The mathematics of relief are straightforward. On Wednesday evening, Bobington’s wholesale spice reserves stood at approximately 340 pounds across all varieties, with velveroot — the most prized and most depleted — at 29 pounds. By Friday evening, those figures had risen to approximately 940 pounds and 71 pounds respectively. In the language of markets, a crisis that was measured in weeks of supply is now measured in months.

The Aldara docked Thursday with 120 pounds. The Fernleigh Cross, under Captain Edith Varne, followed Friday with 480 pounds across twenty-two varieties — the largest single spice delivery to Bobington in over a month. Between them, they have more than doubled the city’s working supply of velveroot and replenished reserves of black cardamom, saffron bark, golden peppervine, and smoked coriander seed to levels that the Spice Crisis Committee describes as “adequate through mid-April at current consumption.”

Allocation

The committee began distributing the Fernleigh Cross cargo on Friday evening from the Guild warehouse on Threadneedle Lane. Nazari, who chairs the four-member committee, applied the framework agreed at the Guild’s emergency session on 27 February: merchants whose reserves are exhausted receive first priority, followed by those below one week’s supply, followed by the general membership.

“This is not a market day,” Nazari said, standing amid crates of saffron bark and golden peppervine in the warehouse’s cool-room. “This is an allocation. We will not have another shipment for a fortnight. What we distribute today must last.”

The practical effect will reach kitchen tables by Monday. Simeon Kade, proprietor of The Willow Table, confirmed Saturday morning that he has received sufficient velveroot to restore the braised lamb shoulder to his menu — the dish he pulled three weeks ago when the crisis made the ingredient unobtainable.

“It will be back by Wednesday,” Kade said. “I have fourteen pounds. At the rate I use it, that is three weeks. Which is, for the first time since February, enough.”

Marguerite Fontenoy at Verlaine’s expects to return to her full eastern-influenced menu within ten days, pending the committee’s second allocation round next week.

The Index

The Eastern Spice Index — the twelve-spice weighted basket tracked on the Bramblegate Exchange — closed Friday at 328, down from its crisis peak of 356 on 26 February. The decline is the longest sustained downward run since the index’s establishment in 2003, and reflects both the physical arrival of new supply and the broader easing of shipping conditions.

The Cape of Sarenne route, which added twelve to fifteen days to eastern voyages at the crisis’s height, is now being used by fourteen Guild-affiliated vessels. Two additional ships are expected within the fortnight. If the Kaelmar talks produce a commercial transit framework — a possibility that grows more concrete with each session — the route itself may become unnecessary within weeks.

But markets are not yet pricing in a full resolution. Copper remains in the low 850s. Insurance premiums for Kaelmar-route cargo, while no longer rising, have not fallen. The speculative froth has subsided; the structural uncertainty has not.

The Cap Problem

The Guild’s 250 per cent pricing cap, which has been in force since 2 March, applies only to its own members — approximately eighty per cent of commercial spice trade by volume. The remaining twenty per cent is handled by independent merchants, six of whom continue to sell above the cap. Three are on Ashbury Lane, one on Chandler’s Row, one near the Bramblegate Exchange, and one in the Merchants’ Quarter.

At least one — an independent dried spice trader on Ashbury Lane — was observed selling saffron bark at approximately four times the pre-crisis price on Friday afternoon. The Guild has no enforcement mechanism over non-members.

The committee’s petition for an emergency pricing ordinance — which would extend the cap to all commercial spice sales in the city — was referred to the council’s Commerce Committee last week. It has not been scheduled for consideration. With Monday’s session dominated by the copper debate, council staff have indicated the ordinance is unlikely to reach the floor before mid-March.

“Six merchants is not a crisis,” Nazari said. “But it is an insult to every trader who accepted the cap in good faith. The committee is a voluntary arrangement. The ordinance would make it law.”

Two more vessels carrying eastern cargo via the Sarenne route are expected within the fortnight. The pipeline, once established, is self-sustaining — provided the Cape route remains open and the weather cooperates. The March gales have passed. The harbourmaster has cleared incoming vessels. The question now is not whether the spice will arrive, but whether the price at which it reaches the consumer will be fair.

The ESI will open Monday. The committee meets again Tuesday. The counter, for the first time in three weeks, is not bare.