Ch.66Three Markets

“Where are you going with all that luggage packed up like that?”

“I’m heading to Amurtat. The cost of living here has gotten too high.”

“What? You’re abandoning your homeland because prices went up? How can you say that after receiving all that money?”

“Yes.”

The old man who had tried to scold the adventurer was left speechless by that simple answer.

The reason was absurd—adventurers carried swords, while ordinary citizens did not.

Though the explanation was simple, the real reason adventurers were leaving Fahrenheit wasn’t just because food imports had been cut off and prices were gradually rising.

After all, Fahrenheit was perfectly capable of producing enough food to feed all its citizens.

So why were prices rising?

It wasn’t as if an earthquake had wiped out all the farms, and harvest season was approaching, which would bring an abundance of grains.

The answer lay in an unexpected place, as shown in the conversation below:

“How are you holding up? You need to make it through this winter somehow. That’s the only way to maintain our contract with the military.”

“But feed prices have already skyrocketed. Even at the lowest rates, it’s about 1.3 times what it used to be.”

“Prices are already rising?”

“Yes.”

“Damn it… This won’t do. We need to cut back first. Select the livestock that are underweight or too old. We need to reduce our livestock numbers before it’s too late.”

“Sigh… Understood.”

This conversation was between a wealthy ranch owner and his employee.

What we can understand from this is that humans aren’t the only ones consuming crops like grains and vegetables.

The livestock raised by humans typically consume several times more grain than humans do, and in return, they provide meat and leather proportional to their body weight.

Consequently, prices for various dairy products were the first to rise in succession.

As an exception, the prices of meat, leather, and organs remained similar or even decreased. At first glance, one might think, “Well, that’s not so bad,” but this was actually a dangerous signal.

It meant that ranches unable to bear the soaring maintenance costs were preemptively culling their old and sick animals for mass slaughter rather than letting them starve to death.

“Bah! Have prices only been rising for a day or two? Everything except my salary has been going up for over a hundred years! And with discounts like these, you’re still leaving for Amurtat?”

“Everyone lacks patriotism these days. They don’t even think about what they’ve received. Here, another steak at half price?”

“Fine by me. Serve it up quickly.”

Because of this signal, the economic downturn wasn’t felt strongly by ordinary citizens, and most Fahrenheit residents were under the illusion that their economy was still doing well.

Yes, bread prices had risen, but hasn’t that always been the case? Moreover, meat prices—typically a standard for value judgment—were actually falling. In a world where proper economic education was nonexistent and most people couldn’t even write their own names, it was impossible to notice that food security was hanging by a thread.

“I’ve already prepared for our midnight escape. I’ve bribed the gatekeeper, so let’s load everything we can and leave at dawn.”

“I have relatives in Avalonia. We can start fresh there.”

“Sigh… just when business was finally picking up…!”

However, just as there are always perceptive people, the first to notice the economy’s impending collapse were the dairy merchants.

Due to the nature of their business dealing with dairy products from livestock, they understood that while reducing supply was easy, increasing it was not. The dairy products they handled required complex processing and distribution, giving them a keen sense of market trends. Many of them had the intellectual capacity to understand the ripple effects when one cog in the economic machine broke down, as dairy products were used across various sectors.

When such individuals decided to abandon their well-established businesses and flee in the night, it was a clear signal—though possibly an overreaction—that the food situation would continue to deteriorate.

*

So how was Amurtat’s economy faring in comparison?

Although it was said to have no official leader, Amurtat was implicitly regarded as the leader among the countries imposing the embargo, and Amurtat didn’t particularly deny this.

After all, the trigger for the embargo was the strongly-worded letter sent by Tiberius, the ruler of Amurtat.

Although trade with Fahrenheit had completely ceased, tourists from Fahrenheit could still be seen frequently in Pale Harbor and the Steelyard.

The reason they came to Amurtat during these tense times was simple—they had already made reservations.

Even with the embargo in effect, that was all it was—an embargo. There was no war, so human exchange between the two countries, though somewhat diminished, was still taking place.

“Pickled herring and smoked cod. Load them onto my cart until it can’t hold anymore.”

“Yes, customer.”

These tourists had deeper pockets than before because their relatives had pooled money together, asking them to bring back seafood and specialties that were becoming difficult to obtain.

If they might never again taste Amurtat’s preserved wolf meat, shouldn’t they get as much as possible?

Not just Amurtat, but other countries also didn’t interfere much with individuals buying food products to take back. Even if all tourists came with four-horse carts, it wouldn’t amount to the volume of a medium-sized merchant group, so there was no need to stop them.

Besides, Fahrenheit wasn’t Amurtat’s only trading partner.

The embargo had opened up trade routes with cities they’d only recently become acquainted with, making trade diversification a welcome development.

Currently, dozens of merchant groups were lining up to import Amurtat’s steel and bone-ash porcelain, and the craftsmen of Boneyard and Steelyard were working as diligently as ever to meet their demands.

Of course, economics always favors scale, and overall export volume was only half of what it had been when trading with Fahrenheit. But considering that Amurtat’s specialties were spreading farther, the reduced exports weren’t entirely negative.

Moreover, just because exports were halved didn’t mean working hours were halved, so the current exports were of higher quality than those previously sent to Fahrenheit.

“Why did you make so much? This is three times the planned amount!”

“This is for domestic consumption. His Majesty specially ordered it.”

“Oh… is that so?”

For the bone-ash porcelain craftsmen, this was finally a good opportunity to sell their wares to Amurtat’s citizens at lower prices.

In truth, bone-ash porcelain had been an export specialty rarely seen in ordinary households, but with reduced exports, the surplus was being supplied to the domestic market at specially reduced prices—part of the ruler’s plan to expand the overall pottery market.

From now on, bone-ash porcelain would become familiar to Amurtat’s citizens as well.

*

Finally, what about the situation in smaller countries?

In reality, though they were called “small countries,” they weren’t necessarily poor—they just had a smaller overall economic pie.

However…

They were caught in an endless cycle: small economic pie → no room to try new things → small economic pie.

If conditions could be created to expand their economic pie through trade or support, it would be a lifeline for countries that had been spinning their wheels for hundreds of years.

And now, with the seed money sent from Amurtat, these smaller countries began pursuing various projects they had been planning.

Some built schools to train future mages, others renovated their docks to accommodate more goods, ships, and people, and still others constructed hospitals and pharmaceutical workshops to improve their citizens’ standard of living.

How was this possible with Amurtat’s support? Because Amurtat had emptied its treasury, accumulated over several years, to provide financial aid.

Why provide such support? Obviously to improve Amurtat’s image among these countries while gathering allies against Fahrenheit.

Our Lord Tiberius has instructed us with the wise words: “Money can always be earned again.” Upon hearing this, his aide was so overwhelmed with emotion that he fainted on the spot.