Bgheet
Bgheet, plural bgheetje ([biəf], Rashimic: ⰱⱐⱈⰹⰵⱅ ḅěgiet /bgʲiːt/, pl -ĭ) is a title given to members of the merchant nobility of the New Zaavic League, where it is the correct form of address for any male who meets the wealth and age qualifications (used as a measure of Knowledge) to occupy non-Scholarly political offices. Although its official use is now restricted to Zaavia, the term was a common marker of rank in many of the Seranian combinations, none of which are still extant; prior to its use in the Seranias, it was a Neritsovid title of similar usage used to refer to members of the mercantile elite. In the latter two senses it is approximately equivalent to the Lacrean term bīrō (ⰁⰋⰓⰙ). Although in contemporary Littoral Rashimic its pronunciation is approximately [bʝi:], the Ellish form is first attested in the 16th century and probably derives from the Dekoralese pronunciation. This is also reflected in the usual Zaavian pronunciation [bjiːf].
Historic usage
The term “bgheet” is roughly equivalent to “boss” or “master” and is long attested in many Rashimic contexts. The first bgheetje, however, to bear the title in the full socioeconomic sense were the members of the emergent early Tirfatsevid merchant classes. These men came from diverse backgrounds; many of them were particularly successful craftsmen, others were from long-established shipping families, and others still were minor landowners. What brought them together, generally, was moderate wealth and a lack of noble title. Although no individual generally had enough capital to invest in major ventures, large groups of investors often worked together, dividing up the profits. These individuals sought and gradually won the privileges enjoyed by their better-established Lacrean equivalents, the bīrōk.
With the discovery of the Seranias and the establishment of the Joriscian-Ascesian Trade Route, the relative importance of the cities of the Rashimic Littoral, which had previously been the main entrepôt of the empire, decreased and Lacrean and Dekoralese bgheetje began to make enormous profits as the main beneficiaries of these new trade routes, alongside the Mirokrainy. The political instability at the heart of the empire following Ostrobor the Pious' death contributed further to this trend and saw these bgheetje increasingly assert their political and economic rights, raising their own military forces and becoming the dominant political force in the urban trading centres of the south and south-east. Existing social and commercial links between the nascent merchant barons of the these regions led, naturally, to the development of more concrete political institutions: the combinations. The bgheetje claimed a number of privileges in different regions, including the unique right to use of their title and certain exemptions from general sumptuary laws.
However, by the end of the Errancy Era – during which period the bgheetje continued to profit sumptuously from a largely unaffected trade network – significant resentment had developed against these individuals, who were perceived by the nobility as subverting the natural order of things and, in general, as having unfairly hoarded the benefits of transcontinental trade. The new emperor, Lyudodar, was desperately in need of revenue, and soon after his final victory and assumption of the imperial and prophetic titles began imposing, or enforcing, various different customs taxes which had either not previously existed or had been allowed to fall out of usage. The escalating tensions between the combinations, which protested the tax changes, and the Emperor, who was determined to massively increase his income, culminated in the bloody War of the Pact of Osan. When Lyudodar, after great effort, crushed the combinations' military forces, the title of bgheet was obliviated as part of the Eternal Treaty of Nardash, although this did not stop its retention as a respectful term of address in most dialects of Rashimic. The combinations' infrastructure remained largely intact, but their members were largely reduced to administrative roles in trading companies which were now governed by state officials (in practice, these officials were typically selected from the Duodecimvirate and contributed to the rise of Old Estatism).
The subsequent exodus of the mercantile classes to the Seranias saw the title enjoy very significant use there, although the slow growth of Estatism and later assertion of authority saw its use decline in the colonies of the Joriscian powers; by the 20th century it had completely disappeared outside the de facto independent trade leagues. With the trade leagues' gradual dismemberment, the bgheetje disappeared, remaining only in the rump of the New Zaavic League. The Grand Bgheet of the New Zaavic League is its Standard-Bearer.