"A group of bumbling greedy idiots put into the same room as they steal from each other..." Vivian blurted out in a moment of self-realization.
"W-What?" Dan, the Knight beside her shook as he heard her painfully accurate depiction of the room in front of them.
"N-Nothing!" Vivian blushed.
[M-Milady!] Dan sweated as he cried Vivian's name in his mind. "What would happen if the other bumbling fools hear ya!" Dan accidentally also cried out.
"..." Luckily no one seemed to notice as everyone was too busy scamming the shit out of the person next to them. And so Vivian ignored Dan's slip of the tongue...
Most of the Noble-Merchants, especially those under the Medici's faction chose and voted for policies and decisions that extremely benefitted them! Even if it was inevitably detrimental to everyone and even HIMSELF in the long-run!
It was a cut-throat world of idiots where despite being on the same political faction, the Noble-Merchants still betrayed their fellow merchants in favor of self-gain.
For example, a margarine exporter chose to support a policy that doubled down on dairy trade making butter much more expensive than normal, increasing the demand for his Margarine exports due to its butter competitors becoming more expensive.
This happened despite the margarine and butter Merchants happily conversing like life-long friends before the policy was suggested...
"Y-You traitor! Y-You, damn margarine head!" The butter merchant sorrowfully cried!
"HAHAHA! Take that you milk head! I never liked you in the first place anyway! GAHAHAHA" The margarine merchant laughed.
"I'll be forced to sell my mansions! You have forced me to live a frugal life of poverty with only one mansion now! Are you happy you sick snake?! How will I feed my kids now?! They'll be forced to live under one tiny mansion and only a few servants left!" The butter merchant cried as if he could no longer support his family's basic necessities like food or clothing... Of course, in his case, the tiny mansion the merchant was referring to was a 16000 square feet mansion complete with a swimming pool and of course: what impoverished household wouldn't be complete with their own private bar...
And the "few" servants the butter merchant referred to numbered a "humble" 300 maids, butlers, chefs, and of course a family doctor, I mean, what poor family doesn't have their own private doctor, am I right?
Cruel indeed was the margarine merchant's act of forcing the butter merchant into a life of "poverty"
[How will I pay for my other three wive's expenses now? Meh, maybe we can take some money from Junior's academy tuition, I mean, education's overrated anyways... right?] The butter merchant thought to himself.
The margarine merchant on the other hand also suffered from a different form of problem...
[Kehehe, with this money I can finally buy Belle that home-stead by the sea! Two more mansions to go! Maybe she'll finally notice me?!] The poor simping margarine merchant thought to himself...
[KAHAHA! Belle will finally be mine! Hmm, why did I suddenly remember her brother though?
It is strange that Belle is white while her brother's black... I guess it's hereditary or something, I mean her son has the same complexion as her brother... And it is kind've weird how she and her brother are weirdly intimate... With all that kissing and mooching while I'm not around. Yeah, and that one time I found them naked together in the bed...
Hmmm... Wait! Don't tell me!
T-They have deep Gharibian blood! That explains everything! I mean it's normal for their culture right?... Oh well...] The merchant ignorantly thought to himself.
"Huh..." Vivian sighed as the two idiots fought each other in front of her. Then she wondered: [How has the South lasted so long?]
But not all was disappointment for Vivian though, for not every Noble in the South was as corrupt as she thought.
"Ok, the final agenda for this meeting is about the drought... The farmers and some of the Consulate peasant-merchants demand that the price for grain be lessened this month... Raise your hand if you're in favor" Bermont read off the piece of paper he was holding with the same tired voice he had during the start of the meeting.
*Hmph...* Vivian inwardly scowled as she thought none of the Nobles here had enough integrity to actually raise their hands.
Of course, Vivian herself didn't raise her hand to lessening of the price of Grain as she planned to procure a right-to-sell contract from the consulate, then sell Grain for half the price the Consulate was selling as only the Consulate had the power to sell Grain.
Since Maine was the number one exporter of Grain within the South if she could just manage to fully export all of the grain Maine produced that's not for consumption, even if the price was extremely cheaper than the Consulate's absurdly overpriced Grain, she would've had profited ALOT already, and if she could just put all that money back into Maine, she could, in theory, revitalize Maine back to its former glory.
Of course, no one was stopping the other Southern Nobles from doing the same, sadly, or luckily for Duke and Vivian, their greed and desire for instant money blinded them from investing money back into their own fiefs and potentially growing their riches like how Vivian envisioned...
To the Nobles of Brune, the people were weak, their line of thinking corresponded with how the Nobility of Earth in the medieval ages thought. They kept building up their Military and personal pockets with mansions and extravagant yet unnecessary goods, sucking up the flow of cash that was supposed to go into the development of the people, the culture, the country, and ultimately... the economy.
Slowly weakening the populace with poverty... And where did soldiers, doctors, engineers/masons, and even skilled leaders and officials that handle the Army's logistics come from?
The people.
Vivian realized from a young age, by being corrupt and taking large amounts for yourself, you were basically robbing future you (if you were a noble with a fief) of future taxes, and labor to fuel even larger projects and improvements in the future...
This was why the self-centered Consulate was extremely unreliable and incompetent for Vivian, despite it being the most advanced social structure within the Continent.
Only Brune had merchant coalitions like that of the Consulate whose purpose was to stabilize food prices... sadly it's official function was corrupted overtime.
Vivian sighed once more as she thought: [Well... It sure is a lot better than the rampaging warlords of neighboring countries who did more than petty corruption...]
Vivian became excited, and also somewhat lonely that it was only her that shared the same view of mutual gain for the Nobles and the People from the Economy's boom...
But then, when she thought no other Noble cared enough for the welfare of the people was Vivian surprised.
In an act of uncharacteristic selflessness for a Noble, Philipe and ten other Nobles raised their hands...
It was surprising to see someone act for the good of another person.
In a word, it was inspiring.
Vivian already kinda liked the old and stout Noble's humor as he interacted with Silvan, with his fearlessness in confronting the Medicis who were without a doubt stronger than he was.
[So there were still people who genuinely did good for others, huh...] Vivian thought as she suddenly smiled, reminded of Duke who was out risking his life to fight Bandits that were, in truth, not even his problem if he chose to hide and not confront them.
But then a faint pain entered Vivian's heart as she thought to herself [What hypocritical right do I have to admire them...]
Vivian kind've felt guilty that she wasn't as selfless as Duke thinks she was when she told him she would sell the Grain for half the price in Maine, and Duke mistook it as her act of selflessness when in truth she would just sell grain for lower the price to outcompete the other Nobles selling grain for overpriced values. In the end, people would inevitably buy from her as what person wouldn't want to buy the same product for cheaper?
Duke and maybe those ten small nobles in front of her chose to help because of their genuine concern for the people... While she chose to help because there was something to gain for her.