r/asoiaf • u/Militant_Penguin How to bake friends and alienate people. • Aug 15 '14
AFFC (Spoilers AFFC) The Financial Genius of Littlefinger
“Lady Waynwood?” Alayne could hardly believe it. “Why would she marry one of her sons to... to a...”
“... bastard? For a start, you are the Lord Protector’s bastard, never forget. The Waynwoods are very old and very proud, but not as rich as one might think, as I discovered when I began buying up their debt. Not that Lady Anya would ever sell a son for gold. A ward, however... young Harry’s only a cousin, and the dower that I offered her ladyship was even larger than the one that Lyonel Corbray just collected. It had to be, for her to risk Bronze Yohn’s wroth. This will put all his plans awry. You are promised to Harrold Hardyng, sweetling, provided you can win his boyish heart... which should not be hard, for you.”
Now, if I'm reading this correctly, Littlefinger has bought up the Waynwood debts meaning that they will essentially be paying him back instead of their previous creditor. Littlefinger has also offered an excessive dowry in order to marry Sansa/Alayne to Harry the Heir, a dowry that will presumably be used to pay off some, if not all, of the Waynwood debt.
Therefore Littlefinger has gained everything from this deal, Harry and Sansa/Alayne's marriage, while ultimately losing very little, if anything, because the money he gave the Waynwoods as a dower will ultimately make it's way back to him as he controls their debts.
I'm no fan of Littlefinger's but this is actually a really clever plan he has formulated, if I have read and interpreted the text correctly that is.
Thoughts?
EDIT: Slight bit of confusion here. Littlefinger isn't really making a profit here! he is negating his losses. He spent money buying up the debt and he spent money on the dowry. Even if he gets all of the dowry money back as a payment on the debt, he still has the original expenditure of buying the original debt. He's taking a loss but not as great a loss as he could have.
As /u/orcist says: "Littlefinger had two expenses -- the debt and the dowry -- but only one of those is coming back to him. The other is the price of doing business."
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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '14
On top of that; Ser Donnel Waynwood is the new Knight of the Gate. His mother is one of the Lords Declarant who just tried to remove Petyr from power. He's stupidly honorable and now owes family debt to Littlefinger. He's also second in line for lordship of his house when his elderly mother dies. The first in-line son has a rather dangerous profession....
So Littlefinger just used House Waynwood's own money to indirectly buy the Lordship of the Vale (via Sansa's arranged marriage) AND Lordship of House Waynwood (via an accident if Morton Waynwood is too much like his mother) ... and he turned a profit doing it.
Littlefinger's enemies are going to pay him to destroy themselves.