[TV/BOOK] *SPOILERS* Game of Thrones Discussion - Page 664

As Queen-Mother Cersei undertook her walk of shame through the streets of the capital at the end of the last season of “Game of Thrones”, she was surely plotting vengeance on those responsible for her humiliation. But she was probably also wondering exactly how she found herself in such an unfortunate situation. One reason unlikely to occur to the embattled queen is her financial naivety – namely, her failure to grasp the catastrophic nature of her fiscal policy for the Seven Kingdoms.

In a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, George R. R. Martin, the author of “A Song of Ice and Fire” (the series on which the HBO show is based), complained that fantasy authors often fail to engage with economics. “As much as I admire Tolkien, I do quibble with him… What was Aragorn’s tax policy?” Martin – unlike Cersei – has thought deeply about the economic systems underpinning his imagined world, so it’s worth taking a closer look at how they function. For Cersei’s predicament, it turns out, largely derives from her failure to understand the nature of international credit.

Across the sea from the capital King’s Landing, in the Free City of Braavos, is the Iron Bank of Braavos, the dominant financial institution on the continents of Essos and Westeros. Martin modelled the Iron Bank on medieval banks controlled by powerful families from the cities of northern Italy. They provided credit, deposit, loan and foreign exchange services all across western Europe. Bankers from Florence and Lucca worked with the English crown under Kings Edward I, II and III, financing the kingdom’s wars on various fronts (especially France) and offering both current account and overdraft facilities. Edwards II and III even agreed to turn over all their revenue to two particular banking houses; they paid the kings’ budgets and, in return, were allowed to exercise a monopoly over the country’s most important export, high-quality English wool.

The saying, “The Iron Bank of Braavos always gets its due”, is on the lips of every politician in Westeros and Essos – except Cersei. She decided to default on the crown’s enormous debt to the bank in order to concentrate on rebuilding her navy, which had been destroyed in battle. Hoping to secure the resumption of repayments, the Iron Bank now supports a rival to the throne, Stannis Baratheon; whoever rules the Seven Kingdoms is responsible for the Iron Throne’s debts. Meanwhile, the other Free City banks, taking their cue from the Iron Bank, are refusing Westerosi merchants credit. International trade has ground to a standstill.

GAME OF LOANS
Westeros is in the grip of a sovereign debt crisis. Queen-Mother Cersei needs to hire an economic advisor before the money runs out

On April 13 2016 08:00 Acrofales wrote:


Why? In the books she's still firmly lodged in the Vale, and there doesn't seem much reason for her to go north at all. Jeyne Poole has her "role" in the north, but unlike the series, both Theon and Jon (assuming he even gets involved with that plotline upon his resurrection) know that Jeyne is not Arya. So there doesn't seem much reason at all for book-Sansa to suddenly appear in the north given that it is still crawling with Boltons. Sansa marching on the Riverlands with an army from the Vale to liberate the Blackfish before marching north just makes far more sense. She can take revenge on the remaining Freys and sack the Twins on her way, which is always nice.

And therefore some kind of convergence (presumably because Sansa has to meet Jaime for some reason we do not yet know about) between the TV and book plotlines for Sansa seems more likely to happen in the Riverlands

On April 24 2016 11:38 Hexe wrote:
Jesus those leaks. They probably are just reacting to the emmy win, "I mean damn we did a good job with Dorne, lets make it even better!"

On April 24 2016 17:50 Cricketer12 wrote:
Jesus they are literally burying this show with DORNE. How the fuck do you take some of thr richest culture and characters (fucking Doran the genius and Areo the badass) along with the best theory in ASOIAF (Master Plan) and use it to throw this show into the dirt. What fucking assholes...