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Message: <blockquote data-quote="s/LaSH" data-source="post: 1835111" data-attributes="member: 6929">There's a difference between X wealth and X wealth-earning potential. I don't know whether dragons care about real value or just have a magpie complex, but they're smart creatures, often with centuries of experience - they could make extremely able fiscal development decisions that culminate centuries later. On the other hand, they could just like pretty shiney things, which would stimulate development of non-pretty currency and artworks - stern granite sculptures, ugly buildings full of girders and merciless mortar, desaturated paintings as if seen through smog, tin or paper money. Then you make some brass and give it to the dragons to keep them happy.An often-overlooked object of draconic envy is the human form. When I think of pretty things, I don't spend much time thinking about jewels - I think about the person wearing them. A dragon might have no biological reason for keeping that princess in a cell under its lair - then again, it might - but the fact that it has something so valuable and so desired by others is certainly a draw. And once you've got one, why stop? As a bonus, you can demand 'rent payments' from the fathers, and probably perform all sorts of manipulations. As I said, dragons aren't entirely stupid...</blockquote>