A sudden surge in world oil prices, the steepest in nearly three years, fell upon Almaria yesterday like an unseasonable squall, and by evening the Ministry of Commerce in Almaria Vella had summoned its emergency committee, the pumps along the Cordoba coastal highway had quietly lifted their numbers, and every prudent household in the kingdom was doing the arithmetic of winter.

The cause, we are told, lies far from our own waters: reports of naval disturbance at a maritime chokepoint in a distant sea have spooked the traders, and the spooking of traders is, as ever, a tax upon the modest larder. Almaria, which imports the greater part of what it burns, felt the tremor before the news had finished printing.

Into this anxious hour stepped Don Joaquín Cordoba, whose counsel the Crown has long valued in matters of commerce. From his offices above the harbour, the patriarch issued a statement of characteristic composure. "The kingdom has weathered graver storms," he said, "and it will weather this one by the same means: steady hands, sound contracts, and no panic at the counter." He urged fuel retailers to refrain from speculative mark-ups and pledged that the Cordoba concerns would absorb, for a period to be determined, a portion of the increase at their own coastal stations.

It is a gesture of the old school, and the Herald records it as such. Where others would have seized the moment for indignation or advantage, the patriarch has chosen the quieter path of example. The Crown, we understand, received the news with satisfaction; His Majesty's advisers have for some days been weighing a package of household gas relief, and Don Cordoba's restraint lends that deliberation the breathing room it requires.

Not every voice has been so measured. From the opposition benches, Senyora Renko pronounced the spike "a verdict on a government that has mistaken drift for stewardship," a phrase that will please her partisans and persuade no one else. The Minister of Commerce, Senyor Esteve, declined to answer her directly, noting only that "the facts will be before Parliament in due course, and the facts are not partisan."

In the Bloc del Puerto, where the arithmetic is done in coppers rather than columns, the mood was grave but not alarmed. Dockmaster Feliu, consulted by this paper, observed that the port's reserves are adequate for six weeks at current draw and that the cooperative bakeries have already been notified of possible adjustments to their delivery schedules. "We have seen worse," he said, "and we have seen it with less warning."

Cardenal Marín, from the Archepiscopal Palace, issued a brief note calling for "calm and measured household planning," a phrase that will be read from pulpits on Sunday. The Cardinal's office declined to elaborate, though those familiar with His Eminence's custom will recognise in the brevity a deliberate refusal to inflame.

What comes next depends, as so often, upon waters we do not govern. Should the distant chokepoint remain disturbed, the Ministry will be obliged to move from committee to measure, and the Crown from deliberation to decree. Should the waters settle, the pumps will follow in their own time, and the kingdom will have learned, once again, that prudence is cheaper than panic.

The Herald will report each turn as it comes, and without the ornament of alarm.