[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Graveyard Duck

Seeing the effects of the war does not necessarily mean the party sees the "big picture." The merchants are the most obvious examples: They have accounts of their profits before the war, and they have accounts of their profits during the war. A comparison of the books will show them that the war has benefited them, but it does not imply that they are aware of macroeconomics.

The rulers view the effects of the war on a larger scale, but that also does not necessarily mean they see "the big picture." Take the rulers of the Winter country, for example. They are aware of food shortages before the war, and they are aware of the lack of food shortages during the war. They are also aware of the funds from the Central Nations. They can easily predict from the comparison the sort of consequences that would result from ending the war now.

These are comparisons that real world medieval rulers and merchants can make. However, macroeconomics as an organized predictive study did not really occur until the 17th century or later. The theories of macroeconomics, while often wrong, allow for predictions of long term consequences. For example, it is fairly simple for the Central Nations to see that it is buying security by aiding the Winter country, but what is the long term consequence of taxing your population then shipping the taxes out to another country to be destroyed in a war? I believe Kaynesian economics predict a short term increase in economic activity and significant inflation in the long term--reasonable to see as only beneficial in the 15 year interval the series postulated for the war but problematic in the long run.

Maybe I should tell you that by saying "Big Picture", I didn't mean it as macroeconomics. When I said "big picture" I meant a larger view where they're more aware of things outside of their country. And Kuromitsu never said anything about macroeconomic in his/her reply to me either.

Also, how do you know that those merchants only count on their account books? For all we know, they can also do some observation on the outside world and new territories to broaden their horizon, not merely watching their usual trading routes or account books.

Originally Posted by Graveyard Duck

In that sense, I agree with kuromitsu's initial assessment: The Demon King is the only one who really grasp macroeconomics as a predictive study.

Mind you that in his/her initial post, Kuromitsu only mentioned economy not macroeconomics. And s/he further said that everyone else except Demon King is an idiot who doesn't know economy:

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

The impression I got from episode 1 is that the Demon King is the only one who has any idea about economy, and everyone else is either an idiot or a stupid, greedy warmonger.

That's what I don't agree, and it's already proven wrong.