Mini-Worldbuilding is a series of short articles that dive into one specific topic around building worlds. They’re not meant to be all-encompassing, but instead to give you a handful of questions around one specific topic that you can explore and use to generate new ideas from.
In this article, we look at wealth and what it means to be “wealthy”. Who is wealthy, and what that means, has changed drastically throughout history, and that provides interesting situations to both explore and draw inspiration from. Each of the questions below looks at a different aspect of wealth and society and ideally gets you thinking about how that might apply to the worlds you build.
What Does Wealth Mean?
First off, it’s important to define what wealth even means. In our times it usually means having money, or easy access to it, but that wasn’t always the case.
For example, in the Middle Ages controlling land was often the most important aspect of being wealthy. The more land you controlled generally the richer you were (of course not all land was equal). This also extended to having resources such as cattle or other herd animals.
That’s just one example, but shows that wealth can take different forms and doesn’t always have to be a coin or paper money as we know.
Here’s a couple of examples of things that might signify wealth that aren’t coins or paper money:
Jewels and gems
Precious metals like gold
Land
Livestock
Culturally important items
Religious Artifacts
Not all of these will work in every world, and some might be more important than others, but they all could signify the wealth of its owner.
How Does Wealth Influence Power?
In many cases, wealth and power go hand-in-hand. Those with power tend to be wealthier than those who don’t, and those without wealth but with power often have the means to take what they lack.
That doesn’t always have to be the case though. Perhaps in your world, some with wealth lack the ability to project power, or have it strictly localized. Many lords of the past for example had lots of power in their specific domain but lacked the ability to project that power beyond their borders.
Or, as another example, perhaps being wealthy in one location doesn’t necessarily translate into another. One nation’s coins might be worth less in another nation that doesn’t recognize them. Not all wealth is always universal.
When thinking about wealth consider its association with power, and how one of wealth may or may not also be powerful.
How do People Obtain Wealth?
Another interesting question to consider is how people become wealthy. Many might be born into it; there’s no shortage of inherited wealth even in today’s world. Those with power and wealth oftentimes take steps to help secure them for their children. Many places even had laws that explicitly spelled out who would inherit, oftentimes the eldest son, their father’s wealth when they passed.
In other cases, people might have earned their wealth through labor or trade. There are many examples of both skilled laborers and merchants who were able to become exceedingly wealthy through their work. For example, one of the richest men of the Renaissance era was Jakob Fugger, a banker, businessman, and merchant. That sort of social mobility isn’t always looked upon favorably by the nobility, but that’s something to explore another time.
How is Wealth Displayed/Stored?
Those with wealth have oftentimes gone to great lengths to flaunt it. Whether it be through festivals, opulent ceremonies, or charitable giving, there's no shortage of examples of the rich showing off to draw from. These displays could be the vanity of their source, or perhaps tied to social or political issues.
Another consideration, depending on the type of wealth involved, is where it's stored. Gold, gems, and the like take up a lot of space and need somewhere secure to be stored. Where is this location, and what types of security measures are put in place to prevent the theft of the wealth contained there?
What About Areas/Worlds Without Wealth?
Taking a look at the opposite, what about areas without wealth? How do these people live and get by, and how do their lives compare to the wealthy elite?
These people are often going to make up the bulk of your world, so it certainly pays to spend a bit of time exploring their lives. Specifically, think about their relationship to wealth and to those that have it. Do they envy them? Fear them? Maybe they believe one day they’ll be able to carve out a piece of the wealth pie for themselves. How people treat the idea of wealth can tell you a lot about society as a whole and a bit about social mobility and class systems.
You can also look at the varying levels of wealth on a larger scale too. How do the wealthy of one nation stack up against others? Are there certain kings or other rulers who sit above most others in terms of wealth, or are most sovereigns fairly balanced?
Who Are The Richest People?
Lastly, in your world who are the richest people or individuals. In a traditional feudal system, it might be the king, his lords, and other nobility that control the vast majority of wealth. In a smaller tribal community, the wealth might be more evenly distributed and might take the form of food, shelter, or culturally important items.
Also, consider other groups that might wield power and wealth. The Catholic church, for example, was an extremely rich power player in the Middle Ages. Think about other organizations and factions, religious and otherwise, that might be in the running for the wealthiest. A successful thieves guild, for example, might have enough treasure stashed to rival the local lords.
Wealth In Your World
Hopefully the above has given you some ideas and got you to consider some of the finer points of what wealth means. There’s certainly more to explore, this was meant to be only a quick primer to build from later. As noted above, this is part of an ongoing series where we’ll look at similar worldbuilding topics and dive into some deeper questions around them. If you have a specific topic you’d like us to cover let us know and we’ll add it to our list!
