The political structure of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins could generally be divided into two categories. One was the central nobles, led by the two marquises, and the local forces, led by the counts. The other was the merchants, represented by the coastal and border trade circles, and the nobles, represented by the hinterlands.
The former division did not make much sense. The contradiction between the central and the local factions could be seen in all countries — oh, except the Republic of Northwest. This kind of thing was a common occurrence. For thousands of years, or even longer, countries of all races had faced the same problem. No one had ever been able to come up with a solution, and it was rare for it to escalate into a large-scale conflict.
The power of the great aristocrats was absolutely no match for the alliance of the local aristocrats, and the local aristocrats would not easily unite. This was the balance between the two sides.
But the latter division was the biggest problem of the Commonwealth of Gold Coins at present.
This country was founded on commerce. After a long period of operation, the contradiction between the merchant faction and the aristocratic faction had accumulated to the point where it was difficult to clean up.
The merchant faction controlled more than 60% of the country's assets. If it was limited to money, then the amount they controlled was even more than 70%. Although the aristocratic faction had less money, they controlled nearly 80% of the country's population and almost the same amount of land.
One side had money, the other side had people. When the relationship between the two sides was good, they cooperated sincerely with each other and achieved great things more than once.
But as time went on, the contradiction between the two sides grew. The merchant faction hoped to promote the construction of more trade routes, promote consumption, and promote population flow — in short, to make the business of the merchants better and better. The aristocratic faction hoped to maintain the status quo or even reduce trade routes to stabilize the situation and reduce unnecessary expenses. In particular, they wanted to limit the flow of population to ensure that their territory could have a stable output.
This contradiction was almost irreconcilable. Even the great Goddess of Wealth could do nothing about it. She could only let her clergy stand in a neutral position and try to mediate the dispute between the two sides, ease the relationship between them, and act as lubricants or cushions.
In the past, because the merchant faction had a lot of money, they could rely on mercenaries to gain a strong military force and firmly suppress the aristocratic faction. Although the aristocratic faction had a large number of people, they had always been at a disadvantage in front of the merchant faction who could recruit large numbers of mercenaries at any time.
In recent years, as the God of Aristocracy grew stronger, the aristocratic faction's power continued to increase. They originally had an advantage in terms of population, and with the overt and covert support of the Church of the God of Aristocracy, they had accumulated more and more combat power.
As the saying goes, 'If you carry a lethal weapon, you will naturally want to kill'. Now that the aristocratic party had increased their military strength, it was inevitable that they would want to rely on this power to fight for greater benefits. Moreover, ever since the battle of "Sun's Death Day", the number of mercenaries on the Main Plane had greatly decreased, and the mercenaries were increasingly averse to joining the army to fight. Therefore, the strength of the merchant faction was indeed constantly declining. As time went by, the nobles became more and more radical. All kinds of conflicts, big and small, occurred in the country from time to time.
The most famous incident took place in a city in the Midwest of the Federation. The local lord and the large Chamber of Commerce had a conflict, which started from an argument and eventually led to a large scale conflict. Both sides used a total of more than 500 troops, and the battle lasted for almost half a month. If it weren't for a Marquise working with the Church of the Goddess of Riches to mediate, the two sides would still be fighting.
This incident was more or less the fuse that lit up the conflict between the two factions and brought it to the surface. Since then, there had been more and more friction and conflicts between the two factions, with bloodshed occurring from time to time.
It was also for this reason that the leaders of the two factions were currently working hard to rope in various forces, trying to increase the strength of their own faction as much as possible in order to overwhelm the other party.
Since the summer, Baron Dahl had been receiving letters from both sides. Whether it was the aristocratic faction, led by the two Marquises, or the merchant faction, led by the seven large Chamber of Commerce, all of them were constantly persuading him to support their side, and all of them had justifiable reasons.
No matter what, Baron Dahl was still an aristocrat, a lord, and this made him naturally belong to the aristocratic faction. But for a long time, the Dahl family had always profited from the smuggling business. It could be said that the lifeline of the family did not rely on the status of a lord, but on the status of a smuggler. This made him naturally belong to the merchant faction.
In fact, in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, most small and medium-sized aristocrats like the Dahl family were like this. They managed their territories as lords, and at the same time, they did business to support their families. But among them, very few could be like Baron Dahl. Whether it was as a lord or as a business, he was very successful.
Things went bad because of this "very successful"!
Perhaps they had taken the Dahl territory as a model, both sides were increasingly trying to rope in Baron Dahl, and their attitudes were becoming more and more unyielding.
Especially this time, the envoys they sent all hinted that if he was not a comrade, he would be an enemy.
This was the problem that gave Baron Dahl the most headaches.
He really did not care who he was a comrade with, but he was very concerned about who he was an enemy with.
After all, no matter which side it was, to the Dahl family, they were both too powerful and behemoths. No matter which side he sided with, he could be easily killed by the other party with a slap … just like swatting a mosquito.
Although both sides swore that as long as Baron Dahl sided with them, he would already be able to obtain a certain amount of benefits, and would definitely receive very good protection, but Baron Dahl did not believe them!
Only a f * cking fool would believe them!
Protection? Very good protection?
Haha, how did the heir of a certain viscount who suddenly fell off a horse and died not long ago die?
A young man who had the strength of a quasi-knight would fall off a horse and die? He would not die even if the horse fell to its death!
In addition, how did a certain medium-sized chamber of commerce's warehouse by the sea get broken into by the merfolk? Don't tell me that those unlucky bastards who had been abandoned by the Goddess of the Ocean actually had the ability to break into the fortress built by the rocks on the shore. That would be an insult to everyone's intelligence!
Baron Dahl dared to bet his own head that as long as he sided with one of the sides, after the news spread, in less than half a month, the number of people sitting here today would be reduced by quite a few.
Everyone naturally understood this, so they looked at each other, all frowning.
An awkward silence enveloped the small meeting room.
After a long time, in this silence, a voice suddenly sounded. It was a young quasi-knight with the surname Dahl.
"I think … why don't we just side with the Church of the Void Mask!"
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