Balerion's Whiskers Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 The Forbes article posits the Night's Watch as just that, but some have already pointed out the potential problems with trusting rapists and dishonored knights to manage the realm's finances. Especially when literacy was a rare thing on the Wall. No, that could only be worse and worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJ McLannister Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 Presumably more accountants would be sent to the wall, but accountants with criminal records are more dangerous in a bank than the rapers and thieves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balerion's Whiskers Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 Presumably more accountants would be sent to the wall, but accountants with criminal records are more dangerous in a bank than the rapers and thieves. Yeah, could you imagine Littlefinger being sent to the Wall???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bright Blue Eyes Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 Also, with all the borrowing from Braavos, are they borrowing Westerosi currency that made its way across the sea at some point, or are they just receiving pure metals with which to mint coins? Nobody cares. Most coins are internationally accepted. What would the Iron Bank do if Cersei paid them off in these old Gardener coins? (provided she had enough) Look up the exchange rate and write the appropriate amount down. Please remember, Olenna's scheme is pure strongarming with the power of House Tyrell against some poor, powerless merchant. What I wonder about is that there's apparently coinage in circulation with Westerosi origins stretching back many hundreds of years, yet too my knowledge thered never amention of a royal mint. Three mints under LF's control. Probably in KL, Oldtown and Lannisport. An old mint in White Harbour, currently not in use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeanF Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 Westeros hasn't reached the stage of economic development where a central bank is possible. England only got one in 1695. The Iron Bank of Braavos is a private bank, not a central bank, albeit, it seems to work very closely with the Braavosi government. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DominusNovus Posted September 16, 2015 Author Share Posted September 16, 2015 I don't think it was one of her best ideas. When you think about it, you don't need a place to store your money in Westeros. But you do need a place to get loans. And where do you get loans? From other nobles. Like the Lannisters. Having no banks means that you can have nobles who become more powerful by having others indebted to them. By making banks, you remove that option from the game. And who enforces the debts when they need to be collected? Will Kings soldiers be set aside to do so? Depends on who owns the bank, doesn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maester of Valyria Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 To my knowledge, there is. The heads of "all three Mints" are listed among Littlefinger appointees. The number is interesting. Three. Minter of Dragons, Minter of Stags, Minter of Stars? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bright Blue Eyes Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 Minter of Dragons, Minter of Stags, Minter of Stars? ... missing moons and groats. At least. No, the three mints are far more likely to be distributed over the continent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bironic Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 The maesters could possibly act as a neutral Third party. They Are also literate unlike The NW. "The Grey Bank of Oldtown" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DominusNovus Posted September 16, 2015 Author Share Posted September 16, 2015 ... missing moons and groats. At least. No, the three mints are far more likely to be distributed over the continent. Probably King's Landing, Oldtown, and Lannisport. The two largest cities and the major one in the gold-producing region of the country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Viserys Targaryen IV Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 The Forbes article posits the Night's Watch as just that, but some have already pointed out the potential problems with trusting rapists and dishonored knights to manage the realm's finances. The other problem with the Night's Watch, after the banking becomes successful how long before they go "Fuck this watching the Wall shit, the real money is in banking" and stop doing their job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Lepus Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 Save for the Bank of England, there weren't real National Banks until the Napoleonic Age in our own world. They were created so governments could borrow money to finance themselves during a period of incredibly expensive wars. Previous attempts to create Central Banks, like that of John Law's Banque Générale in France ended in failure because the Crown and the ruling elite wouldn't respect its authonomy. Now think how Westeros is ruled. If someobody like Cersei tried to create her "Golden Bank of Casterly Rock", she wouldn't treat it as an authonous entity. She would treat it as her own coffer, and use the money for her own political goals, which in Westeros are the same as her private goals. Kings treat the treasury as their own personal money, and they would do the same to the National Bank. And what is most important, everybody would know that from the beginning, so they would know the Crown would do as they pleased with their money, which would seriously hinder their trust, which is poison for a banking system. It would crash for sure. And even the Iron Bank isn't much like our contemporary Central Banks. It's a private enterprise, even if it has close ties to Braavos's government, just like the Medici Bank was a private enterprise despite the Medici being the rulers of Florence. And the Iron Bank works with physical metal coins like any other Ancient/Medieval/Renaissance banking institution; they issue letters of change, but these letters of change are convertible to gold; nobody in Westeros or Essos would take a bill not easily convertible to gold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bright Blue Eyes Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 Probably King's Landing, Oldtown, and Lannisport. The two largest cities and the major one in the gold-producing region of the country. Three mints under LF's control. Probably in KL, Oldtown and Lannisport. An old mint in White Harbour, currently not in use. :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaak Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 Lannisters have the reputation of "A Lannister always pays his debts". Can they cash on it by running a bank? Who would have a Westeros-wide network of agents, with cash at hand? Lannisters, probably not (not enough agents). Crown, possibly. Faith, possibly - but we do not hear of Faith officials. Citadel, possibly, but not sure about maesters´ access to large sums of cash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaak Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 Lannisters have the reputation of "A Lannister always pays his debts". Can they cash on it by running a bank? Who would have a Westeros-wide network of agents, with cash at hand? Lannisters, probably not (not enough agents). Crown, possibly. Faith, possibly - but we do not hear of Faith officials. Citadel, possibly, but not sure about maesters´ access to large sums of cash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaak Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 Lannisters have the reputation of "A Lannister always pays his debts". Can they cash on it by running a bank? Who would have a Westeros-wide network of agents, with cash at hand? Lannisters, probably not (not enough agents). Crown, possibly. Faith, possibly - but we do not hear of Faith officials. Citadel, possibly, but not sure about maesters´ access to large sums of cash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJ McLannister Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 Lannisters have the reputation of "A Lannister always pays his debts". Can they cash on it by running a bank? It's a great motto for a bank. On the one hand, they're saying they won't lose your investments, but also provides the underlying threat of what they'll do to you if you default on a loan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Lepus Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 Lannisters have the reputation of "A Lannister always pays his debts". Can they cash on it by running a bank? Who would have a Westeros-wide network of agents, with cash at hand? Lannisters, probably not (not enough agents). Crown, possibly. Faith, possibly - but we do not hear of Faith officials. Citadel, possibly, but not sure about maesters´ access to large sums of cash. How many people who aren't Lannisters take that motto seriously? And the fact that they take pride in paying their debts doesn't mean the would know squat about running a Central Bank. Hell, nobody in that world knows how to do it, because there aren't any. And even if they found an administrator able to run the thing properly, would that administrator be able to tell Tywin that he was wrong if he received a stupid direct order from him? Look at Cersei, how badly she messed with the Iron Bank and Faith when trying to reduce the royal debt. There was people who knew those were bad ideas, but they either weren't listened or they didn't dare to speak. They could make a mess out of pure ignorance, try to fix said mess throwing gold coins at it (like they always do) and provoke an explosive inflation in doing so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DominusNovus Posted September 16, 2015 Author Share Posted September 16, 2015 :P Oops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maester of Valyria Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 ... missing moons and groats. At least. No, the three mints are far more likely to be distributed over the continent. Groats, moons and all the other low-value copper coins would presumably fall under Stars, which are also copper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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