Voshi Economic Miracle

The **Voshi Economic Miracle** is the title given to the birth, unification, and rapid development of the economy of the Oceanic Republic of Voshe, as well as its concurrent integration into the general Aquilan economy. This article will provide a broad, mostly chronological overview of the evolution of the Voshi economy and currency from an anarchic state of near-nonexistence dominated by subsistence agriculture and family fields to one defined by the active "dialogue" and symbiosis between rural and urban centers as well as its popular planning, financial experiments, varying levels of centralization, and complex trade system with economic powers.

## Post-revolutionary context

At the end of the yearlong Nascent Revolution in 4826, the Oceanic Republic of Voshe was formed, nominally uniting an array of tribes and tens of thousands of agricultural families as well as repatriated slaves into an island nation-state, the first of its kind on the continent. With the expulsion of the slavemasters from the western ports and the seizure of their assets, the liberators - composed variably of hardened career soldiers, intellectuals, skilled laborers, or simple farmers - set upon the grand task of building a state, economy, and sense of unity. The seemingly obvious choice for their leader was Zelmen Vigora, an intelligent and well-read yet understanding graduate of the University of Dreiton in political economy and finance, who served as director of monetary policy on the Mandate territory of Canine Isle for 2 years before leaving his post to fight the revolution in Northern Kilran.

With endorsements including that of Outlander and war hero Amare J. Jelani, Vigora became the first president of the Oceanic Republic under their constitution. The first fifteen members of the High Oceanic Council were hand-picked based on their education and experience and assigned to fitting constituencies; an identical process was followed for governorships. While the creation of these institutions heralded the eventual rise of Voshi democracy, the rest of this article is contingent on a simple understanding: the Vigora decade was one of a dictatorial technocracy at every level. The first council served to advise and discuss political and economic planning with the president, but were relegated in authority mostly to a rubber-stamping organ and plan enforcers. To a lesser extent, regional governors were given the same leeway.

Still, this was popular and perceived even in retrospect as widely necessary. While not hostile to each other, the main economic organs of the Voshi continent in 4826 were untied families engaged in subsistence agriculture for basic necessities, many living in the savannas and oases of the east. Trade was nonexistent, and the most of a foundation toward it were the beaten down ports of Agadir, Ancbold and Ankazi. There was no semblance of intraconnectedness, let alone integration at the world stage. Mobilization of the economy is widely agreed - especially in Voshe - to have required firm intellectual leadership as well as a vigorous campaign of igniting a national spirit that downplayed ethnic lines in favor of a shared historical identity. And it was all theorized to begin with the existing economic organ - the agricultural family. It was in the small farms adjacent to acacia shacks that the Oceanic economy would be born, delivered by astute and grandiose economic planning and syndicates of experienced repatriated slaves.

## The Oceanic Miracle

At the first meeting of the HOC, an ambitious five-year plan was drawn up and thrown into motion, putting the Republic on a route of massive expansions of collective farms, a trade system between the federal/provincial governments, and a carefully led rapid development of light industry in the cities. Concurrent to these would be a massive literacy campaign and a mission to accurately map the continent and its interior, including settlements and arable land. The latter would promptly lead to the mission for national intraconnectivity in the form of railroads.

### The First Term - A Green and Gray Revolution

The first order of business on the economic plans were agricultural expansion and the creation of a system of grain requisition by the government; every harvest, farmers were strongly encouraged to sell surplus produce to the state at market-determined prices depending on the particular crop. The farmers were paid in the newly printed Voshi Nizare, itself pegged to the Dashari currency for the time being and strategically devalued to ensure preference in exports. The currency could then be used by the farmers to purchase good such as textiles, furniture, and more reliable tools from the blossoming light industrial syndicates in the cities. Although the process was slow, the effects were astounding, and the "economic dialogue" opened between agriculture and manufacturing was fundamental. Perhaps obviously, the subsistence farmers had lived for centuries without currency or aid from other settlements, but the introduction of a consumer economy was both welcomed and well-explained by the campaigners for literacy and unity, among them Amare Jelani himself. A gradual rise in the standard of living for all Voshi was underway.

More logistically, this initial stage involved crop diversification and the ambitious expansions of small farms. Repatriated slaves were a great boon in this field; first trading their wealth from abroad for the Nizare of Voshe, they often opted either to move into existing settlements and aid in farming or work together in new homesteads creating new farmland themselves. The average farm grew to over twice its size by 4831 under this system, and more striking yet was the vast growth in crop production first and diversity second. Prominent agriculturalists campaigned for the growth of cash crops like sugarcane in oases and by the coasts, and inland other crops like oats, rye, sorghum, and dates supplemented the standard stock of wheat and barley. In the traditional fields, wheat production in tonnage grew almost twenty-five-fold from 4826 to 4836.

Further exploration of the Voshi agricultural revolution can not continue in good faith without first an explanation of the financial state of the Republic. To finance the population growth in the cities as well as acquire capital goods for the economic planning, the Republic borrowed heavily but intelligently from the four great powers of Dashari, Dreiton, Nova Aquila, and Occa. Using their position as an emerging market, the government was able to secure a multitude of low-interest loans from each as well as emerald shipments for the newborn Central Bank of Voshe in Tarasque. These would stimulate the economy in the port cities and would be repaid both directly and by preferential shipments of cash crops and vital produce to each based on their contribution.

The system as it stood in 4831 had the Voshi populace well fed, united and generally happy - but there were growing concerns over deep structural weaknesses. First of all, the projects' (and indeed the entire economy's) marked reliance on foreign financing made it vulnerable to the whims of geopolitics abroad, particularly shifts in alliance and wars. In this theater, the Vigora administration would be tested almost immediately in its second term. Second, the agricultural boom left much to be desired among the growing class of merchants, craftsmen's guilds, and blue collar workers in the coastal cities. Indeed, the state of these cities and the republic's architecture remained grim by the end of Vigora's first term. The only bidirectional railroad in complete operation was the Agadir-Tarasque line. Agadir and Ancbold, now housing some 100,000 residents each, had stagnated in terms of physical growth, renovation, and planning until almost the end of the term. Fuel and other material for industrial processes ran low, a direct result of lower investment in mining, at the time focused solely on coal and iron to build smelteries and railways. Due to a relative shortage of manufactured goods in relation to agricultural ones, the farmers began losing individual purchasing power. The divide in prosperity reflected in the split between sources of GDP for the republic.

Even though the administration had a plethora of urban and industrial problems to divert attention to, the result of the first five-year plan was clear: the rural population was united and had a sustainable means of economic communication with the manufacturing sector of the cities. A growing diversity of foodstuffs filled a rising number of stores in the cities - evenly state and privately-owned - themselves creating for new clerical employment there. The oceanic people had coalesced into one unit to nation-build. Literacy rates had risen satisfactorily, and the campaign to map and test the earth was successful beyond measure. With the basket of sustenance in place as well as a sharply risen level of political conscience and unity, topped off by nascent and strengthening trade relations with major powers, the Vigora technocracy planned a new hyperdrive into city planning, transportation, light and hard industries, metallurgy, and many more sectors that would connect and energize the Oceanic population and propel the republic into a semblance of a modern economy for good, and would be aided greatly by the respected logisticians, engineers, and financiers educated abroad before the Revolution.