On the Isle of the Dawn, there has been a steady stream of magic users doing many things. And as time passed, the skills of those users increased. When any of the Ten Cities came up with a better way of doing things, a way that increased the power, wealth, and prestige of a city, everyone else joined in, or that recalcitrant city got taken over.
There were times when certain classes of people stood in the way of Progress, when some nobles thought that because they were nobles they knew better than the common sort, or some who clung to ancient rights that limited their military service, but in the comptetive swirl of the Isle, such did not last long. So too, corruption and weakness were purged.
Being a ruler in this land was always a matter of walking a high wire in a high wind that could change without notice. It bred tough men and women with flexible souls, and hardnosed survival skills and a deep understanding of how cities work.
Waves of change washed over the Isle as the centuries rolled on. And as it did, schools sprouted, and companies were formed, and the understanding of magic became both deeper and more widely practised.
Until finally Newman the Wizard summoned the first spirit bound to matter. It was a dumb creature, hardly brighter than a rat, but it could move matter in a simple trained pattern tirelessly. Newman used it to chop wood for his wood stove when he could not be bothered to summon a fire spirit to warm his house.
Over the next century, a great increase in wealth and health surprised everyone. Newman's spirit/matter creature soon had 'friends' and these friends were brighter than the first. But mostly they were stronger. A revolution in Materia Magica took place. Now everyone could own a wagon pulled by a spirit bound to the wagon.
And then one day a clever wizard asked if you could make a Materia Magica that could summon other Materia Magica and could train them in their endeavours. It turned out that humans were needed. Unless the magic was done to an impossible degree of precision, you needed a human mind behind it.
But, the wizard needed did not need to move the items or say the words himself. All that was needed was for him to observe and consent. So now one wizard could do the work of a hundred wizards who each could have done the work of a hundred wizards from a century ago.
And it was thus easy for a singular King to rise above the others, and to impose his city's Ancient Rights of Man upon all for he grasped the benefit that this could have for war, and for the speed of war faster than anyone else. And so in a short campaign, he became the High King,a nd then passed his crown down to his son, and then grandson.
Prices for everything fell through the floor. Now, everyone could have everything they needed and more for the amount of money a day's wage brought in. And then as the Laws of Economics say....when you double the amount of product you produce, you reduce the cost to make it by 20-30%. Prices went down again as the new Materia Magica Manifold Products Companies swung into high gear. People started losing jobs right and left. But their relatives had enough to pay for themselves and the out of work folk. And then the amount produced by the MMMPC's doubled again, and again until pretty much everything on the Isle of Dawn that was produced was produced by the MMMPC's.
What had cost a hundred denarii now cost twelve denarii.
But the only people with jobs were the wizards employed by the MMMPC's.
At this point, the people went to the King, and asked him to take money from the MMMPC's. He smiled gently.
"My people, the MMMPC's can easily move overseas and ship their products to us. Far better to have them here."
"You could stop this."
The king nodded in agreement and drew his sword.
"I will."
The crowd murmured in approval.
"First you have to swear to me on bended knee that you forego your Rights under the Ancient Compact, what few you have left. You have to swear to me that you will obey my every word as if it came from an angel. You have to swear to do my bidding without dissent. And you have to swear to do the same for my sons and all that follow."
"That's the ancient tyranny." One man objected.
"Aye, sir, it is." The King replied. "But that is what you have asked for."
"But we need food for our children."
"Indeed you do. How did you get food before the coming of Newman's first Materia Magica?" The King asked and he pointed at someone in the checked red and blue of villager of the deep woods.
"Well, we, not like the city folk, we hunted the great cats, and the deer, and gardenned."
"Just so."
"But our children." The People cried to the king, not understanding. He sighed.
"You would have me steal food from him who earned it by his labor? Is that just?"
And the people were abashed before their King.
"Let us sit down to a feast for I know you are hungry." The king said, and so they sat down to a feast and made merry. And at the end, the King stood and motioned for silence.
"Do you know how much this feast cost me?"
The people shrugged, and some started to count the loaves of bread, and make estimates in their heads.
"Nothing." The King said.
The people stated at him in surprise.
"I took some of the royal money for upkeep of the castle, and had my new 'servants' plant for me. I had them weed for me. I had them take the corn they grew, and give it to my chickens which I had also bought. They gathered for me. They ground the wheat into flour for me. And they cooked the meal as well for me and you." He clapped his hands, and spoke several words in a magic tongue which all recognized as magic use was as commonplace as owning a bed, and everyone had a bed even if they had to share it with a brother.
And in walked and floated a dozen Materia Magica.
"And now they will clean the table for me."
The King smiled.
"I see. But my King, I cannot afford a dozen...."
"I am the King, and have a large staff, but you have but a house. You can afford to buy one, even if you must go into debt for it."
And so it was that the people began to buy Materia Magica. And the prices for things went down even further. And then the most skilled wizards came to the King.
"Mighty One." They said in their very expensive robes that even the King could not afford. "We bring a grave problem to you. There are many households, perhaps one in ten now, but growing in number, who strike at the economic strength of your kingdom."
"Dear me,sounds serious." The King said.
"Yes, O King, we of the MMMPC's fully support you, but these 'individual artisans' as they call themselves keep us from fully exploiting the marketplace."
"I cannot get involved in the economic struggles by favoring one side or the other." The King replied. "If you're not able to keep up, then I'm sorry for you."
The wizard huffed a bit. "O King, its not that we are unable to keep up, its that these people...they won't buy. We can offer them goods at cheaper rates than it would take to make them, and still they won't buy."
"Cheaper than free?" The King said skeptically. "Now that I'd like to see."
"But eventually their Materia Magica will grow homesick and tired from long labor and flee home. Our processes are more efficient, we have better Materia Magica that do the same job in half the time with much less strain on the spirit." the Wizard explained.
"Ah, but can't they just get their Materia Magica to make another of its same kind, or slightly better if one of them comes up with something. And then release the tired one to its home?" The King asked looking puzzled.
The Wizard bit his lip.
"Well, in a way...but, y'see..."
"Speak up, man, yes or no." The King said briskly.
"We find ourselves with occasional over supplies of product."
"You could give that away to the poor." The King replied.
"But then the poor would have no incentive to work." The Wizard shot back. The King shrugged.
"We need to sell this over supply." The Wizard pointed out.
"Well, you could sell it for cheaper." The King replied. "I know you're making a bit on the sale. Not much. You're practically a commodity now. Everything is practically a commodity now. Razor thin margins of profit. Its a tough world."
"You suggest we improve and sell for cheaper." The wizard said accepting the sympathy. "But that only pushes us further down the slope. Eventually we reach the point where one denarii can buy a week of ease, and our margin of profit is .01%. And then it will just keep getting worse and worse."
"Yes?" The King said blankly looking at the Wizard to make a point.
"We'll be poor!" The Wizard exploded.
"Ah, not my problem." The King replied.
The Wizard paused.
"O King. We had thought of a good plan. Beneficial to all."
"Ah, excellent, I so enjoy when someone else does my job for me. Leaves me more time to clip flowers in the royal gardens." The King said with a smile. The Wizard gritted his teeth and went on.
"You see, many cannot afford the current rates. They get by on charity, and some do services for those with money."
"Services?" The King asked innocently.
"Yes, they hold doors, soothe horses, march in front of wizards holding banners high, that sort of thing."
"M'kay. I used to have to hold a banner for my father when he was King and I was but a Page." The King reminisced. "I still remember dropping the banner on the head of the Merketi Ambassador because I fell asleep in court. Heh. My father whipped me with his belt until one arm got tired and then he shifted to the other arm. But it was worth it, the way that old windbag stopped his dreadfully long speeches ever after whenever I started to do a fake yawn."
"Um, right, your Majesty. Just so, an honoured position. We had thought to make these positions permanent. We would take certain of the poor into our households and feed them and in return they would serve us, for a set number of years. You see?"
The Wizard smiled hopefully.
"Oh, yes, of course. Why didn't you say so? You want to reinstitute feudalism with yourselves as the Great Lords. And ingenious scheme if I do say so myself."
The wizard waited until he could wait no longer.
"Well, your majesty?"
"What?" The King asked absently.
"The ah 'feudalism'?"
"Oh, that's against the Ancient Rights of Freemen that I have to sign before I take up the crown. Terribly sorry. No can do."
"But...?" The wizard bleated. The King looked sadly at him.
"I can't help you. The market is going to trim your power one way or the other."
"We could stop you." The Wizard snarled.
The King's eyes turned glacial.
"I'd advise complete silence for a moment, sir wizard. I am not my grandfather who conquered this island in a year and a day, but I am perfectly capable of taking out a couple dozen Mechanique wizards with my war wizards and my enchanted sword, and chopping any survivors heads off in the courtyard."
The wizard turned pale, and got down to his knees and began mumbling fervent apologies.
After a minute the King walked over to him,a nd helped him up.
"Trust me, my friend, I understand. You feel deserving because Fate smiled on you."
"But..." began the wizard.
"And you worked extraordinarily hard, and took great risks for it. But none of that is a promise from Fate that you will always succeed. But you thought it was."
The wizard sagged a bit as he stood next to the king.
And then he buried his face in his hands.
"What should I do? No one can afford our products. You could make the workers not be able to buy our robots, and that would solve..."
The King shook his head, and the Wizard wept a little.
"You need to begin conceding the market to these village artisans. They will provide the food and the drink, the house and the clothing for each home."
"And so we will have nothing. However, we can have a few good years selling Materia Magica to them. Maybe we can survive as research facilities for high level magics."
"Or you can take your great wealth, and begin to buy up strips of land. This will push money back into the economy which will then come back to you. And those strips of land you can cover in marble, and call them roads. Toll roads."
"But..." The wizard said and could not find an objection.
"The ordinary village artisan could not do that job. Its too big. He's still free to take the dirt roads, but his wife will want to ride in smooth comfort. He will pay you money he gains from his Materia Magica which he gains because perhaps his tomatoes are the best on the street." The king outlined his idea.
"And there are other jobs we could do. Not just an Island wide toll road superhighway. We could build giant ships to take our excess to other lands. And we could build a stairway to the Moon."
The king nodded in agreement. After all the Moon was only a hundred miles up so the theorists said.
"And I bet those druids who have been complaining about how we dump acids from making Materia Magic into the sea and poison the coral reef would be willing to pay for us to strain the ocean...which..." The wizard stared.
"Straining the ocean of toxins is a big enough job to even faze you, I see."
"Yes, yes it is. But you know, we could do it."
"As it happens, the chief druid is in town this weekend. Why don't I set up a meeting for you with him." The King said with a smile.
"Yeah, yeah, that'd be good." The MMMPC said with a faraway look as he imagined a glorious future.