It’s that time of the week again! We’ve got some good stuff for you:
- The Economic Development Plan series reaches its penultimate essay, with the Iron Islands.
- Some excellent back and forth on the EDP series:
- on the North and culture.
- on the North and trade.
- the impact of demographic growth on the North’s military potential.
- why not a Moat Cailin canal?
- A bunch of questions about maps.
Race for the Iron Throne 
As a civil engineer I love how you propose to economically develop the seven kingdoms through a big infrastructure works. If you find yourself with too much free time, please come over in France to teach some of our most stubborn politicians how to properly spend public money. If possible by hiring my firm. 😉
As a ASOIAF fan, I love reading your essays.
As a former surveying major, I should point out that you should not measure distances directly on a map without knowing the projection that was used. also I find it weird that Westeros has achieved accurate map making techniques. In medieval times maps were rare, expensive and highly inaccurate. There was no way to accurately calculate longitude before mid 18th century, for example. But I’m just nitpicking for the sake of it. Nice work, as always !
HAH! My real-world historical expertise is the history of direct job creation programs in the United States, so I’m very familiar with how the New Deal completely transformed U.S infrastructure and how we paid for it.
I know, I know. I’m working with the best methods I have.
LOVE your schemes for how the IB could build up their economy by marketing themselves as smugglers/privateers. I think the idea to take the stepstones could have been especially effective.
Possibly my favorite of your economic development essays just yet!
What I wonder though Is what can BE done now in the aftermath since Balon and Euron between them have made the islands so completely despised by the green landers.
Glad you liked it!
Ser, the Iron Islands entry might be the best of the series. Delightfully devious. It reminded me of that apocryphal Capote quote about the value of a smile and a gun.
Thanks!
Mafia state Iron Born sounds terrifying.
I know, right?
It’s tough to get excited about the economic future of the Iron Islands if you don’t think they should have a future. “We do not sow,” indeed.
Lol!
To tell the truth I’m not sure the Iron islands even have much of a future in between Balon and Euron both.
Slightly OT but I’ll be curious next season to see how they’re going to make Euron and his reavers seem like a credible threat to the Reach much less the rest of Westeros when so far the show has depicted them as such laughable losers. Frankly it was a problem on the page as well since while we could believe they’d trounce the defenseless Shield islands Paxter and the actual army would be another thing altogether.
Also its hard to figure how on the show will Cersei be in the position to prevent Paxter and his ships or the Reach soldiers from going directly to Oldtown in the first place.
The Ironborn really drew the short straw when it comes to leading families! It might have helped matters if King Bob had kicked the Greyjoys out of Pyke, sent Theon off to Winterfell (as per canon), sent Asha to be fostered by Stannis and later married to Justin Massey – or even Renly, which would be, er, interesting! – and install Rodrik Harlaw as overlord. Rodrik the Reader would be onboard with the economic reforms.
One more thing that the Ironborn could do is use some of that new wealth to have Gylbert Farwynd – he of the “Promised Land Across the Sunset Sea” speech at the Kingsmoot – go on that expedition he was blathering about. If Gylbert’s expedition was successful, well, hello trade with Asshai and Yi Ti and all those other lands near the Jade Sea! Hello trade with Ulthos! Hello Iron Islands as great trading power, and probably Seagard as well!
I have always wondered who is selling the ironmen the timber for their ships. It would behoove anyone on the western shore to embargo the Iron Islands.
Also, have you ever noticed ironmen are never seen in King’s Landing. I wonder if any iron lord has ever visited KL.
I bet they don’t. I think the fact they keep themselves (deliberately) isolated and ignorant of green lander culture and Politics is the main reason they keep deluding themselves that the next invasion will work.
If Asha is belatedly starting to wise up its because she’s had a taste of what trying to occupy/invade the North actually means. (I think she’s also starting to realize just how much contempt everyone else holds the Iron Born and House Greyjoy in-and how they’re not nearly as badass as they think.)
And of course the one person who tried to tell Balon his plan wouldn’t work was Theon who spent all those years with the Starks.
Makes me wonder if the key to getting the IB to abandon the Old Way and start embracing reality is making them spend some actual time on the main land.
I think you are right. The Ironborn’s isolation has not gone well for them; they are a backwater held in contempt by the rest of Westeros (and not badass like they think, ha!). It can’t help matters that Greenlander fathers won’t marry a daughter to an Ironborn lord – except for the Piper woman married to Quellon, who was not a conventional Ironborn lord anyway – after what happened to poor Lelia Lannister, I don’t think fathers and brothers were lining up to marry their womenfolk into the Islands.
A marriage of Theon to a Stark daughter would have done the Islands and their economy quite a bit of good, indirectly, by allowing new ideas to take hold.