Chapter 311 Harmonization of markets
Chapter 311 – Unified Market
The meeting to distribute the victory cake was over, and the lords left Sente one after another, the victors complacent and eager to go back to receive their soon-to-be-arrived wealth and land, and the losers hanging their heads in despair, calculating how to minimize their losses.
Many people did not even bother to come to the ducal palace to say goodbye and left directly, which shows how low the prestige of Henry, the new duke, or because of this war, the prestige of the entire Ferdinand family in the Northwest Bay inevitably declined greatly.
This was Henry’s own business, and Paul did not intend to take the initiative to help. Even in some respects, this situation is Paul happy to see, he does not want to provide another high and mighty master to calm himself.
……
Hal Duke walked down the streets of Cent with his own is squire, Arthur, leading his horse.
“Incredible!” Squire Arthur exclaimed, “It’s amazing that there is no sign of a battle that has just been fought here. Are the soldiers of the Northwest Gulf all gentlemen? What do you think, Sir?”
“What can one think? Don’t imagine all armies under the sky as bandits, this is supposed to be the quality that a normal army should have, do you think that only our Watcher’s Legion is capable of this? It’s too arrogant.”
The young squire spat out his tongue.
The two came to the gate of the Duke’s residence, and Sir Duke explained his purpose to the door boy.
“The Vice-Commander of the Watcher’s Legion?”
The door boy looked at the name sticker and didn’t dare to take it lightly, but he still said very apologetically, “My lord, the duke has an important guest to entertain, and it’s not convenient for him to see you right now. Can you please pick another time to come?”
“Oh …… “It looks like the new duke is very busy, Duke is not surprised.
“Please make sure you tell the Duke that we came to visit him.”
“Certainly, please don’t worry.”
Duke excused himself and turned to have, when he inadvertently saw an acquaintance.
“Owen Schroeder? It’s you old man!”
The visitor heard the familiar voice and fixed his eyes on it.
“Hal? What brings you to Cent?”
Schroeder came up and gave Duke a bear hug, “Haha, it’s been over a year since we’ve seen each other, hasn’t it?”
Duke also lamented, “Yeah, it’s been half a year since the last communication. Why are you here too?”
Schroeder explained: “After I returned to my hometown, I served under Count Greiman of Arda, and this war to overthrow the usurper, my count also participated. Now he has just finished a meeting with the lords about post-war affairs and has not yet had time to return.”
“I see.” Duke probably understood, the passion in his old friend’s heart really hadn’t faded away yet, when they parted he was vocal about wanting to return to his homeland.
“Then ……” Schroeder asked, “you stand in front of the door of the Duke’s mansion for ……?”
“Didn’t the Duke of the Northwest let you replace him ……?”
Schroeder immediately stretched out a finger in front of his mouth, “Hush – be careful what you say.” Duke immediately changed his words, “Oh oh, said the wrong thing, no offense. The new Duke has succeeded to the throne, I was entrusted by the Commander to confirm the new Duke’s attitude towards our Watcher’s Legion.”
“Is this your visit already done?”
“Unfortunately, the Duke has a guest to see, and is temporarily unavailable to see me …… Wait, looking at your appearance you also came to the Duke’s residence, you can’t be the important guest of the Duke-sama, right?”
“No no!” Schroeder waved his hand in a hurry, “His Excellency the Duke is meeting my Earl, he has already gone in first, I came over just to be an accompaniment. Why don’t you follow me in.”
Duke was overjoyed, “If that’s possible, then I’ll have to trouble you!”
So the two of them brought their squire Arthur to the front door, the door boy recognized Schroeder and bowed. Looking at Duke and Schroeder’s intimate look he knew that the two were on good terms and stopped blocking them.
Inside the hall of the Duke’s mansion, Paul was selling his plan to the duo of Myron and Henry.
“We should establish a unified market in the Northwest Bay, only in this way can we better develop the economy here and make the days of all classes better.”
Henry asked with some interest, “A unified market?”
“Yes!” Paul explained, “Right now the various territories are basically living a life of self-sufficiency amongst themselves, for example, I learned that Manda produces a lot of fruits, and if you can’t finish them, you can only rot them. And we in Arda and Bairdin are rich in minerals and refine a lot of iron, but we can only digest it ourselves or export it to several neighboring territories. If a unified market is established where everyone sells what they can’t use up to other places and share what they have, getting both money and benefits, won’t everyone’s days be better?”
“Well, indeed!” Henry came to the interest, the new official took three fires, he wanted to do something practical as soon as possible in order to establish his own prestige, “How to facilitate this [unified market]?”
Paul said his own ideas: “The first priority is of course to repair the road, I rushed all the way from Fishtail Town to Sente, along the way the road condition is really not complimentary, when it rains on the mud to the impassable, which is still under the rule of the Duke of the prosperous area, the other territories can be imagined. With such inconvenient transportation, how can we still communicate with each other.”
“The second is to reduce or even cancel the tariffs between the northwestern territories, I investigated, the northwestern bay surprisingly stored more than fifty barriers, a merchant from Alda to Sente, even if he chooses the nearest route he will be exploited ten times. “
Paul touched up a piece of paper on the table, “This paper is what we produce in Arda, but the money to buy one copy of paper in Sente City can buy ten copies in Lakeheart Town.”
“O Lord of Light!” As a noble, Henry didn’t care much about the price of these daily necessities, and was very surprised to hear it, “These merchants really have no conscience, a bunch of vampires.”
“No, Your Excellency the Duke, you have wronged the merchants, they don’t make more money in Sente than they do in Lakeheart Town. Because of the road tolls, entry taxes, and transportation costs and other miscellaneous expenses along the way, if they don’t raise their prices to that point they will lose money.”
Paul bemoaned, “The forest of barriers paralyzing the commercial traffic of the Northwest Gulf is tantamount to tying up every hand and foot of a man so tightly that no blood flows to any of its hands or feet. It is worse than even bad weather.”
Mellon and Henry nodded together, “Sounds a bit reasonable …… but according to your meaning, lowering or even eliminating the tariffs between the territories, then the lords will reduce a large amount of income yet.”
Paul retorted, “The reduced revenue can be made up from the commercial tax, canceling the tariffs can attract more merchants to do business within the territories, are there still worries about not being able to collect the tax? The more things the merchants sell, the more taxes they pay!”
“That’s why I suggest,” Paul stated his intention, “that we advocate for the establishment of an organization together.”
Henry and Myron looked at each other and together they asked Paul, “What organization?”
“A customs union!”
(End of chapter)