A mild scent of oil paints lingered among the gentle breeze passing through the room. Although some distant sounds leaked inside, those around spoke in whispers, which gave an atmosphere of solemn silence. This was not a place for outward displays, but inward introspection.
At least, in her mind, that was how she understood the other actors in this little play. The Viscount was not one to invite company for such superfluous reasons. So the walls showed his patronage, oil paintings on panels of wood to commemorate the ever-approaching Royal wedding, and so the admirers whispered.
Of course, she was no exception.
“My thanks for the invitation. There is so much I would wish to speak of and dare not write down,” she said.
The Viscountess laughed and, with the back of her hand, patted her husband’s shoulder. “Truly, she could be your daughter to say such words with neither fear nor glee.”
He let out a sigh, his hand coming up to adjust his glasses, something of a new addition to him as his age caught up with him. “Dear, please.”
Ignoring her husband, she leaned closer to Julia and whispered, “Oh he just lights up whenever the butler announces mail from you.”
Julia smiled, showing humour on her lips, yet keeping back any laughter. “I rather do look forward to sir’s letters too.”
“If I did not know what goes on in those letters, I would surely be most jealous. Alas, as it is, I may only thank you for keeping this old man alive. It seems he is perpetually on the verge of passing due to boredom.”
“Tiffany.”
He said her name with a hint of exasperation and that finally ended her little performance, settling into a polite smile. “Well, Lady Augstadt, pray enjoy our gallery.”
“I certainly shall, Lady Erberg.”
Although the trio remained together as they wandered from piece to piece, keeping a distance from the other such wandering groups, Lady Erberg spoke no more.
“My Lady wishes to… rewrite the laws?” he asked.
“Indeed,” Julia said.
He let out a longer sigh this time. “Well, I should confess that my interests have been on matters of economy more than governance.”
“It is precisely for that reason I am asking sir. I have in mind that, while the punishment of crimes is one matter, there exists another matter entirely for companies. That is, there should be a clear and rigorous understanding of what restrictions a company should have, as well as what rights and protections it is entitled to.”
For a moment longer, they stood in front of the painting, then moved to the next.
“What need is there for such a thing when charters would suffice?” he asked.
“If I may be frank, though not quite an answer for what sir has asked, I have found guilds to be entirely… insufficient. Pray do stop me if sir finds my philosophy dull or incorrect, but it seems to me there rarely exists a society which does not intend to, first and foremost, protect its members. Whether one speaks of a town, a guild, or even us Lords and Ladies.”
He made a sound of thought, so she paused there to see if he had anything he wished to say. Once assured he had none, she continued.
“A guild, then, exists for the sake of its members, not for the production and sale of goods. With the collective power of its members, it seeks to impinge on others, either barring them from freely doing work or influencing the price of goods—to say nothing of intimidation and the like.”
After a few seconds, he gestured at the painting. “My Lady has certainly considered this issue.”
“I have had a rather thorough look at how a guild operates after purchasing back the charter for a textile guild,” she said, her voice distant.
He let out a breath of laughter. “Indeed, I remember reading of that. My Lady finds no shortage of entertainment in her life.”
A smile touched her lips; she took his words as a compliment. “So it is that a guild is not a good basis for commerce. However, to simply replace it with a company would do little better. We already see that, when it comes to merchants, they shall prefer to find the lowest price for a good and then sell it for the highest price, no matter how far it must travel, whether that good is a material thing or a person’s labour. To give such a company a chartered monopoly would only ensure that they employ as few of my people as possible.”
It was not a controversial statement, yet it left him with a question he had to ask. “Forgive me if I am being obtuse, but pray tell what exactly it is My Lady is seeking to accomplish with such laws?”
“Oh, of course, how foolish of me. Rather, do forgive me for being elusive. It is the case that many will think of obtaining wealth or power—or both. However, it is the case for myself that I wish to improve production,” she said, gesturing at the painting as she spoke.
His brow furrowed. “Production?” he asked.
“Indeed.”
Silence followed for a while, at least on that topic, as she instead commented on the artworks they viewed. It was quite a commentary at that, complimenting the various artists for their skills as well as the couple themselves for their patronage of the arts, all while steering clear of even mentioning the subject of the paintings.
Only once some time had passed did she return to the topic of before.
“This is such a discussion I could well write an entire book on what I have studied thus far,” she said, her quiet voice carrying a hint of her efforts. “Pray give me the benefit of the doubt such that I may be succinct. We begin by asking why it is that, of all places, Italy is where we saw such brilliant minds rose up these last few centuries, their influence felt across all of Europe.
“These people, it should be noted, were not the sons of kings nor dukes, what little nobility their names held an echo of long-lost prestige. However, neither were they peasant farmers. Families of modest wealth, who could educate their sons and give them freedom to pursue their passions, as well as recognise their potential. What marked these geniuses different was a broad range of overlapping interests. In art, they saw mathematics; and in mathematics, they saw art; and in the natural sciences, they saw both.
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“To hurry this along, I wish to cultivate such people of my own. It seems to me that, to do so, the common man should have a modest wealth. How best to achieve that is the difficulty I face. As mentioned, strong guilds and large companies are rather unsuitable for this.”
She paused there for a time, letting the points she had brought up have time to settle back down, not a simple matter at all.
“It seems to me production is the answer. If the common man could make more goods with his time, it would both give him more wealth and drive down the price of the good, thus also reducing the expenses of other common men. This, of course, requires the common man to have a sizeable share of sales, not simply be compensated for labour.”
The trio shuffled over to the next painting, him with a look of deep appreciation and her with an almost sorrowful expression.
“My Lady certainly paints quite a picture. As a man inclined to practicality, I cannot help but wince at the thought of asking a cobbler to be a merchant, nor may I entertain such an absurdity as a city of riches. With all due respect, and I truly do have much respect for My Lady, why is it that she thinks that she is capable of such a feat which none before her have been able to accomplish? No, that no others have even considered, for I have heard of nothing similar in all my reading.”
He spoke with a fatherly harshness, not cold, yet stern, and underlaid with concern.
However, she did not hesitate in her reply. “I cannot say why others are blind, only that I can see clearly what they disregard, including sir.”
“What is it that we would all disregard?” he asked—and this time there was a chill to his voice.
And this time, her reply did not come so quick, instead her gaze lingering on the painting for a long while first. “That people are truly the resource with which civilisation is built.”
He let out a breathless laugh, his heard turning to the side. “My Lady thinks so little of me?”
“Pray do not treat me as a fool, pretending to misinterpret what I have said. Or rather, I would say again that a society, first and foremost, protects itself, which includes us and our peers.”
She paused there to laugh, her hand over her mouth.
“After all, the Wars of Heresy showed how fragile our supposed superiority is, almost brought down by mere mobs of peasants,” she said, barely a whisper.
A different kind of silence followed that sentence before he cleared his throat. “My Lady should not so easily speak such treasonous words,” he said, tone a strict neutral.
“Sir, you asked what differentiates myself from others. It is that I have absolute confidence in my ability to lead a society of competent peoples. After all, until the eve of my eighteenth birthday, I had been groomed to become a queen. As such, I do not fear empowering the peasants.”
Silence once more settled, interspersed with idle comments on the artwork, following them as they shuffled along to the next.
Eventually, though, he let out a sigh, then spoke. “I appreciate My Lady’s candour. This old man, he has lived a simple life and he has every intention of continuing to do so. Perhaps you are correct. In my time, I saw something which I thought obvious and to which all others seemed oblivious, even to their detriment. Still now, I have thoughts that I lack the willingness to put forward, knowing how adverse others are to change.”
“Sir is too kind to me and not kind enough to himself. It is for those thoughts that I am here, eager to listen,” she said.
A chuckle fell from his lips, neither hollow nor entirely honest. “Let us remind ourselves of what the discussion is about, having become rather side-tracked,” he said.
“Very well. It is like this, I see that there are two ideal organisations of labour: large ones which are overseen by my authority; and small ones which are independently run and about cover a family. So I would like to draft laws such that these family-sized businesses are to be registered as companies and that they have a certain preference. Or rather, that larger companies are discouraged.”
With his eyes narrowed, he reached up and removed his glasses, taking a moment to polish the glass. “If I may urge caution, it is those larger companies which have the greater reach to pull in and push out goods. They do also necessarily employ many people, especially skilled people,” he said.
“We could well sit here all day and quibble on this point. Truly, I believe merchants to be the worst evil, that at least a guild, in protecting itself, protects those producing goods.”
Letting out a sigh, he returned his glasses to their position. “My Lady certainly does have a queer view of these matters.”
She said nothing, her gaze upon the painting of a Swiss castle, before it a procession bearing the Empire’s Royal coat of arms.
“I would still ask why it is that My Lady wishes for these… small organisations of labour to be presented as a company, not as a guild. Perhaps in understanding so, I may be able to offer some advice,” he said.
“It is perhaps a trivial difference, something in mind rather than practice. A guild, as I see it, is laden with rules and expectations to justify itself; while a company should seek to justify itself with wealth. These small organisations, I should begin by asking little of them than that they maintain records of sales, purchases, and staff….”
As she trailed off, she slowly turned and spared him a knowing smile, then returned her gaze to the painting.
After a moment, his lips parted and, a moment later, he said, “Taxation?”
She tittered. “I did not ask the wrong person for advice,” she said, gesturing at the painting. “Indeed, I intend to begin overhauling the city’s taxation system. Or rather, overhaul too polite a word considering there is nothing in place which I would call taxation.”
“The population of Augstadt… to directly tax them all would require….”
He muttered those words to himself, only to slowly turn to her, finding her waiting with a knowing smile.
“It shall require an entire institution of educated peoples.”
Lips thin, he turned back to the painting where he hesitated for a while before he finally spoke. “While My Lady certainly has an interesting ambition, I would take caution in pursuing it, that vassals rather enjoy their rights.”
“Sir need not needlessly worry for me. My father did much to empower the city and to exclude his vassals from gaining that power, which has left me in a position where I can trade such powers for other concessions.”
A chuckle left his mouth, leaving behind a crooked smile. “My Lady’s thoughts seem to belie her age.”
“It is precisely because of the legacy of others, upon which I now stand, that I may see that little farther,” she said.
“If that is all, I do wonder,” he murmured.
Although she did not hear what he had said, it seemed as if she was not supposed to have, so she contented herself with pretending to admire the painting. This one was much easier than the others, simply a rendition of the landscape around the King’s summer castle. A landscape she knew well.
“This is certainly a matter which is best thoroughly thought through,” he said.
“I would not press for any answers now, merely wish to ensure sir has answers for which questions he has,” she said.
Raising a hand, he pushed his glasses up. “Then pray do sketch the bigger picture.”
It was her turn to chuckle, her hand over her mouth, lips staying in a smile afterwards. “Very well. There are three key parts to this, one of which sir has already identified as taxing the commoners directly. The second part is to, as I mentioned before, show preference to smaller companies, which I hope to do by taxing larger companies more and giving them greater requirements to meet.
“Last of all, in the simplest terms, I desire a system where these smaller companies would be able to trade without coins. This is particularly where I would appreciate sir’s expertise. The best solution I see would be a bank under my authority, which would, for example, have the ability to seize wealth in the case of fraud. However, I am wary of giving another organisation powers that would encroach upon the judges’.”
“So My Lady would seek instead to create a branch of laws which cover such disputes for the judges to enforce,” he said, gently nodding along.
Bringing her hands together in a silent clap, she said, “Indeed, we have come full-circle.”
In truth, what she had said did not come as entirely novel to him, especially as she herself had touched upon the state of the Italian cities. However, it was precisely the state in which the Italian cities existed which made her ambitions all the more ill-advised.
By no coincidence did those powerful cities see themselves ruled by no king. It was as she said: every society acted, first and foremost, to protect itself. A city of sufficient power had no need for a king’s protection.
Altogether, it left him with a dread that her efforts would merely lead to her own death as if nursing a sickly wolf back to health—and it left within him a perverse thrill at the thought of the King having to deal with such a wolf.
“I believe my wife is hosting a tea party shortly,” he said, his tone neutral and face set in an expression of appreciation, staring upon the painting.
She softly smiled.