10. Ledger
By the 20th of January the fleet had a ledger of items to export, saffron, cloves and black pepper, but Adaneus wanted to maximise the clove trade, nonetheless he continued his work the expansion of Bari, continually hiring the builders and exporting to some local merchants. 3000 solidi put in the hands of the new regime in Bari. Before the merchant ships skedaddled to Venice to resell at much larger premiums.
“Our sale in Marseille will be legendary,” Kwame said excitedly.
“That is if the merchant convey doesn’t immediately defect to some far away nation after seeing life changing money,” Adaneus warned, “it is a possibility, they see so much gold they just run away somewhere.”
“And do what exactly?” Butros mused, “do they not know you could do it again, and again and again.”
The merchant convoy captain listened to the words with keen interest.
“Bari is the epicentre of a new movement, a new country. Romans, Normans, Venetians, Seljuks, there are a lot of enemies,” Adaneus likewise speculated, “god this beard is irritating.”
He went and shaved, taking a blade to his face, taking off the hairs, for a few minutes his companions waited for him in wry amusement. Kwame laughed and Butros snickered.
“The drying process is denting our profits, but the 400 workers have a bunch of things drying thankfully.”
“So what is your plan with this merchant fleet, anyway?”
“It needs to get a bunch of stuff I guess,” Adaneus said, “iron and wood, for our war effort.”
“War effort?” Butros said, “excuse me repeat that?”
“Have you noticed that we have a bunch of hostile nations around us, what exactly is surprising to you?”
“We have to be careful Adaneus, with the merchants, people could dock in and try assassinate you,” Kwame warned.
“It’s true I suppose,” Adaneus mused, “but I have a lot of supporters.”
The 20th of January, he planted more cloves and black pepper preparing for the ultimate bullion to set sail.
The 21st of January, 13,028 litrai of goods were outbound, (4.2 tonnes), mostly black pepper numbering some 9000 litrai, 1861 litrai of cloves and 1200 saffron with some 621 litrai of cardamon. The ships left the harbour this time Adaneus planted cinnamon, to collect its bark, having to locate citizens in other parts of the city, costing him some 500 solidi, this money going to grateful citizens who promptly joined the construction project for the new part of the city. 9300 solidi was in his coffers while his ships worked sailing off to southern France for ultimate profits. Cinnamon was a new crop, brought to his attention by travelling merchants and immediately deciding on cultivating it to maximise profits for the city. Adaneus ventured on one of the towers to look at Guiscard hissing from afar in his ‘siege.’
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Look at him, he is supposedly besieging this city, he can’t even besiege our building project,” Adaneus laughed.
Kwame and Butros looked at the sight of the Norman knights and levies with nods.
“I have a better idea for a military structure,” Adaneus said, “artillery will be the backbone of our military, bolt shooters, ballistae, small catapults, if every city is a fortress then no one can defeat us, and if we have a lumbering army it doesn’t necessarily matter if it is too scary for anyone to face.”
“You want ballistae?” Kwame said.
The black man and the fair headed man both paused at Adaneus’s words, they were convincing enough to nod thoughtfully. He hired some citizens to do some land reclamation, he was thinking of planting cinnamon there, spending another 500 gold solidi he was down to 8800. Still the city was active and richer than any other, far from a starving husk waiting to be taken by Guiscard, it was armed and armoured, with crossbow factories and artillery manufactories alongside a spice and processing plant to process all of Adaneus’s exports, while taking in a considerable number of imports. Fish became common in the market, and with all the talk of expanding the city many were confident.
“So you want an artillery based army?”
“Our doctrine should be defensive, but with catapults and ballistae we can effectively blast anyone dumb enough to get in our way, with our economic potential we can massively fund our army, the Eastern Romans have neglected their defences to not have usurpers, to the detriment of their entire military.”
“Offensive military operations are a must to have expansion though surely,” a man with a crossbow argued.
“Of course, but first and foremost defence of the capital is most important, ultimate defence with artillery to make any kind of fight in our favour. We will overwhelm them in so much missile fire they must retreat. Whether it be in a pitched battle, defensive siege or offensive siege. Hell even our navy could benefit from that.”
“Our navy could it is true,” Butros said.
Building, refining and preparing were the business of the day, with the spices and now dyes and cinnamon being refined. The two crystals per day could produce a lot of raw materials but the refinement would still take time, meanwhile Adaneus ate lunch and then dinner rather comfortably and without stress planning his next moves.
The 22nd of January Adaneus grew dyes, noting their preciousness and the opportunity to export for his Republic, “western Rome” would function more like new Carthage, nonetheless he mobilised the city with coin, and told the citizens of his new plans.
“Western Rome will be stronger than the east. We will not have the constant civil wars. I am not a king or an emperor, I am a mere conduit of resources, and with those resources I will use to take territory for western Rome!”
A gigantic cheer was heard, the remaining 2500 Christians were skeptical, but Andreas was nowhere to be found, having apparently fled the city seeing which way the wind was blowing.
“He’s gone?” A man said holding a green banner with a lightning bolt, “what about the other Christians? Isn’t he supposed to be their shepherd?”
“I guess,” Adaneus mused, “he didn’t want to sit in the Pagan city anymore.”
Despite this 500 Latin Christian immigrants came to live in the city, the city was now officially 11,000 strong, these people were crammed in other districts and were mostly helping in the construction of the new parts of the city, this came with problems, the Latin Christians had suspect loyalties, Adaneus himself had suspicions about them, manufactories produced crossbows, and men armed with them, alongside pikemen and mace-men who guarded the gates, while the ballistae were readied for an attack. Alongside everything else, bolt shooters were being assembled, ready to shoot at anyone foolish enough to breach the city. Using the Roman Tzangra as a model, they had a platform, and were essentially a siege crossbow with a platform, and therefore allowing stronger shots; the perfect weapon for the new army, replacing the crossbows for they were stronger.
