Draconian Economics

[The Grackle]

So, I'm playing in a new D&D campaign this month, and although I'm not the DM, the players and the DM are all sort of co-operatively creating a setting. It's going to be a pulp-fantasy, grim-n-gritty, urban setting. Although we're kind of basing the city on Lankmar, we are keeping in lots of traditional D&Disms like the PHB races and the Underdark, and so on, but w/a few spins on stuff to sort of explain it all in. (1/2 orcs are warrior-slaves bred on ranches just outside the city, dwarves are war-refugees forced to the surface, etc.)

One thing that Scott (my DM) wants is dragons. Maybe not living in the city, or directly visible to the citizens, but definitely w/some connection to the place and influence over it. He likes dragons.

This got me thinking. What effect would dragons have on a human city, and specifically it's economy? I mean these guys must suck up a ton of money. Gold, jewels, artwork, magic- they would try to collect and horde as much of it as possible and once it got on their pile they would never let it go. All that loot is effectively out of circulation forever.

One thing I thought was that if the Dragon-in-Question kept hording gold coins and such, it could drive up the cost of precious metals. Maybe the city at some point has stopped minting gold and converted to base-metal coins. We might still use "GP"s as the standard unit, but they're not actually gold. Gold is valued by weight, maybe dozens of GPs for an ounce.

I imagine almost all of the economy is a matter of trading grain and wood and animals and boring stuff like that. Works of art are usually just things rich people buy to make themselves feel better about themselves, but if you have a dragon hanging out, that stuff becomes way more important. It becomes a way to bribe/hire/pay tribute to this incredibly powerful monster. This might mean their would be lots more trading in foriegn curiosities, superbly crafted anything, objects pillaged from ancient graves, etc.

The dragon would love being near a prosperous human city. To him it would be like having an army of lemurs scouring a junkyard for dollar bills and loose change. He might have even arranged for the city to develop the way it did- guiding its history from behind the scenes. hmmmm.... Maybe he formed a contract w/the church or nobility a thousand years ago and the city has been paying yearly tributes ever since.

This is all pretty 1st stage stuff. I don't have alot of specifics on what type of dragon(s) it will be, and Scott will probably keep some of the facts to himself. Still, any brainstorming will help .

So, any thoughts? I'm sure there are a million things that I'm not thinking of. Do you have any stories about draco-human politics?

 

[painandgreed]

Well, how did the dragons get said money? Do they provide service? Do they simply take it or get it through extortion? Seems what you're decribing is pretty similar to what happened with China and silver. China would only accept silver for its tea and silk which meant that getting silver for China got harder and harder. The British resorted to smuggling in opium and only accepting silver in payment to get it back. As the dragons gather more wealth, that which is left in circulation is going to become worth more. There will be more cause to mine it. Eventually, it will be come worth enough for some to think about stealing it back from the dragons or at least finding out what the dragons might want more than gold.

There are few services that dragons can provide. They can act as teachers in subjects such as history or magic. They might act as protectors of each of their little cities and be paid a yearly sum for doing so. They might just take everything by force or extort the city for "protection money" from themselves. As a teacher they could pull a decent salary, but not really dragon style. The last two would make them threats that they'd constantly having to defending themselves from various humans. Chances are the best route would be for the dragons to set themselves up as fuedal lords and claim ownership of the land. Any who wish to live or till it must pay up as due the lord. Human fuedal lords sucked up tons of wealth from their peasants. No reason that dragons couldn't too. Of course, then the draogn takes on responsibilty and just like how human lords had a hard time hordeing money, so would dragons. They'd have to give some of it back out to make improvements and upkeep to make sure their land continued making money. They might have to also pay armies to take money from other humans not under a dragons protection or perhaps from other dragons. Major battles would be include dragons but all the minor raids and skrimishes would still be left to humans. This would mean money paid out for castles and such also. A dragon could keep a decent horde, but the more they kept, the less able to keep their source of revenue.

Dragons would also probably pay for art. Art is a very personal thing and they'd probably want specific art that appealed to their tastes. Art that appealed to one dragon might not appeal to another. Instead of a cave with a pile of coins, something more like a building they designed with gilded living quarters. Decorated how they liked and placed in a place where they could control their lands. building a dragon sized, ornate castle could be economically more damaging that wanting the gold. It could take deacdes of work and resources and still not be impressive by dragon standards.

 

[LostSoul]

They might act as protectors of each of their little cities and be paid a yearly sum for doing so. They might just take everything by force or extort the city for "protection money" from themselves.

That is feudalism.

It might be interesting to have the Dragon-Gods/Lords be very far removed from daily life. Nobody ever really sees them, except the high priests.

It might be interesting to have the dragon claim entire generations as slaves - what's a human's lifelong bondage to a dragon? Not much. So the dragon rules that you, and your first child for three generations will serve.

 

[sir_ollibolli]

If someone managed to teach dragons the fundamentals of economics...than we have the backers of whole nations and marcantile wealth as disguised dragons, that way they won't get bored over the times...

 

[Stormrunner]

I heartily recommend Mongoose's Stonebridge: City of Illusion , a city inhabited by gnomes and copper dragons, with a strongly Italian-renaissance feel. Basically the dragons fill the niche of the powerful noble patron-families like the Medici.

 

[Gez]

I was thinking about having dragons get a racial monopoly on banking.

 

[Hanuman]

Well somebody has to sit on the gold reserve for a cash based economy.
I guess it all boils down to alignment.The good dragons could be philanthropists and the bad ones..........well think of Big Tobacco.





Did you know? The verb "cleave" is the only English word with two
synonyms which are antonyms of each other: adhere and
separate.

 

[The Grackle]

Well, how did the dragons get said money? Do they provide service? Do they simply take it or get it through extortion?

Well I'm assuming that that the dragon in question is going to be some flavor of lawful, but I don't know whether it's good, evil, or neutral. Alignments are going to be pretty muddy so I'm thinking he'll be Lawful Selfish. I imagine it will be a combination of making deals and being generally threatening.

Obviously the dragon wants to collect as much money while putting himself at the least risk possible. I imagine he might agree to defend the city or fight wars in times of dire need, but he wouldn't want to do it all the time.

What can a dragon really do? Other than kickass and breathe on stuff?

There are few services that dragons can provide. They can act as teachers in subjects such as history or magic. They might act as protectors of each of their little cities and be paid a yearly sum for doing so. They might just take everything by force or extort the city for "protection money" from themselves. As a teacher they could pull a decent salary, but not really dragon style.

I imagine he could provide magic lore. Arcane magic is outlawed by the church, but the nobility of the city still practices it in secret. I have a hard time picturing a dragon in front of a roomful of students, though. It would probably be more like lending books.

Dragons would also probably pay for art. Art is a very personal thing and they'd probably want specific art that appealed to their tastes. Art that appealed to one dragon might not appeal to another. .

Hmmmm... I like it. You think of dragons as collecting any art worth money, not having any taste. He could be a patron of the arts! That would be cool.

 

[The Grackle]

I was thinking about having dragons get a racial monopoly on banking.

I was wondering if this might work. The dragon might serve the function of Fort Knox. He's just "gaurding" it for ever, and the merchants can trade paper money based on the hordes real value. Of course there's no way you could ever collect, but if I went to Fort Knox w/ $100 it's not like they'd go inside and weigh out some nuggets for me.

 

[The Grackle]

If someone managed to teach dragons the fundamentals of economics...

What do you mean? They're the ones teaching the humans the fundamentals of economics.