By Alex Coonce
They dominate the Westerosi economy. Their unofficial motto is “a Lannister always pays his debts”. Just the name Lannister is synonymous with wealth. But how wealthy are the Lannisters, really? After taking in the state of the economy and the assets of other houses, are they truly as rich as everyone claims?
For those unfamiliar with the series Game of Thrones, House Lannister is one of the nine “great houses” of Westeros, a continent primarily occupied by the realm known as the Seven Kingdoms. Due to unregulated spending, a stagnant economy, and now a civil war, the crown has taken to borrowing money in order to keep up with its overindulgence while the rest of the realm starves. Much of this money is borrowed from Tywin Lannister, the Lannister patriarch and owner of the majority of the realm’s gold mines. The Lannisters are shrewd and ruthless, and with Tywin’s (universally detested) grandson, Joffrey, on the throne, they have essentially rigged the system in their favour.
Knowing this, one would assume the Lannisters are, without a doubt, the richest house in Westeros. However, this is before taking into account the food shortage and devalued status of Westerosi currency. In a recent Slate article, Matthew Yglesias argues that the Lannisters aren’t all that wealthy in comparison to their on-and-off allies, the Tyrells. “The illusion of Lannister wealth,” Yglesias claims, “is based on the idea that we can take the marginal price of an ounce of gold, and then multiply that by the total quantity of the Lannister gold supply, and then conclude that the Lannisters are hyper-wealthy.” This, he argues, ignores the problem of inflation, especially when considering the devalued status of Westerosi gold.
House Tyrell, on the other hand, has more public support than the Lannisters by far, owns the largest army in Westeros, and provides the realm with the majority of its crops. The Tyrells have the means and the opportunities to earn long-run profits. In the event of a food shortage in the Westerlands (the region of the Seven Kingdoms owned by the Lannisters) and a gold shortage in the Reach (the Tyrells’ region), the Tyrells will be able to rely on their resources to get them by until they can find a way to sell them for profit. The Lannisters, on the other hand, will “find that if they try to trade a whole big pile of gold for a whole big pile of food that the price of food will skyrocket”. Gold itself, while a handy medium of exchange, is worth nothing in comparison to resources.
Olenna Tyrell
In addition, Westeros is already facing hyperinflation due to a civil war and a disorganized economic system. To compensate, the crown resorts to placing heavy taxes on refugees seeking asylum from war, debasing its currency, and taking out large loans from foreign banks (the Seven Kingdoms don’t have their own centralized bank). Naturally, this does nothing to help the stagnant economy. Furthermore, because of the Seven Kingdoms’ reliance on a feudal system-- thus limiting any sort of social mobility-- the average citizen is unable to pay the crown’s increasingly heavy taxes or to provide the growth the economy so desperately needs. All in all, this creates a large dent in the Lannisters’ supposed wealth.
So, are the Lannisters really all that wealthy? Well, yes, when compared the impoverished majority of the realm-- but when compared to the fellow Great Houses, the Lannisters don’t quite live up to their reputation.
Sources:
You bring up a great point -- though you seem to detach the conversation of the impact from foreign entities; namely the free cities. The creation of massive monoliths that are the people of free cities are fond of, will keep a constant demand for gold, one that will likely surpass the meager supply of Casterly Rock -- thus driving up the price. Though, then the true issue becomes transportation of goods to the free cities, as ships do not come cheap in such an age, perhaps if they had a method to transport them through the air...
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with Tanner on this topic. Although the gold supplies of Casterly Rock surpass those of other houses, the Free Cities (Such as Mereen) have supplies of gold that far exceed those of House Lannister. You stated that House Tyrell would be better off due to the crops that they grow and the favor they have from other houses, however, I would point out that at one point, House Targaryen was once also the ruling class, extremely rich, and extremely powerful. There have been rumors of dragons awakening again as well....
ReplyDeleteI'm completely unacquainted with this entire fantasy world, but I seem to have a general understanding of the situation. We've seen the situation in countless real life examples. For example, in ancient times, Romans used the gold standard system because gold was a scarce resource, and could be commonly obtained. Salt has also been used to set price standards, as ancient production methods had high production costs, making it a scarce good. There has been some support to implement a similar standard in today's economy -- a monetary system based around gold, or some other rare mineral. The reason this creates significant inequality is that in many regions that have less gold, whose gold in theory should be more powerful because of the limited supply, larger nations come and "purchase" rights to gold mines. Many African countries, for example, should be rich based on their amount of natural resources, but are desperately poor because developed nations usurp their supply. In conclusion, the Seven Kingdoms need a standardized currency system to reduce inequality amongst the houses.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very unique topic, I like how you relate a modern problem like hyperinflation with a fictional world. The hyperinflation due to the lack of a common trading currency and massive spending of the Lannisters is a very unique way of showing the issue we have with hyperinflation in some developing countries. Along with the massive spending of the Lannisters because of their lack of other resources, without a common currency the Lannisters will always have to spend a lot to secure common commodities.
ReplyDeleteWow Alex this is an awesome article! I wish I would've thought to relate real world problems to another source like this. Ryan reiterated really well and provided some great examples. I have never thought about about in terms of the actual value of the resource. Imagine if the value of money was based on hamburgers or ice cream. But realistically I have to agree with Ryan, the only way to solve such inequality is by finding a resource that is universal--equally scarce among all nations. I want to know more about this fantasy world, I can't say I have ever heard of it. Awesome article!
ReplyDelete