The Big Ones

Chapter Two: The Three Kingdoms

Imperial Box, The Hippodrome, Jin-Hark, Kingdom of Louria

"So you're saying because we've had TOO MUCH rain over the past couple of months, we're going to face a bread shortage?" asked King Hark IV of Louria, 34th of his line.

Four chariots painted in blue or green thundered down the track of the hippodrome as the riders urged their horses forward with lashes from their whips. Sand flew into the air behind them before settling back onto the ground.

"Yes, Your Majesty," replied High Chamberlain Maus. "The consecutive rains meant that the soil never dried enough for planting until a few days ago, and by now the delay means the wheat will not be harvestable in time before we must dip into our reserves, and I mean heavily. A couple of weeks delay is fine, but not a whole two months."

The chariots noticeably shook and quavered as they barreled around the end of the hippodrome to loop back on the other side of the central divider, past the altars up on the top of the walls marking the spots where many a charioteer was dashed against them. The crowd's cheering raised a level at the skillful display before settling down.

King Hark shook his head. "I cannot demean myself and beg for aid from the knife ears. It took generations of hard work to convince the demes to see how detrimental the flood of goods from Qua-Toyne would impact us Lourians and support restricting the flow just enough for wheat farmers to survive. Hark the First destroyed the lives of the farmers and thus the nation when he attempted to derestrict trade."

How was simply opening the gates to trade devastating to Louria's farmers? The king still remembered the lessons hammered into him by the treasurer when he was a child.

Qua-Toyne outcompeted the Lourians on both ends of the produce market. If something could be grown, then Qua-Toyne could offer a cheaper price to the merchant, for each of their plants can produce five times the quantity of their competitors. If Qua-Toyne's farmers were not interested in quantity, then they could commit to quality with fruits three times as large and much tastier than anything outside. If a servant visited the high-end market for their masters for the first time in their life, they could hardly recognize the Qua-Toynian grapes as grapes, since each berry could be the size of one's fist. This sadly resulted in the Qua-Toynians outcompeting Louria even in the wine business.

The problem for Lourian's food security was that the poor loved the low price of Qua-Toynian wheat-derived bread. Their dependence meant no king of Louria could completely ban Qua-Toynian goods, so most of Louria's wheat-capable land was instead used to raise cows, chickens, sheep, and horses. The Qua-Toynians even dominated the pork trade, as their unparalleled forests were capable of raising gigantic pigs that needed limited attention from the foresters to multiply, and the same forests provided an inexhaustible wood supply.

Louria's true money-making exports were clay pottery and wool textiles, but the Parpaldian control of the oceans squeezed profits. Therefore, Louria lost out on both the low and high-input products. It was to King Hark IV's shame that the royal reserves of wheat kept for emergencies were of mostly Qua-Toynian origin, as the treasury struggled to acquire the necessary quantities to ensure the people's survival during bad harvests and war.

Maus, of course, knew the gravity of the situation. "It is indeed a difficult problem, Your Majesty."

"What about the Parpaldians? Would they use those big ships of theirs to float wheat into our harbours?"

"Not without significant cost. No doubt they would ask for double or triple the already greedy prices the elves of Qua-Toyne would request. They will of course disguise it as the natural course of their ocean travel expenses, but Your Majesty knows how great a profit they instead make from our earlier purchases."