The fifth pillar began not with a declaration at a council meeting but with a practical problem and a practical solution, which was how most things in Yohan began when they were going to last.
The practical problem was the highland trade connection's first commercial shipment, which had arrived with the highland pack-train during the same week the Ironbeard caravan completed its initial circuit. The highland shipment's most successful item had been the mountain herb bundles. Vornak's pharmacy had absorbed the full supply within forty-eight hours of arrival, which told Sakh'arran three things when he reviewed the distribution records: the supply was insufficient for the demand, the demand was real and not speculative, and the specific medicinal herbs the highlands produced had a market that Yohan's current domestic production could not serve.
The practical solution had been developing in parallel without being framed as a trade policy.
