16 - Chapter 14
Sa Bina returned back home, it had been another long day that ended with Sa Bina taking more responsibilities and then proceeding to delegate to another group. Sa Bina had tried to live a more carefree life in this new world, but circumstances kept putting her in situations where she could benefit massively by taking on responsibility.
So far it had ended up with her own estate, a lump sum of resources and now, a portion of tax revenue. Yes others would do that work, but she would still be responsible on paper. She would also have to ensure that she oversaw the details herself to not give people the opportunity to steal from her, and more importantly to sully her reputation. She really was extending a lot of trust.
Once she returned back home, she asked her butler Be Net, her secretary Lou Sie and her general Han Ji to join her for dinner. So far she had left them to manage the day to day affairs, but after the deal she had just struck, they needed to be made aware, as it would have wide ranging impacts.
Once they joined her and they were all seated comfortably, Sa Bina got into the reason for her summons that evening.
“So the reason I have asked you all to join me this evening is to let you know of a new contract I have signed with the ministries of commerce and diplomacy.” said Sa Bina, “And how that will impact your work going forward.”
“So, on paper, the kingdom of The Rising Dao, is going to start a series of guilds here.” continued Sa Bina. “The agreement will allow us to open and purchase businesses and run them without going through the local guilds. Be Net, we will need a good general manager to look after our business portfolio. The agreement will also allow local businesses to choose to be regulated by our guilds instead of the local guilds. Thankfully all those businesses will be managed by a newly setup subdivision of the ministry of diplomacy. However, we will take a revenue share of the taxes those businesses generate, agreed at 88/12. We will also take the full amount of annual membership fees and half of all profits generated by the new guilds. We are going to need excellent scribes and accountants to audit the ministry records and ensure we are getting paid the correct amount.”
The announcement left all three in shock. Even Han Ji, who had been in the room for the negotiations, didn't understand the full implications of what Sa Bina had pushed through.
“As my secretary Lou Sie, you will need to deal with the approval process,” said Sa Bina, “even though the ministries are actually running things, they are doing it on our behalf on paper. I don’t want us to have a problem and suffer reputational damage because the ministry makes mistakes. Those scribes, accountants and potentially legal professionals will need to review all documents sent to us for approval to ensure that our agreement is being maintained. I also want the cost of all the additional staff to be charged back to the guilds. They are creating the work, so they should pick up the cost.”
“Will they accept that, isn't it a change to the agreement that you negotiated?” asked Han Ji.
“It’s not a change,” replied Sa Bina. “I stated profits, and this is a business expense created by this agreement. So I don’t think they will be able to refuse, as much as they may want to. That leads me to record keeping. I want accurate records kept, in fact, I will train the new scribes and accountants in double entry bookkeeping format that I want to use to ensure we can catch issues quickly.”
“Lastly, Han Ji, this is going to create enmity with the local guilds.” continued Sa Bina, “They will target our people. We can reduce the risk by having the new people and their families move to our estate. However, that won't be enough. Just like the guilds have an enforcement unit, we will need the same to protect our people. We will do this by massively increasing the army, again as it's a business cost, we will bill the increased manpower to the ministry. I have ensured there is a clause in the contract that stipulates that any costs incurred due to the contract are to be considered costs borne by the guilds. In reality it's no different to how the existing guilds operate.”
“That is a lot of additional work for us to take on my lady, “ said Be Net, speaking for the first time after the announcement. “It will require us to significantly increase the number of people.”
“Not necessarily Be Net,” replied Sa Bina. “We have not only employed the people for the roles, but also have moved their families to us as well. I think if we have people with the skills, they just have to be able to read, write and do arithmetic, then we can employ them and train them. We will just need a few people with experience to train them. We should be able to get them up to speed pretty quickly. That way we can also provide employment for the partners. Yes I know you will raise objections about who will look after the children.”
“Yes my lady, most of the women have kids to look after, how would they have time to work?” asked Be Net.
Stolen novel; please report.
“We are going to start a school in the day time,” replied Sa Bina. “All children will be required to attend, and will be taught the basics. It will also give us a future workforce as they grow up. They will already be trained to our standards.We can discuss the subject we will cover later. Yes we will need teachers, but that should still be a smaller cost than hiring all new people for the roles. Also it was something that I was already planning to do.”
“I see now that your plans are more farsighted than i thought.” said Han Ji, “Just how long have you been planning all this.”
Sa Bina just smirked but did not provide a direct answer. “Lastly, we will need to establish an intelligence network and cultivate sources in the guilds and generally in the city,” said Sa Bina. “We need to know what is happening as soon as possible without waiting on others to inform us. If you have ideas on how we can start, then let's hear them.”
“It will require some thought my lady.” said Han Ji.
They spent the rest of the evening going over the details. How many people did they need, how many could they hire from the partners of existing workers. How they were going to structure their guild oversight office. There was a lot to work out, and they got a solid start on it, though Sa Bina was sure they had missed a lot of things and would only come to light when something went wrong.
Finally Sa Bina went off to bed exhausted. Another night of her by now recurring dreams of clouds and flying followed. She awoke refreshed with no memory of her dreams.
Sa Bina went down to breakfast after getting ready for the day. She thought about what she wanted to do. She needed to look at the options for the business she wanted to create. She really wanted her first business to be a bakery.
The yeast was already fermenting, so she reminded herself of the list of items she needed. She needed a blacksmith to create the trays, pans, tools and the oven itself. She needed an artificer to understand where she could use Qi, and what needed to be done manually. She needed some fine sieves to refine high quality white flour. She needed the equivalent of a builder and engineer to create a waterwheel to grind both flour and sugar. Lastly she needed an alchemist to help her create baking soda, and then once she got access to wine maker and consequently cream of tartar ,create baking powder for high quality cakes. She also had plans to ferment new kinds of alcohol, but would need to do market research on what was available before she went down that route. Finally there was the possibility of producing high quality cheese, but that would mostly be an acquired taste. She had a vision of serving a cheese board with fruit and chutney, accompanied by a selection of new alcohols. It would take time, but she would get there.
This was the same list that she had decided to pursue the previous day, but the plan with the guilds had completely usurped her day. To help her get started, she hoped the ministry had started to put together the list of disgruntled business owners that she could use to shorten the process.
After breakfast, she again left for the ministry. It really was becoming her regular office, thinking about it, with her creating these guilds, she could probably ask for an office in the building. On route, she debated the merits of making the request formal. It would be easier for whomever she would delegate the work, but it would also make it harder for her to oversee. Also the records wouldn't be under her control. No on balance she would prefer her office to be based from her estate, there was more than enough room.
Arriving at the administration building, she was immediately recognised and escorted to Hang Fo’s office.
“Greetings Hang Fo,” she said walking in, “How is everything progressing?”
“Greetings my lady,” replied Hang Fo, “You certainly created a lot of work for us. Though it has certainly raised my profile substantially. So thank you for that.”
“Just as promised Hang Fo,” replied Sa Bina. “Did you get a chance to review the businesses that are disgruntled and would be looking to move away from the current guilds.”
“Yes, we are working on the lists.” replied Hang Fo, “Some are ready, some are taking longer to put together.”
“I think we should start with blacksmiths, artificers and wine makers,” said Sa Bina.
“Why those” asked Hang Fo, after sending one of his secretaries to get the lists.”They seem a little random”
“They all require a lot of resources and extensive knowledge to run successful businesses” replied Sa Bina, “Speaking to them would give us a good overview of the challenges they face. I think we should send out runners to call them here for a meeting. We can meet with one industry at a time, and give them the opportunity to present their challenges and views.”
“Are you sure that is necessary my lady?” asked Hang Fo.
“Yes, it will make them feel engaged and consulted,” replied Sa Bina. “Especially if we take up some of their suggestions. They are more likely to move over to our guilds and will be more inclined to support us publicly.”
“I see,” replied Hang Fo thoughtfully. “You really have a different way to look at things dont you my lady.”
“I once saw a quote from a very successful ruler.” replied Sa Bina, “the quote read that a committee meeting was more successful in getting information out of subjects, even more so than an iron maiden, and saved on the cleaning costs. The biggest advantage though, is that you had to force people to enter an iron maiden, but had to stop people from rushing to join committees. It's all about perspective.”
“Then by all means,” replied Hang Fo, “Let us open the doors to these experimental people’s committees. I look forward to seeing how useful they turn out to be.”