Nancay Company

The Nancay Coat of Arms, a trade union formed of the Jade House of Lords, Vostok Manda, and the Borean League

## Basic Information

### Leaders

None; Chairmen formed by twelve largest shareholders

## Relationships

### Allies

Papetral Pontifect

**The Nancay Company** was a joint-stock company formed in the city of Pria to trade with Vostok Manda and other territories in the Tomyrian Sea in CE 596. It was formed as **The Honorable Trading Company By Way of Nancay**. The company would later gain control of Valendor and Arendor in Cisteria by buying its rights from the Bank of Mandolin. Its acquisition of these rights were the impetus for the Convention of CE 650. The company's financial problems resulted in it being dissolved in CE 740. It was succeeded by the Nephyr Company in CE 797.

The Nancay Company takes its name after a neutral port in the Tomyrian Sea that was just off the coast of Vostok Manda. The company was formed in Pria, but commercial interests in Nancay made it a more important component than the location of its joint-stock deeds.

## In world affairs

During its first few decades of operation, the focus of the company was purely facilitating trade between the Borean League and Vostok Manda. Company interests turned from trade to territory during the Eleventh Era, as the Saturnite Wars came to an end and the Ascani Empire declined in power. Interests in the Grand Victoria region of *Velusia* increased as new plantations sprang up and needed capital investment; these contracts gave collateral with the property itself. The Nancay Company began to form such deals with farmers across *Velusia*, and supplied them weapons and mercenaries to defend their property from ravaging Auber or Illyrian armies.

In CE 641, these Velusian mercenary armies began allying with the Jackal King, and they primarily grew cash crops like poppy to fund an increasing military. After the death of the Jackal King in CE 644, the threat of the growing Nancay-funded territories in *Velusia* steadily grew as the wealth farmers began to fight with their neighbors for territory. The Nancay Company received pressure to deal with the problem, and sold their contracts to Robaerigon. This gave a new tax base to the King of Illyria personally, facilitating the Merovian Schism.

Simultaneously, the Nancay Company purchased World Terrestrial Shares from the Bank of Mandolin in CE 644, after the fall of Lenorum. This gave them in entirety, possessions in both Valendor and Arendor, the two closest landmasses to the heart of the Papetral Pontifect. This raised concerns over the individual power of the company and its role in patronizing a rising merchant class in the Borean League.

## Convention of CE 650

The Nancay Company demonstrated on multiple fronts that it was not merely a profit-driven organization. Rather, it could greatly influence world events, and in its organization, the only people who could be held accountable were its shareholders. The High Pontiff urged them previously in letters to the company to liquidate their investments in Prace to local lords, to no avail. There was a growing conspicuous fear that a faceless merchant class could dominate northern Cisteria.

In CE 650, after Robaerigon distinguished his line from the House of Lorraine, the High Pontiff called a Convention in Lorendor with Borean leaders, the Nancay Company, and other prominent merchants. This Convention sought to establish what kind of governance Prace needed in the wake of this event: the House of Merovia now held without restraint Arborea and half of Bastria. While the Pontifect and Borean leaders held terms and debts with the House of Lorraine and the Ascani Empire, this new house held ties only with the dominating merchant class. This Convention was designed to lay out what needed to be done to increase accountability and transparency among the ruling class, more specifically so that the High Pontiff knew what was going on.

At the conclusion of the Convention of CE 650, the Nancay Company was forced to buy back shares in exchange for its territory, resulting in the loss of all of its earthly dominion. While this action was one aspect of the merchant class transitioning Prace into its modern iteration of maritime republics, the Nancay Company would never recover from its losses and would last less than a hundred years before liquidating and becoming defunct.