The Field is Ripe (literature)

The Field is Ripe: Creating an Industrial Superpower is a book authored by Arika Ronango'O. It studies and analyzes the history of industrialization on Eldham from a Xeroist perspective. The text is around 35 pages long when formatted in a book and quill. It was published as an open essay for the Communist Party of the USSE in the Spring of 259 TE.

In it's final chapter it discussed the early stages of the Bardonian socialist reform program that would be planned by the United Bardonian Front. This reform program was later dissolved with the forced exile of Emma Brewtaker from Bardonia and the dissolution of the UBF. Ronango'O proposed that a nation that manages to combine military and industrial capabilities would create a superpower that the likes of Stoneworks had not yet seen - relating it to a possible success of the Bardonian 'cultural revolution' before its destruction by nationalist and right-leaning forces.

=The Field is Ripe=

I: Prologue
First and foremost, this text is an analytical one. It serves the purpose of viewing the history of Eastern Serrona and Stoneworks as a whole through its industrialization. In the past, I have made a similar text, analyzing history through ideology in ‘Recapitulation’. Similarly to that piece, this will serve as a viewing of the past, present, and where the future may lay so that we may be ahead of the curve, make a more intellectually honest future, and continue to be prosperous.

This text is dedicated and compiled from interviews and discussions held with Aleksander Serebra II, the descendents of Van’la and Urabon Gaboliver, and Emma Brewtaker in addition to texts from the Ronango’O family archives. This shall serve the purpose of enlightening those who wish to know what has happened in this great nation’s history.

II: From Nothing, Greatness is Born
There are countless case studies and examples of industry across the realms of Eldham and Rathnir; but perhaps the best when it comes to understanding the process of industrialization is that of the United Socialist States of Eldham. To those familiar with what the USSE looked like in early Eldham it may be somewhat surprising to learn that today the nation is among the most industrialized on Stoneworks and maintains a prestigious seat as the most productive on Eldham.

When the nation was first created, netherite and even full diamond armor were uncommon on Eldham at best, only a handful of alcoholic beverages were known and being produced, and the world economy was unrecognizable for what it is today. Indeed, there were no such things as cactus farms, gunpowder fishing, and even fads such as pumpkin pie factories had yet to come into existence. In fact the day the nation was created, if you had so much as iron armor, you were ahead of the crowd.

The USSE however quickly fell behind the crowd; particularly because of influence from Rathnir. While the country had influences and allies on Rathnir, such as Burgamere and Montroig in these early days, the USSE had failed to adopt any economic ideas from them. Countries such as Tortuga, Barbossa, and various other nations of Rathnirian origin that settled on Eldham began to ‘flood’ the economy with the status quo of Rathnir; an economy that was largely focused on war. As such, war-related goods flooded auction houses for high prices that were the Rathnirian standard. In these early days because of the extreme disparities between the nation's militaries, Eldham’s wars developed to look profoundly different from Rathnir’s. A ‘coalitional’ style of war was adopted, whereby numerous nations would ally together to gang up on larger nations or other coalitions. From the very beginning, Eldham was sworn to have an extremely different outlook on war and diplomacy that we see to this day nearly two-hundred years later. While in the early days of Rathnirian society, following the arrival of the Jagdasians, individual nations largely were restricted to communicating with their neighbors, on Eldham within merely five years of Rathnirian colonization, the world had become interconnected.

The USSE at this time was communal though largely failed to have intercity trade, instead individual cities would have warehouses and storage hubs that their citizens and builders could use at discretion, but intercity trade let alone international trade was nonexistent outside of individual citizens selling their produced goods in auction houses abroad. Even then, these individual warehouses were often left in disarray and the task of resource gathering was left to individual citizens more often than not, and the money being brought into the nation was both little and largely derived from the individual as opposed to today, where money is largely being brought in coordination with the government outright in a centralized state-market model economy. When the USSE fought in both the Drakaen-Andilirian War and Second Coalition-Ellysian Wars in Northern Eldham (the first two wars the USSE fought in), Rathnir was only a brand new idea to Eldhamites and already the newly founded USSE had friends in the North such as Drakaesland. It is to be understood that the world was deeply globalized, and there was a massive and gaping niche for production at a time where our first General Secretary wore merely iron armor in wars.

One of the first people in the USSE to genuinely attempt to build economic activity in the nation and begin to ponder what it can look like—and indeed noticing the gargantuan niche available to them—was none other than Xeroise Ronango’O. Though even her early analyses of Eldham failed to directly address economy, instead her earlier texts focused almost exclusively on sociology and demography. The unanimous factor across Eldham though, was that all would have to be built from the ground up and that money was becoming a necessity within the claim system; a phenomena later written about by Ronango’O in her old age. Economies would have to build, or they would fail. However, few nations would industrialize to beat the curve.

When Xeroise Ronango’O became General Secretary, the third ever in fact; just a little over a decade into the country’s existence, little changed in terms of economy, the nation had ‘bigger priorities’ seeing as we had freshly lost three-quarters of our territory in the Kunir War and had been subject to ethnic cleansing. So, directly after came the likes of Quintus Solokov who engaged in numerous construction projects with his command but likewise failed to oversee industrialization. This was not a uniquely USSE aspect however, virtually every single nation on Eldham failed to engage in industrialization, either because they lacked the workforce or the introspective thinking of what their nation’s future should look like.

Our first change in the USSE economy truly comes with Chelovek Serebra—while the leaders before him had largely focused on communal life alone and the only nationalized aspects were in the realms of things like road and subway construction, Mr. Serebra was the first to drive attention to the question of the industrial economy. Prior to this, the General Secretary before Mrs. Ronango’O—Leo Belgicus—attempted to call for industrial plans to fund war efforts but these went unfounded and underfunded. Indeed, he [Chelovek] also singlehandedly led the first strike in the history of the nation; to protest the lack of road building from Mr. Solokov. This would be heavily helped by an also fledgling politician at the time named Urabon Gaboliver from the then newly-founded city of Kazkaya; the two would make both industries a reality and the latter would be the main ‘grinder’ to make it happen. Chelovek Serebra would become General Secretary and things would change at a time where the USSE exclusively made money off occasional donations, alcohol, and mining, and had an ineffective Minister (now Commissioner) of Industry.

If you know the relationship between Mr. Serebra and Mr. Gaboliver today, you may be surprised to learn that they began as sort of ‘political rivals’ within the Communist Party. Serebra considered himself a dedicated disciple of Xeroism as it was freshly birthed, and Gaboliver was more action-oriented and did not particularly care for centralized economy in the early days, instead seeming to endorse and favor his localized centralization as it existed at the time in Kazkaya; having little faith in other cities to achieve what he had done in Kazkaya. In fact, in a debate between the two prior to Chelovek’s [and Gaboliver’s] rise to power, Mr. Gaboliver was quoted as saying the following: “Well, Kazkaya doesn't really get resources from the government, it has built every single advantage it has from the ground up. None of the old, established players except Bluepig even live there. This is thanks to extensive advertising, recruitment campaigns and a constant investment into industry and trade. The reason why Kazkaya is prosperous [for USSE standards of the time] is because its citizens put in the effort to build it. And for this reason, it is the only city capable of sustaining large-scale industries, which in turn means that it will attract skilled workers.” in response to a call to industrialize Vostroya.

There was a division, one that said that Vostroya was being neglected by the government and the other saying that construction in Vostroya was useless and instead the city had to be advertised first to build the manpower that cities like Kazkaya had. Urabon Gaboliver did make a fascinating point, that without the people and resources, it is near impossible to industrialize. At this point, Kazkaya had freshly become the first city in the USSE to truly industrialize, albeit with no help from the government who found themselves ‘making things up as they went’ if you will when it came to economy, it so happened that Kazkaya seemed to be the first to ‘crack the code’ as they were ‘making things up’; albeit in an entirely separate niche than most economic activity today in Kazkaya derives from. At this time, the USSE was one of the largest producers of alcohol in the world and derived a decent chunk of its economic activity through that and mining—though somewhat ironically and comedically appears to have also been one of its largest consumer-bases meaning that large profits were not exactly reaped from this large industry; namely because ‘war brews’ were not heavily produced with exportation in mind.

Whether consciously or unconsciously, it appears Mr. Serebra became staunchly determined from thereon to make a strong industrial sector, that is to say an economic sector that has the resources and manpower to create and produce. Indeed, his goal was not only for Vostroya, but for the entire USSE; even if several of these individual plans were not to fall through, the USSE would have a slightly more centralized economy for the first time through the direction of the de-facto and occasionally de-jure capital city of Kazkaya. While the niche of alcohol and mining would not change much, except for the addition of book-printing and gear making as new introductions to the economy, Chelovek was determined to make the early successes of Urabon in Kazkaya have effects on the state and national level at a time where the USSE was still dependent on and having to import their own experience bottles because the nation did not have a single cactus farm. Kazkaya, within a month of that original debate with Mr. Serebra, would be producing over a hundred thousand on a semi-regular basis; almost entirely from mining and alcohol, hosting the largest brewery in the nation and in Southern Eldham.

The USSE under Chelovek Serebra’s terms would also grow exponentially from the growth derived from Ronango’O’s earlier single term; both largely through masterful diplomacy as opposed to growth through war. At this time, the USSE began to further expand its economy. A cactus farm had been built in Kazkaya with the oversight of Urabon who now had larger hands on the USSE economy, and the government began seizing private companies such as Manzig Cactus Holdings Inc. in the Autonomous State of Kolssonafell. The city of Manzig too began to develop an industrialized economy with production centers including the largest arms repository in the country at the time, and with both large cactus farms the nation was developing experience and was much less reliant on importation. Other cities began to develop factories too. Likewise, Laria built its own cactus farm in the sewers in addition to its breweries, Kazkaya had cheese, jam, and breweries galore, Nizkaya had its own underground cheese factory, and more. The USSE government at this time was also massively developing weapons for overseas wars. The government had a much stronger economy under Chelovek Serebra which owed to new construction projects, war defense, and the ability for us to largely fund ourselves and build our own weapons and gear through conflicts such as the Sand War.

For the first time the USSE was truly industrialized, we were producing all of our own goods. While we did not focus extensively on exportation, much of these goods were placed back into communal warehouses, distributed for building projects, or in the case of things like experience, given to enchanters. We produced our own raw goods, we produced our fine goods, and they were all distributed to the masses in a socialist economic model. Through the insight of Urabon Gaboliver, this was further developed into what Xeroise called the state-market model in her old age. To date, and as we explore later in this text, it has proven itself the most effective economic model when you have the resources to build and justify it.

Overall, around half of the towns in the USSE were industrialized to some degree and had resources for major resource production. Those from other towns would frequently join claims in urban areas for work and selling their goods before returning to their homes in the suburbs or rural areas. This is a phenomenon reflected worldwide, though the USSE by the time of the Chelovek era had placed itself steadily ahead of the vast majority of other nations. Nations like Yaszuma would independently dabble in a similar system where the government saw industrialization and the economy, other nations like Vulpinia had likewise become industrialized. Today however, industrialization is much higher than it was even in the Chelovek era; now even the small cities like Kirizipen and Bierzhan have dedicated industries. While some folks still work in other cities before returning to their hometowns, it's now largely unnecessary; all the work is in your backyard! Nearly all cities are industrialized.

With some margin of economic dependence came success for the USSE. From that point onwards we would see a general cycle where every few months the full strength of the industrial sector would be realized and used by the workers, these specific industrial workers called ‘grinders’, before receding with inactivity. These would typically come and go in light of war.

The USSE in many ways was the first nation to do the math and realize economic potential on Stoneworks, all within a socialist framework. The ideas derived from Xeroise Ronango’O, the executive goals and intuition deriving from Chelovek Serebra, and the grinding and planning power of Urabon Gaboliver, with the three combined no nation would be able to compete economically—and yes, this would be tested time and time again. The USSE has now existed for over two real world years, equivalent to just under 200 years, and with that has come a status as the longest continuously existing country on Stoneworks. The economy continued to grow and gradual industrialization happened over time, but perhaps it is the ‘Furry War’ and ‘Trinkets War’ respectively that showed the might of the USSE economy.

While the USSE has long had a lackluster military, something that is relatively outside of control seeing as its determined by the PvP and training abilities of new citizens, and if the new citizens we happen to get are lackluster it will be reflected in our military overall, the weak military has always been backed by a seemingly infinite pool of funds and gear powered by the production machine of the USSE economy. It took a while for it to seemingly be fully realized, but eventually politicians began to click to the idea that if we cannot make our military physically much stronger, we can make stronger powers reliant on us.

III: When You Are Depended On
During the Furry War, the USSE went head to head with the only nation that had a chance of rivaling our economic activity. The Vulperium, who the USSE fought against, had money galore. However, they were so flimsy with their funds that they ended up paying their allies five million dollars just to respect their mutual-defense pacts. While they had similar production capacities to the USSE, they did not have the government run economy that we did and their money was drawn in the hands of private citizen’s businesses. With that, came a lack of true planning and soon they ran out of money, and by time the war ended their pockets were beginning to run dry, and already those pockets were parched.

They were similarly a production powerhouse with a weak military that was reliant on mercenary abilities, however because they lacked a state-market model, the USSE was able to come out on top because they lacked the ability and intuition to adopt it, instead their money was derived from donation and the privately run businesses who were more than willing to betray the state if money came push to shove, especially under the stress of war.

Mercenaries were reliant on the money, gear, and resources provided by production powerhouses like the USSE and Vulperium, and the USSE and Vulperium were reliant on the mercenaries to fight their wars with the resources they produced. That war—the Furry War—is to date the most costly in Stoneworks history hitherto known. Later wars like the Trinkets War resulted in the USSE producing three million a week, and in one case, two million in a day. This is the largest economic production in the history of Stoneworks. This is meant to be a case study that draws on a larger point, so if you shall let me, now is to explain.

There are few countries that have actual industrialization potential, if you have lived in multiple nations you have likely seen this. The average town doesn’t have much in terms of factories or exportable goods outside of places like the USSE, the average nation is reliant on others. Eleanor nor Uraka produce their own brews, gear, etc. at large, they are forced to import. Mercenaries likewise don’t have to produce much of anything at all. There are nations that have the ability to produce and nations that don’t. When a nation realizes its potential with post-industrial production, it gives them the ability to make others reliant on them; that is to say, make yourself depended on time and time again. Now, private businesses in nations seldom are able to make the quotas and reliably and consistently produce like the state-market model can simply because you will have a much smaller manpower than any one nation, but it is theoretically and occasionally possible for private operations to offer success. The best success has proven to be from the state-market model first theorized by Xeroise Ronango’O in the USSE however. While the USSE may historically be weak on the military front, we live in an era where the military is stronger everyday and where even our General Secretary can beat our old intimidating enemies in hand to hand combat.

Furthermore, the USSE has developed infrastructure for analyzing international market prices, innovated the USSE Emporium, is creating software for tax calculations, and more; all of which create a more precise and predictable economic system. In some ways the USSE economy can be divided into three areas, first was an undeveloped and unrealized economy until the General Secretary tenure of Chelovek Serebra, before again becoming further complex during the tenure of politicians like Yonathain Davidovich and Emma Brewtaker whose foundations laid footing for an economy that was more stable and predictable from the one created during the Chelovek era; the legislature likewise sought major reforms over the scale of about half a year starting with Yonathain’s term and politicians like Rosa Ortangon would develop numerous economic treatises; Van’la Gaboliver likewise playing a major role in the actual maintenance of the system. Today’s USSE economy can be seen as a polished rendition of Chelovek’s in numerous ways. Ultimately though, the USSE that exists today is one that is dependable and has the resources and production capacity for nations to depend on them. The USSE has always been the same nation, but its programmes have changed for the better as time has progressed through trial and error.

Nations require several things to survive, the first and foremost is money, needed to maintain claim operations. The next most important things are ways to produce money and resources and ways to defend your claims. No nation has truly managed to find a balance of the latter two, yet.

This all begs the question, what happens when you combine a state-market model, massive post-industrial production capacity, and the talented labor of strong soldiers?

You may find that difficult to answer because to date that has not really existed. On a theoretical basis however, it gives the potential for the strongest nation in the history of Stoneworks. Before we discuss at great length the discussions of what that may look like and the future of industrial rivalry, we will discuss none other than Bardonia and the other realm of Stoneworks.

IV: Rathnir's Adoption
Bardonia has long been one of the most powerful militaristic nations on Rathnir. Emma Brewtaker has long been an executive advisor to numerous nations, and is both one in the USSE and Bardonia; it is her experience with Bardonia that she informed me of that inspired me to author this text, and for one good reason: Bardonia is undergoing a unique cultural revolution. They have the military power, they have the post-industrial production capacity (i.e. a large number of farms and factories and other means of producing materials and money), and now they are steadily creating a state-market model to manage both—conveniently at the same time that the USSE is approaching a similar height of power on Eldham.

This is not a coincidence, the USSE is the longest surviving power on Eldham and Bardonia has seen numerous countless governments over time; around ten in total. This is not necessarily unique for Rathnir or even Eldham, most governments have had a very large number of amendments and changes to their state. The only exception to this rule seems to be the USSE and that is for a reason; in its early history, a bit of luck. Over the last 150 years or so, the reason the USSE has survived is because nations depend on it and because we have the state-market model. We serve the people outright, and the people serve each other. The USSE has a kind of homogeneity of power not seen in other countries: we do not have rivaling political parties that can break into civil war at any moment, now we have a unitary government, we have rather independent cities and mayoral councils, and the largest and arguably most successful Constitution, legal code, and legislatures in the history of Stoneworks, even if it is too ‘bureaucratic’ for many, it is that bureaucracy and power structure that has allowed the USSE to survive countless death wars while other nations, say ones like Morladron largely died off in brutal deaths to imperial powers. Even if the USSE were to collapse tomorrow from an external force, a massive population would be left in rage and striving to make sure the systems we have are not changed; it could very well create the ripe conditions for the most brutal guerilla war in history.

Bardonia has noticed this, and Emma Brewtaker has learned this system well. Bardonia has now learned what it takes to maintain a government, not only for the foreseeable future, but until the day Stoneworks dies. They may not call themselves ‘Xeroists’ but they have adopted Xeroist symbols and Xeroist economic plans. They are adopting the Commission of Industry and Development structures and closely mimicking the People’s Security Bureau. There is now a revolution, perhaps not a literal war, but a drastic change in society. The old empires of Bardonia are defaced, people are seeing them for what they were: self-serving to some degree and not servicing the people outright. Bardonians across the board seem to be now vying for a system where the government will no longer be unstable, the government can coordinate production for themselves so they are no longer dependent on other countries, and the government is able to defend itself in perpetuity.

Bardonia will not be the first or last nation to undergo this cultural revolution, people in every country are tired of their nations dying. Some of these revolutions may end brutally, but when they are successful it allows for a scientific model of the state, one that is not vulnerable to the countless internal pressures that most states collapse to. One that is only vulnerable when its people no longer feel represented by the state. It may take 100 years for countries to adopt such systems or catch on to the idea that the field is ripe for progress.

What we do know is that both Rathnir and Eldham are quickly learning what has to be done based off the progress in the USSE: first they must industrialize and build a diverse array of factories, second they must create a system for the state to monitor progress and administer changes where needed, third they must end the private business as it exists as they will be parasites to the state and the people; seeking to keep profits for themselves as opposed to profits for the people, and fourth they must be able to defend themselves. Fifth and finally, a ‘cultural revolution’ is likely necessary to secure the state as an apparatus of the people and the people only as a collective. Otherwise, the ideology that kept in place rigid unjust hierarchies and the old system may be maintained, which can kill the reforms prematurely like a baby in its crib.

The first nation to master everything we’ve discussed will be the most powerful nation in terms of internal and external security in the history of Stoneworks; and possibly the most powerful socialist project to date—one that can pave the path to communism which for the foreseeable future is still an impossibility as a consequence of the monetary claim system—but such a strong state or states may be able to exert influence over Stoneworks as a whole and change the very threads of our reality.

There is indeed also the question: what will it look like when nations adopt these systems? Well there will at first be no competition, nations will depend on them. Soon, those subordinate nations will try to achieve the same changes and competition will be created. What that competition entails is something that can only be seen by those in the future. What we do know in the present is that we are creating an industrial superpower

Your friend in perpetuity, Arika Ronango’O