Now left alone with multiple tall stacks of paper I can really shine.

Being a business owner in the modern world, you have to get used to dealing with lots of paperwork, some you have to sign, and some you simply have to copy down the numbers. Without a spreadsheet application, this job is much harder, but I can manage. I get ahold of a slate and some chalk which I will use as scratch paper to do my math because calculators are still a few centuries away in this world. I then get some blank sheets of paper and using the straight edge of another sheet I create cells on around thirty sheets of paper as a makeshift spreadsheet.

I begin labeling sections that I think are important and begin the grind...

While it is annoying to do all the work by hand it is somewhat comforting. The sheer mundaneness of doing paperwork reminds me of much simpler times. Hell, the fact I'm calling running a multi-million dollar company "simpler time" is really something. I guess it's just... normal for once. By the time I come out of the zone I notice it's really dark and I've been working by the light of a candle for a while now. I stand up and stretch and take stock of what I've done so far.

As it turns out record-keeping is not the strong point of the kingdom. I have to seperate the papers and documents into different piles based on content, and I have a seperate set of spreadsheets for each pile if they require one. I have one pile and a lots of spreadsheets for the finance documents. These documents were relating to the funding our little organization gets and tells us the avenues in which we can obtain more, and how it works with us. I am pleased to see we are completely exempt from taxation aside from tariffs, both international and between different dukedoms or other feifs. This makes our financial situation infinitely easier to manage. We have no intrest gained on anything, or any outstanding debts which means simple addition and subtraction for right now, and no expenses as of yet so no need to balance funding with costs right now. I will need to ask the Duke and the other members if they have any personal money to add to our budget, and will have to put someone in charge of logging all expenses.

The next pile is materials and personnel we were given to work with. As of the moment our only employees are the staff of the castle, who are paid through the royal treasury directly, or are enslaved persons so their wages aren't an expense I have to worry about for now. As for materials we are quite lacking. From my best guess we have around three months worth of food currently stocked if we eat normalish meals. Everything we have in store isn't super long lasting or storeable so I think we are expected to refresh stocks on a regular basis. No document states whether its something we have to pay for or if it's going to be supplied by the crown. I will have to wait and see there. As for materials such as metal, construction materials, and tools we are sorely lacking. I will spend some of our budget on these things as soon as possible as they are needed for everyday operation, plus I plan to create gear for myself and the others as needed.

The last pile is the intelligence pile. It doesn't have much in the ways of numbers I can put on a spreadsheet as they are mostly written reports of incidents or recon reports. I pile them in order of importance, starting at reports of nothing special, to reports of what is probably high treason. Using the information found on them I mark the map on the wall with chalk and place the chesslike peices on the table map. I create a key for what each peice means so I don't lose track of what is what. I plan to create a peice dedicated to each of the members of the Hero's Party, or other persons of interest.

With what I consider a good days work I retire back to my room and collapse onto the bed mentally tired from that long grind. Mekare is in my room per usual, but I ignore her as I try to drift off to sleep while thinking hard on what I need to do, and what I learned.

The next morning I get up much later than usual. I eat some breakfast and return to the operations room just in time to see three burly men enter while carrying crates filled with more documents. I can't help but laugh at this sight but I crack my knuckles and get right back to work...

After six days of dawn till dusk paperwork, the flow stops coming and I have everything of importance written down or filed away. I make wooden binders of sorts to work as files to put everything in a designated place. I then have some large storage drawers brought in to keep all the documents safe. The storage and filing of all the documents take another day, so after a full week and one day of work, I have done the work of the entire royal scribes court. It's not that I'm smarter than them, it's more like I have a greater knowledge of this kind of stuff because the school of administration is far more advanced in the modern world, than it is in this far more primitive one.

With everything filed, stored, and marked on the maps I take a day of rest to keep myself sane. I still do some work of course as I can't sit still. I mostly spend my day of rest, organizing the storerooms and making completely sure all the documents are correct. I am very happy to see that I haven't been given shitty information as everything is there as promised. I even count the coinage we were given and find it is also the correct amount.

With all the stupid admin stuff figured out, and all my ducks in a row I am ready to begin planning and getting things rolling.

First I begin by bringing both Henna and Sertean to the headquarters. They find themselves quarters and begin making themselves at home. I have them for right now help me start gathering resources. I leave the castle on trips to major merchant guild areas to find suppliers for materials and supplies we will need. I secure consistent suppliers through harsh negotiation, both parties, of course, walk away with what they want, but I always manage to come out with the better deal. The suppliers are well renowned for good product so I don't worry about their quality, and they also seem to enjoy being in bed with our organization for prestige purposes.

With supply and paperwork dealt with I then begin focusing on getting more funding. I plan to start making money, of course, most of it will go toward the budget of the Hero's Party, but I will skim off a little as my... coordination fee. Money is the best motivator and the strongest power, especially when it comes to gathering information. My first idea is to introduce something to this world, something that has been referred to as, "the greatest power in the world."

First I hang around the local merchant guilds. I mainly focus on the ones in the capitol. Eventually, I find a merchant who is successful but is looking for someone to more or less invest in a project of his. He's hoping to open up a trading post with a nearby kingdom the Kingdom of Alrius is allied with. It's a growing power in the world and produces quite unique products, especially fine and relatively cheap textiles. Merchants in the capitol are rather shrewd when it comes to spending money on ventures they aren't going to make the most profit off of. Only ones just starting out really join into things like this to get some money flowing as they grow their own brand or trade. I however have a better Idea. I approach the merchant and offer to not join his venture but to instead grant him a loan. He agrees and we sit down in a private room of the guild to make the deal. I buy us some fine wine to negotiate over and thus the negotiations begin, and so does my plan.

I pour us both a small amount of the deep red liquid and start the talk,

"Okay... Mr.Ferdinand is it?"

He nods with a smile as he takes his glass from the table. I then continue,

"I am very interested in your little upcoming venture. It seems like a great idea that should yield you quite a hearty sum of money."

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

He puffs out his chest proudly and replies,

"Yes, it should. I have done some minor trade with them and have sold some of their textiles before. They sold quickly and I had bought them for cheap across the border. I believe I can get a good supply of them if I build this trad post. That should in the end reduce costs for me as I can import them in bulk avoiding hefty tariffs, which are by the load rather than by the value of the cargo.

After that, I will sell the textiles at a premium due to their good quality and decorative appeal. I believe I can make ten times on profit."

I let out a low whistle. That does sound like a pretty good deal. I then begin my attack,

"So. I wish to help you with your venture, but sadly I cannot become a partial owner due to my office in the Hero's Party. Therefore I would be spending money that I cannot make back, but I am able to loan you some money and make a small bit of interest back, which would simply act like my cut. How does that sound?"

He thinks for a second, digesting what I offered. He then says,

"That does sound nice... but how much are you willing to give."

I smile and set the bait,

"I am thinking of giving you 400 crowns for your venture."

This amount is about a full half of the current budget given to us by the treasury, and it is a practical fortune. There are three coins in the Kingdom of Alrius, the copper knight, the cheapest and lowest form of currency, and a single piece of this is valued at about a half loaf of bread. A silver prince which is worth 25 copper knights, and the value of an average set of decent clothes for a man. Then a golden crown is worth 25 silver princes. Someone can buy a good horse and cart with a single one of these. What I offered the man is an insane amount, but he isn't the one who wins here if he takes it.

His eyes go wide and he incredulously asks,

"Y-You have enough money to loan me that much?"

I nod with a smile and then he sputters out,

"What will be the rate of interest collection?":

I act thoughtful for a moment before I say,

"Hmmm... How about... ten... no... seven percent compounding monthly."

He looks at me confused and asks,

"Compounding?"

Gotcha... I then explain,

"It works like this. Every month you owe interest, of course, you can hold off on paying it for a few months to get your post up and running, but each month you pay interest on what is owed, including interest on the month you still haven't paid off, but it's only six percent. Overall I want you to make money, just in case we need to do business again of course!"

He thinks for a second before smiling deviously and holding out his hand and saying,

"Of course, I'll take that deal! I'll make sure to pay you back at least crown per month, and I'll be paying it as soon as we get started at next month! Just sign a contract with me and even have the royal military enforce it... if you're willing."

Check-mate. At that rate of return, he will be gaining 29-30 crowns of interest per year, meaning in 14 years I will be paid back in full, and possibly then some, but I'm about to really make my money with this next bit. I raise my hands acting clueless and then say,

"I know, it seems super harsh and expensive, but I think I should get a little more because of how important the mission is... so I'm thinking... about getting some preferred stock in your company."

He drops his hand and thinks hard before shaking his head and asking,

"Well... Your job is important so tell me, what is a preferred stock?"

I nod and explain,

"Basically it's like partial ownership but not. I'll make this easy on you. I want to buy maybe, let's just say one hundred shares of cour company with that 400 crowns I loaned you. Based on my calculations this post is valued at around 500 crowns, including those I gave for it. The value per share by that is about one silver per share, or around there. Per share, you owe me a certain percentage of that one silver value. I would think twenty is a good amount. So a single knight is my cut per share."

He clearly can't do the math in his head but he hears "a single knight per share is what you owe me" and he regains that smile. He holds out his hand, but I put a premade contract on the table. I keep up the act of being apologetic as if I don't know what's going on. He keeps that grin and eagerly signs the contract. I don't hide anything inside of it. It's exactly as I said. I then tell him,

"I feel so bad about this, so I think I'll do the calculations for what you owe me monthly, is that okay? I'll show my work so your servants and scribes can check my math."

He keeps that smile and replies,

"That's a wonderful idea! You really are a hero. That kind of math is going to be quite difficult."

I sign the contract and a copy which he signs as well. We both take a copy and shake hands. I swiftly leave as a big chest of 400 golden crowns is brought into the room by Sertean, who follows me out as soon as he sets it down. I have to hide my face as I can't stop smiling. With what he just signed up for I will be making nearly three crowns per month off of him and around thirty-two crowns a year. In 12 years I will make back that money, but if he pays his debt at a rate higher than 1 crown a month, I will absolutely make far more than that 400. I think of this as a sort of constant stream of money. I have many more such plans, but with this contract in hand... I own him.

I return back to the castle and begin planning my next scheme for securing funding. I had Henna go out before me to the South Eastern portion of the kingdom, deep into the Hasslerouge Dukedom. I of course had Duke Hasslerouges permission and exemption of all tariffs within his Dukedom. With 100 of the remaining crowns to set up my own trading post on the border of a kingdom called Harmon. I don't know its history but it's a city-state, so a smaller and easier-to-deal-with government, and it has zero export tariffs. They also produce surprisingly cheap pepper and cinnamon bark. The area is what I would describe as Sub-Tropical like Florida. Well, I don't know if those trees are actually cinnamon or pepper, but they are very much like those two spices and are called the same names, or equivalent in the languages of this world.

I did lots of research on this while living in the Hasslerouge household, apparently, the Hasslerouge side of the border is quite dry, and is arider than Harmon due to a short range of mountains, so the warmer part of the Dukedom is completely unable to grow the two spice trees. This leaves the Kingdom of Alrius completely without a sub-tropical region to grow certain fruits and spices, simply because the southern regions of the kingdom are either arid scrubland or semi-arid grasslands which are only good for grazing animals due to shit soil conditions. This means the only way to get pepper and cinnamon at a decent price is through Harmon, and I will be the only one who pays no taxes or tariffs on it, therefore I will completely undercut the market, and hopefully form a sort of monopoly to secure long-lasting income.

The trading post I am having built will also work as a storehouse for the product as both cinnamon and dried pepper are both quite easy to store, and on the Hasslerouge side of the border, the dry conditions will only help to store them for longer. I will keep these stores in order to have year-round availability, I will also create a brand and package the product for ease of storage and transportation. I also sent Henna with an extra 30 crowns to hire a few traders to get the ball rolling by doing normal trading, the same way everyone else does, just without the tariff.

At the moment both pepper and cinnamon go for the same amount on the Alrius market. Around 1/2 prince per fluid ounce of either. So about 10 copper for an ounce. This adds up pretty quickly when you buy spices in bulk. I will start by charging 9 copper per fluid ounce or about 6 teaspoons of either spice. This should get more sales due to the lower price, while I still make much more profit than everyone else. Once the whole chain is set up I will lower the per-ounce price. My plan is to sell based on mass rather than volume. 1 Fluid oz of water is about 2.2 times heavier than cinnamon and about double of pepper. So 1 oz of either of these is actually around 2 fluid ounces. So there are about 16 ounces in a quart volume of either of these spices. Basically, I will grind up these spices to their powder form, make a scoop that has around the volume of 1 quart, and sell quart-sized sealed containers. I will sell each for 13 princes which are around 16 knights per ounce and 8 per fluid ounce. I could also sell smaller or larger quantities as needed, but at 8 per fluid ounce, I am heavily undercutting the competition and making far more profit. The only cost I will have directly is the cost of the spices in Harmon where they are produced. The converted going rate is 3.2 knights per fluid ounce. This alone puts me at 4.8 knights of profit per fluid ounce. The tariff and taxes in the Hasslerouge Dukedom for these spices directly are 4 knights per fluid ounce of these spices. If I feel really devilish I can most likely have Duke Hasslerouge increase these taxes. This means the average profit is about 2.8 knights per ounce. Worldwide, the Kingdom of Alrius has the second cheapest cost for these spices, so I may need to look into exporting as well.

A good idea overall is to probably become an importer, and then only sell to merchants within the kingdom, maybe then I won't have to undercut so far? I digress, right now I need the trading post to become operational and get employees before I can truly decide my business model, but having a plan drawn out is the best thing to do when trying to create a new business venture.

With our budget dug into deeply all I can do is wait for now, do the paperwork as it comes, and slowly operation black crown will come to completion. I've been played enough already by everyone in this kingdom. I feel it is only fair I start doing some playing of my own... and I plan to win this game because I am the one who writes the rules...