Arriving in Droves

Naturally, the arrival of these livestock and grain merchants made business in Fisherman's Village and White Sheep Town even more brisk.

Over the past month or so, caravans from the great houses of the Seven Kingdoms that had signed Dragonfire Wine contracts with Samwell and secured Dragon Porcelain quotas had also begun arriving on Dragonstone one after another.

They certainly did not come with empty ships. Livestock, handicrafts, and local specialties from across the realm filled their cargo holds.

House Manderly of White Harbor in the north brought not only fine animal pelts and all manner of livestock, but also a considerable quantity of the sour wine and barley ale unique to the north.

The North Kingdom lay in the far north, where the climate was cold and resources were scarce. Its people needed to build special greenhouses and use the relatively warm spring and summer months to grow vegetables and grapes.

The climate made extensive wine-growing regions impossible in the north, so wine production was extremely limited.

Their barley ale, however, was quite good. It was one of the goods Samwell had specifically named as acceptable payment in place of gold dragons.

The shrewd Samwell naturally knew that once these ales underwent special processing at their distillery, they could be sold for hundreds of times their original price.

The Reach was the richest and most productive duchy in the Seven Kingdoms, with an extraordinary abundance of produce. In some places, crops could even be harvested three times a year.

Most lords of the Reach were therefore wealthy, and it was the region with the greatest number of houses signing contracts with Samwell this time.

The Reach had plains, the southern slopes of high mountains, and broad valleys. With plentiful sunshine and a large difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures, it was ideally suited to growing grapes.

The kingdom of the Reach was a major wine producer. The finest golden wine in all Westeros came from there, and it was another of the goods Samwell had specifically approved for use as payment.

The Reach supplied grain and livestock to almost the entire Seven Kingdoms and was a realm rich in cash crops.

Their arrival therefore brought not only vast quantities of fine wine, grain, and livestock, but also a wealth of silk goods, cash crops, spices, and other valuable merchandise. Their trade volume was the largest of all the duchies.

The Vale lay in northeastern Westeros. Its mountainous terrain made it easy to defend and difficult to attack. Mountains and forests dominated its valleys, leaving it rich in resources that were difficult to extract.

The Vale was a peaceful, tranquil realm sheltered on every side by mountains. At its heart lay fertile black soil, broad, gently flowing rivers, and hundreds of lakes, large and small, that shone like mirrors in the sunlight.

Wheat, barley, and corn were all grown in the Vale. Its pumpkins grew larger than those from Highgarden, renowned for its fertility, and its fruit was sweeter as well.

House Waxley was famous for making scented candles, perfumed with nutmeg and other expensive spices.

Led by House Arryn and House Royce, the great noble houses of the Vale brought enormous quantities of fruit products and fruit wine, along with plenty of farm produce and livestock.

This was because White Sheep Town generally offered prices ten to twenty percent above the market rate. In fact, it would even accept old, weak, or sick livestock at a lower price.

Feeding the dragons every day required a great many animals, and the daily meals of the workers at the distillery, porcelain works, and other businesses also consumed a considerable amount of meat.

Dragonstone had thus become the livestock merchants' favorite trading destination. And it was not only merchants from the Seven Kingdoms; some grain and livestock dealers from the Free Cities had also begun crossing the seas to trade there.

After the funeral ended, King Jaehaerys therefore not only allocated a substantial sum and ordered the expansion of Fisherman's Village, but also dispatched tax officials and increased the number of guards.

He even sent a royal fleet of fifteen three-masted sailing ships to be stationed at Dragonstone.

Had His Majesty Jaehaerys not exempted visiting caravans and White Sheep Town from transaction taxes in Fisherman's Village, Danyla would have been ready to build another harbor herself.

The Riverlands was a rich, fertile, densely populated region. The extensive network of rivers running through it made the movement of people and goods convenient.

In times of peace, its rivers were filled with small fishing boats traveling back and forth, large grain barges drifting downstream, and merchants' boats roaming the waterways.

For generations, the inhabitants had been accustomed to taking their harvests to the riverside and exchanging them with river merchants for the goods they needed.

Because the Riverlands was the duchy closest to Dragonstone, it conducted the greatest volume of trade in grain and livestock with White Sheep Town.

Besides grain and livestock, the Riverlands also had a thriving fishing industry, so its merchants brought abundant freshwater fish, salted fish, caviar, and other freshwater fish products on every trip.

The Stormlands lay south of King's Landing, capital of the Seven Kingdoms, with the Reach to the west, the Dornish Sea to the south, and Shipbreaker Bay to the east.

In terms of area, it was one of the smaller territories of the Seven Kingdoms. Its inland terrain consisted largely of rugged mountains, such as those near Summerhall.

Its coast was rocky, as at Cape Wrath, and it had vast, dense forests, notably the Kingswood near King's Landing and the Rainwood on the northern shore of the Dornish Sea.

To the southwest, a long, narrow stretch of land extending from the Red Mountains was known as the Dornish Marches.

This formed an effective geographical buffer separating three realms that had long been hostile to one another: the Stormlands, Dorne, and the Reach.

Countless battles had been fought there over the past several centuries, and the region had changed hands repeatedly. Only after Dorne was incorporated into the Seven Kingdoms did the warfare gradually subside.

To the east, several offshore islands also belonged to the Stormlands. The most famous were Tarth, known as the Sapphire Isle, and historic Estermont.

Most ships avoided the bay near the Stormlands, namely Shipbreaker Bay. Yet just a few miles away, the waters around Tarth were astonishingly blue and clear, earning it the name Sapphire Isle.

The Stormlands was therefore the region of the Seven Kingdoms richest in timber production and wildlife.

Of course, several earldoms near Harvest Hall were also important grain-producing areas.

Thus, the Stormlands brought Dragonstone large quantities of timber and wild animal pelts.

These were undoubtedly important both to New Dragonstone Island, where construction was proceeding vigorously, and to Fisherman's Village, which was being expanded.

The Westerlands was neither the largest nor the most populous region of the Seven Kingdoms, nor the richest in produce, but it was unquestionably the wealthiest.

Its mountainous lands yielded staggering quantities of gold and silver. Casterly Rock, Golden Tooth, Castamere, Nunn's Deep, and the Pendric Hills were all major sources of gold, so the Westerlands devoted enormous manpower to mining gold and extracting its other resources.

The great nobles of the Westerlands therefore brought vast quantities of gold and silver wares to trade.

Its wine was also quite good, of course, and its distinctive geography meant that much of the livestock raised there was of excellent quality as well.

The Sunset Sea in particular was rich in marine resources. Apart from the mining nobles, the most numerous earldoms were those whose houses derived their income primarily from fishing at sea.

The Westerlands thus also possessed considerable naval strength among the Seven Kingdoms.

Jason Lannister and Tyland Lannister, the twin sons of the Lannister duke of the Westerlands, had only recently returned home, yet they were already on their way back to Dragonstone with their house's caravan.

Jason Lannister and Tyland Lannister