I've been thinking about the new Prosperity system that the plague DLC is supposed to implement and how it represents the economy in the game. I think Infrastructure is pretty well represented by the various tax buildings (and Holdings themselves), but Prosperity kind of combines population and physical wealth. Well, with an abstract representation of "Prosperity," it seems to me like the game could easily have an abstract representation of "Population," and this could tie into Malthusian economics.
Basically, each Holding would have a Population level, and each County would have a Food and Prosperity level (Food representing life necessities and Prosperity being a sort of abstract representation of economic efficiency). Population would be the source of taxes and levies with buildings influencing the exact amounts (like Castle Town II giving you, say, 50% more taxes) and Prosperity then increasing taxes and levies again (like Prosperity III giving you a 150% bonus). Population and Prosperity would have progress bars which can increase or decrease, while Food would probably be best treated as a flow with a fixed stockpile limit.
Population would mainly grow from having excess Food and decrease from having insufficient Food. The growth rate would also be effected by Prosperity, though, and looting, battles involving the local levy, sieges, and plagues would decrease population. Prosperity would increase from Population growth (with one major caveat), peace, interaction with other realms, and other factors.
Where this system should be interesting is that every time Population increases, Prosperity would fall by a level, and as Population increases, it should become more difficult to get more Prosperity levels. Add in random famines and plagues, and this should create the basis for a Medieval, Malthusian economy: economic growth spurs population growth, population growth leads to dwindling resources. Minor calamities happen causing severe declines, but growth is rapid after the decline.
Creating high-Population, high-Prosperity settlements (like Constantinople and Baghdad) would be possible, but it would be a delicate balancing act. In particular, you'd have to put a lot of effort into making sure that Prosperity growth outpaces Population growth.
I don't expect Paradox to implement anything like this this late in the DLC's development, but it would be worth consideration, in my opinion, for a future DLC. I think it's abstract and simple enough to fit in, but it would also represent an agrarian economy.
EDIT: It might be that more buildings would need to be added to really flesh a system like this out, but in a broad sense, you could have Castles focus on increasing Food (and, by extension, Population growth and maximum Population for the entire county), Cities focus on increasing Prosperity, and Bishoprics focus on technology and "supporting" other holdings.
Basically, each Holding would have a Population level, and each County would have a Food and Prosperity level (Food representing life necessities and Prosperity being a sort of abstract representation of economic efficiency). Population would be the source of taxes and levies with buildings influencing the exact amounts (like Castle Town II giving you, say, 50% more taxes) and Prosperity then increasing taxes and levies again (like Prosperity III giving you a 150% bonus). Population and Prosperity would have progress bars which can increase or decrease, while Food would probably be best treated as a flow with a fixed stockpile limit.
Population would mainly grow from having excess Food and decrease from having insufficient Food. The growth rate would also be effected by Prosperity, though, and looting, battles involving the local levy, sieges, and plagues would decrease population. Prosperity would increase from Population growth (with one major caveat), peace, interaction with other realms, and other factors.
Where this system should be interesting is that every time Population increases, Prosperity would fall by a level, and as Population increases, it should become more difficult to get more Prosperity levels. Add in random famines and plagues, and this should create the basis for a Medieval, Malthusian economy: economic growth spurs population growth, population growth leads to dwindling resources. Minor calamities happen causing severe declines, but growth is rapid after the decline.
Creating high-Population, high-Prosperity settlements (like Constantinople and Baghdad) would be possible, but it would be a delicate balancing act. In particular, you'd have to put a lot of effort into making sure that Prosperity growth outpaces Population growth.
I don't expect Paradox to implement anything like this this late in the DLC's development, but it would be worth consideration, in my opinion, for a future DLC. I think it's abstract and simple enough to fit in, but it would also represent an agrarian economy.
EDIT: It might be that more buildings would need to be added to really flesh a system like this out, but in a broad sense, you could have Castles focus on increasing Food (and, by extension, Population growth and maximum Population for the entire county), Cities focus on increasing Prosperity, and Bishoprics focus on technology and "supporting" other holdings.
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