There is no doubt that it is definitely not easy to establish a huge trade alliance with unified currency, tariffs and markets in Faerûn.

In other words, since the birth of intelligent creatures on this land, no race, civilization or country has been able to do this.

Excluding the Aboleth Empire, which is too old to understand the specific situation at that time, the creator racial civilization, and the era when giants and dragons competed for hegemony, the elves came to this world and began to have clear historical records.

Counting from twenty to thirty thousand years.

Whether it is the elves who launched several crown wars to collapse themselves, or the later rise of human magical civilizations Yinmaskar, Netheril, and the Shaan Empire that once occupied almost half of the land south of the west coast, all are no exception.

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If we look at it from a modern perspective, they are actually similar to the "Holy Rome" created by the German Tribal Alliance. They are both the kind of bulk empires whose power and governance are extremely decentralized and may split from the middle at any time.
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No way!

Who makes Faerun's magical power so powerful and abundant that a high-level mage's own strength is equivalent to a powerful, fully armed army?

Therefore, when personal power exceeds a certain critical point, its political form and social structure will also change accordingly.

Especially for centralization, a necessary operation to create a unified form, it is simply a huge insurmountable obstacle.

After all, power corrodes people's hearts, and strong individual power will infinitely amplify the selfish and lustful parts of human nature.

Just imagine, if you are a powerful spellcaster lord, ruling a city and a large area of ​​land and people, and can promulgate, modify, delete laws at will, and print your own image on minted currency, just give a command

One click can determine the life or death of a person or a group of people.

Then would you be willing to hand over these powers or part of them, and take the huge risk of losing some of the existing ones, to promote a huge trade alliance or even a highly centralized unified country, just to make the lives of those civilians a little better?
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The answer is obviously no!

Perhaps a very small number of people with high moral standards will have such an idea, but they will soon be defeated by the cruel reality.

If you look at the history of Faerûn, you will know how difficult it is to implement the word "unification" in this land.

Needless to say, the era of the elves goes without saying. Several crown wars almost required the brains to be beaten out. The bloody and tragic level was not at all a sign of mercy because they were of the same race and shared the same beliefs.

In the end, he ended his hegemony over the continent of Faerûn. The entire pantheon was permanently torn into two parts. The spider goddess Rose took the dark elves into the underdark to develop, and started a long-term war against the surface elves.

Thousands of years of hatred.

As for Yinmaskar and Netheril, the two most famous human magical civilizations, although they are both called empires by scholars.

But it is actually closer to a parliamentary alliance formed within a specific geographical scope and based on common ideologies, values ​​and understanding of the power of magic.

The only difference is that Yimaska ​​allows artificers to become lords of various places, and then unites these artificers to form a semi-feudal, semi-parliamentary country.

Netheril, on the other hand, has the floating city as its core and relies on the long-term and stable relationship between the great arcanists to maintain its national existence.

This is why, after the rise of the genius Grand Arcanist Karsus, Netheril quickly fell into serious divisions, and even almost broke out into civil war.

Even when these two civilizations were at their peak, they were still far from the word "unification".

Even when merchants do business in areas under the jurisdiction of two different lords in the country, they still need to pay tolls and duties.

The economy is so divided, let alone the political aspect.

Coupled with the influence and interference of external forces such as gods, demons, demons, angels, etc., as well as the geographical segmentation caused by inconvenient transportation and communication, it eventually led to a high degree of decentralization of power, a stubborn disease that has plagued Faerûn to this day.<

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But now, with the birth of airships that have both speed and load capacity, the dawn of "unification" finally appears for the first time.

The reason why Zuo Si first advocated the establishment of a trade alliance to achieve a certain degree of economic unification was to first test the reactions of major forces, organizations and even the churches of the gods.

Because this is a typical behavior of making the cake bigger, in theory everyone can benefit from it, so the resistance is relatively not that big.

After a complete and huge market, currency, and tariff system are established, economic unification will inevitably promote political unification.

In order to protect their own interests and social stability, the emerging businessmen and citizen classes will do their best to promote the formation of a politically unified, large and powerful country.

Only in this way can they maintain their ideal living conditions under the protection of the state apparatus, without having to worry about the eventual disintegration of the trade alliance due to trivial matters or disputes.

In addition, Zuo Si was very smart and did not choose to come forward on his own. Instead, he chose to entrust the church, which holds the gold to the goddess of wealth, with full authority to negotiate with various towns.

The advantage of this is that it can give the entire plan a layer of divine and religious meaning, making people feel that the leader behind it is the goddess of gold who is in charge of trade and wealth.

According to the traditional thinking of most people in Faerûn, they would only think that this is a move by the goddess of wealth to expand her influence, rather than seeing it as a political temptation.

Without causing any impact or threat to themselves, the ruling class in most areas will not take the risk of offending a true god and make small moves secretly.

After all, once the Church of the Goddess of Wealth is offended, it directly calls on merchants to implement a trade embargo or suspend currency exchange business in the region, which will be disastrous for any country or even town.

There have been many bloody examples in history that show how terrible impact and damage holding gold can have on a country at all costs.

Of course, since the trade alliance needs to unify tariffs, currency and related laws, it will weaken the control of each franchisee's own finances to a certain extent.

Therefore, even the Silver Moon Alliance ruled by Alustriel encountered a lot of trouble when reaching internal consensus.

The Golden Dragon Queen Veramalandes even had to personally take action and dig out some evidence that some opponents were seeking power for personal gain, engaging in corruption and accepting bribes, and then she suppressed the opposition.

Finally, on the fourth day after the airship arrived at Silvermoon City, the two parties signed a contract of dozens of pages under the witness of the Goddess of Wealth.

At this point, a trade alliance covering Amn, Kalinshan, Luskan, Nelanthel Islands, and the Silver Moon Alliance was officially established.

Of course, we may also add Baldur's Gate, which has essentially become a puppet regime, and the West Heartland region to the west that will soon be included in the rule.

When Shane VII takes over the Kingdom of Tethyr, the area will also become part of the Trade Alliance.

As for independent towns such as Waterdeep City, Neverwinter City, Yatta, Chang'an Town, Red Pine Town, Noisy Water City, etc., we still need to discuss them one by one.

However, with the addition of the Silver Moon Alliance, I believe these towns will soon realize that if they cannot become a member of the alliance, their business and trade will soon be dragged down by fierce competition.

Therefore, they don't have much choice at all. They can either choose to join in as soon as possible and take advantage of this ride, or they can choose to gradually decline and die in the tide of the times.

"Phew - it wasn't easy, but it was finally done successfully. From today on, we will join hands to enter a new era."

Alustriel stretched out in a very lazy and relaxed posture, perfectly showing off his slender and graceful body curves.

At this moment, she was lying on the marble guardrail on the high balcony of the palace, looking down at the crowds of people in the market that were impossible to see on weekdays, and her eyes revealed unprecedented satisfaction.

Through the report sent by the tax department not long ago, Ms. Hope has learned that from the time the airship landed until now, the taxes generated by transactions in Silvermoon City alone are equivalent to the total of the past year.

Those Amn merchants not only sold large quantities of goods at low prices, especially grains and livestock that had a huge gap in the past, instantly making the originally tight food reserves extremely abundant.

And they are constantly purchasing local specialties, such as magic ink used to copy scrolls and spells, animal furs, sauces, fresh fish, nuts, rare and precious woods and herbs, specialty fresh fruits and vegetables, etc.

In short, as long as it can be loaded into the airship and can be sold at a reasonable price, they will accept everything.

After all, a round trip only takes a few days, so as long as you keep it carefully, you don’t have to worry about it getting damaged.

What's more, the consumption concept of Ascatra's upper class is to show off their wealth through all aspects of food, clothing, housing and transportation.

Therefore, merchants who buy fresh food have no doubt that these guys are willing to spend a lot of money to hold banquets at their homes, serving fruits, vegetables and fresh fish from Silver Moon City in the far north, so as to surprise the guests.

Vera Marandais also slightly praised: "It is indeed a brand new era.

Do you know?

I was in several ordinary hotels in the city last night, and I could smell the smell of spices and sugar in the cheap set meals provided by the pubs.

These two things used to be luxuries that only the rich, nobles and mages could afford.

But now many civilians can afford it.

This was something that was almost unimaginable before.

In addition, the cattle brought from the south will also become the best helpers for farmers to cultivate land.

The only regret is that Soth, who proposed all these ideas, was not present.

By the way, what is he busy with recently?"

Alustriel couldn't help but turned around and asked with a smile: "Do you think I will know?

Stop making trouble!

That guy is a planeswalker.

I can't even be sure whether he is in Faerûn at this moment or has gone to other planes and worlds.

But according to the information provided by the Harper Alliance, Soth seems to have participated in the divine war that broke out in Zhentil Castle not long ago.

He even personally destroyed an incarnation of Cyric, the Prince of Lies.

And because of this incident, the local sky is still filled with an unprecedented mysterious substance and energy.

Many mages have gone there, trying to figure out what these primitive and uncontrollable substances and energies are.

To be honest, I have never been able to figure out Soth's inner thoughts and purposes.

Because he is sometimes evil, cold, and cruel, and can kill his enemies and torture their souls without any psychological pressure;

Sometimes he is like a wise and benevolent great ruler who always makes the people under his rule live better than other places.

In particular, free food is provided to the elderly, disabled people and children who are unable to work. Even the church of Yin Ermat, the god of suffering, praised this.

The most important thing is that he has neither the kind of like-minded friends in this world who share life and death, nor a lover who is willing to sacrifice everything for him, nor has he shown any overly strong desire.

In other words, he has almost no weaknesses that can be exploited.
To be continued...