Chapter 997 Politics of The Margrave Family

Chapter 997 Politics of The Margrave Family

Listening to Lord Janus explain Lady Miranda's situation, Alexander could finally see how things had gotten to where they were.

The Margraves family faced stifling exports and a collapsing domestic market right when their expenses were peaking.

This caused their treasuries to rapidly shrink, resulting in a want of change in the leadership.

"Is the free trade agreement really unpopular with the people?" Hearing the gist of the thing, Alexander thus posed so to Lord Janus, pointing, "We also import a lot of duty free grain, meat, wine, timber, pottery, ores, jewels, wool, slaves, and luxurious fabric from you. The trade agreement should be beneficial to these people too, right?"

In Alexander's mind, the riches should have gone both ways.

"Ye... yes, you are right in that my lord. But... the volumes are not equal," Lord Janus slowly squeezed out the point, implying the agreement benefited Alexander more than Lady Miranda.

The Margraves bought multiple magnitudes more of sugar, iron, soap, and glass from Zanzan than they sold their own native products there, 5 to 6 times the amount.

But this was not news to Alexander.

In fact that was kind of the point.

Why would he have bothered with forming a free trade agreement if it did not benefit him more?

And Lady Miranda agreed to it because originally, the plan was for her to take these products and sell them to other countries and regions, thus making those people pay for this deficit.

But now that logical plan seemed to have hit a snag, as Lord Janus went to further say,

"While most of the people are generally happy with your products, it is the blacksmith guilds who are most strongly opposed, my lord. Given metallurgy and mining are our biggest industries, the guilds representing them are very strong. It is these blacksmith unions that want the agreement repealed. And using their connections and money they even managed to rope a few of the other trading guilds to their cause, putting pressure on us. *Sigh*, things there are not looking good." Lord Janus's face appeared dejected.

While Alexander could easily see how these guilds were tempting others- 'We are only the first! Next, it will be you. Now it is iron, soon it will be clothes. Then it will be salt and then lastly, they will even drive out our farmers with cheap grains. We must end this free trade right now!'

Most of these fears were overblown, but they would be really effective in stoking fear.

And also, most of these guilds tended to stick together, in a 'you scratch my back when I'm in trouble, and I will scratch yours' kind of way.

"Do all the guilds support Lady Miranda's younger sister?"?Alexander thus posed.

"...Ummm... most do...but only a very handful few have actually explicitly announced it. For now, they appear to be content motley cheering from the sides. " Lord Janus's reply seemed a bit anemic as if he was unclear on the details. Updated from novelbIn.(c)om

Or should the power go to someone who already has a boy?

Alexander personally was of the latter opinion because that was also how Lady Miranda was chosen.

"Hmmm, looks like this Miss Landa has quite a strong case," Thus Alexander murmured to himself, much to Lord Janus's chagrin.

This was why the elderly lord had lampooned about talking to a smart man.

While Alexander finished with Miss Linda then switched his attention to the Miss's better half,

"What is her husband's position in all of this? Is the Heeat family behind this too? Do they have designs for your family too?"

"The Heeat's family's involvement in our affair.... I'm afraid I do not know." Towards these suspicions, Lord Janus was not fully in the loop, but strongly claimed in an acrid tone,

"However, I'm sure there are. Of course, there are! How could there be not! But it is likely only Lady Miranda and Lord Cassius are truly aware of the extent. Negotiations with the ducal family have been very secretive. Even most of the Margraves do not know how far along it is."

Seeing how Lord Janus repeated his suspicions about the Heeat's family hand in this matter, Alexander understood the elderly man did not approve of this allegiance.

Following this, Alexander then decided to move on to the next topic- the family itself.

"What can you tell about the Heeat family? And how are their relations with Miss Linda's husband, Lord Parker? Why are the Margraves switching allegiance from the Marsh Family? And why did you choose the Heeat family specifically?" Alexander bombarded the man with a great deal of questions.

"..." So many that Lord Janus at first felt even a bit overwhelmed.

Until he managed to recover, "Umm.... one of the ducal families, the Heeat family controls the Lynican region, which is located in the southern portion of Sybaris." By this Lord Janus referred to the part of land controlled south of the Central Sea, the section bordering the warring states and the Numadins- a group of nomadic tribal people.

Lord Janus further continued, "They control huge, almost never ending spans of lush grasslands, where they raise all kinds of livestock- sheep, cattle, goats, and most importantly horses. The family's horses are famous all over Sybarsis, and they even make up a large part of our cavalry. They are also famous for their leather products and quite a few large silver mines."

With the general introduction of the family completed, Lord Janus then moved on answering Alexander's next question,

"As for why the Margraves choose the Heeat family, I'm not sure about it myself. It was something Lady Miranda had chosen almost unilaterally one day.... So I'm afraid you will have to ask the lady about the details yourself my lord." Lord Janus frankly admitted his inadequacies.

Let us say no to piracy! Don't take part in a crime! Don't patronize thieves!