So, I may need to establish some kind of council for those members of the Small Council with an educational bent to allow them to hash out their philosophical differences so that they don't take up time during meetings. Most because Hallyne and Pycelle spent an ungodly amount of time sniping at each other during the meeting, and both advised the removal of the other. Thankfully Tywin got sick of it before I did and ordered their silence so that actual business could be conducted. We were lacking Stannis, due to his dealing with the Iron Islands rebellion, but the inclusion of Hallyne kept us at the same number. We would soon be losing a Tyrion, however, due to his wanting to visit his new holdings and actually be a presence in the castles governance. Which was commendable to say the least, though I pondered out loud what we'd do money wise without a Master of Coin.
Tyrion had thought of this, and with my blessing, appointed my old employee Dryer to serve his place until such time as he could return. I definitely appreciated this kind of forethought, which is something that Stannis had neglected. But, in fairness, he had taken practically the entire fleet with him and there was no real need to have a Master of Ships without any ships for there to be a master of. Regardless, the Iron Throne's finances were slowly normalising, even with the agreement with Tywin Lannister and the repayment efforts to the Iron Bank. It was going to take longer than a couple of months to get things back on a normal footing, but not spending thousands of dragons every other month on tourney's would help. As would not keeping the castle drowned in alcohol or throwing lavish feasts every night for everyone in a hundred mile radius. Thrifty spending and a good tax policy were my watch words. Once we'd settled down in a couple of years, I was considering establishing a centralised army to match the centralised navy, but that was a pipe dream and would need to come after the fight against the White Walkers. Or during.
I was still in the process of figuring out some long term goals. The financial situation of the Iron Throne was correcting itself now that it had some competent oversight and weren't borrowing to meet every other expense. A lot of the chaos that had sent the Seven Kingdoms into civil war had been settled or hadn't gotten out yet. Eddard Stark was returning North with Arya, which was an achievement unto itself. Cersei would be getting marry to Loras Tyrell in a couple of months' time and would be hopefully moving to Highgarden to live out her days well away from any real, and would have Olenna to counteract her. Renly wasn't running away to raise an army, nor was Stannis. Sure, they were both being surely – Renly because his lover was leaving soon and Stannis because that seemed to be his default mood.
The Long Night was coming, but I couldn't do much about that for the moment. If I started raising an army people would get suspicious, and the expense would be stupidly high, and would counteract what I was doing with the treasury. I'd done what I could to increase the membership in the Night's Watch with the Decree requiring that all those sentenced to death be sent to them instead. What numbers that would generate would yet to be seen, but would hopefully be reasonable, but more than likely not enough in the grand scheme. It would be up to Jon and his compatriots to negotiate with the free folk beyond the Wall. Hopefully he wasn't smart enough to not get stabbed this time around, but it was doubtful.
Reminded of my travel Northward, I set about appointing a Chancellor of the Kings Road and charging them with inspecting the infamous road and its various offshoots and criss-crosses. Once they had a census of what was there, so set about repairing what was there, upgrading where necessary and constructing off-roads and the like, with an eye on efficient travel. If I could get things moving quicker throughout the Seven Kingdoms, then the money would flow better as would the goods and services it paid for. Or the quicker tax receipts would arrive in the royal treasury for me to spend on crazy projects like this. It would also allow the better movement of the armies of the various lords of the land, which would help greatly. I then sought out Dryer to assist in sorting out a budget for the new office and its employees so work could get started, which was bound to make him the opposite of a happy chappy.
It really didn't, but he did have some positive news however. There was some definite interest in the printing press in Braavos. Apparently there was a thriving map-making industry over there and any assistance in the speed up of that process would be appreciated. Also, they were far more open in their production of books, and would quite possibly welcome a process of getting books to the masses. I authorised Dryer to establish a printing office in the city, but to send only people he trusted not to stab us in the back at the first opportunity. I didn't want the design of the printing press to leak out to a competitor for a while yet. There was something to be said for being the sole holder of an invention.
Speaking of that, I'd also given the Alchemists' Guild one of their first major assignments – the reproduction of gun powder. As far as I could tell from the show, and what little I knew of the books, it wasn't really a thing in Westeros, which was something I wanted to take advantage of. I wanted to get the Guild started on reproducing the stuff if possible, as a more stable alternative to wildfire, but I also wanted to find various ways of using it offensively. It was a potential weapon against my enemies, and creating it through the Guild, a notoriously secretive organisation with a habit of buying/creating weird ingredients, was a great way to go. I also requested that they get together with Ser Barriston and Pycelle when they had a couple of batches and figure out how to deliver them at range during a battle. If I could establish death from above, then I would be a happy man.
So many things being achieved, I just hoped I was overdoing things and accidentally dragged us into a new type of chaos…