"How hard is it for people to currently go there? And do you think a lot of people would visit if it were quicker and cheaper?" I am totally going to put a train station next to the cosmic telephone and charge people through the nose to talk to their god.

"Uh, you have to climb a mountain, I guess it's a bit hard."

"Well, now I have might first idea for where to put a rail-carriage port. The main problem would be difficulties due to the incline, but I'm sure that can be figured out, and it'll be worth it if that's a place a lot of people want to go. Anyway, it's time for me to look up whatever else might be necessary for starting a rail road firm." She walks up to the doors of the library before pausing. "Um, do I have to do anything or sign anything or take of my shoes or recite an incantation? Y'know, I want to be extra cautious about Big Impressive Buildings containing Ancient Artefacts of Knowledge. I've read enough fantasy to be wary of barrelling in."

"No one would let you build anything on the Meneltarma, and people don't want to go there nearly as much as they go, say, between Armenelos and Rómenna. And you have to fill out lots of papers, yes, I'll help you with them."

"Well, building restrictions are unfortunate, and one of the things I'm at a library to learn about. And, yeah, I expected that most of the business would be connecting up towns and cities. I just didn't know what the specific cities were yet."

"I mean, the Menetarma's ecologically fragile and a temple to Eru, it seems pretty reasonable for them to not want anyone leveling it in places."

"Eh, I'm sure Rómenna used to have a special snowflake ecology before all the current infrastructure went up. In the end, human construction has to go somewhere." She protests. "Anyway, what are the papers I'll have to fill out?"

"The Meneltarma is a stupid thing for people to value, but it's okay to value things and not want them paved over for the pursuit of money."

"Then the people who value it should buy it, so that they can keep it as is." She counters. "Or, better yet, some neutral party should buy it and charge admission. As long as the people who want to keep it as a nature preserve value that more than other people value new construction, it should be preserved - but not one day longer. Every square metre you don't build on has an opportunity cost. You should make sure that's worth it, and be willing to put your money where your values are. Loud complaints and letters to politicians aren't the unit of caring - money is."

"...money has nothing at all to do with what people care about. It's for what the rich care about. Settling what is worth most to people by what they're willing to pay for it is how you get the Elrosians owning everything in the first place."

"You wouldn't spend more money on things you care more about? Then how do you decide what you want to buy? Willingness to pay is the most efficient way of determining who wants what how much. Yes, it's distorted by who starts off with more money in the first place, but everything else is more distorted. At least when people are trading, they won't end up worse off than they started - no other way of distributing goods is guaranteed against negative changes. Markets are the worst way of deciding who can have what, except for every other system that's been tried."

"...give everyone what they need, then give them all the same amount of currency with which to acquire things they don't need. The Elves get that one right, at least. Maybe your world didn't try enough things."

"The Elves give everyone the same amount of currency? I thought they didn't have currency..." She queries, confused.

"Anyway, there were countries that tried that. In massively retards development, because consumers aren't the only entities currency is necessary for. Anyone who wants to manufacture something needs inputs, and those inputs cost something. If each manufacturer has the same amount of currency to work with, regardless of how efficient they are or how much people want their products, massive amounts of raw materials get waisted. The power to buy raw materials has to be proportional to the firm's ability to give people the things they want. However, if the State is in control of who gets currency and how much they receive, then firms can't freely trade with each other, and the State has to be the one deciding how useful a firm's products are in order to fund them. As it happens, the State is demonstrably far worse at this than the actual people using a product in every instance where this has been attempted.

...Besides, aren't you opposed to any sort of State? How do you expect this equal distribution of currency to even happen?"

"No, they use it for some things, just not most things that human societies do. And yes, we should demolish the state, but barring that making it produce as much money as possible does not seem like a good goal for it."

"Our State doesn't produce money - well, it regulates the central bank which produces currency, but that's different. I'm saying the State should stay out of things that money can do a better job of deciding. After all, there are only two ways to prevent someone from building on the Meneltarma - if the property owner stops you or if the State stops you. I think the State would do a bad job of figuring out how much people value the environment of the Meneltarma but, if people really do value it a lot, a parks management authority can go ahead and buy it."

"If the people who value it have money. I get what you're saying, but most people are barely making ends meet, they're not using money to show what they value or anything elegant like that."

"Hmmm. I would expect this to be true at any level of development, given a market; however, I'm not an expert, and my world only came up with models like these after we'd already been industrialising for quite a while. Maybe it isn't true of a subsistence economy? But really all that means is that we have to push development past subsistence quickly. After all, until then, I'll be horribly confused - and that would be terrible."

They fill out the library paperwork! They find the books! History! Shipping! Trade! Law!

Carmen heads straight for the law books to see what the building codes and labour regulations around here look like. Safety codes? Historical preservation? Environmental assessments? Health inspections? Unions, overtime, and minimum wage? What are the rules like in this new world?

Historical preservation, oh yes, lots of historical preservation. Not much of any of the other things.

Hmmm. But how do historical preservation rules work? Will she have to apply for a permit for every new construction? Are there only certain areas that require permits? Are some places completely off limits for building new things? Who would she have to submit her paperwork to? Details, details.

Yes, permits for construction, handled by the offices of the regional governors or by the governor personally if it's a major request.

Do the books have enough detail to let her know how expensive and time-intensive she should expect permits to be if she lays down rails from Rómenna to Armenelos, or will she have to actually ask a governor? How does one even make appointments with governors?

Very expensive and time-intensive, and one can go to a governor's office when it's open and put in a petition and be informed in writing when the petition will be heard.

Drat. She jots this down on a piece of paper for future use, then goes on to price data. Current prices for steal and wood and coal. Average wages for unskilled industrial labour, engineers, and similar. The cost of land along possible routes.