Portsmouth has been a major port since about the third century. Venice was at the height of its power well before the invention of the railway. Etc etc. Position is far more important than river access.
OK, you know, that's totally fair. A port that is well sited
relative to other people's sealanes can have a vital strategic location, with or without railroads. That's Portsmouth's solution; it's a sheltered harbor on the English Channel, so many ships pass by and many ships have an incentive to stop there, even if there's not much reason for them to pick up or drop off cargo there.
So can a port that sits on the overland trade routes for luxury goods, even when trade in bulk goods cannot go through it because of a lack of overland
bulk transportation. That's Venice's solution to a large extent.
The question you invite, then, is "do the Imperial ports on the north coast, the ones not connected to the Reik river network,
HAVE those advantages?"
The other question is "is it feasible for the bulk of the Imperial economy to plug itself into the maritime trade of these ports in any meaningful way, or does the tyranny of overland distance, complicated by the need to get past terrain obstacles like beastman-haunted forests and mountains, prevent this?"
That's an interesting assertion. Do you have any proof? Because sure, it makes things more expensive and difficult, but I highly doubt it makes it so impractical as to be useless. It's not like those trade routes don't already exist, even if they're going be under greater amounts of strain now. But that's a consequence of the sudden change, not of their existence.
They'll be workable for some goods, but not others. This is as historical. Amber was moving in trade routes overland through prehistoric Europe back when I doubt there was anything recognizable as a road from Macedonia to the Baltic... but amber is precious and you can carry a fortune of it in a knapsack. If you're trading in timber or grain or even wool, you need a lot more shipping capacity, and in the pre-industrial world that meant moving overland as little as possible.
So you get a situation where luxury goods can flow to and from the sea in the Empire, but essentials cannot, at least not without paying Marienburger taxes.
Except, as far as I can tell, the only Imperial taxes mentioned are excise taxes. Elector counts tax their own provinces and raise their own armies based on that, and Imperial institutions are supported by their own efforts, not state funding. See the Colleges selling their services and tithing members. And the argument that Marienburg is defended by armies it doesn't contribute to applies to most polities in the Old World. The Empire doesn't pay for Kislev's defense. Nor do, as far as I can tell, the various Electors pay each other anything for their defense.
Yes, but Elector Counts are expected to
march to each other's defense in the face of a pre-eminent threat, and the Empire has historically shown up when Kislev was existentially threatened by Chaos (the only thing that usually hits the Empire
through Kislev).
Marienburg getting to sit such wars out entirely
and not pay any taxes to Imperial coffers to finance the Emperor's own forces is a much more extreme form of free-riding than the Elector Counts engage in.
That hasn't changed. The Empire doesn't magically get better than its third rate navy because they built a new canal.
Earlier you observe that the Empire totally has sea access. I point out that their sea access is marginal and not connected with their main industrial centers by water.
Now you note that they have a third-rate Navy.
Do you think that's a coincidence?
I don't. I think the Empire struggles far more to maintain a fleet capable of defending its coastline because it
doesn't have the option of setting up a fleet base and major military shipyard in a port city that is connected via easy, secure transportation to its industrial heartland.
For example, warships require cannons. The Empire's cannon are mostly manufactured in Nuln and Altdorf and points adjacent. Do you think having to haul the things- and much of the powder, probably- through the Middle Mountains or the Forest of Shadows makes it any easier to build and maintain a powerful armed fleet in Ostland or Nordland?
It's like, there's a
reason that over in Dynastic Alcoholism, the Count of Ostland has been able to build up a powerful fleet and project at least some measure of naval power onto the Sea of Claws. Do you know why?
Because he's the goddamn Graf of Guns, that's why; he managed to establish his own capital as a local center of artillery manufacture and engineering knowledge. Something that in canon, Nordland and Ostland have not succeeded in doing... and consequently, they do not have the means to sustain a first or second-rate fleet properly out of their own resources. Nor- see previous comments about Middle Mountains and Forest of Shadows- do they have the means to easily transfer those resources to their own ports for the construction of ships.
So
yes, the independence of Marienberg, along with its active taxation of river-to-sea Imperial trade for the Reik river basin (most of the Empire)
is significantly impairing the Empire's defensive capabilities.
It's good for Marienburg, sure! But it's not good for the Old World as a whole, given the sometimes tenuous state of their defenses against the Destruction factions.
