The Caprico Family

The Caprico family was an important Agricultural Family during the entire history of Arracian entities for as far back as most history books usually stretch. The first reports of the Caprico are found in old Church documents, as a high ranking religious figure apparently saw the expanding Caprico as a threat to himself, and requested an unknown autocrat of Arracia to disperse the land holdings. It is theorized this dispersion never happened, as the Caprico begin being mentioned in more and more documents from this time forward. They evidently grew their holdings slowly and steadily, at one point holding upwards of 60% of all the arable land in Bezian. Yet as the family began to decline, a bold, new hand was needed. And that hand would eventually throw the entirety of Arracian agricultural into an existential crisis.

### The Early Years (Unknown - 1558)

Not much is known of the early Capricos. Scattered and incomplete documents, mostly from religious officials, have the name mentioned in it, yet nothing more than smaller disputes are ever discussed. When the Arracian lands confederated under the Kingdom of Cíavar, the Caprico saw a major boost in their own power. Since the confederation was under invasion, the lands of the Caprico rapidly expanded, and as they were currently busy providing bodies for the confederacy's armies, nobody was in any rush to reign them in.

In one of the battles near Alsard, an elite cavalry force under Boullusconi Caprico, the son of the current head of the Caprico family, contested an attempted flanking maneuver by a far larger Khedivite force. After it was beaten back, the battle ended in a draw, yet under the circumstances the Arracians faced, a draw equaled a victory. After this battle, it was proposed to give the Caprico family several noble titles, yet it was denied, as these forces were there there against the orders of Boullusconi's father, and instead, a land grant was permitted instead. This would cause a permanent rift between the Caprico family and the confederation autocrats, that would result in a 400-year-long rivalry between the agricultural giant and the noble lords. Yet not even the deepest hate would stop the politics going on between the Capricos and the rulers of this confederation.

In 1401, as King Síevenson started his centralization and lawmaking spree, the new leader of the Caprico family, Alizeera Caprico, spent almost all his days attempting to protect his own profits. As customs taxes and barriers were removed, the influence of the Caprico once again went up, leading to new, massive land acquisitions in this new, more loose, era of rule. As the Wars of Deconfedaration in 1419 raged around, and even in Caprico lands, Alizeera Caprico showed his ineptitude as a military commander, when he lead the forces under his banners to complete destruction as the hands of King Antonucci IV. After this, their political power would be much reduced, and they would be forced to stay on the side of the King for the rest of the conflict.

As the first Wars of Deconfederation ended, the Caprico family were hit by a string of family heads with leprosy, a sickness well known to the family. This resulted in massive in-fighting between both sons, and surprisingly, daughters of the current heads of the family. During almost the next 30 years of the second schism, the power of the Capricos would slowly be chipped away, as at least 7 family heads passed from that deadly sickness. When the collapse of the confederation finally came, the Capricos were officially headed by a 5 year old Hemophiliac, yet it was clear to all observers the child's sister Giorgia Caprico was the real power behind the family.

### The Caprico Family During the Parlimentarian Era (1558 - 1785)

As a new age dawned on the lands of Arracia, the Caprico family also entered a new era. When in 1558, the first constitution of Arracia was adopted, a violent change happened in the family. The direct line of succession was overthrown in favor of an ambitious, young and energetic cousin of the now elderly Giorgia Caprico, Castro Caprico. Castro had taken over the family headship with remarkable brutality, having the entirety of the living direct descendants of the 'First Capricos' hung to secure his new familial line.

As serfdom had been abolished, many of the workers on the massive estates were beginning to move away. In response to this, Castro established a system of familial debt that tied a worker to their land, making the debt systematically impossible to pay off, meaning the worker had to stay on the land. While this brought conflict with the Arracian Parliment, it was eventually allowed to continue after a few token concessions. Castro then began to give nominal ownership of parts of the Caprico estates to his closest family members, meaning they could now officially vote as landowning men. This gave the Caprico family considerable voting power in the province of Bezian, and many parliamentary decisions needed this new "Caprician Block" to pass divisive legislation. During this time, a still young Castro passed away from syphilis. His death sparked rumors that he had fathered many illegitimate children during his time as the family head.

During a period of Arracian expansion, this "Caprician Block" would do everything in its' power to keep the local agricultural market protected and profitable for the family. So, while many foreign luxury agricultural goods flooded in, all things grown in Arracia were either not allowed to be grown or sold, or were under strict trade barriers. While the Caprico went through several clean successions, they would always try to keep their profits up, whether that meant flip-flops, changing positions rapidly, or the assassinations of major opposition figures. The corruption of the Parliment served the family well, and lead to them reaching their peak in 1785, in owning around 40% of the land in Bezian, and around 15% of the total land in Arracia.

### The Caprico Family During the Monarchical Era (1785 - 1868)

The Caprico family began falling into absolute disrepair during this time. The new leaders of the family, such as Lileas Caprico, was a product of in-breeding, and was more interested in war-games and pointless childrens' affairs than actually expanding the family wealth. As their fields began to go fallow, they were slowly overtaken in productivity by the smaller Arracian farmers. Their political power began to heavily decrease, and people began calling the family "The Sickmen of Arracia". Yet when Lileas died under suspicious circumstances in 1857, the power dynamics in Arracia would soon see a tumultuous change.

Lileas was succeeded by Antonio Caprico, a middle-aged man, who had been denied any form of political power since his birth. Now that he was the only healthy heir remaining, he was given complete control over the family. As their fields were going fallow and unattended in the current situation, Antonio noticed the government being interested in an Autarkic policy direction, and decided to do something bold. Instead of trying to regain some former lost glory of an old time, Antonio sold around 70% of the land the family owned to the government, keeping only 30% of the most fertile land in Bezian to himself. This shook the entire nation, and while it did let the government control the food supply more efficiently, it only ended up accelerating King Nicolos's rapid decent into unpopularity, as money had to be redirected from other sectors to these new agricultural projects. This new Caprico direction would be more focused on raising animals than growing crops. With the massive capital earned from the land sales, Antonio set to work building up a massive slaughterhouse and chattel industry. All walks of domesticated life would be experimented with, and the biggest meat providers in Arracia soon became the Caprico Family.

Antonio had a son, Kalideo, who, when he turned 11, got to see the fall of the monarchy. The monarchy ended in 1868, yet the real change in the direction of the Caprico family would come soon after. And it would be a change that would impact almost every person in Arracia in some way.

### The Caprico Family During The Republican Era (1868-present)

Antonio would handle the fall of the monarchy poorly. As he had sold the monarchy vast amounts of land, he was soon implicated after the monarch fled. He had been an ardent supporter, even throughout his abuse of power, only stopping this support once the Royals fled Arracia. While the first government wanted to eliminate the power of the Caprico, seeing them as a hang-on from the monarchy, a compromise was eventually reached. The Caprico were forbidden from owning land outside of Bezian- and all land currently outside this one provence would be handed over to the government without cost or repairations. Rumors circle this agreement also included significant campaign donations, yet these rumors have never been substantiated.

6 years later, in 1874, Antonio Caprico died. The only members of the Caprico family with any scrap of legitimacy left were Kalideo Caprico, the 17-year-old son of Antonio, and Luna Caprico, his 2 year younger daughter. Therefore, Kalideo inherited everything the family owned, and at this, the entirety of Arracia were distraught. Kalideo was know for his lavish parties, filled with alcohol and scandily dressed women, and for going on wild benders, weeks at a time. Nobody thought this young delinquent would be able to rule a company as big as this. Yet all they saw was the negatives of his lifestyle- And not of the incredible changes he would bring, surpassing those of even his father.

Kalideo did not care what the family had done for more than 500 years. He saw an open market, and he took the oppertunity, gambling both his own wealth, his family legacy, and arguebly, part of Arracia's food security for this goal. He founded a new company, VEXACO, and threw all of his capital into this project, selling every acre of land he owned to smaller farmers he knew personally. This investment reportedly sized tens and tens of millions of Solars. Bezian suffered a serious recession as this happened, souring relations between the family and the voter base. Yet Kalideo spent almost everything he had ammased on two things- Building the biggest complex of canning factories the city of Bezian even had unskilled workers for, and sending money to the current administration to ensure the government would not interfere in this project. In the early years, VEXACO teetered on the edge of bankrupcy at least 4 times. VEXACO established itself as a large employer in the Bezian area, not quite reaching the levels that Kalideo had hoped for or gambled on. He was sattled with debts, and every credible financial reporting institution told investors to avoid it. This, though, meant only one thing- That Kalideo could buy up every last share for himself again, taking it off the market. This would prove an amazing decision in years to come.

The starting year was 1888, where the company value began to skyrocket. Enzo di Pasqua, the new president of Arracia, would do both good and bad for the Caprico. The thing that sent the company into space was the modernization of Arracian Agriculture, lowering the prices of vegetables and animal feed, allowing VEXACO to purchase their raw materials cheaper. With mandatory education came skilled personell, and other industries such as the aluminium industry took off as well, allowing even cheaper raw materials. At this point, VEXACO steadily rose in prominence, only hindered by the minimum wage laws in place. The food, at this point, was so cheap, it actually helped feed the growing industrialization, by creating a cheaper, more compact and more effective source of food for the workers. At this point, VEXACO did nothing but rise, and as the president left to be replaced, a question would be asked. Who would the now-massive Caprico wealth support?

They had increased their influence in Bezian, provided many jobs, giving free food to events, and selling it cheap to working class families. They had the power to swing the usually very conservative provence to either the RPF or the nationalist opposition. The AUP had many interesting policy goals, yet Kalideo was not really known for making orthodox decisions. He threw his entire weight behind the firebrand, and in a historically close election, with several recounts, The RPF won Bezian, solidifying the presidential campaign. This gave Kalideo an interesting oppertunity. He began to, at this point, training his Sister, Luna, and his bastard son, Umbro, in managing VEXACO in all its' operations. He was preparing to be a part of the government. This oppertunity finally came late in the term, securing Kalideo, the skilled businessman, the position of Minister of State Enterprises. How this would come to benifit the family and himself, would be a question for the future.