Lol. I said two posts but I'm moving slowly and writing more than I thought on Trade. Maybe I'll do three? ...
Grain beyond the Corvus River
Cody talked a little about the importance of the Corvus River to the Coryani Empire. Especially in the shipment of grain via large barges. I don’t see anything that I would contradict. The Corvus is to Arcanis what the Mississippi or the Nile are to the real world. It’s THE highway goods travel on. And no surprise ... the most powerful human nation is centered on it.
Those grain barges are controlled by 5 “Grain Families” and we got to see one of them toppled from powerI (Otrecco) for trying to fiddle with the grain trade way back in the original campaign (think the mod was Grains of Sand). Grain trade & flows of cash are so large you need major players. The5 grain families are (or become) Patrician class and serve directly as vassals to the Coryani val'Dellenovs. And lose that status when the val’D’s loose faith in them…
I would guess that Coryan also exports at least some grain to the League of Princes. The river runs down to Plexus and out to the gulf of Coryan. And then its just a boat ride away to Liveh, Eppion and the Shadow Towns. Boats are cheaper and faster than carts and wagons. Wagons are also pulled by horses, that need to eat. In heavily travelled areas you can’t count on forage, so some of your cargo capacity is now being diverted to feed. Your horses also need to sleep. Boats don’t. So while a wagon on a road covers 20 miles on a decent day, you can expect coastal vessels to cover 140ish miles/200ish kilometers with decent weather. If cities have enough farmland to produce all the food they need within 20 miles then maybe local sources are cheaper. That might be true for Option or Liveh. For anywhere else, its should be the boats that win. The Shadow Towns are in the middle of forests. They're getting staples from somewhere else and and that somewhere is probably cheapest when it comes from Coryan. This is probably a political issue from time to time. Grain trade also (potentially) promotes dependence on Coryani … and no doubt produces irritation to farmers beyond 20 miles of port cities...and also various kio lords who dislike Coryani interference in "their" back yard..
This same logic suggests that parts of Coryan imports grain as well. If it’s harder moving large quantities of grain overland via roads, then I think its logical there should also be ocean trade in grain harvested in the other agricultural “superpower” - Milandir. I put a throw away reference to this in the old IK module The Cold and the Dark. Grain would be harvested inland in farms and surpluses sent down river via barge to the ports of Naeranth and Yarvek. From there they would go out to major cities on the coast like Savona, Sulpecci and maybe up to Pearlspar and Censure. It should be cheaper to get grain into Savona by Milandesian ship rather than overland from Balantica. My opinion looking at the maps. In Milandir the Grain export is probably controlled by the val Dellenov and the crown. A bad harvest in Milandir might mean less exports to Savonna, but Balantica should be able to make up the difference (at some cost). Censure might fare less well on the rare year Milandir has a bad harvest. I know they have a peninsula full of farms near them. I don't know if they are usually self-sufficient or a net importer/exporter of agriculture.
So grain is capital B "Big Business." Its run by major players. And it's trade has political implications.
The First City and Trade:
For all that, it's probably unrealistic for much grain to be traded from Milandir and/or Coryan to the First City. This despite the fact that that there is a reference to such grain trade in the Blessed Lands book. There is no easy water route from Coryani or Milandir. The alternative, overland, it takes a caravan "weeks to a month" to get there. Logically, whatever is pulling the wagons of grain is mostly eating “cargo space” as it goes. For "weeks to a month" ... because there isn't forage to be found in the Blessed Lands. Come to think of that, they need to eat on the way out too. I don't really know how much you can load on a wagon, but two months of fodder for horses probably isn’t leaving much room for anything else. I don’t see how grain trade at volume is possible from the Known World. Khitan as a source of grain is even worse. All the above, plus the Voie. That leaves shipments by sea from Khitan and/or the Far West. That does look feasible. Even then it's still several days from the docks to the First City, which probably means food is more expensive in the First City than the rest of the Known Lands and is THE limiting factor on the population. Which helps explain why the Pearl, while a slum, is not densely packed. Even if the rest of the city was reclaimed, it’s not clear to me that it could sustain a larger human population without some kind of improved infrastructure.
Given the logistical hurdles of getting wagons to the Blessed land I can only conclude that the only items worth taking to the First City (or beyond) are small, light and expensive. Blastpowder from Altheria certainly. Fine weapons, maybe. Silk on the trip back certainly. Fervidite ingots back certainly. Spices, expensive reliquaries, and illuminated manuscripts? Yes. Slaves? Sadly yes. Fruits and vegetables and grain … No. Despite the fact that the First City is between the Coryani Empire, The Khitani Empire and the far west, its geography is hostile to easy trading.
I haven't talked about the Kurenthe weather yet, but I should. It's one more terrible hazard that should oppress trade in the Blessed Lands. Yes, you go with professional guides that know about the weather and how to react to it. On the other hand you have an entire caravan of wagons packed on a narrow road and limited abilities to outrun or dodge some of the terrible things that can happen quickly. You might have the supplies to make a temporary shelter in the event of red snow. But what does a caravan do during the Black Rain except die under the zombie apocalypse? Given the choice of doing the run to the First City or running a barge up and down the Corrvis from Coryan to Plexus over two months (maybe multiple times) what would any sane man or woman chose? I'd do the barge...
No one should choose to do the Blessed Land's run unless (a) they don't have better options or (b) they're getting paid more than they would in other (safer) options. I said food was probably more expensive in the First City. That should applies to everything not dug up by tomb raiders and archaeologists. The First City might indeed have options for the wealthy that come in from exotic lands. But its shouldn't be cheap to get it there. Living in the First City ought to be more expensive than living in Naeraanth or Grand Coryan. It's my opinion that the marketplaces of the First City are probably overstated in the Blessed Lands book, for their size if not their diversity.
Being poor in the First City has got to be harsh for the have nots. I suspect people starve in winter with greater regularity than other major Arcanis cities. And of course the nickname for the Andyar (the sporadic natives of the Blessed Lands) is the Cobo" which means the wretched...
_________________ Eric Gorman
AKA Ambassador Tukufu, man of letters, tomb raider and Master Sword Sage . . . and Sir Szymon val'Holryn, Order of the Phoenix Formerly Sir Jaeger val'Holryn. Weilder of the Holy Avenger: Thonanos. Gave his soul to help free King Noen
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