At 06:41 PM 6/6/2002 -0700, Gregory Rapawy wrote: >--- Steven Brust <skzb at dreamcafe.com> wrote: > > > Let's say Vlad earns $1500 imperials. In our terms, > > that would be about $25,000. > >[example deleted] > > > You see the problem? Things don't match up. > >That would follow from (1) different marginal costs >for labor and capital in Dragaera (as well as >different technologies) and (2) an absence of trade >between Dragaera and the U.S. Both seem reasonable >assumptions. Oh, sure, it's *reasonable.* But my point is, that a simple dollar translation isn't terribly useful. >It makes me think about another question, which is: >what does the Dragaeran economy at the time of the >Vlad series look like? It's strange and complex. In many ways, the culture is about that of Renaissance to Reformation Europe (and banking in that period was *very* complex--check 16th Century Italy or 17th Century England. Sheesh). But it is not at all consistant. I have specifically mentioned kerosene several times. Okay, what does the existence of kerosene imply? Work it out. (In Viscount I've gotten a bit more obvious and made explicit references to refineries). In essence, you have a strong cultural bias for a feudel economy, which, quite naturally, is going to strangle capitalist development. Then you have sorcery, which simultaneously acts in place of technology (ie, making labor more productive) and to stiffle it. The result is a society that is caught, trying desperately to hold motionless (and, in Vlad's time, just beginning to fail) with a whole lot of different forces all pushing very strongly in incompatible directions. Oh...and if all that weren't enough, remember that you've mostly seen the world through the eyes of Vlad, who has no clue, and Paarfi, who is convinced he knows everything.