Transportation canals in Lemiit

Lemiit is a flourishing harbour. Its strategic situation makes it the only terrestrial way from north to south. With the development of marine transportation, and to reinforce its strategic importance, the city's government has constructed a series of large canals through the city. The construction spanned from 935.I to 999.I, during which a total of fifteen canals were created. 

All of these canals would at first stay under the total control of the city's lords for 150 years. But in 150.II, The city was in such debt that it sold twelve of the canals to the now powerful merchants' Guild. This takeover saved the government from ruin, but at the loss of a main source of wealth for locals. The Guild implemented much lower taxes for the transportation of merchandise, allowing large merchant companies to take over smaller businesses. Thanks to centuries of favored trade, the cities of the Blue Sea grew more and more dependent of resources from the eastern coast: shrimps, precious pelts and animal oil from the North , spices, pigments and medicine from the Myriad Islands were unloaded day and night in the northern ports. On the other end, the exporting regions made good financial profit of these trade routes.

But while other cities benefited from low transit prices in Lemiit, the port fell behind since it did not have much local resources, and terrestrial transportation had fallen into disuse as a consequence. Only the city's shipyards were flourishing, directly supplied from the  Eastern Woodlands. The only two canals the city had kept, which were the northernmost, were not put to good use and progressively neglected for lack of profitability. 

It all changed in 722.II when The Service took over the military forces engaged in the third magissal war. The government in Lemiit was from now shared between the city's lord and the 8th Army's warlord. In a mutual agreement, the lord used the Service's military power to take back control of the canals from the Guild.

Officially, the canals were deemed of a strategic importance for the city's defences, but the main goal was to take control of the taxes' profitability. This action was bad news for all of the other cities' finances, and allowed Lemiit to renew its growth thanks to a more profitable gestion of the canals, at the expense of the maritime trade's profitability. This resulted in growing tensions with Lemiit and many other cities, especially since the growth of  Amaal  and its new trading routes from the West have started to compete with Lemiit's newly regained power.