Great Engellex
Established Nation
ENGELL-HIMYAR TRADING COMPANY
DULWICH CONFERENCE
DULWICH CONFERENCE
22nd August 1956,
Dulwich, Engellexian Republic of Angellex and Gewissex
When Sir Alexander van der Alphen landed in the Southern Himyar, it initiated what is regarded generally as to the Republic Imperial era. Initially, conquest of the New South Himyar was dominated by other Continental Powers in a great rush and game; Sir Alexander was born in Gouw Marken, despite being funded and representing the Engellexian Republic. Two of the wealthiest families in the republic, the Duchy of Clarence and Nolland and the Earldom of Burgess, they not only had the ability and influence to raise the funds to sail, fight and settle, but the power to the manipulate the Engellexian Republic to throw its military capabilities to confront and throw off their continental rivals from their newly discovered territories. While the Engellexian Republic was certainly powerful, or at the very least capable, in the late 1500s and 1600s, it did not rival the strength of her imperial neighbours. What is more, Engellex was embroiled in her own conflict of religious revival throughout most of the 16th century, itself the machinations of the Papacy itself. This all changed in 1611, when the First Republic Army massacred the Papal Party at Eltham. The Pope at the time planned to overthrow the State Atheism of the Engellexian Republic, fearing, rightfully or wrongly, the influence of such a position. The Papal Party – essentially a mass of priests, bishops, a minority of aristocrats, but hundreds if not thousands of commoners, was widely considered an armed and violent threat by the republic, and a formidable force of God’s will by the Papists, so when the First Republic Army proved decidedly victorious in their bloody massacre, it was the last and final blow to the hopes of Tibur, and absolute boon to the confidence of the Engellexian Republic. While Parliament held onto its atheism and republic, the symbolism of the massacre emboldened the aristocracy and the landed gentry to entrust further of their finance into colonial enterprises of the Southern Himyar, but also other potentially lucrative sites around Europe.
Thus it was in the air of parliamentary relief, and republican jubilation that the Council of State, with the majority support of the Senate and the Bare Commons, was decided on a proposal to formally adopt the colonial policy as a directive of the Engellexian Republic, and in doing so finance five vessels of the republic to join the Nolland Company – the Lord Chancellor at the time, Lord Edward Mulberry, Earl of Fulham, was himself a cousin of the Duke of Clarence and Nolland. The first expedition including these vessels was successful, in that the ships reached Henrietta and returned to Hammersmith without injury. A subsequent voyage a year later suffered the loss of one vessel, but despite this, the Council of State formed a new charter system for the sole purpose of awarding the Nolland Company and the Burgess Company. Despite these two companies having their own existing structure in place, the charter formalised a uniformed structure in which joint-stock companies in the republic would be formed and governed; they would be governed by a Guarantor, Board of Proprietors, Board of Directors, and a number of committees. This Charter of the Republic gave the founders and the reformed organisation a monopoly on trade and colonialism in the South East and East Himyar and Eastern Reaches (Orient) for twenty-five years; the Burgess Company naturally was granted the South West and West and North Himyar. For the Nolland Company this meant that it was restricted by the western border of the Mary-le-Bone colony, and the southern border of the Pelasgian Empire, everything east and south of those was fair game – all the rest, off limits. Charter of the Republics became increasingly common during the 17th century, as they were mutually beneficial to both the Engellexian Republic and those to whom they were granted. Those holding the charter enjoyed the benefit of a trade monopoly which was protected by the Republic itself, while the Council of State essentially outsourced the risks and burden involved with exploring, settling, and exploiting a new territory, which included at sea disasters like shipwrecks and piracy, and on land obstacles such as disease and uncivilised natives. Therefore, the founders of the Nolland Company – many of which could be found within the Parliament, in one chamber or another, were willing to stake the finances necessary to open exploration and trade with the curious and untamed South Himyar for Engellex, and they would be entitled to whatever riches they could find.
The freshly fashioned Guarantor and Company of Lords and Merchants of Dulwich Trading with the South East and East Himyar and Eastern Reaches (Nolland Company) faced stiff competition, not from foreign competitors, but other chartered companies of the Republic, especially the Guarantor and Company of Lords and Merchants of Dulwich Trading with the South West and West and North Himyar (Burgess Company). Even though the Burgess Company was bound by the freedoms and restrictions of its own Charter of the Republic, the Guarantor – Lord Rupert James Fox, Baron Paddington, had become an increasingly formidable presence within the Senate. Baron Paddington, like the 2nd Duke of Clarence and Nolland in the earlier years, endeavoured and determined within the Senate and the Bare Commons to loosen the legislative grip that formed the limitations and freedoms of monopoly. In the end, his efforts did nothing but entrench competition so terribly that Dulwich law society suffered inquiries, juridical reviews, and parliamentary appeals, without end, by both Guarantors seeking to jealously defend and extend their monopolies.
Spices were the chief reason that trade belonging to the South East and East and East was so valuable. As was obvious knowledge to any of Europe, the spice trade was very old and exactly as the name would suggest – a lucrative trade. Other goods were traded along with the spices, such as opium and silk, but not quite as valuable. For the South West and West and North it was difficult; ivory, precious gems, and other products were highly valuable, but acquiring such goods on a scale that their national rival managed with spices proved impossible, it required a great expense of finance and exploration of the dark wilds of Himyar. Predictably, the two companies that started almost equally soon found themselves at a serious imbalance, with the Nolland Company experiencing an unmatched growth in reach, influence and wealth throughout the 17th century and early 18th century; the Burgess Company, however, was not a failure, or even failing, it was succeeding but could not reaching the position of its rival. As a consequence of the revenue difference, the Burgess Company adopted a reformed policy; while not abandoning the healthy revenue streams from ivory, precious gems and others, it was decided more prudent to invest the companies’ efforts and finance into mass colonialism, settlement and development of the territories under their flag. What emerged in conclusion to the now very different companies was the colonial situation; Mary-le-Bone, under the Nolland Company experienced a steady and gradual progress in settlement, with the colonial capital, Henrietta, becoming a centre of the companies’ European activities rather than a centre of its own agricultural and industrial progress; Camden, however, expanded at an aggressive rate, with thousands of plantation rights being sold each year of the 1720s, as the Burgess Company shifted their colonial focus to guaranteeing security and reaping taxation. Unlike Henrietta, the Camden colonial capital of Elephant and Castle developed consistently at a vast rate, itself becoming a centre of trade, of agriculture, of industry, and of culture for the colony of Camden, rather than an expanded warehouse and office for the colonial company.
In 1757 the infamous Lord Charles James Fox, 4th Baron Paddington, was found caught up in a scandal that put him on trial for the murder of the ladies-maid to the Duchess of Nonsuch; it was soon disclosed to the Law Lords of the Court that the two were having an affair, and Baron Paddington attempted to force the ladies-maid to an abortion, following pregnancy, the terrible circumstance escalated into a calculated murder with a bid to ending the crisis. Lord Charles James Fox was found guilty and became the first minister of the Council of State, he held the Interior portfolio at the time, to receive the Capital Duty Punishment; there was no death sentence in the Engellexian Republic, except for military crimes, rather, the Capital Duty Punishment stripped Baron Paddington of his peerage, his wealth and assets, and most importantly his liberties as a free man – the former peer was thus sold as a Capital Duty (type of slave) to the Duchy of Nonsuch to labour on one of their plantations in Otho-Eam. His Duty was one-hundred years, meaning the former peer would die a slave. What this scandalous event provided was an opportunity, for the former Baron Paddington was the Guarantor of the Burgess Company; his punishment left the Burgess Company in a quiet crisis, as it had no leader. The Duke of Clarence and Nolland at the time, who was the Guarantor of the Nolland Company, saw the opportunity to consolidate the fragmented colonial enterprise of Engellex. By 1760 there were five chartered colonial companies, three with colonies and two with colonial trading activities; the Nolland Company forced through the purchase of a majority stock of the Burgess Company, and in 1761 applied to the Council of State to formally merge the two companies with a new Charter of the Republic. The application was granted, but the Council of State, on appeal from the Hammersmith Company which owned the colony of Otho-Eam, removed the trading monopoly that the former Burgess Company held. In 1762 the Nolland-Burgess Corporation was formally chartered, and in doing so created a truly powerful entity within the Engellexian Republic – one that held monopoly of the South East and East and East, and sovereignty over two colonial territories, including the most expansive, productive colony of Camden.
The next seventy-nine years witnessed stability and prosperity for the Nolland-Burgess Corporation, and the colonies of Camden, Mary-le-Bone, and Somers Islands. Nolland Park in Dulwich, an expansive country pile of the Duchy of Clarence and Nolland, developed into a distinct district of West Dulwich; vast terraces of town mansions, squared around the greenest of public spaces, all surrounding the central, but diminishing estate of Nolland Park. This development was no coincidence, these mansions were the preserve of stock holders, directors, proprietors, and other high ranking officials of the Nolland-Burgess Corporation, all curiously desiring to reside as close to their Lord Guarantor as possible. 1841 arrived with ever increasing escalations of poor management decisions by officials in Mary-le-Bone. The cultivation of lucrative opium and other such produce, over grain and other necessities, provoked a social crisis in the colony, by 1843 it had spread to Camden. In 1846 Dulwich considered the crisis a colonial emergency, electing a Lord Protector to administer effective rule and order on behalf of the Engellexian Republic. The Lord Protector, Lord Robert de Vere, Duke of Primrose, deployed the First Republic Army to Henrietta and Elephant and Castle, restoring order and alleviating the crisis through the distribution of agricultural produce from Angellex. Despite the greatest protests from the Duke of Clarence and Nolland, the Lord Protector dissolved the Nolland-Burgess Corporation in 1847, and transferred all colonial territories of Engell companies to the Engellexian Republic. The Duke of Clarence and Nolland, and other persons of interest of the former company, were duly compensated with the creation of the Engell-Himyar Trading Company that same year. Monopolies of trade over entire regions was discontinued. The new company settled for monopolies on certain industries and economic interests throughout Camden and Mary-le-Bone, many of which persist today.
The chief architect of the Dulwich Conference entered the gargantuan foyer of Himyar House, with its wide, and 100ft tall white marble Tiburan Doric columns supporting the imposing space in two rows: the Lord Guarantor of the Engell-Himyar Trading Company, the Lord Horatio Saville, Duke of Clarence and Nolland, and his bustling entourage of company officials in their black Morning dress and colour-matching top hats. The young duke was a very handsome man, of tall height, with firm, clear-cut features. Everything about him, from his weary, bored expression to his quiet, measured step, offered a most striking contrast to the common bustle and step of his officials that hailed from many levels of society and the company. It was evident that he not only knew every one in the foyer of Himyar House, but had found them to be so tiresome that it wearied him to look at or listen to them. And among all these faces that he found so tedious, none seemed to bore him so much as that of the Chief Director of the Board of Directors, who was tiredly bookish and without ambition. He turned away from him with a grimace that distorted his handsome face, kissed the hand of Lady Georgiana Salwey, Duchess of Hammersmith, and screwing up his eyes scanned the whole company of the foyer. You appear as though you are off to war, Duke? Said the Duchess of Hammersmith; as Secretary of State of the Foreign Departments, the Duchess of Hammersmith was on a particular duty to meet and welcome all to the Dulwich Conference. Ambition, spoke the young Duke with an air of entitled, self-assured arrogance, has never been a policy surrendered by my predecessors, Duchess. Lady Georgiana Salwey smiled and overtook Lord Horatio Saville into an ante room. All the charm of interest she had assumed had left her kindly and elderly face and it now only expressed concern. How about your ambition, Duke? Said she, having cornered him into the ante room. I cannot express any more than is to be officially expressed here, today in Dulwich. Tell me what it is that quite evidently occupies your concern, Duchess, responded Lord Horatio Saville. Although the duke listened, initially with reluctance, and not particularly mannered in his expression of such reluctance, his impatience was tempered by the intrigue of the Duchess of Hammersmith. The Lady Chancellor – indeed, quite many of the Council of State, grow weary of communist ambition in Gallia-Germania. It has even been suggested that a revolutionary enterprise lingers in the shadows, awaiting a social crisis in the Republic, answered Lady Georgiana Salwey. That is a terribly delicate state of affairs, Duchess, responded the Duke with narrowing eyes. Quite. The Engellexian Republic appears increasingly isolated, not from policy, but by the ideological agitations of Kadikistan. Our strength lies in the future, we shall undoubtedly find it within your sphere, Duke, and should you wish to take from this Conference, you must be equally readied to give, instructed the Duchess of Hammersmith sternly.