The dramatic reveal did not have its intended result. ’Mia was frowning, thinking about something else. ’Te patted Xiatoktok on the shoulder.
“It’s been hard on you, hasn’t it. I wish I could tell you to take a rest, but… is there more you could be delegating?”
“He wishes. I wish! Gods above, what I wouldn't give for even five more reliable managers.” ’Mia grumbled. “This whole seed oil thing, we don’t have the infrastructure to pull this off. By “We” I mean the entire region between the Ramparts and the river system connected to the Mud Dragon River.”
’Tok, determined to rally, pointed at Mia with feigned enthusiasm. “Expand on that thought.”
“You want to do this on a huge scale, right? We could have a small farmers co-op set up in six months or so, and start producing from a small scale. It would probably turn a profit in just a few years, war permitting. But this isn’t that.”
“Right, keep going.”
“You want to produce oil in the millions of liters.”
“Right.”
“Which means agriculture on an unprecedented scale in the region, at least in this epoch.”
He nodded.
“Which means transportation infrastructure is crucial. Well, even more crucial than it already was. We need a way to get the seeds from the farmers to the processors, then from the processors to bottling, and from there, to retailers. Or institutional clients, or whatever. Point is that shifting millions of gallons of oil, even hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil, isn’t practical on the current network of trails and dirt roads.”
“Yep. And road construction costs a fortune.”
’Te frowned, but looked interested. “We would need people to contract the fields, or to promote the seeds and the fertilizer spray. Then we would need people to sell the oil.”
“Plus people to manage those contracts, customer service, education, store managers, and on and on.” ’Tok nodded.
“Can't help but notice the way you completely breezed past the nigh impossible job of creating the special bacteria, and the vague reference to a “consultant.” ’Mia said dryly.
“I did do that, yes.”
“Who, exactly, would pay for all this? We are an investment bank, but we don’t have enough money for even a fraction of all this.” ’Mia asked.
“Correct again, and exactly the right question. Let me ask you two questions of my own- what is money, and who has it?”
“’Tock. My old friend. It is late. I am tired. I am so tired, I fully expect to fall asleep in the bath, not waking as the servants fish me out, dry me off, and tuck me into bed. Please just get to the point?” ’Te spoke with heartbreaking earnestness.
Plan to stoke enthusiasm #2, dead at the last step. On to just telling people things, and letting them make up their own minds. It felt like drinking dirty water.
“Money is a marker for peoples’ time, and thanks to the Patriarch’s years of effort, a marker now made exclusively by local governments. The people with the money are “The People,” and the Governments that are manufacturing the markers. We get them to pay for it either directly out of pocket, or by borrowing against future taxes.” He started gesticulating, whacking an innocent plant in the process.
“Take roads. There is about to be a war on. The road from here to Strathcona is about a hundred and eighty miles of crummy, worn down dirt track. Basically impossible to keep clear in the winter, a muddy hell in the spring and autumn, it stinks. We want a good, solid road so we can run heavy wagons on it in all seasons. Cold Garden and Strathcona want a good road because there is about to be a war on, and good roads means troops and supplies move fast.”
“So… convince the cities to build roads as a military necessity?”
“Funded with sovereign debt if necessary, yes. Basically, let them borrow against their future taxes to build our roads.”
“And the, say, agricultural supply operation? The cities won't fund that.”
“That’s where the joint stock company idea comes in. We need an immense amount of capital. So we create a new company. The… Grand Redoubt Seed and Root Company. Or something. We own one hundred percent of the company, but since the company has nothing, who cares. Now, GRS&R has been awarded the exclusive rights to sell Black Pelican seeds and all necessary supplies. Farmers wishing to make a switch to that crop, but lacking the start up funds, may buy the seeds and spray, plus lease the necessary equipment, on credit from GRS&R Ag Finance, operated exclusively through Grand Redoubts Bank… and it’s partners.”
“At a rate between punitive and actually criminal.” ’Mia nodded approvingly.
“Legal compliance is going to be an issue. Usury is illegal in Keeffe. Regulated everywhere.” ’Te said.
“Sure, but the point is that in order to have the seeds and roots and spray and sprayers and people to market all that and everything we talked about, we need a ton of money. So we tell everyone “We expect GRS&R to make fifty million Rads profit in their first year of operation. We are selling, for the sake of easy math, one thousand shares. That is, a thousand pieces of ownership in the company. We are reinvesting twenty five million, to help us expand. That leaves a dividend to the shareholders of twenty five thousand Rads, per share.”
That number got their attention.
“Now, in order to buy such a lucrative thing, you need to put up a lot of cash. After all, we can only sell this magical “share” once.”
They nodded along.
“So we sell them at auction, minimum price of seventy five thousand Rads per share. Any share not bought above that price will be bought by the bank underwriting the sale-”
“Grand Redoubts Bank, presumably.”
“And anyone wishing to sell their shares to another party later may do so, at whatever price they can negotiate. So if the company does well, Astiaan can sell her shares at a premium to Borowic. Say, one hundred thousand Rads per share. Of course, if the Langpopo burn our supply warehouses and behead all our customers, she may have to sell it at a loss.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Huh. And Borowic would be entitled to the same dividends that Astiaan would, even though they didn’t buy the share from us? It feels like we are giving them money when they have contributed nothing.” ’Mia was curious.
“The idea is that the transferability of benefits, namely the dividend and the right to a vote on some company issues, is what makes the shares valuable. If it was only valuable for the original purchaser, then they are functionally a partner. Transferable shares means there can be a market for the shares. They are an asset, and a fungible one at that. They can be bought and sold like bricks. You just need to register your shares with the Bank to get your dividends.”
“Let's talk about the really big money- the oil.” ’Te cut in. “How do we cash in on the thousands of tonnes of seeds that GRS&R, or whatever we call it, has convinced everyone to grow?”
“Ideally? Farmers grow a crop on contract. They load their crop onto a wagon sent by GR Haulers, which then transports it to a local refinery. The machinery, owned and operated by Grand Redoubts Mills, refines it for whatever its final purpose is. Different grades of oil, mostly. This oil is then sold to individual oil companies, not least of which will be Pelican Oil (Part of the Grand Redoubts Family of Companies,) and from there to consumers.”
“A lot of steps. A lot of companies needing a lot of investment.” ’Te sounded intrigued.
“A lot of opportunities to have people buy in, tying them to the project. Lots of companies we don’t own will spring up, adding to the ecosystem.” ’Mia smiled slightly, getting where this was going. “A lot of targets for raiding, though.”
“Ah, but that’s where we can leverage an existing business of the Xia clan, letting us spread the wealth internally without having to give up shares. Or as many shares, anyway.”
“Mercenaries.” ’Te and ’Mia chorused.
“We do have a lot of companies working under us, don’t we? And most of them are strangely reluctant to clash with equally well armed forces. The big municipal employers know it too. I checked a few ledgers today. Lots and lots of short term loans taken out by mercenary companies to cover payroll.”
“That won’t last.” ’Mia shook her head. “It’s true that our mercenaries have an allergy to anything resembling a fair fight, but they are still better trained and better equipped than local militias. It takes time, a lot of time, to build up effective soldiers. It takes even longer to train officers. Once a few militias get wiped out, the mercenaries will be hired again.” She sounded quite certain.
“Surely the will to fight is the most important thing?” ’Te asked.
“Easy theory to test. You get ripped to the tits on your favorite drugs, get naked, and charge barehanded at the coward I equip with a melter. Survivor wins the argument.”
“I concede the point.”
“Regardless, right now they are starting to feel the pinch, and it will be really biting in the spring. I think we will find plenty of convoy guards and people willing to pull security details in rural villages.” ’Tok said.
“No Grand Redoubts Security Consulting Services?”
“Tempting but no. Too many existing interests tied up in the existing mercenary companies, and too many tribal bands we could hire to perform a lot of the same roles. Better to persuade them to take steady pay rather than rely on raiding. This is one of those times where we are looking to expand the pie, rather than expand our slice of it.” ’Tok shook his head.
“Not to mention the whole weapons manufacturing side of things. Five years ago this city had curtain walls, ballista and trebuchets. Now they have sloped, rammed earth walls to deflect artillery. They have gun pits for their own artillery. Though in a kind of pathetic quantity. Anyone else notice a lot of pretty reedy looking mortars in too-big gun pits?” ’Mia asked.
They nodded. It was a known issue. Most people couldn’t afford a steel chain, let alone a rifle. Manufacturing complex steel weapons? Simply impossible.
“Another area we want to get into?” ’Te asked. “Buying gear stolen from the Langpopo must be costing the city huge sums. There are loads of non-ferrous weapons systems in the archives, I’m sure.”
“There are, and no, or not directly. Again, we would be running into some established interests there. Best that we concentrate on loaning them more money to buy weapons with. After they build our roads.” ’Tok hauled the conversation back on point. “As for the Sylphium, that is a lot trickier to grow, and not really suitable for large scale cultivation. Apparently it used to grow wild in marshy soil, but we don’t have the time for that. So we are going to cultivate it as an indoor crop and market it as a savagely high end luxury good. Use it for bribes as much as profit, that kind of thing. Plenty of people who would find conception, theirs or someone else's, inconvenient.”
It was all too big. The moving parts were so many and varied, they felt dizzy trying to trace the line of their leader’s thinking.
“We have a funding shortfall. We are papering over it with seized money, but it will run out before the seized businesses bring in enough money to cover the hole.”
“We are going to have to start selling those companies too- the administrative drain is severe.” ’Mia picked up from ’Te.
“So instead of, say, borrowing the money or offloading some obligations, we are going to reintroduce the joint stock company.”
“Right. Mostly because we can’t offload those obligations. A big portion of it is interest on deposits, salaries, short term loans to cover payroll- basically the bank stops functioning if we can’t keep paying out.” ’Tok nodded.
“’Tok, when you said that “We” owned ninety five percent of the interest in the seeds and roots, who exactly was the “We” you were referring to?” ’Mia asked with deceptive calmness.
Xiatoktok, President of the Grand Redoubts Bank and enemy of corruption everywhere, gently stroked his thin mustache. “Why, us. The Pine Mountain Group. I bought out the Bank’s interest before the ink was dry on the contract with the prospectors. And since you each hold a ten percent interest in the group, you would stand to become very, very rich indeed.”
They just stared at him for a long minute.
“That was before the seeds were properly assessed, right?”
“Oh yes. It’s why we could afford to buy out the Bank’s interest.”
“Why? How?”
Xiatoktok reached up and lifted a little yellow flower with his finger. ’Te thought he looked like he was lifting a lover’s chin. There was a moment, a visual lurch that they felt in their guts-
The flower was still there. But it was more than a flower.
Monstrous. Heavy, in a way that
mere gravity
could not describe. Nothing had changed
but-
Nothing had changed. The flower was just a flower. It no longer seemed to pull the universe into its pistles.
“What-”
“You two have always despised the secrets hidden in your blood. Well, all the Clans are interrelated. Heredity and math alike demand it. Only so many people around after an apocalypse. But you are Xia. And the treasure vault within your genes is by far the richest in the world. Richer than the Pi, the Bo, the Ma, and all the other clans that have risen and fallen over the epochs.” The usual warmth drained from his face. “You are bankers. Crack open that vault and put your assets to work. Otherwise I can’t promise I will remember you a thousand years from now.”