Post by King Adam Aberdeen I on Jan 23, 2010 12:43:12 GMT -6
“Only the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth, the man who would make his fortune no matter where he started.”
The Stage
The conquest of Palestine by the Crusaders years ago had first opened all the towns and harbors of this wealthy region to Western traders, and many of them were able permanently to establish themselves there, with all sorts of privileges and exemptions from taxes. The Eastern commerce furnished the first elements of that trading activity which showed itself on the borders of the Mediterranean and the emergence of the republics of Amalfi, Venice, Genoa, and Pisa becoming the rich depots of all maritime trade. The Merchants imported spices, groceries, linen, Egyptian paper, pearls, perfumes, and a thousand other rare and choice articles. In exchange they offered chiefly the precious metals in bars rather than coined, and it is probable that at this period they also exported iron, wines, oil, and wax.
The Center of the Situation, and the Players of the Game
Now, with the emergence of the Mo’r Triath at the head of the Gaelic Nations as King, invitation for more free trade of items that for years had been in the system, was prevalent. The Gaelic Nations were involved in a tremendous growth in commercial activity, and a consequent restructuring of society, away from the feudal system. Changing attitudes towards trade and the merchant class marked this Gaelic Renaissance period. The merchant himself changed in his attitude towards his work, in his duties and abilities, and in his educational background. All of this, combined with the Church's criticism of commerce and usury, created a multi-layered complex of attitudes towards those who made their living by buying and selling goods or dealing with money. It was the Gaelic Nations that led the rapid expansion of trade and commerce into the late 1320s and early 1330s. The most important factor in the expansion of trade and commerce the freedom of trade that the Gaelic Nations offered. This enhanced the relations with Eastern countries, furthered the taste in the West for their indigenous productions, gave a fresh vigor to foreign commerce and trade, and rendered it more productive by removing the stumbling blocks which had arrested its progress. Merchants desired the new inventions that Skye offered in ship design and navigation. Turas Lan as the Capital of the Gaelic Nations was a preferred stopping point for rich merchants. Plans for a shipbuilding facility in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis was announced and those same wealthy merchants flocked to the Capital to bolster political influence, hoping to gain Skye’s new ship and wagon designs and sea-going navigation equipment, such as improved compass and long range surveillance.
In the emerging bourgeois economy of Skye’s realm of influence, the potential success of merchants grew ever greater. More and more people began to have the means to purchase more and more goods, and so the demand for such goods increased. Foreign spices, silks, and other products of demand were brought from around the world. The main players in the trade game were the oldest dynasties of Europe and Africa, and Skye was the thorn in their side. Spain, France, Italy, and the Desert Nations of Morocco, Sudan, and Egypt. France has turned in on herself to partake her riches to task as she organizes her regions. Italy forms varying opinions, but too is dormant in the main conflict save from the Papal states of Rome. In an ongoing battle to control trade routes, the competition between these countries were fierce, at times escalating into violent confrontations. From Morocco, Sudan, and Egypt, there is enough shaking of steel and voice to make Europe think on days of Crusades gone awry. They see minarets in their mind, scimitar moons. What do the Muslims see? Their vision is as fractured as their European neighbors as they are embroiled in conflict among themselves, but a conflict so righteous it threatens to choke the Strait of Gibraltar. Spain rises to be the loudest of her European sisters.
Under the unified crowns of Aragon and Castile, the Iberian Pennisula has come alive with the thrust out of former conquerors and minority groups that once fueled the first Golden Age. Literature, science, philosophy, and religion were given to the Spanish pale in comparison to the fear of heathen corruption in a time when the secular values of the Celtic culture are being matched by philosophical discoveries in both Spain and Italy. What, then, is the remedy? An Inquisition is thus called to relieve the populace of vice under threat of fire. Smoke climbs to heaven with prayers for intercession, while money clinks in tandem. It is said that Spain will not hesitate to bare down her weight on the heathens at their closest point.
In the cold, mist covered seas of the Celts, Sleat screams under blood shedding disputes and all involve seek to use their influence in merchandise as leverage. Turas Lan still seems to flood success stories in to the area and bring forth those who want to increase their standing. Ireland, for those that can afford it, is awash in new product no longer choked away by England. Wales and Mann give the finest of barristers to interprete agreements, masons to make stone castles, and seem give the most educated of scribes to record the times. England, to her credit, has returned from the ashes under the guidance of her new sovereign. Talks of a London to rival the prestige of Turas Lan are as prominent on the lips as word of the North-England rebellion on behalf of the Royal Spanish Sympathizers.
The Whole of the World, Staring down the Barrel of a Loaded Gun
Trade and Commerce focus changed very little but fluctuations did include different products, especially spices, from Cairo and Alexandria in Egypt, Damascus in Syria, Baghdad, and other great cities, which became important commerce and trading centers because of their strategic location, astride the trade routes to India, Persia and the Mediterranean. The products were then carried across the Mediterranean to the Italian seaports and then on to the major towns and cities of Europe.
The King knew that relationships between merchants and their agents and representatives were usually maintained for life, and even lasted from generation to generation. These consolidated relationships sometimes coexisted with other sporadic ones, established for the purposes of one single commercial transaction.
Until recently, only the wealthiest merchants had sufficient capital to finance their own business and commercial expeditions, and all the intermediaries received a percentage of the profits of transactions. The big merchants often set up associations with other traders, creating real “monopolies”. These companies were reinforced with matrimonial alliances, although the professional associations were above these alliances, as can be seen in the odd case of divorce, where the company would outlast the marriage. The trading companies shared out the profits and financed operations jointly, but the properties of its members would remain separate. This custom was even applied to children; how strictly it was observed varied from one region to another and from one period to another. But this is where the legal implications of female liberalism in Skye affected those companies reinforced with matrimonial alliances. If a woman was divorced, then she too would either be “bought out” or partnered in such companies. Mercantilism was not only for the male species as it had been for a millennium. It was not taken by force of conquest, or fought over under the guise of faith issues. In Skye, liberal commerce was something to speculate on, and something to envy.
People risked their lives and made, or lost, their fortunes by carrying valuable commodities from where they were produced to where they were needed. In days past, when journeys were measured in months and weeks, only items that did not spoil could be traded over long distances, such as silk and porcelain from China, pepper and textiles from India, spices from the islands of Southeast Asia, pearls and gems from Sri Lanka, ivory, gold, and ostrich feathers from Africa, and other non-spoilage commodities. The bad state of the roads, the little security they offered to travelers, the extortions of all kinds to which foreign merchants were subjected, and the system of fines and tolls which each landowner thought right to exact, before letting merchandise pass through his domains, all created obstacles to the development of trade and commerce.
Skye, with Scotland and Wales comprise some of the wealthiest portions of Gaelic trade on both local and international fronts. East Ireland holds a boom trade on imported silks and Wine, and the North is quick to expedite the most common resource that every Celtic nation shares: wool, livestock, iron ore, sea bounty, timber, and stone. Wales and Mann are content catalyst profiting of open routes for all of the items while still deciding how to partake of the wealth themselves. England has risen from the dust of former destruction. None of this would matter to the world at large if only Skye was as a world unto herself, but the quagmire stems from the King's increased contact with the Berber World.
Security was one of the King's key issues to control. He often displayed considerable concern over the security of the world’s sea lanes and their attendant choke points, which were considered vulnerable to threats against free trade. He sought improvements to trade and commerce by issuing proclamations locally, and assisting in foreign efforts, in improving the roads and security. In the near future, commerce and trade would become safe and more general; the coasts would be protected from piratical incursions; lighthouses would be erected at dangerous points to prevent shipwrecks; and future treaties of commerce with foreign nations, including even the most distant, guaranteed the liberty and security of traders abroad. Yet even the most honored of ideas holds in it the seeds for some disdain, some conflict.
But, greedy men, and even nations, would attempt to corner markets, or halt the efforts of the their fellows… They too would have an effect on trade and commerce…in turn, they would have an effect on the known world.. This and more would soon become a legacy of Skye…
This is Trade Wars…
