From BRWiki
Domain and Regency » Government » Plutocratic
A Plutocratic domain is run by and concerned with wealth, typically through trade. However, landed wealth can be plutocratic, for example, in Brechtür, where the nobles are more concerned with wealth and trade than they are with chivalry and taking leadership roles in war. Guilds are almost exclusively plutocratic, since to take their eye off of the principle of making money is to ignore their very reason for existence. The only exception are those guilds whose primary function is espionage.
In Anuire, guilds started off as Aristocratic organizations, designed to raise additional funds for war and land acquisition. Over time, some families lost their connection to land, and concerned themselves with making money for the sake of making money, and became Plutocratic. However, in general, even the Plutocratic guilds in Anuire have at least the veneer of Aristocracy.
When a Plutocracy becomes rapacious, so concerned with making money that it doesn't care who or what is hurt, it can become Kleptocratic. This happens when the leaders of the domain become parasites on the people who make up the domain as customers or subjects. Kleptocracies ultimately collapse because they never invest in their domain, they only extract wealth. Kleptocracies, as matter of common practice, withdraw wealth from their own foundations.
