Ibrahim wrote:

> The plantation method has had three major economic impacts on Kaeir:
> firstly,  a range of more exotic fruit, vegetables and grains are now grown
> in Kaeir, some of which is exported.  Secondly, the role of slavery has
> grown more important in the economy, with a corresponding growth in demand.
> Lastly, the prospects for upward social mobility has dramatically increased.
> Slaves may earn their freedom, freemen may enter into commerce, successful
> merchants may establish plantations, and both the successful merchant or
> estate owner may gain noble status and thereby enter into the Republic's
> elite.  The consolidation of villages into plantations or the establishment
> of estates in the wilder districts creates further demand for labour beyond
> that which the local peasantry can supply.  In turn this fuels demand for
> slaves.  The ideological attitude of the Republic towards slavery, give the
> origin of many of its leaders, prevents a tightening of restrictions on the
> rights of slaves.  Overall, this complex social pattern acts as a great
> engine for ambition enterprise and initiative.  

The Cult of Demerhaze in the MidSea is strongly anti-slavery and anti-serfdom. 
  While in the past the cult has been "content" with assassinating abusive 
slaveowners and overseers, in Kaeir recently there have been attempts to make 
plantation slavery uneconomic.  Orchards and fields have been burned and wells 
and irrigation systems have been damaged on slave-holding properties.  So far 
the economic effects have been little more than a pinprick, but the use of 
this tactic seems to be increasing.  (The worship of Demerhaze would have been 
popular when Kaeir was under pirate rule, and the republic might not have 
gotten around to officially outlawing it yet.)

Jefferson (Exquaestio)
http://www.picotech.net/~jeff_wilson63/rpg/Exq_Main.html

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