Your magnificent excellency,
The ogres are mercenaries, plain and simple. They may not seek out violence if there is no need (war costs money), but neither will they hesitate to employ it to secure their trade interests. Their existence in the mountains, where nothing grows, depends on a monopoly of the wealth that travels through them. Any substance that moves east or west in this world - unless it takes the Steel Road - incurs the ogre tithe. Many are the great leaders of Sagarikadesha who have attempted to move their goods past or around the mountains without negotiating - all have lost in blood what they would not pay in gold.
If you seek to avoid these wretched middlemen, there is only one option - and that is to pay up for an ocean voyage departing the southern ports. Even this brings risk of reprisal if the ogres catch wind - and the Highborn leverage their control of the seas no less ruthlessly than the khans do that of the land. Remember that the Khaganate founded by Bayalag, which ruled Sagarika for several centuries, was originally intended simply to ensure the continued use of his trade routes. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that we could see another Sagarikan khanate in our lifetimes.