Road To The Crown

While it was a far cry from what would happen to most of the shops around the capitalist world of the future during the opening of the well-known shops on Black Friday, the crowd waiting before the gate to this place was still quite immense. When accounting for the fact that the news about lifting the customs and this new trading spot has yet to reach most of the merchants around the world, the fact that the entire front yard of the trading office was filled up to the brim with people meant the world for me.

"Okay, then. Are you ready for the greatest battle that this nation has seen in its entire history?!"

Despite the late time of the day, I could see how everyone was filled with energy. Even though any sale could be closed only from tomorrow onwards, just the ability to register an incoming ware was the baseline for those people to earn! 

With the people already storming the insides of the walled-off area, only a simple set of gla.s.s doors - one of the most expensive parts in the entire market - was stopping them from pouring inside the ma.s.sive building of the trade office.

"Let"s not waste your time, then! Go and earn lots!"

Swiping my hand at the servants placed by the doors, I saw them removing the locking blocks and allowing the crowd to push the gla.s.s doors inwards, instantly filling the reception hall. 

One by one, merchants were approaching small islands made with a single seat surrounded from all sides by simple desks and a sizeable cupboard. While the fact that only the accountant could sit while the transaction was made could be considered an affront to those often big and respectable merchants, but with how they would only spend a few minutes in this place while my workers would stay there for long hours, it was something that they had to deal with themselves.

On the outside, the process looked reasonably simple. The merchant would wait in the queue to one of the islands, then report the amount, quality and the price of the wares that he brought. From this point on, the accountant would confirm the required size of the warehousing area that those wares would take, before writing a ticket and giving it to the merchants.

Yet while the accountant"s works was done here, the merchant still had a few steps to go through. With this ticket in hand, he would approach the warehouse specified on the slip of paper, before confirming with its overseer that the cargo would fit in the predetermined cubicle. With that done, the merchant would have to order either his workers or the local pickers to move the wares from his s.h.i.+p or carriage to the warehouse. 

At this point, all that would be left for him was to wait for his wares to sell out. All the money that would be gained from selling the products stored in his cubicle would be moved to the deposit within the cubicle, along with the slips containing the fine details of all the trade that happened during his absence.

As there was no point for me to sit and observe the madness within the office, I moved to the small room that I decided to steal from the trade office. This was the one type of luxury that I decided to keep for myself no matter where any of the projects were located so that I could do a quick check of all the affairs whenever I was in the neighbourhood.

Moving to the small room at the very top of the building, I could use a great view from the simple window. Due to it being one of the highest vantage points in the entire area, I could freely observe as more and more boats moved into the line, waiting for the costal cranes to push their products on the sh.o.r.e the moment their owners received their own tickets.

"Sir, we have the first report!"

Before I could even drop my stuff on the floor and seat myself at the single desk of this small study, a servant knocked on the doors and entered right away. Declaring his intention, he placed a single sheet of paper filled with fine print before nodding his head in a quick salute and leaving the room.

With just a single look at the paper, I realised that my guess was right. Due to the time of the year, most of the products that were brought for sale belonged to the category of long-lasting food, tools and weapons. Even though I knew that one of the merchants that was working on this project of mine found a way to display the wares that were inherently different and personal to the public, most of them would be moved by the merchants themselves to the only place in the entire area that was similar to all the other marketplaces around the world.

Yet with how little I cared about the artistical value of the weapons that I was using, I scanned the names of the few items brought to my attention on this report before moving to the few columns filled with numbers at the very bottom.

"Forty gold coins… Not so bad for the opening alone!"

Muttering to myself, I made sure that there was no mistakes on the report before putting it away to a particular shelf and moving from the chair to the straightforward, rigid bed standing in the opposite end of the room. 

With the estimated value of the products rounding up to around four thousand red goldens, being able to poach just a single coin out of hundred that the products would be sold for was already a considerable improvement when compared to not only huge taxes that most of the cities enforced on the merchants but also the minimal and maximal prices at which the products could be sold. 

But while the entire income from the operating fee"s that the merchants would pay for me would be moved back into the wages of the workers all over the marketplace, I wasn"t worried about the potential profitability of this place at all. 

To be frank, I could tell that most of the merchants brought their wealth here for one reason alone. 

Tarnowian beer!