Chapter 620: Economic Reform

Viserys briefly inspected the construction status of the military academy. The first half of the academy was already built and had begun normal classes, while the latter half was still under heavy construction.

The knight Henrick, who had picked on Bachelor Matous in class, had a restless day, but Viserys did not punish him, not even sparing him an extra glance.

Henrick felt like he had dodged a bullet, exhaling a sigh of relief on his way back to the dormitory.

Viserys did not punish the disobedient student, as his own attitude towards learning was the best punishment.

Now, in this world of ice and fire, getting an education was a precious opportunity.

He had already conveyed the importance of learning to them. It was a path to a steady advancement. Those who seized it could ride the east wind to ascend, while those who missed this opportunity would continue with their mundane lives - a blacksmith's son remained a blacksmith, a fisherman's son remained a fisherman.

After inspecting the military academy, Viserys turned his attention to the medical academy, located near the Great Sept of Baelor in the heart of King's Landing.

The city planning of King's Landing was somewhat special. Although the Great Sept of Baelor was at the city's center, it wasn't the busiest area.

The busiest area of King's Landing was near Aegon's High Hill, the southeastern corner of the city, housing the royal palace of Westeros, the Tower of the Hand, the Small Council chamber, and the under-construction court on Aegon's High Hill, which would become the highest legal institution for appeals from the common folk and nobles from other lands in the future.

Although the area near the Great Sept of Baelor wasn't as grand as Aegon's High Hill, it was still bustling. The kingdom's medical academy was next to the Great Sept, though not as grand as the military academy, it was open to common citizens.

Military academy admissions were only through recommendations from the armies across the lands and were not open to the public. The vicinity of the military academy was heavily guarded by a large number of city guards.

Other academies apart from the military academy didn't have such stringent conditions and were open to the public, albeit with extremely high tuition fees.

However, this policy was only on paper for now and had not been officially implemented. Currently, they only served patients seeking medical attention. The students were still composed of nobles' second sons and illegitimate children, yet despite this, the medical academy was overwhelmed daily with a large number of King's Landing citizens lining up for treatment, leaving them stretched thin.

The grand maester Ambrose, now the dean of the medical academy, was a leading doctor in all of Westeros. Beside him was a busy chubby little fellow who looked somewhat familiar to Viserys.

But the medical academy was indeed too busy. Everyone was on their feet, rushing around. Viserys merely took a brief look, not wanting to add trouble to these medical workers, and turned to leave.

The military and medical academies were Viserys' primary concerns - one about taking lives and the other about saving them.

The construction of the economic and theological academies hadn't been completed yet, one managing money and the other managing people's faith.

Economic reform was inevitable in the future. However, the state hadn't completely stabilized, still in the post-war recovery stage, with greater wars awaiting them in the future. Now the focus was on stable transition, and the conditions for reform weren't quite ripe yet.

Indeed, the deeply entrenched aristocratic system in Westeros had led to the stagnation of national strength. Comparing to the free-trade city-states across the Narrow Sea, none of them individually matched the strength of the Seven Kingdoms. Their population and land scale were incomparable to Westeros, just a small piece of land.

However, according to a report provided by the former Pentos governor and current Master of Coin Illyrio Mopatis, such a strong contrast in power, yet every year, a large amount of gold and silver flowed from the Seven Kingdoms into the free-trade city-states across the Narrow Sea, into the Iron Bank, the Spice Guild, the Thirteen Giants, and so on.

Where did this strong trade deficit come from? How to resolve it? Naturally, it became one of the topics for the upcoming discussions.

But one clear point was that Westeros was currently just a crude producer of raw materials, with primitive production methods, earning the most meager profits.

Westerosi farmers produced raw materials and sold them at extremely low prices to wealthy merchants from the free-trade city-states.

And these merchants processed the raw materials into goods, selling them worldwide, even including Westeros, at prices multiple or tens of times higher, easily taking away a large amount of gold and silver.

Once, the Western Lands were the major mining areas of the Seven Kingdoms, rich in minerals such as gold, silver, and copper. However, with such abundant resources, the Western Lands didn't dominate Westeros but were drained empty instead.

Where did the gold mined from the Western Lands go? Certainly, it didn't flow into the hands of local merchants.

These wealthy merchants from the free-trade city-states, rich enough to rival nations, used the money they earned from Westeros to effortlessly destroy the original merchants of the Seven Kingdoms, stifling all their competitors to maximize their profits.

The former Iron Throne either didn't notice these issues or was ignorant. The Master of Coin only knew how to borrow money, leading to the current situation.

Implementing limited trade protection, emulating the trade city-states to establish their 'Iron Bank' or banks, promoting monetary reform, changing production methods, and so on. All these pressing issues lay before Viserys to solve. However, these issues couldn't be rushed; economic problems were never resolved overnight. More long-term development was needed, moving step by step, especially as there was a severe shortage of talents.

Religion might be even more complex than economic issues, requiring years or even decades of persistent efforts, waiting for an entire generation to pass before changes could occur.

Now, the location of the theological academy was also not far from the Great Sept of Baelor, next to the Alchemists' Guild hall. The dean of the theological academy was the High Septon of the Faith of the Seven, who proudly walked around the academy every day wearing his dean's medal.

The theological academy wasn't only about the Faith of the Seven. The red priestess Melisandre, who had a high reputation among the common folk and had the support of Viserys, became the vice dean, mainly training and teaching clergies of the faith of R'hllor.

The theological academy also had the natural faith of the Rhoynar and the more widely worshipped Old Gods of the North. There was even a small Godswood within the academy.

Generally, the atmosphere in the theological academy was harmonious, not as Viserys had worried that there would be conflicts.

After inspecting the military and medical academies, Viserys returned to the Red Keep.