The Ginto Dispute

[Varkour]

Tourant gathered the rest of the Varkourian delegation and told them the idea of dividing the peninsula at the 186 parallel. Not everyone was satisfied.

"No way Tourant. The Mercs haven't been here as long as we have." Beaupre said angrily.

The others dropped their heads in despair. Before Tourant could answer back Jacquemin stood up.

"Are you deliberately trying to sabotage these negotiations Beaupre?!" He spat.

Tourant smiled. He had never seen this side of Jacquemin before. Beaupre was stunned. He just stood there and looked stupid.

"Well Antoine is with me. Right?" He replied quietly looking over to her.

"It's a good deal. We get West O. Thats what you have always wanted..." She replied looking down at the floor.

"Traitor!" Beaupre said. "This is outrageous! I am leaving. Good bye!". Beaupre picked up his things and stormed out of the room.

[Varkour]

"Where is the champagne!" Tourant joked. He was glad Beaupre had left. He was sick of listening to all the rubbish that came out of his mouth.

Antoine cleared her throat.
"Tell Ambassador Tay we agree on the parallel line. Varkour will gain West O, Tenasi and North Jazzville. The Mercantilist States will gain Hermanville-Sur-Mer."

"I don't think Tay has to worry about the safety of Mercantilians in Varkourian Ginto, things will calm down now." Jacquemin said.

"I agree Jac. I will tell him as soon as possible." Tourant replied.

[Mercantilist States]

The Merchant delegation headed towards the negotiation room.

"So we've reached an agreement?" Clive asked Tay.

"Where did you hear that?" Tay asked.

"One of the legal people said you had asked him to begin drafting language for borders and a treaty."

"Yes, we think we have."

"And it's what we had agreed upon."

"Yes Alan, and you'll get your zinc monopoly."

"Excellent." Clive said as they approached the negotiation room.

[Mercantilist States]

Madison followed Clive, Jackson, and Tay into the room, and he noticed Emmanuel Beaupre missing. He noticed in the corner bottles of champagne on ice.

The Mercantilians exchanged pleasantries with the Varkourians and took their seats.

"So," Jackson began. "1-8-6, North. That's what we've come to?"

"Yes," Tourant responded. "Hermanville-sur-Mer will go to the Mercantilist States. Tenasi, North Jazzville, and the West O Trading Post will go to Varkour."



"And the authority of the local elected governments for all cities involved will be maintained?" Jackson asked.

"Yes, subject to Varkourian, and Mercantilist States law, respectively. Our legal people have begun drafting the details. We've also decided it would be best to leave the issue of militarization of the border absent from the treaty. We have no plans to militarize the border, we are all civilized people here. But we also don't want to prohibit any possible future course of action."

They've also decided, Madison thought to himself.

"Of course." Jackson said.

"Additionally," Tourant continued. "We will allow for free movement of any Mercantilians who wish to return to Mercantilist Ginto, and would expect the same for any Varkourian citizens."

"Of course." Jackson said.

There was a brief moment of silence.

"Shall we pop the cork?" Tay asked.

"If I may," Clive said, "Just very briefly suggest an idea."

Jackson and Tay shot him a puzzled look. The Varkourians didn't notice.

"Of course, Mr. Clive," Tourant said.

"Well our company has done some surveying of the unclaimed lands further north," Clive opened his briefcase and unrolled a larger map of the entire western portion of the O continent. "There is a mountain range towards the northern coast, that sources a river that runs all the way down to the southern coast, dumping out just north of Sparti."



"What I would like to propose is that we use that river as a border. Everything to the west will go to Varkour; everything to the east to the Mercantilist States. That way we can ensure that any future expansions by our people won't come into conflict, and we can avoid the unfortunate situation that unfolded on the Ginto peninsula."

Tourant was caught off gaurd.

"Can we recess for an hour or so to discuss this?"

"Of course," Jackson said calmly.

[Mercantilist States]

"What the fuck was that?" Jackson asked, clearly pissed, as they entered their conference room.

"Relax, relax," Clive said as he took a seat.

"Clive, you don't pull that shit again without running it by us," Tay said, equally pissed.

Madison was getting a kick out of it. He liked this Clive guy, though that new territory may be a little tough to defend. But he was up to the challenge.

"Look, sit down ya'll," Clive said. "They are probably going to agree to it. So there's no harm, no foul."

"We haven't run any of this by Decartes, we don't even know if we have the capability to defend it."

"It's not as tough as it looks," Madison said, contributing his first two cents of the conference. "We can deploy the fleets, or at least one of the ones station at Ginto. And request another one forward deployed from the States. We establish a base at the mouth of the river which doubles as an entrance point, like Ginto was for the peninsula. Thus it shouldn't be that hard to defend; or colonize, since all of our people are coming by boat from home anyway."

Tay and Jackson took a seat and calmed down, letting what they had just heard digest.

"I'll bring it to Washington, let's hope you're right Clive," Jackson said as he pulled out his Blackberry.

[Varkour]

The Varkourian delegation walked back to their conference room and sat down at the round table.

"We can't turn this down Tourant!" Antoine said excitedly.

"I agree." Jacquemin said. "This way we can link up Varkour and Ginto..."

"Okay. Lets go back down and tell them." Tourant replied.

[Varkour]

"Wait there Tourant." Antoine said as Tourant was leaving the room.

"Yes?" He asked.

"There is an island just east of Varkour. If we gain it in the treaty, it could play an important part in the defence of Varkour."



The others nodded and waited for a responce from Tourant.

"Very well. Lets go."

[Mercantilist States]

The Merchant delegation was in the negotiation room waiting talking amongst themselves. Madison and Jackson had already poured themselves a glass of Old Mercantilism in anticipation of the end of the conference.

Just like those two good ole boys, Tay thought to himself.

Members of the Varkourian News Network and The Mercantilist Free Press were in the room now, awaiting this momentous signing.

The Varkourian delegation entered the room and took their seats.

"We like your offer, there is only one thing we wish to add," Tourant showed them the new map with the island east of Varkour included on it. "We would also like this island to be included in our portion of the territory."

Jackson showed the map to Clive and Tay. Tay nodded.

"That looks good to us," Jackson said.

"Well then Mr. Jackson, shall we break out the champagne?" Tourant said as all the members rose and begin shaking hands.

Antione popped the cork on a bottle of champagne and began pouring glasses for everyone.

"May I offer ya'll a glass of Old Mercantilism?" Madison said.

They had a piece of paper that looked like a mock treaty and they all took turns putting their signature on it and letting the members of the news media get their pictures. The full legalese of the treaty would not be finished for a few days, but they had come to an agreement.

[Mercantilist States]

“Those mother fuckers in Decartes betrayed us!” Charles Gore said as stood on top of a chair in the bar in the West O Trading Post speaking to a large crowd that had assembled.

Gore had called a town meeting upon hearing the news from Vusun of the signing of the treaty ceding them to Varkourian Ginto. Almost everyone in the town had turned out.

He held up a letter signed by Ambassador William Jackson and Col. James Madison VI, using it as a prop.

“We have been given to the fuckin’ Varkourians,” he shouted. “The Mercantilist States government, instead of recognizing our sovereign claim to this land, has decided to give us to Varkour. Land that we have fought for; land that we have bled for. Land that we have put our hearts and souls into and worked for to call our own, what we have come to call home. They tell us the MDF is no longer going to protect us, what kind of a government abandons their own citizens?”

There was a sense of anxiety and uneasiness that hung over the crowd. A sense that Gore was trying to calm and turn into a resolve to fight as his speech became angrier and more rhythmic.

“I, for one, will not stand for it. I am going to fight for my home. Who is with me?”

As he continued his tirade, there were periodic shouts of “hell yeah” and cheers from the crowd.

“We have been blessed with certain inalienable rights…”

[Mercantilist States]

Jude Ocampo, the mayor of North Jazzville, sat at his desk rubbing his temples, a bit distressed. His head was pounding.

He had gotten the news that North Jazzville was going to become part of Varkourian Ginto. The letter he had received from Ambassador Jackson and Col. Madison had informed him that all of their individual and property rights would be recognized, and all businesses and the elected town government would continue to operate unimpeded; albeit under Varkourian laws, which Jackson assured were not that much different from their own.

It wasn’t this news necessarily that stressed him out; he had suspected it was coming. It was the worsening food crisis combined with embargo the Department of Commerce had placed on North Jazzville the basically cut them off from the Dominion. This news was just icing on the cake.

He had sent samples of the withering crops to the Department of Commerce and had requested food aid, but hadn’t heard anything back yet. Entire fields were dying every week and if they didn’t receive any food shipments soon, the town wasn’t going to be able to sustain itself.

They really are abandoning us, he thought to himself.

Now he was faced with the decision of checking his pride and turning to Varkour for help, who for all intents and purposes up to this point had been their nemesis, or letting the town basically starve to death. It seemed like an easy decision, yet he was having a hard time making it.

He stared at a blank computer screen, and tried again to draft a letter.