Chapter 48: ...Run Away

''The piecemeal Berkian annexation of Eire in the early 1040s set the general pattern for their later hegemonic expansion elsewhere in the region. Unlike many other sovereigns of the era, Stoick the Vast, followed by his son Hiccup the Wise, were not excessively interested in conquest. However, they reacted to threats to their holdings and subjects in a decisive manner, a fact that directly led to their first annexation of Vedrarfjord. ''

''Also informing matters in this area was the simple fact that the Hooligans had instituted universal freedmanship among their tribe over a century before, and detested the institution of thralldom, a detestation which quickly extended itself to serfdom and related institutions. As a third factor, due to the Hooligans' long war with the dragons, they had come to significantly appreciate the importance of investment into infrastructure, both physical and educational.''

''Thus a pattern emerged; an aggressor would attack them and be absorbed as a result of the counterattack, or a holding would petition to join. Then the peasantry of their new holding would find themselves the focus of intense investment into their economies and societies. Standards of living skyrocketed across the island, as the new infrastructure increased the demand for labor and allowed for the creation of surplus that could act as trade goods. Furthermore, the use of dragon scales as currency introduced sufficient liquidity across the Berkian holdings to allow for a transition from the barter system to a market economy. Finally, Chief Stoick, extending the laws of his homeland to the new holdings, instituted legally mandated universal education for all of his subjects. While initially based on the Hooligan model of functional literacy for everyone and then allowing for further specialization as fitting the individual's desires, additional subjects—mathematics, civics, rhetoric, languages, and history, among others—soon followed. These factors caused an explosion of cultural and social output over the following generations…''

—Origins of the Grand Thing, Edinburgh Press, 1631

Foreshadowing
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Epigraph Tie-In

 * The epigraph mentions how much the Hooligans hated thralldom and similar institutions. The chapter shows Ulaid agreeing to abolish the lowest non-free class in their lands as part of a treaty with Berk.

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