Where Does Your Fantasy Navy Get Its Rope?

They can't harm you, if they can't find you! Use code grainbound at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/grainbound A warship like HMS Victory carried about 26 miles of rope, and all of it grew on a field somewhere. In this video we find that field on our fantasy map: where flax and hemp grow, who does the work, who gets the money, and where an enemy can hurt a fleet without ever going to sea. Free worksheet for this episode: thegrainbound.com/freebies Join the Discord: discord.gg/PTnt72aj8B Website: thegrainbound.com 00:45 - Chapter 1: A little land, a lot of hands 02:53 - Chapter 2: Where it sits on the map 06:05 - Chapter 3: The four fibre lands 12:06 - Chapter 4: Rope country and the navy 16:27 - Chapter 5: What else it holds up 18:01 - Chapter 6: Fantasy application 20:12 - Chapter 7: Magic corner CATCH UP ON THE SERIES The Sheep That Breaks Your Fantasy World:    • The Sheep That Breaks Your Fantasy World   The Ox That's Breaking Your Fantasy Map:    • The Ox That's Breaking Your Fantasy Map   The Ocean Is Not a Road: Fix Your Fantasy Map:    • The Ocean Is Not a Road: Fix Your Fantasy Map   ABOUT THIS VIDEO Flax and hemp want the same good land as grain, but only a small piece of it. What they need a lot of is work. One acre of flax took about 54 days of women's work just to get the fibre out, before anyone spun a single thread. So how much linen a region can make depends more on how many hands it has, and how many winter weeks, than on how much land. We look at where the two crops grow, why flax keeps moving from field to field, and the smelly work of retting, which rulers kept pushing away from towns and rivers. Then we split the map into four fibre lands: the house plot, the flax patchwork, the rope plain and the far field. For each one we look at who does the work and who ends up with the money. After that we go to the harbour. Rope and sails wear out, so a navy needs new ones every year, and the land that grows them is its rope country. Venice kept its rope country close, on the plain around Padua. Britain bought most of its hemp from Russia, and every shipload had to pass the Danish toll at the Sound. We finish on a fantasy map with two sea powers, and a magic corner where a spinning spell and a blessing for the soil change who grows rich. SOURCES Robert Kane, The Industrial Resources of Ireland (1840s) Smyth 1988, on Irish flax regions and rotation Dewey 1913, US survey of hemp growing Celetti 2020, on Venetian and Bolognese hemp Crosby 1961, on the 1800 hemp crisis, Kentucky and the US Navy Davey 2018, on Britain's search for hemp Sound Toll Registers project Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1810 and 1842 editions National Museum of the Royal Navy, on HMS Victory's rigging #worldbuilding #history #navalhistory #fantasymap #worldbuildingtips