Ch.124Upper Section (1)

“Wow, another war.”

“Truly… Throughout history, I’ve never seen so many wars break out in just four years.”

“Well… it’s a civil war, but isn’t a civil war still a war? Everyone would be better off living peacefully. Tsk, tsk.”

The merchants of Lotharing share their thoughts while observing the civil war in Caroling. They express shock, amazement, or sadness about yet another war breaking out, but ironically, all their faces bear smiles.

That’s only natural. No matter how regrettable it may be, one must separate public duty from private interest. For a merchant, it’s unthinkable to give up an opportunity to make a fortune just because of personal sentiments. Even if there were merchants who once held such feelings, the rapid commercial development of the past few years has long since seen them torn apart and devoured by their business partners.

“Where are you selling weapons this time? Judging by your direction, it doesn’t seem to be the southeast.”

“To Duke Anjou in western Caroling. There are many royalist nobles around there, and they’re struggling due to their proximity to Lutetia. Didn’t you hear about this at the last meeting?”

“Hahaha… I had a terrible fever on the day of the last meeting and couldn’t attend.”

The merchants of Lotharing strictly follow the royal court’s orders.

By common sense in this world—or even by modern standards—it’s inconceivable that merchants would obediently follow their superiors’ orders and act collectively.

Sure, they might pretend to comply in areas where administrative power reaches, but merchants are the type who, once beyond the sight of authority, will use any means necessary—tax evasion, fraud, whatever it takes—to gain profit.

“Is that so? Well, if you were sick, it can’t be helped.”

“What are you all doing there! Hurry up!”

“Oh my, let’s quickly follow along.”

However, Lotharing’s merchants don’t behave that way. Without turning their eyes toward small profits, they devote themselves entirely to executing the royal court’s orders.

One might think it’s because following the court’s orders has brought them nothing but benefits so far… but that’s not it. Even if they’ve always profited, there’s no guarantee they’ll continue to do so in the future.

There’s another reason why these merchants obey the Lotharing royal court.

“By the way, was this everyone originally?”

“Pardon?”

“Compared to when we last came to Caroling, it seems a few people are missing. Right, that fellow who looked like a skeleton isn’t here.”

“…They’re all back in the homeland. They committed crimes.”

“…”

The merchant who asked the question doesn’t inquire further after hearing that answer. He simply closes his mouth tightly and swallows dryly.

Lotharing, or rather King Claude of Lotharing, found a method to control groups that are difficult to govern through administrative power by searching through his memories from his previous life.

A state-sponsored informant policy.

This was a method favored by authoritarian regimes like Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, East Germany, and Imperial Japan to control those who escaped the state’s surveillance network.

By officially giving members of a specific group the authority to inform on their colleagues, an extremely effective leash can be placed on that group.

The reward for informing is the distribution of privileges and property held by the accused, proportional to the value of the information provided.

Since a merchant’s ultimate goal is to gain profit, this policy has shown remarkable effectiveness in the Lotharing-sponsored merchant group, which is forced to move as a collective.

Merchants who suggested illegal activities to their colleagues in hopes of making a profit were promptly reported and had their assets seized and distributed among their peers. This gave other merchants a taste for informing, leading them to rely on it even more. Of course, there were also merchants who falsely accused their colleagues, but they too were quickly exposed by Lotharing’s thorough investigations and had to share their wealth with their peers.

Naturally, state-sponsored informant policies aren’t all positive.

“…”

The merchant who realized they had all been eliminated due to informing simply follows the merchant ahead in silence. The lively conversation from earlier has completely disappeared, leaving only a bleak silence.

As seen here, state-sponsored informant policies have the side effect of severely weakening group cohesion.

This weakened cohesion drastically reduces work efficiency, which can ultimately negate the benefits gained from informing. There’s a reason why only authoritarian governments used state-sponsored informant policies.

Of course, this merchant group isn’t maintained by bonds with colleagues but solely for profit, so it can withstand the backlash of the informant policy to some extent. After all, even if people don’t want to work together, they will if it makes them money.

……….

“Wow…”

What’s with these bastards?

Even though I expanded the government organization, there are limits to pre-modern administrative power, so it’s impossible to perfectly control every group.

So I tried to introduce an informant policy to reduce the administrative burden, but concerned about side effects, I decided to test it first with the official merchant group. I planned to analyze the data from the merchant group to decide whether to implement it in other institutions…

“There are far too many informants.”

I expected that over time, several merchants would develop a taste for informing, but I didn’t expect this many right from the beginning.

Assuming the reports aren’t false, the accused are lawbreakers, and removing them is clearly just and beneficial to me, but…

‘This feels extremely unpleasant.’

As soon as I issued a decree to distribute a portion of the accused’s property to the informant, this many reports came in.

This means these merchants, no, these peddling bastards, knew all along that their colleagues were breaking the law but turned a blind eye.

I gave them many benefits like currency unification and customs exemption privileges in the empire, thinking that even if they wouldn’t obey me completely, they would at least develop some minimal loyalty, but I was mistaken.

Seeing this mess, it’s clear they would just keep quiet about everything they’ve received if they thought there was nothing more to gain.

“Though they say no profession is inherently noble or base, merchants seem to be the exception to that maxim, wouldn’t you agree?”

Seeing me disgusted by the overwhelming number of reports, Leclerc shakes his head and says this.

Come to think of it, Leclerc has never hidden his contempt for merchants from the beginning. It seems he’s suffered quite a bit at their hands.

“That’s true. From now on, I need to find ways to control merchants beyond just informing.”

I still can’t decide whether to apply the informant policy to other groups like factory workers, but applying it to merchants seems right for now.

Even when bound to a merchant group, merchants tend to act independently, and at this point, informing seems to be the only means to control them. Since they’re driven by profit and have strong individualistic tendencies, the negative impact of the informant policy—the disconnection between colleagues—isn’t even worth worrying about.

No, if these merchant bastards developed bonds with their colleagues and moved as one, terrible things like cartels or trusts would emerge, so it’s not a negative impact but a positive one.

Ah, I miss the traditional social hierarchy.

……….

“Lotharing’s merchant group is passing nearby! Judging by their direction, they seem to be heading to Duke Anjou in the west!”

“Oh really…?”

Since Lotharing’s official merchant group is crossing Caroling’s territory heading west, they’re naturally exposed to numerous factions along the way.

A neutral nobleman—not one who claims neutrality in the civil war after receiving a proposal from Lotharing, but a minor Caroling noble whom Lotharing deemed not worth courting and left alone—grins upon hearing his vassal’s report.

“How many were there?”

“Pardon?”

“I’m asking how many carts that merchant group was pulling!”

“Eek! I’m sorry. There were too many to count…”

Normally, he would have immediately taken a whip to a vassal who came to report without proper information, but now he doesn’t.

He’s quite satisfied with what his vassal said—that there were too many to count.

“Hehehe… Is that so? Were there any guards?”

“I definitely saw that! I counted the men carrying swords, so let’s see… one, two, three… there were ten of them.”

As the quality of vassals reflects that of their lord, the vassal, unaccustomed to numbers, counts on his fingers and reports that there were ten guards.

Far from being enraged by this sloppy report, the nobleman’s smile transforms into a greedy grin.

“Is that so?”

Ten men—no matter how skilled they are, that’s a number he can handle. Surely ten men can’t face all the soldiers in his barony?

With many factions in the area, he can easily frame others and escape suspicion. After all, merchant groups that unfortunately encounter bandits and are ruined have always existed, both in the past and present.

…Good.