The political landscape of the Gold Coin Federation could roughly be divided in two ways. One was the central nobility led by the two marquises, versus the local powerholders led by the counts in various regions; the other was the merchant faction represented by the coastal and border trade circles, versus the noble faction represented by the inland regions.
The first division was not especially meaningful. Conflicts between central and local factions could be found everywhere in every country—well, except the Northwest Republic. Such things were utterly commonplace. Over thousands of years, or even longer, nations of every race had faced the same problem. No one had ever come up with a solution, and it rarely brewed into large-scale conflict.
The power of the great nobles could never rival the combined strength of the local nobles, yet the local nobles would not easily unite. That was the balance between the two sides.
But the latter division was precisely the greatest problem currently facing the Gold Coin Federation.
This nation founded upon commerce had, through long years of development, accumulated ever more conflict between its two major factions, merchants and nobles, until things had gradually reached a point beyond control.
The merchant faction controlled more than sixty percent of the nation's assets. If limited to wealth in the form of money, the amount they controlled even exceeded seventy percent. The noble faction, though poorer, controlled nearly eighty percent of the nation's population, as well as roughly the same proportion of its land.
One side had money, the other had people. When their relationship was good, they worked together in complete sincerity and had accomplished great things more than once.
But as time passed, the conflicts between them grew ever greater. The merchant faction hoped to promote the construction of more trade