What are some weaker examples of George R. R. Martin's world building?

Tywin Lannister

GRR Martin neglects economics…despite the fact that he criticizes other fantasy writers for doing so.

“Tolkien can say that Aragorn became king and reigned for a hundred years, and he was wise and good. But Tolkien doesn’t ask the question: What was Aragorn’s tax policy??”

(from Martin’s Rolling Stones interview)

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GRR Martin has woven some economic factors into his story. The biggest is the debt owed by the Iron Throne to the Iron Bank of Braavos, and its consequences.

The Iron Throne is in deep debt after Robert’s reign, and Cersei has to take measures to address this. One reason she lets the Faith Militant gain so much power is to get the crown’s debts to the church forgiven. But in both books and the show, Cersei significantly neglects the debt owed to the Bank.

In the books, but not in the show, the economic sideplot and influence is much more pronounced. In the books, the Iron Bank of Braavos not only grants loans to Stannis after Cersei refuses to pay, but also puts an “embargo” of all future loans to everyone in the kingdoms. Merchants complain to Cersei about how this hurts them, and she brushes them off. However, I don’t believe Martin follows this through to its logical conclusion:

If the citizens of an entire country lose the ability to take out loans, its economy will collapse, extremely quickly, and with devastating results. This does not happen in ASOIAF.

(if the economy of Westeros was realistic, these guys would have a lot more power, and Westeros would be in anarchy by now)

Martin does include notes about how prices are increasing (a natural side affect of war, not to mention that “Winter” is finally arriving). As mentioned, merchants are complaining. But the expected economic collapse does not happen as it should.

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Another big omission - Daernery’s anti-slavery crusade would clearly have a massive economic impact on the entire ASOIAF universe, but its effects are unaccountably limited so far.

Martin did good by depicting the ruinous living conditions suffered by the newly-freed slaves - emancipation doesn’t just magically make everyone happy. He’s also correct in depicting how the slave-trade-dominated powers would fight Dany and try to reverse her reforms.

In Season 7, the Iron Bank does back Cersei partly because they’re worried about Dany’s anti-slavery movement. But that’s a pretty subdued response.

In a real economy, the sudden and forceful emancipation of slaves would have struck the Free Cities’ economies a lot harder, and the Iron Bank would be pressed to take much more drastic measures to take down Daernerys. If there was ever a good scenario for hiring the Faceless Men, this would be it.

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Overall, I think the Iron Bank of Braavos - which was set up to be a major player in the series - hasn’t been living up to reputation.

When they are first introduced, the Bank is considerably more sinister, complete with their own “family motto”: “The Iron Bank will have its due.” They are described as relentless in toppling leaders who don’t pay them back.

However, as the series progresses, the Bank seems to lose a lot of its threat. They make loans to Stannis to counter Cersei, but Stannis-in-the-books is on the verge of defeat, and Stannis-in-the-show is defeated.

In Season 7 of the show, the Iron Bank’s danger is brushed aside in a rather unrealistic way. Cersei gathers all the gold she needs from the sack of Highgarden, then pays off all the Iron Throne’s debts. Problem solved…so well that the Bank is now willing to loan her even more money to hire the Golden Company.

I thought that this plot twist - Cersei quickly paying off her debt in gold by sacking Highgarden - was one of the most unrealistic twists in the show so far.

The exact amount of the Iron Bank loan is not given. The debt in GoT was 6 million, half of which was owed to the Lannisters. It’s grown in both size (and interest) since then. Say, it’s only 3 million gold, a conservative number.

• It took King Robert 17 years to amass 6 million of debt, and one of the houses has half that much money in storage? Being hoarded?
• If each coin is one ounce, that’s more than 90 tons!
• A horsedrawn wagon can only carry about 5 tons, so we’re talking almost 20 wagons of gold.
• As mentioned by so many other posters, the distance between King’s Landing and Highgarden could not have been covered that quickly by troops, let alone heavy, riches-laden wagons that people would kill to grab.
  

So, it looks like the series has just brushed aside the Iron Bank - as well as any economic developments - in its race to the end.

And all this after Martin criticized other fantasy writers for having unrealistic economies.

(and aside from some brothel taxes, we still don’t know the tax policy of Westeros).

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Great article here in the Economist 1843:

Game of Loans

NOTE - A lot of criticisms of this post are answered if you read this article…especially about what happens in real economies when the “main bank” stops giving out loans…

Credits : Dominic Jesse