Chapter 1103
With the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, the inconspicuous West Pass bustled with life once more, caravans streaming in and out without end every day.
No one needed to organize them. Profit was the finest driving force, gathering merchant guilds from all corners of the land here.
Though the Russians had opened their purses wide to purchase strategic supplies such as grain, livestock, coal, weapons, and ammunition, there were always those who wanted to earn even more. Thus, conflict arose.
Especially after bureaucrats and local strongmen joined the fray, the situation became all the more tangled and complicated. Merchant guilds with weak power and no patrons or connections were the first to be pushed out.
Three paths lay before them: either be absorbed and trail behind the major merchant guilds, picking at scraps from their table; or make one desperate gamble, crush these fellows, and rise to the top themselves.
Capital was the most pragmatic thing, and capitalists were the quickest to compromise. Rising against the odds existed only in novels.
In reality, the major merchant guilds had long since sunk deep roots and woven themselves into a vast net.
Too many powerful figures shared in the benefits along this chain of interests. There was simply no room for it to be broken.
To change this situation, the superstructure would have to change, and power would have to be redistributed.
A large-scale reshuffling of power generally occurred only once every century or so. Smaller reshuffles, however, came once every few years at the shortest, or every few decades at the longest.
Thus, the merchant guilds remained the same merchant guilds; only the leading ram changed, and even that was handled internally.
There was nothing more to say. If you could not beat them, you joined them. Picking up