Lord Of The Eastern Castle

The Proposal

"So what you're saying is you'd like to implement a new policy that limits the pricing?"

"Yes, that is what I want to do," Ryan said.

"But I don't understand how this will help."

"Look it's simple, all we need to do is a Minimum Merchant Price Policy, what this would entail is there would be a limit to how low a commodity can be sold for."

"But how would this help?"

"There are many peasants who work on our lands but don't own it but, there are also families who have expanded and merged into one, forming an alliance of sorts over time. Since there are multiple such huge families whose core business is to sell commodities, they crush the smaller single peasants by producing in bulk. This causes the merchants to purchase from the larger families since it is much cheaper. If we implement this policy, where we limit the price at which the commodity can be sold to the merchants then the peasants would not starve."

Alistor was shocked. He couldn't fathom what the King had come up with.

"This is a-"

"Amazing, right I know."

"But how will we implement this?"

"I've got an idea."

Ryan stood up. This sudden gesture caused Alistor to stand up as well, but Ryan gestured for him to be seated.

Ryan started to roam to and fro from the room. He had come up with an idea but he was just adding some final touches to it.

"What is it, Your Majesty?"

"So..."
---

"Everyone, silence we've got some new work to do. We have been assigned a task by His Majesty to bring out and implement a new policy."

Alistor said standing in front of all his employees who worked at the treasury.

"Sir, what is this new policy you speak of?"

"We will be implementing a new policy which restricts how trade of commodities takes place in this Kingdom. Before speaking as to how we'll do it, I'll need to address the fact as to why his majesty is adding this new policy."

"It is to help the peasants."

Each one of the treasury workers was shocked. It was only natural. It was believed that the only way a king could stay in power was to keep the poor poorer and the rich richer. This was what they had learned in academics. But a King who was trying to do the opposite. Was he planning to instigate a rebellion or something?

If only they knew what Ryan had been thinking, they'd truly realize what kind of a genius he was. No, he wasn't a kind-hearted individual. He knew that the ones who usually revolted against the system were the extremely poor. It is when they get extremely desperate that a revolution happens. Ryan wanted to make the poor live a better and more stable life such that they would be occupied most of the day.

"Now to how we'll be implementing it, we'll be firstly setting up 2 organizations, firstly a Commodity Inspection Bureau, which will ensure that all the commodities that are produced within the kingdom are sold to the second organization, Eastern Merchant Association. The job of the Commodity Inspection Bureau is to keep tallies of how much commodity is produced within the Kingdom and to make sure that all of it is being sold to the Merchant Association. The task of the Eastern Merchant Association is to act as a middle-man for all the trades and manage the prices. Merchants within and outside of the kingdom will be linked to the Merchant Association so that all the goods are sold at a price not lower than that decided by the Merchant Association. Also, the merchant's association's task is to not favor any particular peasant or peasant family and is supposed to treat every seller equally. They will also decide on the Minimum Selling Price of the Commodity such that it doesn't hurt the smaller peasants and they can live properly till their next produce. Both these organizations will take a small fee for each transaction to make the organization self-sustaining."