"Establishing sustainable trade was very necessary. For a nation, being self-sufficient in everything was certainly good; that way, they wouldn't be at the mercy of others."
"But if one wanted to gradually build a self-sufficient nation from scratch, it would be a waste of time and resources. That was not a good choice."
"Consistently producing excess resources and using those resources to trade for other essential goods needed by the country was what many nations chose to do. The territories ruled by demons did this, the Silver Moon Tree Court did this, and so did the dwarves and beastmen."
"Except for the Empire… This doesn't mean that the Empire already had all kinds of materials and planted all kinds of crops, but rather that the Empire saw no need for trade."
*Because civilians didn't need "abundant food" to increase their happiness.*
*As long as they had enough to eat (enough not to starve), that was sufficient.*
