[X] Prevent the theft
-[X] Just be blatant about it. If she wanted a press, she could have damn well asked! This will be nearly impossible to mess up since you will know the plan, but it has a small risk of upsetting her if some of her best men are killed or wounded.
We would look like fools,who are ready to do anything and forgive any slight from anyone if we send her a printing press.Dont forget the lannister behavior before twyn and the rains of castamere as a consequence.
This is not the modern world,where we share the knowledge,this is a worse version of the medieval world,where every person and family try to gain an advantage over the others,where today ally is tomorrow enemy.And we arent even part of the same kingdom,we are separate so any advantage we give to someone else will be used against us.
To send this type of invention outside of our family when we didnt have a monopoly on this type of trade is to shot ourselves in the foot,to loose a source of income.If they sent spies to steal it means that they understand what they could do with something like this and we may loose an important source of income and influence.
And if we are trully allies,she shouldnt try something like this.You may spy for general information but tehnology theft is an enemy action not an ally.
For storm books we can offer to make copy of any book she want for free if either we can keep a copy for ourselves or we receive other book of our choice to copy.
[X] Prevent the theft
-[X] Just be blatant about it. If she wanted a press, she could have damn well asked! This will be nearly impossible to mess up since you will know the plan, but it has a small risk of upsetting her if some of her best men are killed or wounded.
Argella being upset, what does that mean exactly? Say we prevent the theft. She loses men, we could even "interrogate" them to find out who sent them, and sent her a very strong worded message. Why, because she'll be embarrassed?
I want you all to think what would have happened if our spies didn't catch wind of the plot. She might have been above suspicion just because we're allies. She would have pulled one over us and have gotten away with it, our supposed ally.
And we'll reward that sort of behavior?
A few points:
1. Killing her spies for this would be completely justified, but it would also worsen relations between us. Considering that we want/need allies willing to work with us against Harren and Loren, establishing frosty relations with a power who shares our interests is a bad idea, since it weakens our ability to keep the two of them in check.
2. The monopoly on the Printing Press won't last, and if we want it to have the biggest possible impact on trade, literacy, and general social and technological progress, then we won't want it to. Added to that, books aren't useful if there's no one to read them, and we won't be able to gain books so easily so long as they're expensive, time-consuming, and difficult to produce. For now building up our advantage makes sense, but giving it to one party who will also want to keep it under wraps for the time being won't jeapordise its broader utility.
3. Responding brutally, rather than inviting diplomacy, actually encourages her to continue this. Rather than suggesting friendly cooperation and mutual benefit, it's instead reinforcing hostility and the fact that "today's ally is tomorrow's enemy". Using this sort of logic to disavow and discourage friendly cooperation means that she's actually completely right to do what she's done, and to keep doing it.
4. It's pretty damn hypocritical to be angry about her spying on us, considering we're literally doing exactly to the same to our own allies, and to our loyal subjects.
5. You're taking things far too personally. This is Great Power politics we're talking about here - this kind of thing is par for the course, because fundamentally personal feelings, pride, and even morals are all irrelevant, and need to be set aside in favour of the interests of the entire country and the greater good. It's a simple fact that allies spy on each other, because they can't afford to blindly trust in anyone, and they can't lose sight of their own interests. Even under Obama, the NSA literally tapped Merkel's mobile phone, and it didn't change the fact that the US and Germany still worked together, even if it was embarassing that it became public knowledge.
You need to decide whether keeping a temporary advantage and our pride is more important than having an ally to work with us against Harren and Loren, and who can offer trade, information, and other assistance besides. What you're suggesting here could potentially mean that tens of thousands more Riverlanders, Valemen, and Northmen die fighting Harren, for example, all because we decided to throw a tantrum rather than thinking about the bigger picture.
