Events proved Rowan right.
The Barov Merchants' Guild and the Agamand family launched a price war against the old nobles.
Major merchants' guilds across the Alliance abandoned their former trading partners in favor of cheaper orders.
The Kingdom of Stormwind was especially ruthless. Once the Two Great Families offered cheaper goods, the nobles of Stormwind City threw the trade envoy from the Kingdom of Lordaeron's noble merchants' guild straight out of the city.
The trade envoy strongly condemned the Royal City's nobles for breaking their word.
But nobody cared. Did they really think Lordaeron was still the strongest kingdom in the Alliance?
They could save their breath. Even if Lordaeron survived this plague, it would be badly weakened. Who would be kissing whose ass then remained to be seen.
Now that the Two Great Families had put money into everyone's pockets, who still cared about the trade agreement signed by the Royal Court?
Trade between kingdoms never stayed the same forever. As long as the merchants' guilds paid enough taxes to the Wrynn Royal Family, they trusted King Varian would not make things difficult for them.
The enormous mess in Westfall remained unresolved, and the kingdom desperately needed money. That was also the key reason relations between the royal family and the nobles remained relatively amicable.
The nobles of Stormwind City knew exactly where their advantage lay. As long as they sucked up to the royal family and played their role as the Royal Court's lapdogs, they could keep stuffing endless profits into their own pockets.
With the Kingdom of Stormwind setting the example, merchants' guilds across the Alliance followed suit. In less than three days, the old nobles' merchants' guilds had become empty shells.
Without the kingdom's trade protection, they could no longer turn their authority into ill-gotten profits.