When everybody thought the pirates were the great enemy that depressed trade in the Nozul Islands, they had never foreseen that one of their very own allies could have impacted trade in the very same way. The Nexians seeing the trade flourishing had been overcome by greed that they increased duties on goods for export to the Solusian Dominion. Yet, the same standard did not apply to them and their closest circle of friends in the south, making the export duties more like a special tax for the northerners.
The unfair advantage that the Nexians gained meant that their merchants could export more goods to the Solusians for the same amount of resources spent by the northerners. This makes the Nexian merchants more competitive, making them the preferred partners of the Solusian merchants. The northerners simply had to sell at a loss.
