[center][b][h1]Bork Valding[/h1][/b][/center]

Bork sat down after a frantic session of visionary scribbling to regard the chalk figures he had scrawled across the wall.  So many ideas.  So much promise.  So much cost.  All these brilliant ideas he and the abbot were having would cost money to realize, something Pigeon Spit did not have much of.  Scowling at the sketches and notations, the dwarf rocked pensively on his chair.  [i]There must be more money, there must be more money[/i], he thought.

Money required trade, and that meant producing things with good value density.  The abbot was right about smelting.  Making copper ingots on site before shipping them would be far more efficient than hauling ore somewhere.  Yet even smelted, copper wasn’t the most pricey metal; Pigeon Spit would hardly transform into a boom town with it.  Could they do better than ingots?  Copper tools and fittings were useful, but wouldn’t command a high price.  What else?

Bork heard someone stir in the house and realized that it was probably Drom.  That reminded him for some reason of Roswith, and he smiled.  Rising and returning to the wall, he wrote:  “jewelry”.  Make a bit of shiny metal into a ring or bracelet, and suddenly it was something precious your daughter or girlfriend would coo over.  People paid good money for that.  And copper was easy to work.  

What else?  Well, add some smooth, shiny stones to it, and it was even prettier.  Didn’t even have to be precious gems.  Cuprite, seashells, coral, bone.  Bork added the word “cheap” in front of jewelry, then thought.  There was a nicer-sounding word for cheap jewelry.  What did his wife call it?  He struck through the word “cheap” and wrote “costume” over it.

What other goods might Pigeon Forge make for trade?  Some of the farmers raised sheep, and sheep could be shorn for wool.  Wool was always a good, reliable trade good.  They would need to bring in more sheep, and clear some more land for meadows, of course, to do that.   That was another thing.  Many of these projects used up land.  Still might be worth it, though.  Bork wrote “wool??” and then stepped back to think a bit more.

Pigeon Spit had a brewery.  And that meant they could distill as well.  Spirits had good value density, too, and traveled well.  He wrote:  "distillery?"  Of course, distilleries required more grain to feed them, and that would again, use up more land, possibly interfering with sheep grazing.  

What sort of economic production *didn’t* use up land?  Fishing didn’t use up land, that’s what.  And they were on an island.  Dried fish could be traded.  Even better, so could fish oil.  “Fish.  Fish oil.  Oil press” now all appeared on the wall.  

What else?  Were there seals or walrus on the island?  Narwhals or whales nearby?  Otter?  If so, then more blubber, and pelts.  “Animal pelts/skins”.  And then, still thinking of the walrus, he wrote:  “ivory”?  What was more, Bork reasonsed, hunters and trappers were probably easier to entice to an underdeveloped island than were the more urban-oriented tradesmen.

Bork yawned and stretched.  It was late, and he still intended to rise early tomorrow.  Time for bed.