# XIX explained — The Coming Race

> Chapter companion for The Coming Race by Edward Bulwer-Lytton.

## What happens

The narrator describes a tour of the Vril-ya transportation station, including land and aerial vehicles powered by vril, and provides a detailed account of their economic system, including currency, taxation, and the unique labor system where children work for the state until marriageable age, ensuring all adults have an independent competence and fostering a society that blends democratic childhood with aristocratic adulthood.

## Themes in this chapter

### Utopian Society and Its Costs

The chapter details the Vril-ya's economic system, including taxation, child labor, and social equality, illustrating the costs and benefits of their utopian order.

### Technology and Power

The vehicles and central machine worked by vril demonstrate the pervasive role of advanced technology in powering Vril-ya society.

## Character check-ins

### The Narrator

The narrator observes the Vril-ya transportation and economic systems, reflecting on their social structure.

### Taë

Taë guides the narrator on a circuitous route to show the station and explain the vehicles.

## Key lines

> As we walked back to the town, Taë took a new and circuitous way, in order to show me what, to use a familiar term, I will call the “Station,” from which emigrants or travellers to other communities commence their journeys.

On the return walk to town, Taë chose a longer route to show me the station where people depart for other communities.

_The narrator introduces the Vril-ya transportation hub._

> I may here observe, that their money currency does not consist of the precious metals, which are too common among them for that purpose.

Their currency is not made of precious metals because those are too abundant.

_The narrator explains the Vril-ya monetary system._

> According to their theory, every child, male or female, on attaining the marriageable age, and there terminating the period of labour, should have acquired enough for an independent competence during life.

Their theory holds that every child, by the time they reach marriageable age and finish their labor period, should have earned enough to be financially independent for life.

_The narrator describes the economic independence guaranteed to Vril-ya children._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_coming_race_se/chapters/xix
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_coming_race_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_coming_race_se/chapters