Colonial Auction
An event as luxurious and gravely serious as it is despicable. Vast lands inhabited by numerous people of all sorts, sold like property to the highest bidder.Each nation in the Old World has its own approach to dealing with the many opportunities of the New World. Ardenian Empire is set on spreading the emperor's rule across all known lands, whether they like it or not. Hummish principalities and duchies generally let individual clans handle their colonisation ambitions, as merciful or as ruthless as they wish to be. The Kingdom of Eire sits in between these two positions, with yearly colonial auction as the embodiment of their doctrine. The Royal Colonial Office and, in part, the Royal Navy are responsible for discovering and mapping the new lands. Planting the Eirish flag too of course, to claim that land for the crown. All of these discoveries are then categorised at the Office and put up for sale during the yearly auction, granting the buyer a license to establish and govern a colony in the name of the king. For a time, anyways, and so long as you refrain from breaking the law too much. If not, then you might find your license revoked and sold anew at the next year's auction.
Execution
The event happens in a new place each year, and no wonder. Given the crowds and money it brings it, hosting it even once can give a town or city an enormous economic boost which it can ride for many years after. In fact, some of the toughest political debate in the Kingdom of Eire is where to hold the next year's colonial auction, with contestant cities applying for the honour years before they might be granted one.
When the auction's place and date are announced, the world goes crazy. Everyone with a craft or a trick flocks to the place some days in advance of the auction, hoping to make money off all the rich aristocrats and merchants who come there to buy their own piece of the world. Fairs and markets sprawl up around the auction's venue, and last some days if not weeks on end. The actual betting alone takes a whole day, with plenty of intermissions for potential investors to form alliances or simply spend time among their peers.
Components and tools
One week before the auction commences, overall information about each planned lot is prepared and sealed. Three days before the auction, that information is put up for public display. Things like how large the area is supposed to be, whether it is an entire island or only a part of it, how fertile is the soil and whether there are any natural resources already discovered, how many years the license is being given out for. Of particular note are the licenses for already established colonies, given out when an existing license either lapses or is revoked as punishment for a crime.
Participants
Now, while I said that the colonial auction is open to anyone with money I naturally did not mean anyone-anyone. These lands are official territories of the Kingdom of Eire, and cannot be sold to anyone whose ownership would put that fact in doubt. Sorry foreign nobles and criminals, not today.
There is however a persistent rumour that not all lots originally placed in the list actually make it to the bidding stage. Some people suggested to me that the best lots are often discussed in public with wealthy benefactors of note, offering them opportunity to claim the site before anyone else can. And in some cases, that apparently meant even those who would normally not be let inside the venue.
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