[D8, LM] Review trade deals with Togashi-ue

[Togashi Mizohachi]

Mizohachi frowned. "What is the benefit to the clan of this duel taking place?"

[Agasha Sanjuro]

"The benefit would be personal to Mirumoto-ue, but could conceivably be detrimental to himself or Otomo-sama if it were to occur. If Mirumoto-ue cannot be here at court to make the challenge, it is not meant to be. "

[Agasha Yuna]

She considered that.

"Honestly, I don't see much value in it. I just understood it to be our duty to try?"

"Duels should decide a matter for Heaven. They shouldn't be ... frivolous. And there is danger. Even with the most skilled participants. Otomo Gorobei-sama will either, at the end of this winter court, be the Emperor, still be a candidate to be Emperor, or no longer a candidate because another was chosen. I can't see an advantage on any of those three paths to risking harming him or shaming him."

[Mirumoto Jinkan]

"Mirumoto-ue is a man of great determination in some matters. It would be unwise to blame politics for denying him his request, as we are here to do politics on behalf of the Dragon. Well, Togashi-ue is not." Jinkan gave a bow to the Clan Champion as he spoke his title.

"The benefit to having an agreement in principle to the duel, while allowing that Otomo-sama has needs of his own to be seen to first, is that Mirumoto-ue would not feel the need to wade into the politics of the situation in the spring. Allowing him energy to focus on the duties directly in front of him." The Mirumoto laid out his case for seeking a duel at an unspecified time and place.

[Agasha Yuna]

Yuna nodded. If it was to be pursued, the more vague the better. And they had been asked to do it. But there was surely a ... best way to do it.

[Togashi Mizohachi]

Lord Togashi found himself nodding along to Jinkan's construction of the goal.

[Agasha Yuna]

"Mirumoto Jinkan-san, do you want to take the lead on pursuing the duel? I think you've definitely got the best grasp of it."

She smiled encouragingly at him.

"I've been thinking about the economic proposition. It's something we need to get broad support for. Here are some points in its favor that I've been testing, and one suggestion to make others more likely to approve it."

"First, there is already the koku and the bu - coin. All are used to the idea of coin and understand its merits. It can be carried on the person and exchanged for any desired good. Coin is stable. It does not decay or rot. It is not ruined if your pouch becomes wet."

"Then it can be noted that as an empire we still use the rice standard for taxation. Rice is treated as a kind of coin. It is taken from fields, from hungry farmers, and paid up to lords, who pay up to their lords. On and on up the ladder. It is bulky and fragile to transport. It is vulnerable - in the field - to weather and battle. It is vulnerable in the storeroom to fire and rot. It rapidly loses its value for it does not endure. At most, rice can be stored for two years, and much can go wrong in that interim, even as hungry bellies are left unfed."

"If the empire moved to a coin standard, a gold standard, or a gold and silver standard, any good could be initially traded to become coin, rice included, but the coin itself is then stable and enduring. Those rich in rice would still find plenty of buyers. All need rice to eat. Rice would simply only be transported to be used as food. And the coin collected by taxation could be saved in flourishing times to be a resource for compassion in leaner years."

"It would cost less and take less space to transport and store, leaving more resource at every stage for more local use. Less ... the economic term is breakage. Less loss of resource to the economy that becomes unusable. More would be fed. And the arc of balance - the ability for a strong year to protect against a lean one - would extend indefinitely, rather than be bound by at most one additional year."

"The suggestion to make the idea more attractive to the other clans is to propose that the shift happen over the course of three years. That gives clans time to shift their stockpiles, so they are not caught back-footed."

"What do you all think? Do you see other points in the proposal's favor that appeal broadly? Do you see other nuances of how it is implemented that would help answer objections?"

"I was thinking to talk to the Yasuki next as one keenly interested in trade, who might have related wisdom, and would be a potentially influential co-sponsor."