Association of Haromszeki States - AHzS
AHzS Flag 0f 1421
Shaky political grouping of most of the nation-states just south of Vetlanda on the eastern shore of the Cisteuvian Ocean. While the political ties were tenuous and shifting, the real connection between the various States was transport. The Haromszeki Railway Union was a far more cohesive administration than the AHzS, extending even to Vostahaveck, Santosbourg, and Herceg. Those three historically remained aloof from "government entanglements" until late in the 15th century. But their economies were just as tightly tied to the other Railway Union partners as those of the AHzS were.
Haromszeki Social Development - 1400's
Haromszek was a mundane region populated by ordinary squabbling states when the industrial revolution bloomed in the 1300's in Niveria. No local leaders particularly encouraged industrialization, though many sought to profit from it or from discouraging it. But blossom it did, and water-power turned to steam power, piece-work turned to mass production, and serfs turned into factory workers.
Already a patchwork of ethnic groups and languages, the region grew even more fragmented by migrations of displaced workers. Some unscrupulous landowners took a collectivist path out of feudalism when one tractor could replace a hundred field workers. Urban areas, mining regions, and newly-cleared farmland benefitted from the influx. Even under feudal systems many of the area's people had a strong work ethic, so few of those who were chased off from farms ever wound up recruited by Unionist or Communist organizers as in northern Niveria. Rather than "give us bread" their cry was "give us work".
States like (Old) Obilnice where massive single-owner plantations sprang up experienced a swing back to wider-spread ownership and operation as comparatively well-to-do former serfs and sons of serfs returned to ancestral soil and bought back their birthrights. One particularly harsh example was when Duke Gestiv the Expeller drove out four of every five residents of Mechcco Duchy (soon afterward incorporated into Herceg). The workers driven out returned, armed by opportunistic rivals of Gestiv, who woke up dead one morning, along with all his heirs. The new managers of that realm turned to a radically libertarian near-anarchy, one not nearly so successful as would later arise in Andrea.
The mixing of groups homogenized some, but others retained their identity all the way down to clumps of a few dozen individuals. See the Confederacy of Haromszek article for the later effects of that mingling of groups. With plenty of open land (1350 population around 30 million across a vast expanse) and abundant resources, no population pressure ever generated the group vs. group hatred of less fortunate Scandian regions.
Haromszeki Railway Union - HzRU - 1400's
Rail Union Emblem
The Managing Director of the HzRU wielded far more power than the figurehead leader
of the AHzS, their Premier. Railway Union tarrifs likewise provided an operating
budget larger than those of many Scandian nations - certainly larger than most of
the AHzS. Railway-issue scrip, the so-called prevodni proplatek or "prevpros", was
a far steadier currency than the local silver-backed currencies, even that of Lucco Hovy, the
largest of the AHz States.
While canals predated railways in Hz, waterways in the 1400's were operated as subsidiaries of the rail network. Bulk haulage was cheaper by barge, so the canals would not go away, but by 1425 it had been decades since any serious number of passengers had travelled on the Hz inland waterways. Roads in Hz tended to be local. Highways supplemented rail travel, but still more for horsedrawn conveyance than for motor vehicles. If one wanted to get across the AHzS, one definitely did so by rail.
Just because order had been made out of chaos did not mean the Railway Union was an
entirely good thing. The whole system was operated for the benefit of the various companies'
Ezinkirry HzRU Hospitalinvestors and operators. Those interests were not directly opposed to those of the
citizens in general, but profits were often seen to before other matters. Still, the
operating companies were not entirely heartless. Employee health care? That kept workers
efficient. Industrial development? More manufacturing and more export meant more revenue -
and also more jobs. Governmental corruption? That cut in on profits, so it was severely
curbed. Warfare? Bad for business internally, and safest practiced economically
outside.
These were still nominally sovereign states. So they still had military establishments. They had elections, and succession fights, and political pressure. There were taxes to be collected and misspent, and medals to be awarded to heroes.
But if any of that got in the way of running the trains -- or more importantly in the way of paying for running the trains -- it got altered. No one knew better than the Haromszekis that the lifeblood of a land runs along its transportation arteries.
