How can ruler support the invention of useful things?
Good rulers support invention of useful things. But this question has two sides.
- Support of invention
- Prevention of fake inventing
Basis:
Many inventions arise as side-effects of searching for something else. The base of modern chemistry is from alchemy and its attempts to find the philosopher's stone and so on. Also, there is some research that doesn't have direct effects but still it is needed.
Theory:
Fantasy without the philosopher's stone (or something similar) may sound like nonsense. But let's say that ruler does not believe in the existence of the philosopher's stone (or invisibility, etc) and wants to invent something really useful (for example, how to improve public health and cure illnesses). Instead, the ruler resolves to pay such research very well.
And where there is money, there are also cheaters. So the ruler wants to check that all research s/he pays for are really related to the main goal.
Background/Inspiration:
This question is inspired by one old Czech movie and one concrete scene from it:
The alchemist is supposed to prepare a rejuvenation potion of but he creates anything else instead of it (for example, floor polish).
In one invention stage, (in that mentioned scene) he was supposed to find mandragora and prepare it but he cooks sausages with horseradish in a great pot instead.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/141968. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1 answer
Hand out prizes at the annual town fair.
This is, in fact, how craftspeople and inventors rolled out new things. Most medium to large towns in Medieval Europe, for example, had 1 or 2 fairs a year where people sold and bought goods, traders came back from trips abroad, and the entire community came together.
Your ruler could easily add in an invention contest. This could be open or it could be themed, depending on what the ruler wishes. There can also be categories. The ruler may wish to reward young people or new inventors as well, even if their work isn't all there yet.
Winners can get cash, but a better prize would be funding to polish the invention and manufacture it. Young people can get the prize of funding for secondary school and higher education. Or apprenticeships with master craftsworkers (which cost money).
An open public contest won't eliminate cheaters, but it greatly diminishes them. It's unlikely someone could get away with stealing someone else's work, in a town where everyone knows each other. It's also very hard to fake your way through an invention with the entire town watching and checking up on you.
For the ruler, this has the great advantage of opening the field. Normally inventions might come from universities or other education sites, from large organizations like a monastery, or from the wealthier merchants in the business community. They can all still compete, but allowing anyone to enter greatly increases the number of viable inventions.
If the ruler only rules one large town or city, with other places within commuting distance (meaning a day or two by wagon), have the contest there. If the ruler rules over a larger area, have multiple contests in the larger towns then have a grand fair at the end of the year (for example, hold the smaller contests at the usual fall harvest fairs then hold the final one either just before the winter snows get bad or very early in the spring before planting.
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