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Which Free Cities have the best relations ?


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18 minutes ago, SeanF said:

The Free Cities (other than Braavos and Lorath) are on the brink of revolution, because most inhabitants are slaves.

To be fair the slave thing isnt new , its the religious undertones and wars in slavers bay thats driving it to new dangerous levels .... its chiefly the fact that so many are fire worshippers and anti slavery dany  is  now their messiah !!! Not to mention shes devastated the 3 main 'processing centres' for slavery worldwide

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Myr, Tyrosh and Lys have a somewhat tempestuous history, but I don't think current relations between them are too bad. They seemed to be able to cooperate during the Lysene Spring, after the Daughters' War had ended, so while there's almost certainly still a commercial rivalry I suspect they get along ok at a political level.

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39 minutes ago, Alester Florent said:

Myr, Tyrosh and Lys have a somewhat tempestuous history, but I don't think current relations between them are too bad. They seemed to be able to cooperate during the Lysene Spring, after the Daughters' War had ended, so while there's almost certainly still a commercial rivalry I suspect they get along ok at a political level.

No by storm of swords   they are on the verge of war outbreak (probably all.prepping for months given their reliance on fighting by sellswords  and at war by feast of crows , the golden company moves to the disputed land but infamously for 1st time ever     breaks off its contract!

From an in universe storywise it sorta explains why tywin(known worldwide for literaly having a mountain of gold) isnt able.to bulk up his forces to 2-3 their numbers and win the wo5k much easier with the tens of thousands of in varioudbsellswords companies  in essos

 

 

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8 minutes ago, Craving Peaches said:

Another reason why he can't do that is that the value of gold would fall. Tywin's gold would be worth less if he did that.

Hes not gonna give them the whole mountain,  i meant more  they know he can pay well and never skips payment...... so  if they hadnt already been contracted to the myr lys and tyrosh etc  he should have had his pick of them for the wot5k ! 

Now factor in the size of the disputed lands and the fact that for the golden company to 'work' in universe the other sides would need ready access to about 10k each to counter them (probably more as  itd be strange if one side had just one single sellsword company as their whole merc force) and you have 10s of thousands waging their 3 sided war over a huge area....all that manpower could have been  old lord  golden shits to comand!!!

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47 minutes ago, astarkchoice said:

No by storm of swords   they are on the verge of war outbreak (probably all.prepping for months given their reliance on fighting by sellswords  and at war by feast of crows , the golden company moves to the disputed land but infamously for 1st time ever     breaks off its contract!

From an in universe storywise it sorta explains why tywin(known worldwide for literaly having a mountain of gold) isnt able.to bulk up his forces to 2-3 their numbers and win the wo5k much easier with the tens of thousands of in varioudbsellswords companies  in essos

 

 

Numbers mean nothing if you can’t feed them.  That was always the big limitation on army sizes in pre-19th century societies, unless they were extremely well-organised for war.

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40 minutes ago, astarkchoice said:

Hes not gonna give them the whole mountain,  i meant more  they know he can pay well and never skips payment...... so  if they hadnt already been contracted to the myr lys and tyrosh etc  he should have had his pick of them for the wot5k ! 

He doesn't have to give them the whole mountain, if Tywin hires tens of thousands of sellswords, a larger amount all at once, and pays for them in gold there will be more gold in circulation than before so the value will decrease.

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30 minutes ago, SeanF said:

Numbers mean nothing if you can’t feed them.  That was always the big limitation on army sizes in pre-19th century societies, unless they were extremely well-organised for war.

Id say the westerlands can feed  armies just fine ,.its not the riverlands or reach foodwise  granted  but  .its not dorne or the north either...plus the rich smug gits can buy more food and bring it in via lannisport  harbour

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14 minutes ago, Craving Peaches said:

He doesn't have to give them the whole mountain, if Tywin hires tens of thousands of sellswords, a larger amount all at once, and pays for them in gold there will be more gold in circulation than before so the value will decrease.

Yes but not by a great deal esp given these mercs would otherwise have been in disputed lands getting paid in various currencies ( no doubt backed by gold and silver at this stage)  if not directly in precious metals or stones!

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1 minute ago, astarkchoice said:

Yes but not by a great deal esp given these mercs would otherwise have been in disputed lands getting paid in various currencies ( no doubt backed by gold and silver at this stage)  if not directly in precious metals or stones!

Yes but he's buying a very large amount of sellswords all at once with gold. So the value would decrease. Tywin can't just shell out gold to solve all his issues because then there'd be more in circulation. The value of gold is based on its rarity so if Tywin dumps a lot at once that value will decrease.

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Just now, Craving Peaches said:

Yes but he's buying a very large amount of sellswords all at once with gold. So the value would decrease. Tywin can't just shell out gold to solve all his issues because then there'd be more in circulation. The value of gold is based on its rarity so if Tywin dumps a lot at once that value will decrease.

Yes but we are talking the hiring of a few dozen  sellsword companies (whod otherwise be hired anyway)  vs the volume of gold being used in all of planetos. So unless hes planning to pay each man his weight in gold or something equaly  ridiculous the world price wont be affected by a great deal.

And even then at the absolute  worst  case scenario ie  if hes such a shitty negotiator he offers them 100x their normal wages and gold temporarily  falls a little...... its worth it to win a war for his familys very existance no? 

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If Tywin starts hiring every sellsword company going, the first thing that they're going to do is jack their prices up. If he pays that, then that causes inflation when they come to Westeros and start deluging the market with Lannister gold, which destabilises the Westerosi economy and devalues Tywin's remaining cash holdings.

It's not a catastrophe, but it's not great either. It's something he would surely rather avoid. What's more, sellswords are notoriously dodgy: once you start paying them to start fighting, you end up having to pay them to stop again. The Golden Company aside, none of the mercenary companies we see in action in ASoIaF seem particularly reliable. The Second Sons, the Brave Companions and the Stormcrows all change sides at least once, and the Windblown are actively considering it. Several Long Lances defect after their first defeat. Ironically only the Company of the Cat seem beholden to their contract, and they have a terrible reputation.

It's best to avoid using them if you can help it, and Tywin will know this. He presumably hired the Brave Companions on the basis that they were cheap and readily available, likely to sow maximum chaos in the Riverlands, and wouldn't be too taxing for his forces to mop up if they later proved problematic.

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1 hour ago, Alester Florent said:

If Tywin starts hiring every sellsword company going, the first thing that they're going to do is jack their prices up. If he pays that, then that causes inflation when they come to Westeros and start deluging the market with Lannister gold, which destabilises the Westerosi economy and devalues Tywin's remaining cash holdings.

It's not a catastrophe, but it's not great either. It's something he would surely rather avoid. What's more, sellswords are notoriously dodgy: once you start paying them to start fighting, you end up having to pay them to stop again. The Golden Company aside, none of the mercenary companies we see in action in ASoIaF seem particularly reliable. The Second Sons, the Brave Companions and the Stormcrows all change sides at least once, and the Windblown are actively considering it. Several Long Lances defect after their first defeat. Ironically only the Company of the Cat seem beholden to their contract, and they have a terrible reputation.

It's best to avoid using them if you can help it, and Tywin will know this. He presumably hired the Brave Companions on the basis that they were cheap and readily available, likely to sow maximum chaos in the Riverlands, and wouldn't be too taxing for his forces to mop up if they later proved problematic.

If that was the case then ecomomies would collapse each time the 3 sisters free cities go to war , then theres competiton for work between companies driving down prices and again the simple fact that its still a small drop in the ocea  vs all the gold currently in circulation (esp in a gold standard economy like these feudal fictional states would be) with an  actual golden currency

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4 minutes ago, astarkchoice said:

If that was the case then ecomomies would collapse each time the 3 sisters free cities go to war , then theres competiton for work between companies driving down prices and again the simple fact that its still a small drop in the ocea  vs all the gold currently in circulation (esp in a gold standard economy like these feudal fictional states would be) with an  actual golden currency

But there's a difference between a bunch of buyers competing to hire sellsword companies and a single buyer trying to hire all of them. The former is operating like a normal supply/demand economy with corresponding effect on prices and the economic fallout being balanced across all the relevant players. The latter is effectively an attempt to set up a monopoly, with corresponding premiums and all that excess being fed back into the local market.

My economic understanding is pretty basic, but it's got to be a better bet for Tywin to minimise his spending on sellswords and win the war with conventional troops (which he does anyway) than spunk all his capital reserves away hiring unreliable soldiers above the asking price.

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Sorta they are all still in comp with each other for one picky  buyer , only if they work together to form set monopoly/sellsword union can they jack up their  prices. Again its hiring 10 or 15 expensive firms vs a world economy...its not gonna make that much of a dent in gold worldwide(esp inn one thats stil largely trading in gold and gold backed currency !)

Yeah bear in mind as far as tywin is concerned at wars start he could be facing north+ riverlands+ vale (about 140k) and then  some of the stormlamds + reach (bout same) and hes got like 45k  at most plus whatever cersei+tyrion can squeeze outta kl and the crownlands! So itd make sense to use their only advantage (gold) to offset that muscle, in fact we know he hirrs at least 2 companies to bulk up his forces, must be whats left not under contract in the brewing essos war

Soo absolute worst case a temp slump in gold prices (and bear in mind its still gold we sre talking about itl.always be outragously expensive) and in return enough muscle to save his family.

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10 hours ago, Terrorthatflapsinthenight9 said:

This is supposed to be about the Free Cities and their relations, please there's surely another thread for this discussion.

Sorry  side tracked as most threads are

To awenser your question id say its bravos and lorath.

Close geographicaly , both anti slavery and being the most powerful and least powerful states respectively theres very  little  serious rivalry that can be there.

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