I’ve been writing a lot about worldbuilding. I love the world I created for my own novels. It has a rich history, with political intrigue, economic conflict, and religious sectarianism. The cities and kingdoms are mapped out in detail.
One of the things any worldbuilding novelist struggles with when writing is how much detail to include in the novel. While editing a novel today, I had to delete thirteen paragraphs of beautiful prose describing the main character’s entry to a city. I struggled with these edits.
This is an example of the writing advice “kill your darlings“. That is, even if it is beautiful prose that you love and are proud of, if it doesn’t fit the story, take it out.
Beautiful but Boring
My beautiful paragraphs described the smells of late-summer aromas of scrub oak and dry grass, midday sun glinting off four gilt domes, massive city walls rising up like a mountain range, scent of spices and sight of brightly colored silks in the bazaars, the line of succession of the emperors.
OK, the first four descriptions are good, with sights and scents. They really gave a feel for the world of the novel. The line of succession of the emperors might have been too much. In any case, none of it was working with the way the story was going. The entire section was just getting the character from one place to the next. It’s like a date with a supermodel: beautiful but boring.
I inserted some of the description into other scenes, preserving some of the scene-setting. About half of it ended up on the cutting room floor. I copied it to another file and saved it in case I need it later, but I don’t foresee any scene that will be able to use it. I have killed my darlings.
When writing, keep the story in mind. The work you do while worldbuilding is interesting and fun, but when writing the story, you have to focus on the characters. All the worldbuilding in the world won’t make a story interesting if the characters are flat. The reason for the worldbuilding is to give life to the characters. The reader doesn’t need to know all the details of the world, but those details inform the writer, letting them know how characters interact with the world and those around them.
Economics sounds like a dry subject, even if it is fantasy economics. In college I wasn’t interested in microeconomics. I had little interest in supply and demand curves, prices, and opportunity costs. This article won’t cover that. Instead, we’ll look at macroeconomics. What resources does your fantasy society have, what does it need, and how does it get them?
Do we really need to get into economics to write a fantasy story? You don’t need a lot of detail, but some background helps flesh out the world. In addition, understanding the economics of your fantasy society helps provide motivation for any factions you might want to create. We’ll look at class and caste in Part 2.
Economics is About Allocation of Resources
When thinking about the economics of your fantasy society, ask what is the basis of the economy? To some extent, this depends on the resources available to your society as well as the level of technology (and magic) available. For more about resources, see my article on Landforms. Also, see my article on Magic and Technology.
At its most basic, economics is about providing the people of a society with the things they need to survive or thrive. Fantasy economics is no different. The word comes from the Greek oikonomia, meaning “household management”. All societies need food, water, and shelter. More advanced societies need metal and minerals, wood, energy sources such as coal for heat and animals (or slaves) for work, and other technology or materials.
Types of Economies
Naturally, there are multiple ways to get resources to the people that need them. Scholars have grouped them into three basic types: gift economies, barter systems, and market economies. These need not be mutually exclusive. A society with a market economy might use barter or gift economies as alternatives methods of resource distribution.
Gift Economy
A gift economy is an exchange where goods aren’t sold, but given without an explicit agreement for anything in return. There are usually rules, social norms, and customs governing how gifts are given. For example, it might be a social obligation for the wealthy to give alms or hold a potlach. Often, while there is no explicit expectation of a return gift, there might be an implied expectation of a gift at some point in the future in order to maintain a relationship. Think about birthday or Christmas gift giving.
Gift economies might become quite complex and embedded in a culture. An example is the gift-giving potlaches of the tribes of the Northwest Pacific coast. These feasts were opportunities for leaders to demonstrate their power by giving away their wealth.
Kwakiutl bridal group, British Columbia, 1914 Edward S. Curtis, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Patronage and Feudalism as a Gift Economy
Another type of semi-gift economy was the patronage system in the Roman Empire. A patron would give a gift in land or position in expectation of service by the client at some unspecified point in the future. This evolved into feudalism in medieval Europe where vassals received land in return for a promise of military service in the future.
Investiture of a knight (miniature from the statutes of the Order of the Knot) Bibliothèque nationale de France, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
If you are looking for a good conflict to form the basis of the drama of a story, you don’t need to look much further than the conflict between the social norms and customs of a gift economy and how people actually act in such situations. Perhaps the conflict is between two leaders, each trying to outdo the other in maintaining social status. Perhaps a client balks when his patron requests he perform his promised obligation.
A system of gifts might work within a society where social norms are agreed upon, but it doesn’t work as a system of exchange with other societies that might have different customs. As such, it can’t be used for external trade, that is, for a society to trade with others to obtain resources they lack.
Barter
Barter is a more familiar form of exchange to most westerners. It works better as a system for external trade. In barter, participants directly exchange goods or services for other goods or services without money. When bartering, both sides must agree on the value of the goods traded. Barter is common even in market economies when money is scarce.
It is difficult to use barter for long distance trade due to the difficulty in carrying large amounts of goods long distances and coming to an agreement on the value of the goods you brought. There is a high risk of bringing what you think is valuable to a distant city only to discover your trading partners don’t think it is as valuable as you do.
I can think of possible story hooks where a merchant brings his goods a long distance to trade only to find they had less value than he expects. Does he bring them back and lose the cost of the travel? Does he trade them for less than he thinks they are worth? What sort of risks and dangers would such a merchant face?
Market Economies
Market economies are the most familiar to modern readers. As such, they usually work well as a default option for fantasy stories. It is an economic system in which the price of goods determine decisions regarding investment, production and distribution of resources. Markets can be highly regulated or completely unregulated (laissez-faire), depending on the level of government involvement or social custom. For a market economy to work, the society needs clearly defined property rights.
Note that a market system is not the same as a capitalist system. Capitalism is a system based on private ownership of the means of production and operated for profit. The feudal system of the middle ages had a market system, but not a capitalist one.
The farmer’s market near the Potala in Lhasa, Tibet. Nathan Freitas, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Fantasy Economics and Trade
In my article on mapping out the cities in your fantasy world, I discussed trade as a main driver of city growth. At that point, I was already thinking about trade routes. Now, it’s time to think about what moves along those routes.
Placement of the first cities and trade routes in Pancirclea. Image by Michael Tedin.
Societies typically don’t have all the resources the need or want, so they trade. Trade happens when a society has a surplus of one commodity and a shortage of another. A society lacking certain resources might value a commodity more highly than a society with a surplus. They will trade their surplus with the surplus of another in order to fill their shortage. In this way, trade benefits both societies.
In David Ricardo’s formulation of comparative advantage states, “When an inefficient producer sends the merchandise it produces best to a country able to produce it more efficiently, both countries benefit.” At least, that’s how the theory works. Often, trade is between unequal partners and conflict arises.
People can trade through barter (see above) or through trade markets. Often, a more powerful trading partner can dictate the terms of the exchange. This will often lead to conflict if the weaker partner doesn’t feel they received full value for their products.
What goods and services can people trade in fantasy economies? Start by looking at the resources available. Mountainous areas have metals and minerals. Forests provide wood, lumber, charcoal, herbs, spices, and medicines. Plains have grain, cattle, and horses in abundance. In dry hills one finds cattle, sheep, and wool.
You can also put economics with a fantasy element at the center of your story. Think about magical trade goods. Do your mages create magic items to trade? Would such items be considered protected technology like cutting edge electronics and software is in the computer age?
Services are also traded, though usually within a society. What services could be sold in a fantasy economy?
Magic: The Gathering Aladdin’s Lamp. Art by Mark Tedin. Copyright Wizards of the Coast
In my next few articles, I’ll continue discussing other aspects of fantasy economics, specifically money and class.
For those of you looking for another Worldbuilding 101 article, I am a bit delayed. I have too many projects going on right now and my day job is keeping me quite busy. All that along with searching for a COVID vaccine has taken up a lot of time and energy.
Some of the things I’m working on right now are:
Writing Projects
Writing a post on Worldbuilding 102 – Economics in Fantasy Societies Hopefully, this will be done in the next week or so. It pulls together a lot of things I’ve already written about in earlier posts and lays the groundwork for creating factions and political parties in your fantasy society.
Rewriting Book 1 of the Gemstone Man series – The Statue of the Mad Caliph I self-published this a few years ago and would like to improve and polish it. Ideally, I’d like to find an agent and publisher for it. If not, I’ll publish it for free in installments on this blog.
Editing and publishing Book 2 of the Gemstone Man series – The Amulet of the Lost Comté This is finished, but I haven’t self-published it or found an agent to represent it. I need cover art if I’m going to self-publish. Either way, it probably needs another round of editing.
Writing Book 3 of the Gemstone Man series – The Sword of the Warrior I’m not half-way through the rough draft of this. It’s slow going. I think it will be better than Book 2, but it’s going to take some time to get there.
Other Projects
Preparing the garden for planting. It’s spring and almost time to plant. I usually have a garden of tomatoes, green beans, sweet pumpkin, and onions. I might add some potatoes. I need to get my tiller working and till the soil. I need to mow the lawn for the first time since about September. I also want to clear more blackberries. Spring is a busy time for yard work.
Building Cabinets for my wood shop. I used the router table I inherited from my Dad for the first time last week in preparation for building cabinets. This week, I plan to rout dadoes and rabbets in the pieces in preparation for assembly.
Finishing the stairs to the loft of my wife’s storage shed. I’ve been working on this project since last summer. I’ve got the structural pieces built. I need a day of good weather to cut some plywood, then I can assemble it.
Easter dinner. I bought a leg of lamb last week to roast for Easter tomorrow. That should take most of the day. I can get other things done while it cooks, but it’s going to take some time and energy to plan it out.
Anyway, with all these projects to do, I need to prioritize. The Worldbuilding 102 post will come, though it may take a couple weeks longer to finish that expected.
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