“Little else is requisite to hold a state to the very best diploma of opulence from the bottom barbarism however peace, straightforward taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice“. “Adam Smith” (nameless writer of the well-known e book Wealth of Nations)
The Agricultural Basis
Each nation—and certainly each particular person—should function inside some type of economic system, formal or casual. Within the pre-modern world, economie have been constructed nearly completely on agriculture. The core precept was easy: Land equals Wealth. A dependence on farming meant that prolonged drought might simply destroy a rustic, as seen in historic circumstances just like the Harappa civilization in India or the Anasazi within the American Southwest. Survival was all the time one failed crop away.
To maneuver past the instability of agriculture, civilizations added auxiliary economies, with commerce being some of the dependable. Commerce by water was famously worthwhile for the traditional Greeks and medieval powers like Venice, as water transportation was normally cheaper than land transport. Nonetheless, land-based commerce, typically involving pack animals hauling metals or textiles, was worthwhile too, notably within the historic Close to East. The mechanism is easy: you promote a superb you make cheaply to somebody who cannot, they usually pay you with a superb they make cheaply which you can’t. (For extra on the mechanics of this, see my earlier article, “The Price of Commerce.”)
Business additionally existed earlier than the trendy period, although normally as “cottage business”—manufacturing inside folks’s houses. For example, historic Assyrian textiles have been traded for items like metals from Anatolia. Whereas this methodology labored, it lacked uniformity; mass manufacturing finally changed it as a result of interchangeable items, like substitute elements for weapons, are very important for big, dependable economies.
Extracting Wealth
Some economies are constructed not on cultivation or alternate, however on extraction. Mining of treasured metals was vital to prosperity in sure areas; Athens relied on a silver mine that famously resisted Spartan management, and Muslim Arabs mined important quantities of silver within the Center East, with their cash turning up throughout Scandinavia through commerce. Even non-precious metals like tin, essential for bronze, might develop into extremely worthwhile sources.
Additional exterior the bounds of standard commerce, raiding and warfare themselves may very well be organized financial actions. Raiding for loot, particularly for home herd animals, was frequent sufficient to necessitate large defensive tasks. Monumental limitations like the Nice Wall of China and Hadrian’s Wall have been erected as a lot to forestall raiders from taking their animal loot again dwelling as they have been to bar invading armies. Even in Republican Rome, warfare was an financial boon, with non-professional troopers contributing loot and worthwhile prisoners of battle to the state economic system. You possibly can learn extra about defensive constructions in “Placing up Partitions.”
Distinctive and Magical Financial Drivers
For fantasy settings, new financial prospects come up, notably on the Mature stage of the 4 Phases of Magic (mentioned in a multi-part sequence, present in Half 1, Half 2, and Half 3). In such a world, the mass-production of standardized, non-unique magic objects might develop into an awesome commerce commodity, basically altering the worth of conventional items. Moreover, small, nearly-unique economies can emerge from cultural or non secular wants. The Oracle of Delphi, as an example, drew huge quantities of wealth from pilgrims in search of session.
What stays absent from most fantasy RPG settings is the service economic system—a sector targeted on offering providers as a substitute of manufacturing items. In historic and medieval Europe, there was no insurance coverage, no inventory market, few true banks, no monetary advisers, and few legal professionals. Fashionable economies are primarily service-based. Designing a fantasy world the place a typical service economic system—with ideas like authorized entities that shield private property—is prevalent would create an unusually distinctive and extremely structured RPG setting certainly.
By incorporating just some non-agricultural components—be it strategic useful resource extraction, very important commerce routes, or the financial weight of a strong magical business—a worldbuilder can elevate their setting from a generic medieval backdrop to a fancy, plausible engine of prosperity and battle. Contemplating these financial drivers ensures that the historical past, politics, and each day lives of your NPCs are logically constant and loads of adventures in your gamers to discover.
Your Flip: What economies do you like in your campaigns? Any which can be distinctive?
