You could PM QuintonBeck, who is the Head GM and in charge of handling NPCs. If you don't want to take over Kuldran and only have P7, I'm not sure if that is possible. Mynxae, who recently joined and took over a nation of three regions only wanted two of those regions. He ended up starting with all three and needed to let the third one go with an action. You could do the same--or better yet, you could take over the Kingdom of Kuldran and make the new ruler (your first ruler) be a native of P7 instead of P6 (which is the current capital region). It will take the NPC off of QuintonBeck's hands and you will be able to have a nation that already has two regions, plus you can fluff out P7 entirely to your liking as well.
I couldn't help but laugh out loud at this statement. Not because it's silly, but because it's a philosophy that a number of nations in the southern hemisphere of Telluris hold quite strongly to.
At any rate, welcome to Empire!
I don't think secret trades are possible, because must be accounted for in the administration. The latest version of the rules doesn't specify whether it is allowed or not, but since they are quite clear afterwards anyway it would be somewhat useless to spend a secret action entirely on that.