Suncrown

For years preceding Arthas’ siege on Silvermoon, Quel’thalas’ economy happily subsisted in a feudal system. The lords and other nobility of Silvermoon owned parcels of land throughout Eversong and the Blackened Wood, and tenant farmers or woodsmen would work the land, tithing a percent of their profits back to their land owners.

After the Alliance of Lordaeron was formalized, trade between Quel’thalas and the human lands began and shipments were levied with light tariffs out of courtesy for the alliance. It was a good time in economic history as tables and bellies were full, and purses jingled with excess coin. The excess coin quickly turned into investments, and the merchant class of Quel’thalas came to be, working with skilled craftsmen and producers in order to buy, sell, and trade goods.

The second war bolstered the economy further by causing a heavy need for munitions. Swords, shields, axes, and ammunition were produced at an alarming rate, giving the mostly unused mining and smithing industry a much-needed boost. Quel’thalas boomed in production, rounding out the industrial side of the economy nicely.

Arthas’ siege ravaged Quel’thalas’ land, people, goods and economy. The Blackened Wood was rendered useless due to the rot and disease plaguing the land, and so the Quel’dorei lumber market plummeted. The Alliance of Lordaeron was broken, leaving the merchant class of Silvermoon crying out in lamentation for the loss of valuable import and export trading. Quel’thalas’ arable land was confined to Eversong Wood, which was greatly disturbed by the growing number of magical anomalies and wretched, causing many difficulties in farming the land that could be used.

As Silvermoon recollected itself, many Lords and much of the nobility assumed that things would go back to the way they once were. With a temporary solution to magical addiction and a new alliance with Thrall’s horde via the Dark Lady Sylvanas on the horizon, many of the newly-named Sin’Dorei felt impervious. The reality, however, was that Silvermoon’s economy was gutted, leaving very little intact.

With the arable land of Quel’thalas cut in half, many lords found themselves without lands to be worked, and thus without tithes. The few lords able to retain farmable lands were fraught with troubles as arcane constructs ran rampant and the wretched would take as they pleased from any crop. Without viable crops to be sold there were no profits for farmers or merchants or nobility.

The younger, more flexible, nobility of Silvermoon sought new and different ways to make ends meet. Thus the rise of business began. Lords, formerly content to sit back and reap the wealth merely from owning the choicest parcel of land, found themselves involved in commodities markets, buying, selling, and trading in tentative agreements out of Ogrimmar, Mulgore, and Undercity.

Older lords, however, were not so quick to bend with the wind and change their old habits. Many began to see their wealth deteriorate as time passed and the expense of rebuilding Silvermoon became greater and greater. Some of the older lords humbled themselves and asked their younger counterparts for help in understanding this new way doing things. The rest, however, grumbled in their city estates and dreamt of ways to legislate their return to wealth and power.

Dully aware that other lords were making a fortune off of importing goods into Quel’thalas, the older, conservative lords of Silvermoon brought proposals of high tariffs and taxes to Council, desperate to force business to remain within Quel’thalas and in their control. The amount of sway these older lords held did not diminish along with their purses, and so all motions passed, leaving many of the younger generation of lords to fight an uphill battle against repealing the passed proposals.

Today, Silvermoon’s Bazaar is still full, but is hardly the overflowing, bustling hive of activity it once was. Shops are spread out, rather than shoulder to shoulder, and while goods still hold a certain quality, the skilled craftsmen and artists of Quel’thalas can more often be found selling their wares abroad. Competition from markets in Shattrath and Dalaran simply adds more to the Silvermoon economist’s worries.

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