Northern Trade Alliance First Summit Meeting

Grendel nodded his head.

"That does set me some at ease, but perhaps at least covering what brought about the current form would be aidfull to those of us not privy to its initial drafting would be prudent? "

"At any rate I can think of a couple of thing that might be discussed before we all sign off upon it. "

"Firstly, This is a meeting for trade and prosperity. Yet it reads less that, and more stipulations for the creation of a combined warfront under the banner of mercantilism. I understand the need for some kind of answer to pirates and bandits who would attack our traders whose routes would quickly become well known by the very nature of our organization, But could not a sizable number of sell-swords do the job? I think it very unlikely they would find many volunteers to be the patsies, for the corpses they are told to bring back for identification as proof. A bounty on bandits would likly suffice in most cases, yet there are many implications for large scale conflicts and armies." he said, trying the tea before continuing. It was quite good actually, he hoped they would have refills.

"Likewise, where where would we keep our "merchants army?" Few would dare attack someone with it as they could provoke it accidentally by proximity, so it offers protection as few nations would dare attack a nation with two armies to defend their boarders. Counterintitively, It is an occupying force within whoever hosts it lands, an army not under the direct order of the reagent unless they also happen to hold sway over the Guildmaster. Those soldiers must be stationed somewhere as well, shall the hosting nation be building them barracks to upkeep them? And who supplies its resources? Stone and wood? Armies need Armor, and gunpowder nowadays as well no stipulations for its running have been set." He said looking at his empty cup.

"Another issue I would point out would be the offices themselves they don't seem to be given any power, just duties. Obligation without authority is a labor at best, and slavery at worst. More so to give them the said nebulous honor would deprive their home kingdoms of some of their best and brightest for the nebulous benefit. If a country is giving over their best, they should get something in return at the very least. " The servant had walked over and refilled his cup, say what you will, they where excellent hosts.

"The "Guildmaster" seems to be the inverse, deciding entirely themselves who does and does not receive funding. What if they have bad relations with another kingdom who has dire need? Can a grudge be allowed to ignore them. You needn't be different in race or religion to dislike someone and to assume that everyone can keep their personal or religious beliefs in check seems overly optimistic.

"Kingdoms have fallen in a span of a season, and we propose a year uncontested to a single individual? No rules are liisted for who controls the armies themselves have been made, so i'm assuming they fall to the Guildmaster. The fact that they can appoint their own countrymen to the office of no other retinue applies has too much nepotism in line for my liking.

Each nation pays 2000 gold pieces" he said intentionally not calling it by the empires name. " Well lets say that five or so nations join, even to start. We have functionary that has an army, and enough income to to rival a small country, my analogy to a kingdom seems more apt the longer i think about it...At any rate that is a great deal of money to be constantly throwing in for discretionary projects. Money you have no guarantee to have returned should the Guildmaster simply turn around and deny your requests." He let the tea cool a bit steam wafting pleasant scents.

"The Guildmaster election itself could also lead to a problem, A direct vote could leave a block of the majority locking out all others from any position of real authority." He blew the smoke gently to help it cool faster.

"Lastly and an issue i feel really must be stressed. No stipulations for actual trading are listed. Do we allow a member nation to Tax for passage of their fellow nations if they hold the area between territories? Are their stigmas against trading outside of our group? And most critically the subject of war, which seems to of been a major factor in the ledgers creation. An Emissary is to act as Arbitrator between acting factions. But what if negotiations break down? Sometimes it happens. How does the Trade alliance address these factions? Are they allowed to blockade each other? It will be difficult to cut off supply lines, or lay siege, when you are forced to allow the merchants selling the supplies through. Yet war will cost money to any trading with them." He took a quite sip.

"Those are the issue I can think of off the top of my head at any rate" He would have to purchase some of this tea before he left. It really was quite good.

" I came here to make a trade league not to make war, but these documents looks like a beginning to a military empire.

here is my idea of what the NTA should be
#1 free trade with any of its member factions. meaning no tariffs, or tolls, or fees, or any word you can think of that puts a burden on free trade
#2 if 2 of the member nations go to war with each other then let them do so just change who you are trading with if you feel like your cargo might suffer in a war zone
#3 to protect vs banditry and piracy to your best efforts in your factions range of influence
#4 if found to be supporting banditry or piracy you will be removed from the NTA and its members will boycott trade with your lands.

There nothing about rouge standing army's or fees to trade with other factions its just a agreement between nations to promote trade, and that is all it needs to be.
"man that was some dry talking give me a mug of tea so i can be prepared for the upcoming shouting match"

Grendel looked around the table a bit as several factions seemed to considering offering their own capitals to host.

"While i can see the merit of changing location." he began, " I would point out that we are in actuality already here. Moving now would only serve to delay business perhaps for another season. The time we spent her having been wasted." he said turning to the dwarf from Beg Gurhim, "It would be reasonable to change location each time we meet however, perhaps cycling through member countries? If so we would be honored if you would play host during the next meeting." he said amicably.

Chello had sat quietly listening, but now she waved her hand and stood. She had listened to the points and some had been very good, but choosing location wasn't especially important at the moment. She wanted to get the discussion back on a relevant track and address the concerns she felt had the most merit. "As of now, the only members are, Elon, New Brynis and Ikegami. We choose Kegosu because out of our three nations, Ikegami was by far the most centrally located. It was in no way a slight or stament against any other nations and it is not nessisary going to be the location of all future meetings. In the future it can be arranged for meeting to be held in the capitols of other member nations, or perhaps the guild will acquire a city or castle located on neutral territory in an independent city or castle. The matter may be discussed at the later time. At the moment, I would like to go back to Gregan's points." 

"First off, we did not make stipulations on the internal rules of national commerce, such as taxes and tolls a nation may make, because while we wish to encourage and accelerate commerce and trade, we have no wish to dominate or control the commercial laws or choices of the many diverse and independent nations in the league. Setting laws on what nations may or may not tax, or demanding that they allow huge amounts of traffic and trade to run through their lands completely free and without hinderance, would, in my opinion border on domination and centralized tyranny. Balancing imports and even occasionally dissuading the import of trade and traffic can in certain circumstances be vital to protecting internal industry and economy. This is meant to be an alliance, not an Empire that can decide how it's members conduct their economy, or the traffic in their home country. However, on the other hand, setting harsh toll and taxes on imports and foreign trade is obviously contrary to the goals of this alliance. What you and King Grendel may fail to realize is the structure of this alliance will strongly discourage such tariffs and tolls, without ever needing to directly control or meddle a nations individual economic laws, simply by building up free trade across all the north and developing a verity and number of routs and means to reach many different nations. Say, for example, the Ikegami began charging tariffs that decreased the income of their trading partner in order to enrich themselves. The alliance has put you in contact with several other nations and build up a variety of routs. You may quite simply stop trading with Ikegami and set up trade with new Byrnis instead. In a free market, where building and comunications are easily done, there is going to be competition and nations who do not give their trading partners a balanced and fair deal, will quickly find all trade fleeing their nation and taking deals elsewhere. Likewise," Chello looked over at where Gormith Warchaser was sitting, "One of the goals of the alliance is to try to give cities access to a verity of both water and land routs, if, for example, one nation should try to block and troll a rout through their lands such as a river or a mountain pass, the alliance will hopefully be able to provide options for nations to simply go around, or use an alternate method."

"Cedric said he has no wish to trade one empire for another. That is not the intention of this Alliance and as such I do not wish to begin enforcing laws that so directly control a nations economy, such as outright forbidding members from deciding to put tolls or tariffs in place. That is not free trade, that's enforced economic control on an international level."


"Now on to the second point Lord Gregan made. There is already a section in the last paragraph, under the "Other Rules" title that stipulates that war between nations should not be a valid reason to take guild actions against any nation. We are not naive. It is unfortunate, but most likely inevitable that members may eventually come to war with each other. As long as such a war is relatively contained and not ripping all the north asunder, disrupting trade and communication all across the continent, as the 15 years war did, then we feel such conflicts should be none of the guild's concern. That stipulation in the last paragraph was to enact those ends and I hope we shall endeavor to keep this Alliance true to those intentions."


"Your third and fourth points, likewise, I feel are already embedded in the charter's intentions. I would expect any responsible nations would take measures to deter banditry and piracy within their borders, be in against either national or internationals routs and the allowance for a vote to boycott a nation would be for just such a purpose as excluding members who are found to be intentionally robbing the routs passing through their country through the employ of pirates or bandits."

Hoping she had addressed Gregan's concerns adequately, Chello looked at King Grendel. "You voiced concerns about the "warfront" nature of the alliance. Firstly I would like to explain that the offices of Defense General and Defense Admiral would not be immediately filled upon the initiation of the NTA and maybe not for many years to come. We included the offices as part of the charter, because there may come a time when it will be necessary for the Alliance to have its own organized forces. These are times when the balance of power can and probably will dramatically shift. In the years prior to the 15 years war, when this charter was first conceived, the Surveak Empire and the Veakirate Church had vast amounts of power compared to most of the nations. Unless an interest or nation had no access to vast amounts of lands and resources, they were almost certainly going to be bound to one or the other in order to have the protection or the resources necessary for protection. Such dependencies were chains that made it nearly impossible to remain free and neutral during a conflict." Chello knew only too well from Elon's history what that was like. She'd watched her husband and her nations get torn apart inside when Elon's dependency upon Imperial military might and trade had forced them to break from the foundation of their religious beliefs. "Eventually, there may come a time where certain nations or factions hole enormous sway. The more this alliance can operate protect itself independently the less vulnerable it will be to the sway such powerful political entities. There may come a time it will be vital that the guild can look after it's own without being beholden to outside armies or the forces of the nations. It is not something I feel is of immediate urgency and I would not want to spend the money and resources to build up such defenses and offices so early on, but the offices were included in the Charter, because we felt it may one day be important."


"As for your concern about the rolls of the officers. The services these officers rendered would earn them a salary paid for probably on commission. If the Guild Explorer is going to spend a season on an expedition for the NTA they would be paid for their services, the same for the Emissary. We did not go into the details of such matters in the charter, because we felt the issue would be something best determined by circumstances such as the individuals, nations and task at hand and therefore a strict set of rules regarding the matter in the charter would only get in the way. As for the Guildmaster, weather or not they should be paid and how much is something we can discuss. The Guildmaster would indeed hold a large amount of power, but we felt such would be the most expedient way to get things done. If every project and every action taken had to be discussed and voted on by all the nations, it would take many seasons to get anything decided. When undertaking significant projects and considering the distances and complications a year is not very long at all to be in office. Any shorter term than that and the politics and complications of shifting leaders would make it nearly impossible to for any individual to be truly productive in the roll. Since one nation can not control the office of Guildmaster office two terms in a row, then hopefully any personal grudges and similar concerns will be mitigated. I understand, of course, that national bias will be an issue, but such is the nature of politics, King Grendal. I hope that through the means of elections, nations will have the chance to sway their neighbors and allies and that no one political nation or block of nations will ever have an unshakable hold upon leadership. Do not think that we did not carefully consider this as we drafted this charter. We feel that with through the elections and the rotation of terms we have done our best to keep power from being controlled by one interest, while still keeping political complications and stipulations from becoming so overwhelming that nothing will be achieved through the marsh and turmoil of too much bureaucracy and internal debates. If you feel like you can propose a better way, then please do so. This is why are holding this meeting and presenting the charter before putting it into action. Just do not assume that we never took your concerns into consideration. You can only limit power so much, before it becomes so bogged down as to be completely inefficient."  





           

"Lord Cedic," Chello said, standing and giving a small bow, as the dwarf marched pasted her toward the door. "There is no need for you to leave in such a disruptive manner. As I said, this charter was presented in order to be discussed and debated. Did I not just say, that if any had another idea, let them stand and present it? Did you think i was jesting or being sarcastic, or that we would not listen? I assure you I meant it in truth and we are all willing to listen. If you think you can organize a more reasonable trading deal, then speak now. We are here to work together and discuss matter like adults and diplomats. Storming out with such declarations shall only undermine and belabor the process of uniting the north in trade."

He was acting like a petulant child, in her opinion and seemed far more interested in criticizing and disrupting the process than trying to be productive or helpful, but she kept this out of her voice and face, speaking demurely in a soft and inviting manner. Even if Cedic intentions were to undermine the diplomacy at hand, allowing him to simply leave in such a dramatic huff, played to that game. If he wanted to leave, she'd be fine with that, but she intended to make it quite clear to the rest of the meeting that he was the one being unreasonable and close minded, not Chello herself or the rest of the founders of the NTA.