RPGnet Columns
06-29-2005, 12:13 PM
Post originally by Ash at 2005-06-29 11:13:00
Converted from Phorums BB System
The main reason why so many shops in an antique setting is pretty easy to explain: Mass Production. When mass production became de rigour in the modern world, suddenly it was no longer necessary to create things painstakingly by hand. As a result, the number of products available shot up considerably, and the price per unit fell dramatically. Shops found there was more stock available, and ordered more for the discounts this afforded. As a result, where previously a shop could only get their hands on or create so many manufactured items around at any one time and hence only satisfy a small number of customers, now one shop could cater for whole towns at a time. Similarly the keeping of foodstuffs has become a lot easier in recent years, with refrigerators and preservatives keeping food stock on the shelves longer and allowing merchants to carry more stock at a time. This in addition to the mass processing of foodstuffs.
The result of all this is that a few shops have grown bigger and bigger until they became stores, while others have gone out of business. Today's marketplaces can rarely compete with the large stores, and so are smaller. There is no longer any need to have a huge amount of any one type of store, since the one store can cope with public demand quite nicely.
Heh and that guy's brother probably makes hundreds of chessboards a week, in a big room full of other people also making chessboards. He probably only makes one tiny part of the board, then passes it along to the next person in the line. Probably for very little money too, that's my guess. There's no room in today's 'speed is everything' world for craftsmen who take their time over something to get it right and make it look beautiful *sigh* A sad loss.
Ash
Converted from Phorums BB System
The main reason why so many shops in an antique setting is pretty easy to explain: Mass Production. When mass production became de rigour in the modern world, suddenly it was no longer necessary to create things painstakingly by hand. As a result, the number of products available shot up considerably, and the price per unit fell dramatically. Shops found there was more stock available, and ordered more for the discounts this afforded. As a result, where previously a shop could only get their hands on or create so many manufactured items around at any one time and hence only satisfy a small number of customers, now one shop could cater for whole towns at a time. Similarly the keeping of foodstuffs has become a lot easier in recent years, with refrigerators and preservatives keeping food stock on the shelves longer and allowing merchants to carry more stock at a time. This in addition to the mass processing of foodstuffs.
The result of all this is that a few shops have grown bigger and bigger until they became stores, while others have gone out of business. Today's marketplaces can rarely compete with the large stores, and so are smaller. There is no longer any need to have a huge amount of any one type of store, since the one store can cope with public demand quite nicely.
Heh and that guy's brother probably makes hundreds of chessboards a week, in a big room full of other people also making chessboards. He probably only makes one tiny part of the board, then passes it along to the next person in the line. Probably for very little money too, that's my guess. There's no room in today's 'speed is everything' world for craftsmen who take their time over something to get it right and make it look beautiful *sigh* A sad loss.
Ash