The Conference Room for Trade Ministers

Subject: The Conference Room for Trade Ministers Wed Nov 25, 2009 9:11 pm

World leaders and dignitaries gather here to decide the fate of the world. The Conference Room for Trade Ministers Ionamanor

Guest

Gabby arises and looks over the gathered, her expression serene with a soft smile. Nodding to those she knew, she began a small statement,
Your Excellencies... I trust your travel here to Castle de Stryke was without incident. For those that do know me, I am Gabrielle Hamilton de Grey, Princess Regent of England.
It is wonderful that we all can be here, meeting, in friendship. I am sure I speak for all in saying to the Lord and Lady of Castle de Stryke... Thank you... Opening your home to such a gathering, for the purpose of fostering positive international relations is a precious gift to all of us in attendance.
I turn your attention to our host and Lord Chancellor of Foreign Affairs, Sir Baldar de Lusignon.

Smiling and nodding to Baldar, Gabby retakes her seat.

Guest

Trike walks into the room with a tray of sweets, and looks at all the faces present, he then notices the Regent was talking, and hurries out of the room so he doesn't interupt.

Subject: Re: The Conference Room for Trade Ministers Fri Dec 04, 2009 4:04 pm

Baldar rises and bowing to the Regent, faces the gathered in the room.

Your Royal Highness, Princess Gabrielle, Regent of England, Princes, Dukes, Chancellors ,Trade Ministers and Ambassadors here,

I, Lord Baldar de Lusignon, Baron of St. Ives, , as Chancellor of the Royal Embassy of England, and on behalf of my Loving wife Dame Caitlin de Stryke-Lusignon,Looking at his lovely wife have the honour to welcome you in England and in Castle de Stryke.

The Diplomatic Conference is a way for all countries to meet so as to begin today in this specially prepared room for England and its Counties to get to know and speak of possible ideas and new friendships for trade and peace between all our neighbouring nations. This is by far the biggest sign of the desire for cooperation between all countries involved and it is certainly the largest and innovative attempt in economic and diplomatic cooperation in the history of the Kingdoms..
I am pleased to see here the representatives of many countries, of the Kingdoms, and this shows that there is a wanting of peace and trade, and most of all friendship between nations.

I would like to do the following,

1) the creation of a common area, which will be this room at the end of the conference, in which the Trade Ministers of the countries that agree with the proposals, brought by this conference, may have contact with each other and know each other. This common place of meeting may also serve to enable each Trade Minister to present goods which they want to buy or sell, so it will be easier to find those interested and facilitate trade.

2) I would like to see ideas to come about how better to trade between counties and countries.
I attended a trade conference in Venice that opened my eyes to the vast possibilities of Trade systems, and agreements between different countries to save time and travel costs. With the opening of sea lanes this gives us even more reason to better the trade systems.

3) Another room will be created for our diplomats and leaders to discuss about diplomatic relations between countries so as to define which ways of removing obstacles, and better the relations for each country.

Finally I hope that at the conclusion of this conference there will be agreements between all parties to ensure economic and diplomatic cooperation.

Thank you again for coming here ... We will organize soon, in the pauses of the conference, a dinner party here at the castle to finish off with a grand ball so as to get to know each other more informally.

Thank you to all

He sits down next to his wife holding her hand

Subject: Re: The Conference Room for Trade Ministers Fri Dec 04, 2009 5:30 pm

As Princess Gabrielle introduced her husband, Baldar, Caitilin could not contain the pride she felt in him. She squeezed his hand gently as he rose to speak. It was an honor to host the world's leaders in their home. She listened carefully to his proposal's for being the central meeting place for international trade and Cait nodded in agreement. What better use for this castle than to serve the world.

When Baldar finished she smiled and watched to faces of those in attendance. She entwined her fingers with his as he held her hand. Caitilin leaned close to whisper. Wonderful , my beloved, just wonderful.

Guest

Lady Emmy listens in silence as the regent, then chancellor Baldar speaks. She ponders her thoughts what this meeting will be over soon, and where morg has dissappeared to.

Loyal Family Servant Posts : 33 Join date : 2009-12-01

Unnoticed, as any good servant should be, Marie slips into the conference room to make sure everything is in order. She silently leaves to take care of the needs other guest of the castle.

Subject: Re: The Conference Room for Trade Ministers Sat Dec 05, 2009 4:35 pm

As people begin to talk, he stands and the voices stopped.

Mi Lords and ladies, as I mentioned before I attended a trade conference in Venice, and proposels were made, infact Lord Koicheen of Serbia, was one of the promoters his idea I thought was quiet good, and i would like to give it as an example of how it could be done and modifed for other countries.

Koicheen wrote:: As we know the West Balkans have very few towns and plenty of nodes. With the County Fair we had some chance of trading on large distances, but with the disappearance of it unfortunately right now it is practically impossible for lets say Venezia and Bulgaria to trade as the costs and the time needed be rather too large burden to overcome. The price of the goods would be too high, and the time to deliver too long, making it inefficient. But if we as the Councils of our respective kingdoms work together, we can overcome this burden.

Lets make an example how would this trade take place. Lets say certain goods such as fish has to reach Venice, from Bulgaria. So Bulgarians and Venetians wish to trade goods, between themselves. For a trader without token it would take at least 18 days, and obviously 18 to come back summing it up to 36 days of travel. Quite long dont you think?

But lets say that in this trade the kingdoms in between would like to help them for a fee.

So lets assume Bulgaria wishes to export its fish. And Venetians want to buy it. Bulgarians have bought it off the markets from all towns and have it in their County Inventory.

--
Preparations. Bulgarians find a trader from Vidin (BT), Serbians trader from Smederevo(ST), and Croatians trader from Rijeka(CT).

Day 1.
BT goes from Vidin to Serbia, just crosses the border.

Day 2
BT receives the Serbian grant with enough money to buy all the fish. And returns to Vidin.
ST goes from Smederevo to Croatia, just crosses the border.

Day 3
BT buys all the fish in Vidin. And goes to Serbia, crosses the border.
ST receives the grant from Croatia with enough money to buy all the fish. And returns to Smederevo.
CT leaves Rijeka to Venice, just crosses the border.

Day 4
BT returns the Serbian grant to Serbia. And his role in the trade is complete. He returns to Vidin.
Serbia issues a grant to a random person, which contains all the fish returned by BT, who then sells fish to ST in Smederevo.
ST leaves Smederevo and goes to Croatia, just crosses the border.
CT receives the grant with enough money to pay for all the fish that he will buy. And returns to Rijeka.

Day 5
ST returns the Croatian grant full of fish to Croatia. And his part in the trade is complete. He returns to Smederevo.
Croatia issues a grant to a random person, which contains all the fish returned by ST, who then sells fish to CT in Rijeka.
CT goes from Rijeka to Venice, just crosses the border. Returns the grant. And his part in trade is complete.

Wow! In just 5-6 days, instead of 36. The goods have reached from places as far as Samakov in Bulgaria to places like Verona in Venice! Isn't it amazing?

Now obviously this plan requires coordinations of at least 3 traders. At least 3 Trade Ministers, at least 3 random persons, and at least 3 Sherriffs. In the best case scenario, and may involve many many more

The fees
Obviously, with such a great cut in expenses, new ones come in place. If we assume that a average trader takes 20 pounds daily wage, this trade would take around 36 *20 = 720 pounds. And time which is of the essence! The fees by traders would be all in all 4 days per trader. And there are 3 traders. Meaning 12 * 20 = 240. So we save 480 pounds with a cut of ONE MONTH in time!

Obviously for the transactions to take place the kingdoms would also need certain amount of money. Which could be further discussed with each kingdom. And may have all sorts of amounts.

But this trade route could go both way, and not just go both way, but strategically spread from as far as Turkey to as far as Bretange. With proper coordination and synchronization among the kingdoms and traders, the good could reach the place in less than two weeks!! And it is very realistic

But this is just the beginning, because the game is being developed and soon we will have all sorts of regional foods and with the proper agreements and connections Valahia could have fresh olive oil from as far as Catalonia, one week after it orders it. As you see, this plan could very well work for regular foods as well as regional foods in future, as it was originally planned. The key issue is that there is an opportunity for easy and fast trading between East and West, since obviously Bosnia, Serbia, Albania have fewer towns and are unable to supply great amounts of goods which may be needed in future.

And as an example, I've discussed with Doge Cangrande and we can try and make one trade between Serbia and Venezia, as an practical and real example, based on this idea during the conference itself.

My Lords and Ladies your ideas, could it work in and between other countries???

Baldar sits down

Guest

Seeligford
stood up and waited a while before starting to speak, making sure his voice was
clear.

Your Royal Highness, Princess Gabrielle, Lord Baldar, Princes, Dukes, Chancellors ,Trade
Ministers and Colleagues Ambassadors

I’ve heard with greatest interest at the diligent report about the Trade Conference in Venice.

Just because it deals with the Balkan Area, I suggest we include the Kingdom of Albany and of Bosnia in our discussion. The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies is, today, one of the direct neighbours of Albany and Bosnia, now that navigation is a fact and although we do not know yet which routes will be implemented in the very next future, we the Sicilians are quite sure that one of those implementations will be the one between Albania and/or Bosnia with one of our ports on the Adriatic Sea, Silvi and Chieti, in the Sicilian Province of Abruzzo. As far as I’m informed, no Albanian Municipality
is directly on the Adriatic, so to have a port, nor a Bosnian one is. But the distance between the coasts of the three
Kingdoms is so insignificant that we believe their connection is more than logic.. Once a sea connection will exist,
Trades from the far Bankan East and the Western Territories of the Realms will be more than easier, because, as you can easily understand, sea freight will avoid a “circum-transportation” of goods and people along Europe crossing
the Alpine or Sub-Alpine Regions.

Trade is a only one part of the skeleton of economy, the other one being communications between peoples and cultures. We Sicilian believe it is our task to implement, encourage and sustain trade and cultural exchange at the same time, the one existing because of the other, and vice versa.

Rimmster bowed to the participants thanking for their attention and sat again

Subject: Re: The Conference Room for Trade Ministers Mon Dec 07, 2009 6:24 am

Baldar stands,

I totlally agree, with Lord Rimmster, I for one will help to further talks and help the countries here present to contact our local Counties and trade ministers, in helping with trade agreements.

Guest

Emmy nods silenty, as she does the math in her head." Lord Baldar, It does present a smashing idea for growth for everyone involved.It will most definetly help in economic growth and development for all countries."

Guest

Darrexus steps in with a bundle of papers in his hand, approaches the table and... notices he got into the wrong conference room Laughing

He was about to leave as he notices something familiar about the paper which was being viewed... and recognizes it. It was already noticed that he leaned forward to inspect it, so he stands up strait and addresses the representatives at the table as appropriate.

Excuse the intrusion, I'm not a trade minister so I'll be brief.
I confirm that this is a wonderful way to strengthen trade and economic growth and it has my support.
That's what I have to say. I've seen wonderful works of Lord Koicheen in the Kingdom of Serbia and, what can I say.. This is one of them.

He takes another quick look at the people and smiles.
Well, I better be off and make it to the diplomatic conference room, maybe I won't even confuse it with some other room this time. Cheers.

Guest

'Lord Baldar, dear fellow colleagues,
I think that this is a very interesting idea. It should not only make future trades easier, it should also boost communication and friendship between people of differrent regions and countries.'
Varda briefly says and takes a seat, waiting for other to have their say.

Subject: Re: The Conference Room for Trade Ministers Thu Dec 10, 2009 5:31 am

Baldar address the people present.

One thing we should also talk about is
1)agreements on port taxes,when trading begins by sea.

2)Also how can each country protect traders, travelling in there terrirtory,

3) Should there be a place where people can be informed if there are wars, or cival unrest. So peolple can check before travelling.

4) Should each Country have a trade representative, maybe a guild.

Your Thoughts Lords and Ladies.

Subject: Re: The Conference Room for Trade Ministers Thu Dec 10, 2009 8:07 am

Silvermane sits and listens to Lord Baldar's presentation of Lord Koicheen's proposal from the Serbian kingdom. He nods and smiles in agreement.

"This sounds like a wonderful way to get merchandise to their destination faster. A world trade guild where several traders travel in groups from different contries carrying multiple grants to their destinations combined with shortcuts in conjunction with sea travel should make the transport of goods much more efficient."

Silvermane takes a sip of his wine before he continues.

"As an example, where I come from in Somerset, England, we have already finished our second level port in Bridgewater on the northern side of Somerset. Our port on the southern side in the town of Chard is almost finished too. There is only one day travel between Chard and Bridewater over land." http://www.aidesetastuces.seek4host.net/MrGroar/index-eng.php
(click on ... New Politic and Religion to see the map)

"For goods travelling to and from Scotland, Ireland and northern England, it would be much more economical in the sense of saving on time, food and wear and tear on the ships to dock at Chard when travelling from the European continent, travelling one day by land to Bridgewater and taking a ship from there to the northwestern areas to continue their journey. Similarly those coming from Ireland , Scotland and Northern England may dock in Bridgewater ... travel one day by land to Chard and take a boat from there to the European continent."

"I am certain, that eventually, we shall ALL be able to find such shortcuts throughout all the lands. Shortcuts which shall save on travel time, economies on the food consumed on board the ships and the cost of repairs to the ships due to wear and tear and storms. Of course these may change as the captains sailing our ships become more educated. "

Guest

Lady Emmy speaks softly," Lord Baldar, it sounds fine, but In my home county There are ramblings i have sent you by courier, I can see military escorts for traders, but my question is this, Where are they going to come from? I am asking this not as person, but as adealer in tools and weapons, for i am a blacksmith and i sell tools and weapons." Emmy sits back watching the room.

Subject: Re: The Conference Room for Trade Ministers Sat Dec 12, 2009 6:29 am

Baldar rises and, facing the present,

This was an answer given by one of the representatives at the venice conference.

morosanu wrote:: After listening Koicheen's example, Morosanu rises up:

The proposal is quite interesting, simple, yet efficient. To sum up, the idea would be to designate traders living in towns closest to the borders between counties. For example it would be inefficient to designate traders in Dubovac, for trades between Croatia and Serbia, however it would be efficient to designate a trader in Smederevo for such a purpose. For trades between Bulgaria and Valahia, the best option would be a trader in Rosiori de Vede, in case s(he) is not a lord.

Below please find the list of efficient locations for traders, according to the countries involved in the trade:

Venice <-> Croatia - Rijeka
Croatia <-> Serbia - Smederevo
Croatia <-> Bosnia - Zenica
Serbia <-> Bulgaria - Vidin
Bulgaria <-> Valahia - Rosiorii de Vede or Lovech in case the trader can travel 3 nodes in 1 day
Bulgaria <-> Edirne - Harmanli or Samokov in case the trader can travel 3 nodes in 1 day
Edirne <-> Greece - Deagac or Serres in case the trader can travel 3 nodes in 1 day

Each trader in a city has 2 possibilities:
1.Either s(he) brings goods from the foreign country
2.Either s(he) moves goods to the foreign country
Each case requires 4 steps. Each step may represent 1 or several days, depending on the number of days required for the trader to cross the border. The advantage is they can be performed in parallel at different borders, in a pipeline manner.

Steps for case 1 (bring goods from foreign country):

Step1 Travel to foreign country (cross the border)
Step2 Receive grant with goods from foreign country. Turn back to home country.
Step3 Once arrived in home city sell the goods to someone who's granted with the money. The goods are stored to home County. Travel back to foreign country (cross the border)
Step4 Cancel the grant (with money). Turn back to home country.

Steps for case 2 (move goods to foreign country):

Step1 Travel to foreign county (cross the border)
Step2 Receive grant with money from foreign country. Turn back to home country.
Step3 Once arrived in home city buy the goods from someone who's granted with the goods. The money return to home County. Travel back to foreign country (cross the border)
Step4 Cancel the grant. Turn back to home country.

Problems to be discussed:

The fees for traders

Should they be unique (for simplicity) ? And what amount ?
(I guess the paying side is decided between the countries initiating the trade)

Security

What happens if a rogue/private army kills the trader? Who's gonna pay for the delay ? Who's gonna pay for extra traders. Who's gonna destroy the army, and who's gonna pay for this effort?
What happens if a country suddenly wants to break the agreement and takes the money, or goods, refusing to give them back ?

These are some sensible issues in case they will ever arise. They are not so much involved in the trading system, but they are extremely important for its health.

Finishing his statements, Morosanu looks over to see a representative from Bulgaria. He thinks without their involvement his country would be isolated from the rest, and same goes for Greece.

I think they are valid points to discuss.

Subject: Re: The Conference Room for Trade Ministers Sat Dec 12, 2009 6:22 pm

Is there a possibility to grant these traders immunity as we do to our ambassadors..?

If he is attacked, the bandits are not capable of taking the grants. However, a grant must be returned to the issuing county or country, if the holder of the grant is in the county which issued it if attacked by an army.

Perhaps a pact or treaty can be formed dealing with this issue. An example would be for all countries and/or counties dealing with the culpable county shall lose its ability to participate in these trade deals until such time as the goods are returned and the trader compensated..?

These are a few thoughts on the matter ... any other ideas out there..?

Loyal Family Servant Posts : 33 Join date : 2009-12-01

Attending to the needs of the castle's guests was indeed a pleasure for Marie. Castle de Stryke had been too long silent. She refreshed the food and drinks in the trade conference room and was gone without notice.

She found herself humming as she hurried through the halls of the castle. A rare smile graced her face.

Guest

Emmy speaks softly,"Lord Silvermane," Immunity has to be fully explored and verified as legal in not just our country, but others. If we grant it, it must be cuatiously, and to the right person. There must be also some accountibility to go along with this."

Subject: Re: The Conference Room for Trade Ministers Tue Dec 15, 2009 10:05 am

Silvermane stands and bows to Lady Emmy, "Of course ...Lady Emmy! Even our ambassadors know that immunity is based on the predicate that the laws of the country are respected to which they are assigned. I would hope that those chosen would be as trusted as are our own Ambassadors and consuls."

Having responded, Silvermane sits back down and listens for the others at the meeting to reply or formulate new ideas.

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