The Fire Queen

Chapter 28

The former Master of the Merchant Guild was a man named Herman Granger. As Guild Master he had overseen the establishment of trade routes, trading posts, distribution networks, market exchanges and banking services throughout the kingdom. Before the establishment of the Merchant Guild all of the production in the kingdom was under the control of the nobles, whose only concern was that the kingdom's production produced enough income to support their lifestyles. Once the Merchant Guild had been empowered by the king to take over those responsibilities from the nobles the kingdom's production had increased markedly and so had the peasant farmers' standard of living because of their ability to be direct participants within the economy.

The nobles had kept much of the infrastructure that the Merchant Guild had built up but because of their preference for awarding positions of influence to family members and individuals who had a record of demonstrating their loyalty to the noble house much of what the Merchant Guild had achieved had atrophied as a result of bad and lazy management. According to Herman, the Guild was using funds that it had collected from its members as dues to support them financially until they were able to return to being merchants, but those funds were about to run dry, making the need to restore the merchants' former autonomy something of an emergency.

"I'm fine with having the Merchant Guild resume responsibility for the kingdom's means of production, but you will have to agree to certain conditions," I said to Herman.

"I don't have much choice but to accept them, do I?"

"My conditions are that the hiring of slaves is to be forbidden; price controls are to be imposed on staple food items such as salt, wheat and corn; the banks will come under the supervision of the Royal Treasury; merchants will only be allowed to export goods of which they have a surplus; anybody who meets the requirements for joining the Merchant Guild will be allowed to join; and if an acceptable price has been agreed merchants will be required to conclude the transaction, they can't refuse to trade with a buyer or seller for their own reasons."

"You're asking a lot."

"Because I can."

"There is no need for you to be so distrustful of us, you know how much better things worked when it was us in charge and not the nobles."

"I also know that members of the Merchant Guild got to enjoy many benefits that others didn't, like loans from banks with interest rates that were lower than what others had to pay; I also know that there were times when the prices of goods in the kingdom increased substantially because it was more profitable for merchants to export them to neighboring kingdoms; I also know that becoming a member of the Merchant's Guild became increasingly difficult as the benefits that members got to enjoy increased, and that merchants refused to buy grain from peasants that had organized themselves into farming co-operatives. So you see, Mr. Granger, I have many good reasons for being circumspect in my dealings with you."

"You can't blame merchants for wanting to maximize their profits."

"No, but I can blame the king for allowing the merchants to put their profits before the people."

"The king understood that with merchants a certain amount of leeway must be granted."

"The king was tired from the wars that he had fought against the nobles, and didn't pay adequate attention to how things were to be organized in the aftermath of their downfall."

"This proposal of yours is going to meet with a lot of resistance."

"And I'll be counting on you to help with overcoming that resistance."

"What would be my motivation for helping you with this?"

"Aside from the return of your right to conduct commerce?"

"In order for us to return to commerce we need more than just rights."

"Such as?"

"Capital; a large injection of capital into the system is going to be needed to get things going again."

"I'm prepared to provide this injection of capital...in the form of a loan."

"We would be prepared to accept a loan from the Treasury...with a reasonable rate of interest."

"I'll leave it to Alfred to set the repayment terms."

"We've had good dealings with him in the past, I see no reason why we won't be able to agree terms with him."

"Then we have an agreement?"

"We have an agreement," Herman said, getting up from his chair, "Your majesty," he said, bowed, and left.

"He was a tough one," I said to Ferland after Herman had left.

"My feeling is that he's left here having engaged in a much tougher negotiation than he was expecting," Ferland responded.

"I gave away a lot more than I was planning to."

"And my guess would be that he got a lot less than he was hoping for."

"So it was a good negotiation?"

"I'd say so. I would however like to know where the funds are going to come from for the injection of capital that you promised him."

"That will come from the wealth that we confiscate from the nobles."

"Will there be enough?"

"I don't know yet, VanBilt hasn't furnished us with the details of their hidden wealth yet."

"Might I suggest we expedite that."

"It already has been expedited; he's ready to spill his guts, I'm just leaving him to sweat down in the prison because I enjoy tormenting him."

"And until you're ready to bring an end to his torment?"

"We start preparing for the visit of the Dranii ambassador; once VanBilt has given us the information we need we'll be summoning the Dranii ambassador for an audience."