The Calassani Trading Company is a territory-holding company based in the Ruined Sea. It is almost entirely funded and operated by the Silcalas family, the largest of Anbennar’s silver families. Though the company was first founded in Arbaran, it established its headquarters in Damescrown, and joined in on the rush for Aelantir with a top-of-the-line fleet led by Calas Silcalas. The company effectively established a monopoly on Aelantiri exports into the Dameshead, and grew to be one of the largest companies on Halann.
Business Model[]
The CLSTC made most of its profit through operating as a middleman between private investors/landholders, and the markets of Cannor. In exchange for paying trading fees with the company, the owner of a plantation was guaranteed safe passage of their goods from Aelantir to Cannor, and their plantations would be garrisoned by company troops. Furthermore, said landowners would also gain priority access to the best of the CLSTC’s slave imports, fresh from Vertesk. Such a model allowed individual businessmen to remain outside of colonial laws that many saw as profit-restrictive, enabling the CLSTC to garner a great amount of investment capital, as well as invaluable connections throughout Cannor.
With the outbreak of the Blackpowder Rebellion in Anbennar, the heads of the Silcalas family determined that they were making so much money from their holdings in Aelantir, that the most profitable option for them was to renounce their noble titles, and carry on as usual. Though they were no longer able to profit from their feudal estates, continued access to Dameshead markets was more than worth it.
In line with their devotion to profit above all else, the CLSTC has had few problems with religious strife. Throughout its history, the company always paid homage to Ara, the goddess of wealth and money. Such a patron deity allowed them to neatly sidestep the Corinite schism, as both sides continued to hold Ara in high esteem. Even with the emergence of Ravelianism, and the widespread rejection of other gods, the Silcalas continued along with praise to St. Ara instead.
Military[]
Maintaining such a long and complex corporate empire is no easy feat, especially with the risk of pirates, freed slave revolutionaries, or encroaching colonial competitors. To solve this problem, the renowned shipbuilders held on the CLSTC retainer developed two signature ship designs that would form the backbone of their fleet.
The first was a single ship known as the “Ara Magnificent.” Built in Damescrown in 1567, it was the largest galleon in the world at the time it was launched. Specifically designed to withstand the mightiest storms Uelos' Lament could muster, she set sail for Aelantir and the Company's center of operations in New Calas. When she returned a year later, laden with goods, she delivered to Damescrown the largest single cargo the city had seen, repaying her cost of construction five-fold.
The second of the signature designs was the standardized merchantman. These ships were the first ever boats built in the newly-commissioned New Calas shipyards in 1633. Capable of both moving goods and defending themselves from sea-based threats. Over time, the company’s fleet was dominated by this design of ship - their standardized design and multirole capacity allowing them to be produced en-masse. In a pinch, the merchantmen could also be pressed into military service, able to hold their own in conventional combat formations. Such ships were never found without their own complement of Calassani Marines, a fighting force formed in 1602 to serve as a conventional army for the company.