[Book spoilers] Slaver's business model?

[RobertF]

Question about business transactions when slavers such as such as Kraznys mo Nakloz sell their Unsullied warriors (spoilers ahead):

What's to stop customers from simply killing the slavers after purchasing the slaver's army, then reclaiming their money? Surely Kraznys should have been smart enough to hold on to most of his troops as a personal bodyguard. I guess he was just too arrogant and greedy for his own good when Daenerys offered one of her dragons?

[Delmas]

greed is usually what leads people to getting conned.

[Runaway Penguin]

arrogance, greed, and not realising what it means to sell all at once ot one buyer :)

EDIT: Plus they were thinking about the "game" with its rules (same way as to why Dothraki don't pillage Free Cities and why Free Cities do not hire Golden Company to burn down Dosh Khaleen and kill off Horselords - because Free Cities and Dothraki form a symbiosis of trade and slave trade). It didn't occur to them someone may want to not only change the rules, but smash the board.

[GallowsKnight]

People could never afford ALL of the unsullied before. And as others said if Slaver's bay was destroyed where would people sell slaves? It never occurred someone would want to dismantle the system and be rich enough to buy all the unsullied.

[lostinwesteros]

Didn't catch any underpinning of a business model except that, again, I loved the way he played the role, and the whole scene explosively illustrated his treatment of the slaves.

[Mr Hodor]

i just hope they will show dany speaking the Valyrian language next time

[Greywolf2375]

Question about business transactions when slavers such as such as Kraznys mo Nakloz sell their Unsullied warriors (spoilers ahead):

What's to stop customers from simply killing the slavers after purchasing the slaver's army, then reclaiming their money? Surely Kraznys should have been smart enough to hold on to most of his troops as a personal bodyguard. I guess he was just too arrogant and greedy for his own good when Daenerys offered one of her dragons?

When someone is buying 1 or 2k Unsullied, there are still 5-7k left, so they still have the defences around them. In this instance there was nothing like that available, which is why they got played the way they did. They got greedy in seeing a dragon available to them, lost sight of what was happening and opened themselves up for it.

[jarl the climber]

What I have never understood is if the Unsullied are that good why doesn't anybody else have any? We know Quohor uses them and in the book its mentioned that some corsairs were interested in purchasing a few, stiil you figure that each of the three great slave cities wold have a garrison of a couple of thousand of these guys as insurance policy.

Still the slavers saw her as a Dothraki who talked about invading Westeros without any ships. I suppose they saw themselves as getting in on the ground floor and that this dragon would just be the beginning. All the plunder and captives she took in her campaign to raise money for ships would end up flowing back to them. Either that or they thought she was really more interested in rebuilding her dead husbands khalasar. I guess they never really thought she had a beef with them or had anything to gain by attacking them.

[DurararaFTW]

What I have never understood is if the Unsullied are that good why doesn't anybody else have any? We know Quohor uses them and in the book its mentioned that some corsairs were interested in purchasing a few, stiil you figure that each of the three great slave cities wold have a garrison of a couple of thousand of these guys as insurance policy.

Still the slavers saw her as a Dothraki who talked about invading Westeros without any ships. I suppose they saw themselves as getting in on the ground floor and that this dragon would just be the beginning. All the plunder and captives she took in her campaign to raise money for ships would end up flowing back to them. Either that or they thought she was really more interested in rebuilding her dead husbands khalasar. I guess they never really thought she had a beef with them or had anything to gain by attacking them.

It is mentiond that Illyrio employs them as his houshold guard. So do many people in the free cities, I imagine. And we haven't been to the Disputed Regions yet where most of the war in Essos takes place

[SerArthurHeath]

They are too expensive for anyone without a Dragon to use as an army or even a regiment in an army now days, other mercs etc are far cheaper

[Harrad]

As mentioned elsewhere, this slave trader is in the running for the Darwin Award in this Universe. Thus his business practices are the worst. He insults Daeneyrs in Valyrian, not realizing she is the heir of the Valyrian dynasty in Westeros. This is despite the fact that she is the only one in the world with Dragons--hint hint. The Dragons are literally her children and he thinks he can keep one away from her. And last he sells his entire army.

[Mediumjon Umber]

What I have never understood is if the Unsullied are that good why doesn't anybody else have any? We know Quohor uses them and in the book its mentioned that some corsairs were interested in purchasing a few, stiil you figure that each of the three great slave cities wold have a garrison of a couple of thousand of these guys as insurance policy.

Slavery is prohibited in Westeros, and I imagine Braavos have similar laws (what with them being the descendants of runaway slaves).

8,000 is a very low number compared to what other armies can field and it must take years to bring the force up to that number. Even if one wealthy lord decides to buy them all, others will have to wait decades before they can do the same. When that happens, the first lord probably has lost all of his Unsullied in war or have older warrior that aren't as good as young and welltrained soldiers. And because they're so expensive and have no wish to earn wealth and glory, and thus are completely reliable, I imagine most are indeed used as guards.

[Greywolf2375]

He insults Daeneyrs in Valyrian, not realizing she is the heir of the Valyrian dynasty in Westeros.

True, but this only re-emphasizes how he views everyone else - no one could possibly be as intelligent or well spoken, etc as he is. It just shows the weakness he has in trying to make money.