Chapter 652: Royal Announcement

Clothes from [Vision] were only the appetizer for the evening’s gossip, however, with the fabulous spread of food quickly stealing people’s attention when the servers began bringing the dishes into the hall.

Most of Lucas’ recipes, all of which he had basically passed along to Christina who then modified them, were considered quasi-secrets of the Balfour Family, but family members were naturally an exception to this rule.

Of course, Second Queen Natasha, recognizing both the commercial and scientific value of certain processes like fermentation, had made some agreements with Celestina and Christina to limit any kind of sensitive knowledge to only a few trusted individuals.

In any case, the point was that the meal featured a number of new dishes and cooking styles with dessert using large quantities of the highest-quality maple sugar, making for quite the experience for the gathered guests’ tastebuds.

However, it really was the post-meal announcement by the king which got the most attention and subsequently caused the most commotion.

"This past year, the Rockwell Kingdom has been blessed by great fortune. Our people, even in the face of tragedy, have proven both resilient and resourceful, and with the favour of the Heavens, have managed to re-build and recover from the tragic events which befell our South-West Province," Nathanial began, drawing a round of polite applause from the crowd.

"However!" The king continued, "I know there is much more we can do, and much more we can achieve! To that end, in order to promote greater prosperity across our nation, and the South-Central Region as a whole, I am announcing today that the Rockwell Kingdom will be hosting a first-of-its kind gathering 6 months hence to discuss improving all our cross-border trade relations."

Now, this announcement alone didn’t garner much attention from the local nobility, much less the foreign dignitaries, as none of them really thought much of the Nathanial’s proposal.

At most, they felt this ’gathering’ would be a small stunt put on by the royal family in order to boost the Rockwell Kingdom’s prestige. It would probably be attended by a few low-level dignitaries or diplomats from the friendlier nations, and nothing of true importance would get done.

That is, until King Nathanial followed up with a shocking declaration, "In order to encourage our neighbouring kingdoms to attend, the Royal Council has agreed to make an initial gesture of goodwill. Any nation which sends a serious delegation, one with the power to negotiate and sign significant new trade agreements, will immediately be granted a 30% discount on purchasing grain from the Rockwell Kingdom for a period of 5 years."

When these words were spoken aloud, many nobles from the Rockwell Kingdom, especially those who relied heavily on exporting agricultural products, spat out their wine and went into coughing fits.

The foreign envoys and ambassadors from the four other nations of the South-Central Region didn’t fair much better, with many of their eyes bulging in disbelief.

While the Tarnath Dynasty was a net exporter of grain and other agricultural goods, the Zilon Kingdom, Darr Kingdom, and Elros Grand Duchy all needed to import varying quantities of grain, fruit, vegetables in order to properly sustain their populations.

Up until now, the Rockwell and Tarnath Dynasties had quietly been competing for this market, but neither side had ever had a significant advantage over the other when it came to price or quality.

As such, which nation bought from which nation was more a political decision than a practical one, with allies simply buying from allies while avoiding enemies whenever possible.

Putting it plainly, the Zilon Kingdom bought most of its imports from the Rockwell Kingdom, while the Elros Grand Duchy and the Darr Kingdom got theirs from the Tarnaths.

All of these nations also imported certain specialty items and even some staples from the Kore Sovereignty, but the prices this Large-Sized Nation offered tended to be higher, as were the transportation fees, so whenever possible, the five nations of the South-Central Region avoided doing so.

Now, however, the Rockwell Kingdom was offering an enormous discount on essential grains.

If previously, these dignitaries weren’t all that interested in attending this trade conference, they certainly were now.

Show up and get 30% off all food imports?

Why not?

Seeing the calculative looks on the faces of all the foreign delegations, and the half-panicked looks on the faces of their own nobles, King Nathanial and his three queens couldn’t help smirking a bit to themselves, knowing that they had already won.

Having to decrease the price of their grain exports by 30% would certainly have been devastating to the Rockwell Kingdom’s economy if it had been a couple years ago; however, after seeing the effects of the seed drill, harvester, and thresher, none of the royals was the slightest bit worried.

The agricultural machines produced by the partnership of the Carlson and Balfour Families had mostly been deployed on farms around Yarrel in the South-West Province, but a number of demonstration models had also been shipped to allied houses, with the Royal and South-East Province seeing the most widespread proliferation of mechanized farming.

This kind of distribution strategy was meant to show people just how much more efficient using the 3 machines was compared to simple manual labour, and in every case, the farms which used this new equipment saw at least a doubling in productivity.

Some extreme examples that also made use of innovations like fertilizers had seen as much as 3 times more grain being planted, harvested, and processed per farmer this year.

What’s more, the biggest limiting factor wasn’t actually the number of farmers, or even the number of machines, but the amount of available farmland!

If smaller farms were consolidated to improve their overall efficiency, and more land was cleared and prepared for planting, some estimates put the amount of grain which the Rockwell Kingdom could grow, harvest, and process with its current workforce at 10 times its current yearly average.

TEN TIMES!

Now, it would probably take a few years to really reach that kind of output, but it was perfectly reasonable to assume that next year, with many more machines being built and much more wide-spread adoption of them, the Rockwell Kingdom would be able to produce twice as much grain as it had before, and that number would only continue to increase as most time passed.

At that point, even if they sold the excess wheat, barley, and oats at a 30% discount to other nations, they would only be gaining profit, not losing it.

The rest of the New Years celebration passed by in a swirl of discussion, with many wondering what the Rockwell Kingdom Royal Family and Royal Council were thinking.

A few people knew what the story was, but they had been ordered to keep their mouths shut under the threat of harsh penalties, so for the most part, everyone could only speculate.

Nevertheless, the gathered crowd all agreed on one thing, this trade conference was certainly going to be a big, memorable event.