Ocidental Trade Wars

The Occidental Trade Wars were a collection of loosely related economic and military conflicts between the three major Occidental Kingdoms (Froturn, Dragoc and Hulra) and the Free City of Gabyr. Rather a series of conventional military conflicts, the Trade Wars were more of a long 150~ years long cold war of sorts that occasionally briefly turned hot before cooling down, until it was eventually concluded with the Treaty of Cymbierd in 610 BEKE.

Background
In the beginning, there was very little - if any - in the way of maritime trade between the various kingdoms of Artograch, with all the disperate kingdoms preferring overland trade. There was no Gabyr either, with the Free City of Gabyr only popping into existence around ~1000 BEKE. During the following two centuries after Gabyr started existing, Gabyr gradually consolidated its role as an arbiter of international trade, as the state whose ships would travel to far lands, exchanging wealth between kingdoms.

The Kingdom of Dragoc was sprung into existence roughly at a similar time as Gabyr, around ~1000 BEKE. Since this fledgeling kingdom had few others to trade with, it was willing to accept the conditions Gabyr put forth when it came to connecting Dragoc to the outside world, and thus Gabyr would ship Dragoci goods to the distant Shár states, bringing wealth to both Gabyr and Dragoc. What were Gabyr's terms? Gabyr's terms were basically to heavily discourage any kingdom they traded with to build their own trade navy, instead encouraging them to rely on Gabyr's ships. Just like how the fledgeling Kingdom of Dragoc had grandoise ambitions to become the rulers of the continent and enslave all the other races who dwell in it, so did the Gabyrians had grandiose ambitions to become the literal uncontested lords of the seas whose territorial boundaries would literally begin at the coast - birds of a feather.

Over time, the Gabyrians got more and more bold, with them having ambitions not only to monopolize overseas trade between even neighbouring kingdoms, but to also take over sovereign kingdoms' functions of facilating naval trade between provinces. Gabyr would sponsor privateers and encourage pirates to attack any non-Gabyrian ship even coasts controlled by recognized sovereign kingdoms, while at the same time bribing the very same pirates to abstain from doing the same to any Gabyrian ships. Gabyr would then gather up the audacity to come to those kingdoms and advise them to rely on Gabyrian ships to conduct trade between even their own provinces (let trade with alone foreign kingdoms), who are somehow magically immune to being attacked by pirates.

The conflict
This aforementioned unreasonable attitude from Gabyr came at a terrible timing, as the Kingdom of Froturn was just in the process of consolidating itself, and its next goal after resolving all the internal conflicts was to "show those wretched Nereids who is boss". Roughly around ~750, Froturn, Dragoc and Hulra would begin coordinating with each other on means to undercot Gabyr.

Froturn and Dragoc agreed to handle all trade between each other overland. Hulra began investing in developing its own navy to rival Gabyr and provide armed escorts to all trading ships. While it could not hope to challenge Gabyrian naval superiority, by making it clear to pirates that trading fleets would no longer be easy pickings (as well as by offering a cheaper alternative to Gabyrian escorts), Hulra did wonders to undercut Gabyrain profits. The three kingdoms agreed to frequently conduct anti-piracy campaigns, showing no quarter to pirates. At the same time, Gabyr dug up and reintroduced its old policy of raiding coastal settlements to gather slaves. The three kingdoms' response was a boycott of Gabyrian goods, as well as a temporary ban on trading with Gabyr, which hurt the free city's income greatly.

The rest of the conflict would be a series of occasional naval skirmishes, short-lived boycotts, threats of invasion, until around ~620 BEKE, a new profitable horizon would open, convincing both sides to lay down their arms and make peace so that both sides could profit and grow rich from the new lucrative opportunities that would require the cooperation of both sides.

Conclusion and legacy
While the Principality of Gabyr was de facto ejected and boycotted from the West for more than a century, she was spending its money on building up a market in the East... not just a market, but a whole network of informants, manufacturers, colonies and mercenary gangs, the Gabyrians had eyes and ears everywhere. Henceforth it comes as no surprise, that the Gabyrians were notified almost immediately, of the unification of the Shár Empire at the hands of the Jing dynasty. The Gabyrian agents were also well-aware that the days of the independent Kingdom of Týrýng - a hub of wretched pirates hindering trade - were numbered and that the Jing would launch an invasion against them after doing some house-cleaning at home. Hence, the Gabyrians came to the conclusion that the Shár under the Jing dynasty would soon be eager to open up trade with the West, growl and drool with hunger for western goods. The only problem was, that the West had rather grumpy attitudes towards Gabyr, and it was mutual at the time.

What was the solution? Negotiations. Gabyr sent word to all three kingdoms, summoning them to the negotiation table. Ultimately, it was decided that the place would be the Cymbierd Islands, at the time under Hulran rule (later the objective of the Cymbairan Wars). In a rare historic event, the rulers of all of the five states showed up in person, accompanied by bodyguards and large fleets alike, in case the negotiations would go awry and one side would decide to ignore diplomatic immunity. Ultimately, the terms were formalized in writing, and all signed signed the Treaty of Cymbierd. Gabyr gave up on her ambitions to be the uncontested ruler of all waters and recognized the naval sovereignty of Froturn, Dragoc and Hulra, as well as their right to build their own fleets, conduct overseas trade between their own princes and each other, while the three continental kingdoms acknowledged, accepted and formally institutionalized Gabyr's monopoly on transportation of Western goods to the East and Eastern goods to the West.

While one could easily consider this a defeat to Gabyr, as their initial ambition to become the uncontested lords of the seas failed and had to be given up, in the end, it was still a major victory for Gabyr: they cemented and consolidated their role as the arbiters of overseas trade between East and West, and made an obscene amount of profit from transporting Froturnish, Gabyrian and Hulran goods to the Shár Empire, and Shár goods to the Kingdoms of Froturn, Dragoc and Hulra. For six centuries, Gabyr could rely on legitimate trade instead of piracy, and cultivate its relationships in both the East and the West, formally cementing itself as a major power that is not to be contended with. While not the literal lords of the seas, they gained the same amount of recognition, respect and relative power that would normally only belong to kingdoms with more than a hundred times the territory and population that Gabyr has.