How Queen Cersei Can Solve Her Money Problems (without becoming a debt slave)

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains a minor spoiler for anyone who hasn't watched season 7 of Game of Thrones.

I'm going to go by the story in the show rather than the books for this post because, in the books, the Lannister gold mines have not been exhausted. In the show, they have no more gold and are forced to look for other ways of acquiring it. It's kind of a big deal because the currency of the Seven Kingdoms is very much on the gold standard.

Being on the gold standard is a major constraint to Queen Cersei. She had to go to war and conquer the Tyrells so that she could take their wealth and use it to pay off the Crown's debts. But that left her with no more money, so _she had to borrow more_ in order to buy what she wants - an army.

The army she's buying is a sellsword company from Essos called The Golden Company. This means that the gold she's spending isn't even going to stay in the Seven Kingdoms and circulate around their economy. It's all going overseas, just like the gold Cersei gave to the Iron Bank of Bravos.

Starved of gold to keep the economy moving, the Seven Kingdoms has already been doomed to a future of poverty.

There Is A Solution

Cersei collects taxes from everyone so that she can bling herself up and pay for other people to do stuff. Anyone who doesn't pay their taxes can have their head chopped off, which generally compels people to want to pay their taxes, even though they don't like her and her new haircut.

What if she collected taxes in something other than gold? What if she spent lengths of wood called tally sticks into the economy and told people that they could use them to pay their taxes?

By cutting notches into lengths of wood, splitting them lengthways and having the Master of Sticks hold onto one half while the other half is spent into the economy, Cersei could issue all the money she needs to keep the economy running smoothly while thousands of useful workers are sent off to die for her.

So long as Cersei threatens to behead anyone who doesn't pay taxes using tally sticks, they're guaranteed to be used as money.

Addressing Conservation Concerns

Rather than chopping down entire trees, only a few branches would need to be cut off here and there. I haven't seen too many trees in the show, other than the ones along the Kings Road, so maybe there's scope to create forestry jobs for the unemployed. It certainly sounds better than having to resort to the Night's Watch.

Weirwood trees shouldn't be used as they're on the endangered list. However, Cersei may decide to target them as Bran Stark uses them to connect to the Internet. We need a Brotherhood With Green Banners to chain themselves to these trees and carry out newsworthy stunts that will capture the public imagination.

Conclusion

With control over her own sovereign currency, Cersei would never fail to make a payment, so there would never be any good excuse for a government shutdown (just like the USA, who also have their own sovereign currency).