Genorio placed the stack of documents in his hands onto the table. "Your Grace, you may wish to review these ledgers. They are the accounts of the Commercial Alliance's maintenance expenses in
From these ledgers, we can draw a rather interesting conclusion: the Commercial Alliance has constructed a self-sufficient economic system within Morant City. They have no need for external exchange or trade. The million residents of Morant City serve as both consumers and producers. The Alliance's trading houses provide them with the most basic necessities of life, and in return they receive rations of food and daily supplies through their labor services. Throughout this process, they have no need for gold Fordes to conduct transactions.
We discovered several letters between a certain trading house's vice president and a friend in the inner city district. In these letters, the two debated whether it was worthwhile to sustain a city of a million people that produced no agricultural output. This is a rather interesting point of contention. The vice president's friend argued that Morant City should be downsized, with at least half of its million residents dispatched to the various trading houses' territories and the domains of the nobility, thereby reducing the burden each trading house bore for the city.
The vice president, however, took the opposite view. He believed that the quality of Morant City's million residents far surpassed that of the docile, submissive commoners found in the trading houses' and nobles' territories. The Alliance's development to its current stature was inextricably linked to the countless talented individuals Morant City had provided. He cited an example: his own trading house had relocated its production workshops back to their territorial lands, only to discover that the quality and efficiency of goods produced on their home territory were nowhere near what they had been in Morant City.
Documents found in the residences of senior trading house officials in the inner city district indicate that, in truth, the Alliance's internal ranks were rife with debate over Morant City's future. Though the city had fallen from its former glory, losing its status as the commercial heart of the Galentea Continent, its million free residents had become a burden on the Commercial Alliance. Even though production and expenditure among the million residents had reached a delicate equilibrium, some short-sighted trading house executives viewed them not as an asset but as dead weight.
We uncovered a proposal in the Alliance Council's archives, apparently jointly submitted by over a dozen trading houses, demanding the forced relocation of half of Morant City's residents — roughly five hundred thousand people — to the various trading houses' territories. The vacated outer city districts, comprising over a dozen communities, would then be rezoned and subjected to large-scale real estate development, transforming Morant City into the true capital of the Commercial Alliance — a noble city befitting the Alliance's prestige...
However, this proposal was rejected by the Alliance's Seven Giants. Grand Duke Comberlate, president of the Two-Headed Dragon Trading House, personally addressed the Alliance Council. This is the record of his speech. President Comberlate stated that the difficulties were temporary. As long as they defeated the Andinak Kingdom, the Commercial Alliance would enjoy lasting peace, and all its troubles would be resolved. Every person present's investment in Morant City would yield generous returns.
Current sacrifices meant future harvests, Grand Duke Comberlate declared. Once the war ended and peace arrived, Morant City would regain its former splendor. A great city required not only noble aristocrats but also a vast workforce to serve it. Therefore, while Morant City's million residents were currently a burden to everyone, they would become the source of everyone's wealth in the future. As long as they persevered through this difficult period, a bright future lay just ahead.
Grand Duke Comberlate further announced that once the Andinak Kingdom was defeated and peace prevailed, the Commercial Alliance would redesign and expand Morant City. The current twenty-four outer city communities would be relocated and resettled in newly planned areas. The original sites would be merged with the inner city district to form a beautiful new aristocratic quarter, which would include a grand theater, an equestrian arena, a swordsmanship hall, and other entertainment venues. This reconstruction plan would be shared with every trading house that united and steadfastly supported the Alliance's resolution throughout this war..."
As
Had the Commercial Alliance not adopted the system of granting lordships, Morant City would still be the premier commercial metropolis of the Galentea Continent. It was simply that after dealing extensively with the nobility, those merchants refused to be looked down upon and insisted on establishing a lordship system to force their way into aristocratic circles. Perhaps this also had to do with the Galentea Continent's millennia-old tradition of land grants and ennoblement. After all, no matter how much money merchants accumulated, their status could never match that of landed nobility. How could the merchants of the Commercial Alliance, at the height of their power, endure being treated as inferiors?
The trading houses had been moving their production workshops to their own territories to reduce costs. Setting everything else aside, the mere relocation of goods warehouses to trading house lands had stripped Morant City of a portion of its tax revenue. Under such circumstances, how could the city avoid decline?
Without economic trade, Morant City's million residents were reduced to the status of slaves and test subjects for the various trading houses. For all their talk of freedom and equality, they held no mastery over their own fate. Even their most basic right to receive coarse grain rations and daily necessities was controlled by the trading houses. The million residents of Morant City were truly pitiable.
Fortunately, the Alliance's supreme leadership proved wise enough to recognize that once the war ended, as long as they established peace with the surrounding nations and opened trade routes, Morant City would once again shine with brilliant luster. That was why the various trading houses were still willing to sustain the million residents at a loss — it was a long-term investment. These trading houses were betting on the future of Morant City.
"Is that the full picture? Genorio, you've done well this time. The materials on Morant City have been gathered very thoroughly." Lorist praised him with satisfaction.
Genorio smiled bitterly. "Your Grace, what follows is very bad news..."
"What bad news? Go ahead. Things can hardly get worse than they already are." Lorist said dismissively.
"Your Grace, because our
"What did you say?" Lorist felt as though he were hearing a fairy tale. Was this even possible? He was the victor, the conqueror of this great city. The Norton Family had seized this city — should he not be plundering all its wealth, forcing every resident to prostrate at his feet begging for mercy, and then returning triumphantly to the family's territory with treasure and beauties? How had it come to this — he had led the family's forces to occupy the city, and now he had to feed over one and a half million people?
As though reading Lorist's thoughts, Genorio spread his hands in an innocent gesture. "Everything I've said is true, Your Grace. Unless you issue another order — to slaughter the city's million-plus residents, after which we could simply tidy up and head back to the Northland. Though, in that case, the Norton Family would become the target of universal condemnation and cursing. As for the family's reputation... well, would the Norton Family even have a reputation left by then?
Of course, that was merely a hypothetical. I know Your Grace would never give such an order. But after our forces occupied Morant City, not only did the Krisdo Hills — which had been supplying the city with potatoes, oats, and other coarse grains — cut off their grain supply, the livelihood of the million residents was also severed. So, Your Grace, all one and a half million people in Morant City now depend on our family for sustenance..."
It seemed as though he had dug a pit intending for the Commercial Alliance to fall in, only to fill it with himself instead... Lorist stood up in extreme frustration and rapped Genorio twice on the forehead. "Quite the nerve, talking to your teacher like that!"
Lorist then began pacing around the room. Just moments ago he had experienced a flash of insight — that was it! Genorio had mentioned grain, and then about feeding over a million residents of Morant City... Could it be that the Commercial Alliance's forces had given up retaking Morant City precisely to saddle the Norton Family with this burden? No, that didn't make sense. They had captured the grain from the transport fleet — enough to feed over a million residents for two or three months — and they could transport even more grain from the family's territories...
Suddenly, Lorist realized the truth. Grain — the key was grain. How had he forgotten? The family's Northern Sea Fleet had defeated the Invincible Fleet, and the transport fleet had fallen into their hands. Without this shipment of grain, even if the Commercial Alliance recaptured Morant City, they would be unable to feed its residents.
And the potatoes and coarse grain from the Krisdo Hills required two to three months of growing time. The farmers in the Krisdo Hills region had not simply ceased supplying Morant City with coarse grain — they had already used up most of what they had for their own rations. The potatoes in their fields had only just been planted and would not yield a harvest for another two months or more.
This shipment of grain from the transport fleet was therefore critical to the Commercial Alliance. With it, they could weather these two or three months. After that, the Krisdo Hills would reach potato harvest season, and a month or so later, the southern provinces of the continent would also enter their grain harvest period. The Alliance could then survive this difficult stretch of grain shortage.
Now that the Norton Family had intervened and seized Morant City by a surprise attack, it was clear that the transport fleet's grain would never fall into the Alliance's hands. Even if they managed to retake the city, as long as the Norton Family carried the grain away or burned it to ashes, nothing awaited the Commercial Alliance but tragedy. Seeing this, the Alliance's leadership had simply abandoned Morant City and retreated with their remaining elite forces directly back to the Mawei Forest Province.
As expected, merchants had no sense of honor. Even though Morant City was the Alliance's capital, the merchants had abandoned it without a second thought. If any other territory's nobles or a kingdom's capital had been captured, those lords would have leapt three feet into the air and led their forces on a suicide mission to reclaim the lost territory before anything else.
Those million-odd idle residents — even if the Norton Family distributed grain to them for free, the sheer number of people with nothing to do would remain the greatest hidden threat facing Morant City.
"Genorio, before we occupied Morant City, how did those million-odd residents make their living in order to obtain rations from the various trading houses?" Lorist asked.
Genorio replied, "Your Grace, Lord Tagel already had people conduct a thorough investigation into this situation. The documents and reports are in the folder he's holding."
"Tagel, go ahead."
"Yes, Your Grace." Tagel opened the folder in his hands and began his report. "Prior to the outbreak of this war, Morant City had a population of roughly eight hundred thousand, with the shantytown and slum districts estimated to house around one hundred thousand. However, because the war took place on the Mana Hill Plains, approximately five hundred thousand refugees from the plains flooded into Morant City seeking shelter — some staying with relatives and friends, others using their money to purchase property in the city directly and obtain residency.
The Commercial Alliance recruited ten thousand new soldiers from Morant City, subsequently mobilizing an additional forty thousand or so to replenish the front lines. The families of these nearly one hundred and fifty thousand personnel were each entitled to two ration allocations for food and daily necessities — a privilege extended to soldiers by the Alliance. They were also far luckier than those new recruits conscripted from the southern provinces, as they were not used as cannon fodder for frontal assaults. Instead, they were mostly assigned to rear-defense duties and the guarding of supply convoys.
However, after three years of war, only about one hundred and ten to one hundred and twenty thousand of these one hundred and fifty thousand remained, and they are now all prisoners of our family's forces. Their families have consequently lost their ration allocations as well. Together, this accounts for approximately four hundred thousand people.
Then there are those who performed preliminary processing of production materials for the Alliance's various trading houses. Textiles represent the largest such industry — over three hundred thousand people in Morant City were connected to the textile trade. They took the raw hemp fiber allocated by the trading houses and spun it into basic hemp yarn and thread, which was then collected by the trading houses and shipped back to production workshops on their home territories for further processing into various grades of hemp cloth to be sold as merchandise.
Much of the materials we seized in the trading house warehouses this time in Morant City — valued at nearly ten million gold Fordes — consisted of these basic raw materials. Though vast in quantity, they hold little value for our family. Even if we transported them back to our territories, our people have no desire to wear clothing made from such coarse hemp fabric. It provides neither warmth nor durability...
Beyond the textile industry, there are military ration processing, weaving straw shoes for frontline soldiers, chopping firewood and producing charcoal, fishing and shrimping in Hidden Gold Bay, working as domestic servants for the various trading houses, serving as personal attendants to the nobility, and so on. Basically, anyone willing to work could find a job and receive ration allocations from the various trading houses.
Now that our family's forces have occupied Morant City, all work connected to the Alliance's trading houses has ceased. Only a handful of jobs related to basic livelihoods continue, but the problem is that no one knows who to hand over the firewood-cutting, charcoal-burning, fishing, and shrimping operations to, or how resources should be distributed. The twenty-four outer city communities have fallen into unrest over this, and the people are in a state of panic..."
Well then, Lorist thought with a bitter smile. It turned out he not only had to feed over a million residents of Morant City but also had to find them work. He had truly fallen into his own pit.