Saving vs. Investment

Heilbroner brings up the topic of saving, investing and their relationship. But what is the difference between the two in civilization IV. I don’t think I have really made any effort to save on my conquest for domination. Well, I don’t think I have done any long term saving at least. My farmers may have saved surplus harvest in their cities or I have found gold (money) that has added up. What this really means is that my entire civilization is mainly based on investment. I dedicate cities to develop certain resources such as a military, workers, and culture. Cities can only develop one resource at a time so it is important that you set up your cities to specialize in a certain area of development (ex. Like building barracks in a military city to speed up production). Some of my cities, particularly on the borders are set up to invest in building culture which expands the borders. I am investing the time of each and every one of my cities to create resources that will hopefully lead to world domination.

I have done lots of investing in my civilization and have made no particular effort to save. The game is all about investing. Ultimately, I did save money but that just happened because of my success in investment.

Why am I Dominant?

Towards the end of my game, I was clearly the most advanced civilization in all fields, especially military. Before I had declared war, I had developed my entire civilization based on my own ideas and strategies. All of my people had the same idea and went through everything at the same time. My people all had the same languages, customs, and history. All surrounding civilizations had different ideas, strategies, languages etc. Heilbroner said, “In the United States, except for the terrible crisis of the civil war, a single national purpose fused the continent; In Europe, a historic division of languages, customs, and mutually suspicious nationalities prevented just such a fusion.”

My dynasty was just like the US according to Heilbroner. All surrounding dynasties are like Europe. I like to look at it as me vs. all. My country is so much more advanced in lifestyle and technology. All others are small populations that are in need of allies to stand up to me. The other civilizations have so much diversity amongst themselves to become allies and stand up to me. They were lacking capitalism which made them inferior to me. The only way I see that they could catch up to my advancement is if they create a common market and get a loan from me. This would give them a chance to get themselves back on their feet and become an equivalent force to my military. Unfortunately for them, I declared war eliminating their hope of success. I conquered all of their civilizations and have won!!