Chapter 69: Possible Competitors

After listening to George’s account, Viscount Bolerum lowered his head and pondered for a while, then could not help but say with some worry: “According to what you said and my past understanding, for the Church of the Just Lord, the most important thing is the plan for the establishment of the Court and the entire judicial system that comes with it, as well as its operation after completion. In other words, what they need are just these paper plans and abstract data. No matter how I look at it, we are unlikely to get much benefit from them. And they can use the promotion of these things to further expand the influence of their Church. I always feel that in this cooperation, we are likely to be taken advantage of.”

“Father, you do not need to worry too much about this aspect. Even if they get the full set of data and information, they will still have to rely on us for a long time in the future.” George first soothed Viscount Bolerum’s somewhat agitated mood, and then analyzed calmly, “After all, although the organizational structure I planned does not have a huge impact, if it is not handled well, it will still weaken the Lord’s rights to a certain extent. It is fine for us to propose it ourselves, but if other organizations gave us this kind of proposal… no matter how good the other party’s reputation and credit are, a Lord’s first reaction would still be—what conspiracy is hidden in this?”

“That makes a lot of sense. Generally speaking, no one would want to share the power in their hands. Especially for those Lords who have held the power of life and death for a long time, it would be strange if they didn’t become suspicious.” Viscount Bolerum seemed to suddenly think of something and quickly reminded George: “But those Commercial Republics should agree to the other party’s proposal more easily. After all, the power structure there is relatively scattered. As long as the conditions are right, they don’t mind spending some effort to change the judicial system. Anyway, after the change, eighty percent of the people controlling the corresponding power are still those same people.”

“Are you talking about those Commercial Republics in The South? There, frame-ups among the rich for profit are common, let alone the frame-ups and exploitation of the poor by the rich. Sometimes conflicts of ideas can be far more intense than conflicts of interest, right? Although the countries in The South have given ordinary people an easier path to promotion, the intrigue and various ugliness hidden under the table are countless.” Although George’s words were plain and calm, the certainty and confidence revealed in them were rarely seen in the past.

Everything in the so-called Commercial Republics basically relied on trade. However, trade could indeed bring wealth. But in fierce competition, without the support of national power, merchants might find it difficult to gain an advantage.

For this reason, the actions of the governments of the Commercial Republics completely served commercial purposes, and their support and protection for merchants could be said to be exhaustive. During travel, the government provided armed escorts for merchant ships, and the government stepped in to negotiate when issues arose. As the learned scholar named Abraham Dalgleish said, “From beginning to end, the government of the Commercial Republics is either the spokesman and host for the merchants, or their armed force and backing.”

Take the strongest Commercial Republic in The South, Tutchel, for example. Although it did not have the separation of powers system of later times, it was a dualistic power system. Compared to our feudal monarchy countries, it was really much more democratic. If this were the world before transmigration, they would probably represent advanced production relations. Unfortunately, in this world, things are a bit different.

First, the manifestation of political democracy was the separation of power: the highest legislative and supervisory organ of the Tutchel Commercial Republic was the Grand Parliament composed of 500 members, while executive power was held by the Senate composed of 120 members, and the power of the Governor, as the head of state, was effectively limited and constrained. The Governor was elected by secret ballot and could be dismissed for dereliction of duty. When taking office, the Governor also needed to sign an “Oath” to assure the Grand Parliament that he and his family would not seek personal gain or harm national interests because of his position as Governor.

Political democracy made wealth distribution relatively reasonable and opportunities for social class mobility relatively equal. Although commercial Nobles occupied important positions in the government, there was no insurmountable gap between Nobles and Commoners. Commoners could be promoted to Nobles through successful business, and Nobles could fall to become Commoners due to business failure. Social mobility was natural and was not consolidated and strengthened through political power. It was difficult for Nobles to exploit Commoners by occupying government positions, which would lead to social injustice and undermine social stability. Compared with our surrounding countries, Tutchel, which was at its peak at this time, had very obvious institutional superiority in economy and the livelihood of the citizen class.

Of course, if everyone had the opportunity to climb up, then the Demons hidden in people’s hearts would also be released. Coupled with the lack of external control, this made piles of white bones lie beneath the glamorous surface of the democratic system.

At the same time, everything had its pros and cons, and these Commercial Republics had their own peculiarities. But there were two common weaknesses: the extreme decline of agriculture and the absolute lack of strong individuals.

First, there was almost no primary industry—agriculture. This was a bit like the Republic of Venice in the world before transmigration. It is well known that before modern industrialization, which had a history of only about two hundred years, countries on Earth were all agricultural countries, with agricultural populations accounting for the vast majority. However, in the pre-industrial era, Venice was an exception; it had almost no agricultural population, and residents engaged in the secondary and tertiary industries—industry, commerce, and service industries, especially commerce. This had to be said to be the similarity of the multiverse.

Longing for a good life could be said to be human nature. Since one could engage in trade, who would be willing to dig for food in the soil? If one didn’t have capital, one could also go to the city to work, which could be said to make it easier to accumulate primitive capital. If Venice had more or less some land scarcity, the Commercial Republics in this world had large amounts of abandoned land.

As for using slaves? If they were Human slaves, this would not match the democratic system of the republic. At the same time, under the vigorous publicity of the Church of the Good Alignment, which was in the mainstream, slavery, which had existed for a long time, became synonymous with barbarism and cruelty. If it were a poor and remote capital, that would be fine. But for such a wealthy industrial and commercial country to do such a “unjust act,” wouldn’t that be giving others an excuse to loot? That would really be courting death.

Using slaves of other races? Leaving aside the difficulty of sourcing. Just consider the possible retaliation from powerful races like Elves and Orcs. After all, on this Continent, Humans were far from having an advantage. The trade losses caused by deteriorating relations with these two countries alone would probably outweigh the gains. And it could not completely eliminate the threat of war.

Although using unpopular races like Goblins as slaves might not have many other problems. But these fellows were either low in intelligence or weak in constitution; in short, they had serious defects. In addition, the passive sabotage of the slaves themselves was also a big problem. If production efficiency could not go up, it would be difficult to carry on for a long time in a capital that prioritized profit.

Food basically relied on imports, which meant that the lifeblood of the country was, to a certain extent, in the hands of outsiders. Even with large domestic storage and the guarantee of trade routes, it was still difficult to make people feel completely at ease. But because there were no truly unified centralized countries around, coupled with issues of food storage and production, the Commercial Republics were not much worse than other grain-producing countries in terms of food security for now. It was just that they were prone to suffering losses in price. But for these Commercial Republics, problems that could be solved with money were not problems.

As for the problem of strong individuals? For a capital that was commercially developed and based on commerce, to put it nicely, it was full of vitality; to put it harshly, it was overflowing with material desires. In such an environment, how many people could settle down to train hard in the cold of winter and the heat of summer?

At the same time, although the saying “poor for literature, rich for martial arts” was not entirely correct in this world. But the cost of learning martial arts was not cheap. Added to that were the props and nutritional supplements needed for years of persistent training. To create a Red Iron Rank elite in a society lacking iron and blood, the cost was so high that it required a very wealthy family. With such wealth, although they might not reach the level of debauchery, the distractions of the outside world were mostly unavoidable. After all, few could resist the temptation.

Then there was the threshold from Red Iron to Black Lead. The elevation of the mind was even harder to rely on external objects for help. Why did those cultivators avoid the mountains and forests before transmigration? Besides avoiding the threat of human calamities, more importantly, it was to stay away from the disturbances of the mortal world to seek peace of mind. In an environment like that, those who could pass this stage were rarer than elsewhere. And it was easier to produce characters who relied on vices and walked on extreme and biased paths. Such fellows would likely bring far more disaster than benefit.

In fact, there was one more point that was most fatal to the Commercial Republics, and that was that the transmission of bloodlines made it easy for the descendants of the strong to become strong. This was an earth-shaking change. When the theory of bloodlines became the truth, the temptation of money for the strong was greatly reduced. In addition, the fluidity of commerce made it difficult to form a stable Noble group, which made Knights who valued inheritance difficult to establish themselves there. Even other professionals would be somewhat worried.

If they were not relying on rich material supplies and signed cooperation clauses with certain Mage organizations, those Republics would not be as stable as they are now. And the training of Mages was the same as mentioned before. In that kind of environment, concentrating on research was very difficult.

Even so, Viscount Bolerum still had some worries: “Can mere differences in concepts really have such a big impact? I remember that those Commercial Republics also attach great importance to the law. In this regard, the two have something in common.”