President Pombelli was certainly no fool, nor did the Feilson Carriage Company have money to burn.
He had proposed funding the construction of a highway from Bunta City to Sartan City because the Xinfei Merchant Guild had never concealed its plans to fund a highway between Bunta City and Karma City. The City Lord's Manor had publicly announced them in Civic Square.
The newspapers in both Bunta City and Karma City had covered the matter extensively. Even the papers in Anvilmar City had run a series of related reports.
Those reports had informed everyone that, once the highway was complete, the Xinfei Merchant Guild would set up a toll station and charge every carriage that used it.
Most people were indifferent to this, while a small minority scoffed.
Had the Xinfei Merchant Guild gone mad? Did they actually think they could make money by collecting tolls?
So you wanted money? Fine. I just wouldn't use your lousy highway.
After all, the highway was being built along a separate route and would not affect the existing road between Bunta City and Karma City.
The Xinfei Merchant Guild's hopes of recouping its investment through tolls seemed like nothing more than a pipe dream.
But just because other people thought that way did not mean President Pombelli did.
As president of the Feilson Carriage Company, he knew better than anyone how much a good road could affect a carriage company's business.
To take just one example, wear and tear on carriages alone cost the Feilson Carriage Company a staggering one hundred thousand to one hundred fifty thousand gold coins each year.
Including the toll that running on poor roads took on the horses, that figure approached a full two hundred thousand gold coins.
President Pombelli had previously thought that, if every road in