Lords are gold and knights steel, but two links can't make a chain. You also need silver and iron and lead, tin and copper and bronze and all the rest, and those are farmers and smiths and merchants and the like. A chain needs all sorts of metals, and a land needs all sorts of people.
A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book One (ed. Bantam, 2003) - ISBN: 9780553897845