Floyd, a longtime employee of the Norwington Trade System, had served as president of the Grain Merchants' Guild for over a decade.
All that time, Floyd had overseen more than half the grain trade between Kul Tiras and Lordaeron. Both were major grain-producing nations, with vast territories dominated by plains. Most Alliance nations, however, lacked such fertile, productive land, especially the Kingdom of Stormwind in the south.
Floyd told Rowan about the barren Northern Wilderness, where the people could not even afford white flour and usually ate dirt cakes.
At this, Rowan looked deeply distressed. He believed the Northern Wilderness urgently needed to turn farmland back into forest to curb desertification. As the saying went, measures should suit local conditions: plant more sand willows and white poplars to increase vegetation, then restore the rivers flowing in from Elwynn Forest. That was the long-term solution for the Northern Wilderness.
Young Master Rowan certainly had some wildly imaginative ideas, but what would the poor people of the Northern Wilderness eat if they stopped farming?
That was an excellent question. Since the poor of the Northern Wilderness received no relief from Stormwind City, they could simply come to the Norwington Family's territory and help with its industrial development.
That counted as reemployment of the workforce. It was a good thing-a win-win.
Only Young Master Rowan could make poaching people sound so righteous. No matter how impoverished the Kingdom of Stormwind's citizens became, Stormwind City would never willingly hand over the people of the Northern Wilderness. Even if they rebelled or starved to death, the Stormwind Court would still bind them to that land.
After chatting with Young Master Rowan for half an hour, Floyd found him witty and humorous. His ideas sounded absurd, but on closer consideration, they made a great deal of