Chapter 402: Breaking the Wheel
"Strip the nobility of their privileges, break the historical wheel, and build a nation free of oppression?"
Daenerys answered with a hint of hesitation. This was the goal she thought of day and night, her most cherished dream... yet even she understood that this was clearly a generalized objective rather than a concrete policy.
"Excellent." Seeing the Queen's expression, Egger understood that she had realized the problem herself, but that didn't matter. "Your thinking is clear and straightforward. Let me analyze it for you: you believe that all the suffering of the common people stems from the exploitation and persecution by the upper-class nobility and slave owners. You believe that as long as the problem of equality is solved and these social parasites are eliminated, the people will live good lives. But please, reflect on your experience ruling Slaver's Bay and answer me this—did the standard of living for the residents of the three great city-states you ruled become higher than before you appeared? And if so, by how much?"
...
A flush of shame quickly rose to the young Queen's face, though fortunately, the dim light in the room made it less obvious.
Her disastrous ruling experience in Slaver's Bay had always been a sore point in her heart. Due to her own flawed strategies and lack of experience, Astapor and Yunkai both fell into chaos or saw the restoration of the slave masters the moment she left. Because the war had intensified conflicts and drained resources, the lives of the residents had actually become worse. Only in Meereen—where Littlefinger had come under her command after she took the city—did the situation slightly improve, thanks to her adopting his series of suggestions and policies, and because she stayed to rule personally rather than rushing to the next stop.
And even in that situation, Meereen only barely avoided falling into its own predicament by using the cold-blooded method of preventing refugees from the first two cities from flooding in and bringing hunger and plague...
It wasn't until she mastered dragon-riding in Asshai, completely repelled foreign armed intervention, and even re-subjugated Yunkai and Astapor to bring the eastern coast of Slaver's Bay under unified rule, that the situation finally stabilized. By the time she finished all preparations to embark on the road to retaking Westeros... she had only just barely achieved the goal of restoring the lives of the residents in the three cities to their original levels—and that was under the condition that barely three out of ten residents in Yunkai and Astapor remained, and the population of the entire eastern coast of Slaver's Bay had been cut nearly in half.
This, clearly, was not a record of governance worth boasting about.
"It did not improve," Daenerys answered honestly, though she added a slight bit of cover for her pride. "But regardless, at least they are all free men now."
"That cannot be denied; liberating Slaver's Bay was a great achievement," Egger flattered her, suppressing any inappropriate expression. After all—what he needed to do now was to sway Daenerys and find a way to make her act in favor of his own interests, not slap her in the face and cause the small amount of goodwill he had just built up to plummet. "But, you must be careful in Westeros. The Seven Kingdoms abolished slavery long ago; everyone is already a free man. Here, if you cannot provide the people with a better life, they won't acknowledge that you have liberated them from 'noble oppression.' Instead, they will only cry out: 'Back in the day under the rule of Lord So-and-So, we lived such and such a good life!'"
Daenerys felt even more ashamed by this statement, which held no overt disrespect but sounded increasingly like a taunt to her guilty conscience. The Queenly arrogance on her face vanished completely, replaced by a humble desire to learn: she could hear the confidence in Egger's words. If this man of the Night's Watch truly had a sound plan to realize her ideals, she didn't mind lowering her posture.
Under the Queen's eager gaze, Egger didn't keep her in suspense for long. After a brief pause, his tone shifted: "Let me make a somewhat incautious deduction—even if you were to eliminate all the nobles in Westeros right now and distribute all resources equally, you would still be surprised to find that everyone would only just barely have enough to eat, with very little surplus. Once a disaster, an unexpectedly long winter, or a war occurs, the situation would become dire again. Not to mention, to maintain this fairness and ensure your policies are implemented, you would need to massively expand the ranks of officials, using a bureaucratic system to replace lords and knights—and such a system is non-productive and generates no profit. Plus, everyone has selfish motives and is driven by their own desires; once they hold power, they quickly turn into new exploiters, for which you would then have to establish oversight departments..."
Daenerys frowned. "Do you mean to say that nobles and lords are irreplaceable, and my ideal is just a joke?"
"No, what I want to say is that if Your Majesty wants the people to live better, in addition to institutional changes, the most important thing is to make goods and commodities more abundant. Productivity and the relations of production must develop and progress together for the world to truly become better."
If one were to explain productivity and the relations of production properly—setting aside whether Egger had the knowledge base—he could have prepared to spend the night there with Daenerys. Explaining things in as much detail as a textbook or lecture was neither necessary nor meaningful in this era. Egger had already briefly mentioned these two concepts in the first half of his modified The Prince. Now, bringing them up again with just a bit of supplementary explanation allowed the listener to fully grasp his meaning.
"Your Majesty's idea of 'breaking the wheel' is, in essence, a desire to change the method of distribution within the relations of production. This is not wrong, but you have overlooked one point: no matter how you distribute things, if productivity does not change, the amount of stuff available for distribution remains the same. No matter how good the system or structure, it will be quickly destroyed by population expansion or unexpected events. Therefore, the correct approach is to carry out comprehensive reforms in the country, allowing productivity and the relations of production to develop simultaneously and promote each other."
"Of course I want that, but the land only grows so much grain, and the forests and oceans only provide so many resources. How is 'progress in productivity' supposed to be achieved?"
"If I were to explain that in detail, it would require another thick book—and most importantly, it's a book I cannot write." Egger spread his hands, realizing she had taken the bait. Now, even if he wanted to drive her away, she wouldn't leave, so he could be more casual. He pulled out the chair opposite Daenerys and sat down after pouring a cup of warm wine for both himself and the Queen. After a shallow sip, he continued, "But although I cannot write it, I can be certain it can be done. If Your Majesty has looked into the Night's Watch industries, you would know that it is not just a large production organization. The personnel in its research institute also conduct certain... trials during their spare time, either under my direction or spontaneously. Among these is farming."
"Don't tell me that the employees of the Night's Watch industries grow all the grain they eat themselves."
"That is impossible, of course. But the cooking of meals is mostly handled by their respective canteens. The canteen staff only need to make two meals a day; with nothing to do the rest of the time, they plant vegetables in the countless open spaces between the huge factory buildings—both to pass the time and to supplement the canteen's raw food consumption. Once I learned of this, I ordered the research institute to intervene in this amateur activity, using tools, changing farming methods, and trying new fertilizers—every way imaginable—to find a method to grow more things in the same amount of land."
"Did it succeed?"
"The yields of the various experimental plots vary, but they are all higher than the average level of the Seven Kingdoms," Egger said. "Therefore, with no disrespect intended—I must correct one of Your Majesty's statements: it's not that the land can only grow so much grain. Making it grow more through agricultural reform is what progress in productivity is called."
"How was it done?"
"Carefully bred seeds, sturdy and handy tools, scientifically rational farming methods: sowing, irrigation, fertilization, etc... Are you sure you want to hear about it now? As far as I know, you can't grow much grain on Dragonstone."
"I understand." Daenerys had given up on independent thought; she only wanted to see the next chapter... no, hear the next part. "And then?"
"We have now reached a consensus: technological progress causes the development of productivity. If you have questions, please raise them immediately; if not, we shall proceed to the next argument." Egger was exceptionally generous with the knowledge Daenerys desired, because everything he said today was not the hole card or leverage he would actually use in the game later. Even if she became his enemy one day, she wouldn't become harder to deal with because of what she heard from him today. "Once productivity develops, which region of the Seven Kingdoms will benefit the most?"
"Benefit the most... won't everyone benefit?"
"Correct, but now I want Your Majesty to answer this question through your own thinking: which region will benefit the most?"
This wasn't Egger trying to be mysterious; he also wanted to complete the brainwashing as quickly as possible and get the Queen to think along his lines. However, this issue was far too sensitive. If he led the way the entire time, he might incur some very unfortunate suspicions.
Daenerys was forced to painfully shift from learning mode to thinking mode, but fortunately, the question was not difficult to answer.
"The Reach, because the Reach has the warmest climate, the largest area of arable land, and the largest population."
"Exactly." Egger nodded. "But given that your understanding of the current situation in the Seven Kingdoms is 'somewhat thin,' I believe it is necessary to introduce the specific data and proportions to you in more detail: the arable land area of the Reach is twice that of the second-place Riverlands. Because the climate is warm and humid, it can yield three harvests a year during the long summer, and its grain production is half of the total of the Seven Kingdoms. The population is not quite as exaggerated, but it still exceeds the combined total of the North, the West, the Riverlands, and the Vale... and those are just the official figures. We don't know how much is hidden. Are you clear on this?"
"I must admit, I truly did not understand it that clearly."
"Now, we can finally return to the concept we introduced earlier: Easy to Gain, Hard to Govern." Egger breathed a sigh of relief; the first half was finally over. "The ideal situation, of course, is to be at war with the entire world, defeating the Seven Kingdoms to control the whole of Westeros. But Your Majesty surely doesn't want to spend the rest of your life on war. Thus, a reasonable plan is a compromise: win over some nobles and make enemies of the rest. To retake the Iron Throne, you must rely on the power of the Great Lords; yet to break the wheel of history, you must inevitably make enemies of them. To realize your ideals despite resistance, you must have sufficient control over the Seven Kingdoms. Let's assume the combat power of your dragons is equivalent to one kingdom. If Your Majesty now needs to win over three kingdoms to oppose the remaining four, how would you choose?"
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