Arcane Lord

"In terms of understanding of elf society, I am not as good as Chief Oripus. I still agree with his judgment. However, regarding the purpose of Toph's investigation, I don't think there is any need to be too conspiratorial.

"No matter what the other party's deep-seated purpose is, as long as they make no mistakes in spice smuggling, which is something we have relatively control over, it won't make much difference to us."

Having said this, Shado looked to the north again, his sight seemed to penetrate the wall, and he saw the elf mage who was being arranged in Mrs. Patty's manor, and then continued:

"As for smuggling, since we have already done it, it doesn't matter what the consequences are. As long as the other party can bring tangible benefits, it doesn't matter what his purpose is!"

What Xia Duo said was a statement of his own position. Lord Collins nodded after hearing this. He had already had the idea of ​​continuing to expand smuggling, and Xia Duo's words spoke to his heart.

Before coming, he also tried to find out. The Moon Crown family has a great reputation in Cormanso. Generally, no elves catch a cold from them. Even if they pretend to be, it means that the other party's power is not weaker than that of the Moon Crown family.

What reason would there be for rejecting such a cooperation partner?

Collins even thought that if Lord Shado hindered this cooperation, he would simply leave him alone and cooperate with the new elf collaborator.

In his opinion, the benefits of high-grade spices are not inferior to the friendship of a senior arcanist.

Of course, if Lord Xia Duo agrees, then he does not have to take the risk of offending a senior arcanist to gain a currently uncertain benefit.

…

In the temporarily arranged restaurant of the town hall, two humans and one elf quickly reached an agreement on whether to further cooperate with the Yueguan family, and the relationship with the Yueguan family was still handled by the Silverleaf family.

Although two humans, Collins and Chateau, were engaged in smuggling, especially Collins, whose source of goods came from him, they also needed an elf white glove as another layer of insurance.

When the smuggling was exposed and discovered by Cormanso officials, the Silverleaf family was the best shield.

Of course, since the Silverleaf family had already evacuated the territory of Cormanthor during the Cormanthor Drow War, even if this incident was discovered, it would not be a big deal. At most, it would be difficult to appear publicly in Cormanthor in the future. That’s all.

With their elf appearance, maybe they will be more suitable for smuggling in the future!

All kinds of thoughts flashed through Sha Duo's mind.

…

After lunch, Oripus went to discuss the specific details of high-grade spice smuggling with the elf mage of the Moon Crown family, while Shado and Collins stayed at the town hall and continued to talk about the future development prospects of international trade.

"At present, the Northland Alliance has been established. Although no changes can be seen in a short period of time, changes will come sooner or later! Lord Collins, Rodit must have told you about the crown prince of Cormanthor in Everest after he returned. Card’s various remarks, right?”

"Lord Xia Duo is referring to the 'equality and common prosperity of the five elven races'?"

"Yes, but it's more than that."

Shado let out a long sigh, and then explained: "This change in the attitude of Cormanthor's crowned king also means that Cormanthor's overall external attitude is about to change. Netheril is very likely to have a new relationship with Cormanthor. Relatively relaxed trade environment.”

"Isn't this a good thing?"

"It is a good thing, but there are also hidden risks. Take spices as an example. If the trade between the two countries normalizes and Cormanthor agrees to import spices from Netheril, how do you think the price compares with their domestic prices? Another example is magic items, Cormanthor How much is the price difference between Manthor’s exports and Netheril’s domestic prices?”

What Shado wants to say is actually the issue of trade deficit. Cormanthor has very little demand for imports of Netheril goods, and most of them are concentrated in the resource field.

Including but not limited to various types of ores, metals, gems, rare woods, and even special commodities such as spices that can be exported as luxury goods, but the added value of the commodities is extremely low.

Correspondingly, the added value of the goods exported to Netheril by Cormanthor is so high that many Nese merchants go to Conifera City just to "wash out" the goods produced in Netheril. " into Cormanso, thereby obtaining a higher sales premium.

Nese merchants can make a lot of money by transshipping goods, not to mention the goods that really come from Cormanthor. Any piece of mithril jewelry, said to be from the hands of a master, can be more than ten or even hundreds of times more than the price of normal jewelry. .

However, in the past, the relationship between the two countries was sensitive, trade could only be carried out on a small scale, and the types of goods were also very limited. Even if it was smuggled, not much could actually be smuggled.

But once trade is normalized under the framework of the Northland Alliance, it will simply lead the wolf into the house and hand over a large amount of wealth to Cormanthor.

…

Under Chateau's explanation, Collins gradually realized that even normal trade might be lurking in crisis, which suddenly made him feel a little strange to the world he was originally familiar with.

"So, Lord Shado, what can we do to prevent this from happening?"

"It will be difficult unless we develop substitutes for all the goods Comansor might export before the other side takes notice of this special weapon of 'trade', which is almost impossible to do."

In fact, Xia Duo can do it, but the problem is that he can't ask others to bear this responsibility for no reason, let alone doing so, which will simply put himself on Cormanso's blacklist.

"There is another very fatal point. Elf culture has long been deeply rooted in Netheril. Even if there are substitutes, people are still willing to pay for elven goods to a large extent! For elves, not only 'trade' can be used As a weapon, 'culture' can also be used as a weapon, and its lethality is even more amazing!"

This was the first time that Shado talked about the invasion of elven culture in front of people other than Niya. It was not that he trusted Collins, but that this kind of thinking and worry was not uncommon in Netheril.

And based on his understanding of Collins, although the other party is not as wary of elves as he is, he is definitely not a spiritual (elf) element.

Otherwise he wouldn't even mention it.

…

In the reception room, Collins was silent, and Shado did not urge him. He just quietly thought about how he could deal with this situation.

After a long time, Collins suddenly spoke and asked Xia Duo a somewhat strange question: "Lord Xia Duo doesn't like elves and elf culture?"

"No, on the contrary, I like the elves as a race and the elves culture very much, but this is a matter of position. I will not relax my vigilance against them because of my personal emotions."

Or maybe no one had ever talked about "position issues" in front of him. Lord Collins fell silent again. Shado still didn't urge him and gave him time to think slowly.

Xia Duo is very tolerant of a future ally that he can win over.