Senator Leon Cortez:
Leon had been sitting and observing the senate session since its beginning, noting the points many other senators have made, finally he believes there have been sufficient spilling of opinions by other senators for him to feel he could make an argument appeal to the right people.
"Since my expertise is on the western wing of the great eagle that is the Imperium, I would like to weigh in on the subject of Pisa. They are loyal not to Imperium or Xenoi, but to themselves and only themselves. They will side with whichever is more profitable, and this, I believe, is why they decided to negotiate more favorable mercantile contracts with the xenoi and revoke their official protection. This is why their aggression directly against the Imperium has been reduced, they wish to become neutral and profit from both Imperium and Xenoi. This means that a force driven by greed is taking in both our money, and the money of our foes, so asserting dominance over their economy would both benefit us and harm the Xenoi, so liberating Pisa of their wealth would do well to pay our soldiers and give the churches their due, along with shut the more vocal usurers up. It's just a matter of how that money is taken, in peace or war.
Any war with Pisa must be a quick affair, using as few of our resources as possible, blockading their ports and sealing their armies on Corsica while our armies already in Italia occupy their cities. At the first sign of trouble, the pisans will find ways to hide and smuggle out their wealth, so that there is little of it left in any territorial acquisitions from them. If, however, we were to ransom their land back to them after occupying it, that wealth would mysteriously re-appear in our hands. This quick raid would not be costly in money, and with hopefully few if any battles, low in the cost of lives both roman and pisan."
Alternatively, we could attempt to siphon their trade in peace, as senator Di Capponi mentioned. A policy of benefits to traders who are in competition with foreigners would give us an edge over Pisa {{Trade Power, evenly split with the other benefit}} while the increase in goods acquired would filter back in and outweigh the cost of the benefits immensely, possibly not as profitable as increasing our production, but it has the benefit of taking money from our foes, rather than those goods making it to them and indirectly benefiting them. Senator Arrius would have to officially propose this, but I personally believe that since our western acquisitions are still rife with Xenoi blasphemers, and I'm certain our acquisitions from the horde are as well, a portion of the money gotten from there should be given to the church for the purpose of missionary work{{+1 missionary, or +missionary strength}}. After all, what good are all our acquisitions if the people in our land are waiting to stab us in the back for their false gods?
A medium between peace and war with the pisan issue is raiding. Pisa relies more on caravans than they previously did, espeically in trade from the Xenoi's european land, enough so that horseback raiders could make good money. Pisa and the xenoi have very little experience with horse-lords, while we have the moldavoi at our beck and call. Enlisting them to raid overland trade would give us the same degree of trading power that benefits for the traders would give, and improve the tactics of our cavalry in general with mongol riders' agility filling in where our Kataphraktoi's sheer might alone would not be enough {{cavalry combat ability}}.
I leave the trade of opinions on this matter to Senator Arrius."
{{Jeez, I go two days without checking this thread during a session and ONLY have five pages to read through? I'm disappointed, CLEARLY there has not been enough hot air.}}
}}
