of cases of them entering male-dominated professions, including warfare. This further deepens the mystery of Westerosi stagnation, as relatively freer Westerosi women should be more productive than those of medieval Europe, yet this does not seem to result in much increased growth.

Perhaps we will get more insights on the politics of Westeros from Season 8, and George R.R. Martin's long-awaited Winds of Winter. Until then, don't forget that political chaos is a ladder!

[warsofasoiaf]

Let’s say that the stepstones somehow gets conquered by the seven kingdoms instead of the Greyjoy rebellion. You are awarded lord paramount of it. How would you go about making it wealthy, powerful, and well connected?

Wealthy and powerful would be difficult, the islands don't have a lot of development and aren't very well populated. Your best bet may be to base privateer attacks out of it, anyone who doesn't pay my protection fee runs the risk of being seized and boarded, and it essentially becomes a de facto tax on trade between Westeros and the Triarchy. Problem with that is that it would cause banding together of the Free Cities to root me out and destroy my pirate fleets. If the climate is right, growing some valuable trade goods that don't need too much tending might help supplement it. It's an uphill struggle though, most of Westerosi economic development is in agriculture and there wouldn't be as much arable land on the Stepstones. This would mean constant shipments of food and/or manpower to get the development up, which leads me to believe that Westeros wouldn't support me for long.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[racefortheironthrone]

Could the Iron Throne be able to issue bonds, to finance its expenses, instead of going to the Iron Bank for a loan?

A government issuing bonds is the same thing as the government taking out a loan. The main difference is that, in the case of issuing a bond, the government is spreading out its borrowing between many lenders by selling bonds on the open market to anyone who wants to buy them rather than having that loan owed to a single entity like the Iron Bank. This means that the government is less beholden to any one creditor and it's less likely that the government's creditors can use their economic leverage to affect government policy.

The second advantage of structuring government debt through bonds is that it allows the government to break its total borrowing needs into smaller, more affordable units. Very few financial institutions would have had the capital to finance the £1,200,000 that made up the government's inaugural loan at the Bank of England in 1690 - but a lot more people could afford to lend the government £10, £25, £50, or £100 pounds.

Between this and later innovations in marketing bonds to the general public, the market for government debt was massively expanded. Not only did this create a class of rentiers who were now personally invested in the government's success, but it also immediately deepened the capital markets by creating a large supply of stable assets that could be bought and sold and borrowed against. While some of the shortcomings of the Hamilton musical and Chernow's biography have become more obvious in hindsight, they're not wrong about the impact of Hamilton's policies as Treasury Secretary on the development of the American economy.

The difficulty facing the Iron Throne in adapting an early modern system of government finance is that it doesn't have the state capacity to run this kind of an operation: it doesn't have a central bank to act as the government's marketer, issuer of banknotes, and lender of last resort; it doesn't have a sinking fund to manage the level and price of debt; it hasn't issued charters to merchant's guilds or joint-stock companies that could combine the small capital of individuals and thus more easily afford to buy bonds; and it doesn't have enough literate people who've studied accounting to staff a royal bureaucracy large enough to coordinate and keep records of all of this economic activity.