1453: Revival of Byzantium

Chapter 210: Make Money Out of Money

"However, the Sun himself is weak when he first rises, and gathers strength and courage as the day gets on."

-        The Old Curiosity Shop, by Charles Dickens

"Antonius! Antonius! Antonius! Antonius!" 

Our now the true Stratgos of Archipelago Antonius De'Ricci parades before the villagers on the last island of Prt, which is the nearest Island to Anatolia and Constantinople with two high grounds both elevating to a few decade meters above sea surface, making it an strategically important spot for the construction of the artillery fortress according to Orban's blue print overseeing the transport routes from Constantinople to Abydos.

What makes this small island even more precious is that the island, as seen from its flushing reddish in colour, is rich in naturals minerals like Iron and Copper. Indeed, a surprise discovery, with this Antonius roughly changed his plan of constructing two fortress each on one hilltop, now he is going to only build one fort facing the direction of Constantinople, and a watch tower on the highest point, with the rest of the area transformed into a mine and an iron work. 

The only problem laying in front of Antonius to his projects now is manpower. 

Of course Antonius cannot be like the land lords who used to dominate this place forcing inhabitants into hard labour paying them with totally nothing, things will not work that way, it will change the improving economy and social structure that Antonius with his men spent so much time and effort to change straight down to hell once more, also counting on the scale of the project, if he is going to do that, it is almost assumable that the entire population will turn on him.

Thus, he must find a smarter way in doing it, and that is when Anjelo reminded him during breakfast.

"Do you still remember the money you have confiscated from those folks, Admiral?" 

This made him remember that he actually gained a fortune these couple few days, but still he thought hard for a while scratching his forehead, then went back with a simple question.

"With the Island being so poor with not even a single market be present, will these people really want these coins? What if later these people are like, hey! What use would I have for these fancy tickling little stuff? I would rather trade with hens and eggs!" 

Anjelo gave Antonius a strange look as if he is trying to control himself from laughing out. "My dear Admiral, my dear Admiral, you talk like they are a bunch of cave men, of course they know trading with currency seating on such an important trading route between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, it is just their trading potential is limited by heavy taxation and exploitations which basically stripped them of any purchase power." 

"Purchase power?" 

"Basically, the ability to afford to buy things." Anjelo took out the pipe he borrowed from Abdullah and began trying to lit it up. "They have the potential to start trading, only after they are able to fill their stomach and have excess materials to be traded into things they do not have Then, money will come to be useful." 

Antonius nodded in agreement thinking about it.

"You are from Genoa aren't you Admiral." Anjelo asked while blowing into the pipe creating a scent of pale smoke a bizarre habit that many sailors in the fleet are adopting in the eyes of Antonius. "Have you not studied the mode of governance and encouraging trade the Genoese used for their colonies in Odessa and Chersonnia?" 

"Nope." Antonius is honest. "I have only robbed a lot of ships from that two places before."

"Fine, I will tell you some methods that the citizens of Florence use." Anjelo almost choked, after a moment he recovered and suggested. "What we can do now, Admiral, is to make them able to feed themselves pushing them to the next level of need that they cannot acquire from the sea or the lands; Then we need to set up a common market ran and functioned by the state controlling all trades on these islands without any foreign influence."

Antonius catches the idea Anjelo is trying to tell coughing and frowning from the smoke in the room. "Common market? *Cough *Cough, ahem, but what are we going to sell over there to let people buy it? And how do they start? They do not have a single copper inside their pouch *Cough."

Seeing this Anjelo opened the window and faced the outside when blowing the pipes. "We can start off with the basics, such as we can sell things like boats, grains, tools, nets which is essential for their survival and production of food We can 'give' them each a small amount of money and make an event like 'special lowered price' The Venetians loved this method, encouraging them to spend the money in their hands, and at least by this we can start the circles of trade first without having to give them any thing of our own. You see, the grains, tools, nets, boats are not from us, and the coins are also not spent by us, is it not wonderful? Taking other's money to develop ourselves, and we do not even have to thank them."

"But what if these people decide to like Save these money away, hide them in a shelf, dig a hole in the ground and bury the coins inside? We would still be at  a losing end." Antonius is still doubtful about Anjelo's idea recounting his past memories when he was poor. 

Anjelo took a deep breathe from his pipe with his arms folded looking outside at the inhabitants tidying up their newly distributed fishing net for the first time with a happy grin and singing a merry folk rhythm for the first time in decades, thinking about this critical question that his admiral has just brought up to him; How to get people who are stingy by nature to widen open their pockets and voluntarily spend money, after they have already gotten their basic needs?

He gave Antonius a bitter smile, it seems like the economical structure he has designed did not put this into consideration.

The two men who both came from the republic city cities rich of knowledge on trade and money stumbled in their words, this is the first time they might have encountered; How to do trade with the poor folks. 

Back in their city states they always used to trade with the rich, usually the local lords, chieftains, monarchs, kings and mayors for stuff they need paid by coins, resources, services, lands and men. What is similar in them is that they are rich, but when it comes to establishing a mutual trading relationship with the poor people they really do not have much experience, as most of the trades between the rural areas and the republic city states are an exploitation of natural resources, mostly in the forms of setting up colonies, like the Genoese in Cherson. 

"I shall leave the work of setting up a common market to you first, Anjelo." After a while of stagnating over here Antonius decided to waste no more brain power and threw the question to Anjelo. "Even if there will not be much trading and buying going on in the market after we set it up on every island, we still have to do it. It is not important whether it served its functionalities at first, but it is important that it is there, existing, functioning its purpose, then one day I bet the people will start buying and selling."

"Yes, admiral." Anjelo had no choice but to accept with his wrinkles squeezed together like a sponge. 

"Sorry for my messy language, Anjelo." Antonius massaged his head. "Actually, I do not even know what am I talking about We do need a professional who is an expert in these areas of specialities, we pirates knows how to loot money, but aint got a single idea of how to make money out of money." 

"You are right, admiral."

Nevertheless, after Antonius left Anjelo's ship he took no time to waste and immediately went to work on recruitment of locals into his new 'force', the force of labourers.

The men hurried around establishing another make shift wooden platforms in the middle of the local settlement on the island of Prt, getting a few sailors with born loud throats to shout slogans of the benefits of working in construction sites, mines, and iron works, and Antonius even piled three stacks of all kinds of coins, wising to lure people to come around and take a look. However, they soon realised that they have caught themselves in the middle of a utter embarrassment. It is just a little bit after noon with the sun still hanging high above them in the sky. The local villagers, including both men and women, have all went out into sea fishing with their brand new boats and fishing net, leaving only the children behind.