Aerwyna went to Reitz"s study.
"You were too hard on him," Aerwyna said.
"Well, he is spending Bren"s money. You do know that he spent both spent last year"s income and this year"s income as well right? He"s squandering too much money considering Fulmen"s annual income is equivalent to the thirty times the annual income of some baronies. You can"t keep spoiling him, I know you are guilty when you were restricting him when he was a baby." Reitz answered as he ma.s.saged his forehead. It was truly a shocking amount that his son was spending, considering he was just seven years old.
"Well, it just seems harsh to make him stop doing his hobbies for that. Besides, how do you expect a seven-year-old to make that much money? Aerwyna was frowning.
"Come now, Aerwyna. He is Ezra. I think he can manage to make money. I thought you would know by now how much of an anomaly your son is. Do you know how much the gla.s.smakers and the smiths are billing us? One more bill of 1000 imperial gold for one gla.s.s ornament will make me have a heart failure. " Reitz closed his eyes and rubbed his glabella.
Aerwyna bit her lip."I just don"t want him to be unhappy. You know, he acts more and more his age."
"Are you mad Aerwyna? What kind of child does "experiments" with magic cores and crystals? Seriously have you gone inside the building we let him use? It looks like an artificer"s workshop in Rexasticus. And he is collecting all sorts of dirt for some reason. Are these the actions of a child his age?" Reitz slightly laughed.
"What I meant was that his temperament is more what it should be like for his age. Remember when he was a baby he acted more like an adult with a secret? Yes, there were times that he did act like a baby but it was rare, and looking back it seemed that it felt like he was doing it so that he could get something in return. Right now he is an obedient child."
"Evan"s death did affect him a bit but I have never been a father before so I don"t know if what you claim that Ezra is an obedient child. He keeps on insisting that his "laboratory" will help Fulmen somehow."
"Well, stubbornness is a trait of your side of the family." Aerwyna smirked." Remember he taught us his new numbering system called "decimal" system. You liked it so much that you declared that it should be taught throughout the domain."
"It did help us especially when it came to accounting, and it was logical the way he explained it. If there is a number for nothing then just move to the next digit and place the first number to the next number for nothing. Zero is such an incredible number altogether. Genius really, I wonder where he gets his ideas. " Reitz touched his chin looking thoughtful
"He also proposed the printing press. Remember? It did make official books easier to make. Honestly, how did we ever get used to making the scribes write down everything? We did save some expenses from that creation of his."
Reitz frowned again. "Yes, but still he managed to consume a lot more. We can"t keep on funding that money sinkhole of his. If he wants to, he should be the one to make money." Reitz stood firm.
Aerwyna bit her lip.
"Come on now, Aerwyna, if he needs to use that brain of his for more practical, matters he can"t live in that hole of a building forever. He needs to learn his responsibilities toward Fulmen sooner or later. Besides he is Ezra. He will surprise us," Continued Reitz.
"Okay then if that is what you say. I"ll just check up on him and see if he is sulking or something."
Reitz was right, it wasn"t sustainable that he kept on doing his experiments. He was commissioned by Evan to change the world and he planned to do so but in subtle increments. Ezra had already scheduled a timeline to execute his plans.
The main idea was to make Fulmen so prosperous that most of the peasant population would flock to it, and with the change, some domains would also copy the policies of Fulmen but for that to happen he must establish fairness and the rule of law, where all men were subject to it regardless if one was a n.o.ble or not, another option was a parliamentary monarchy where some representatives could voice their concern to the Lord and they had the power to pa.s.s laws as well.
But for this to push through a slow process of educating the ma.s.ses was needed and for that to he needed to push forward industrialization to improve the quality of life so far his introduction of the printing press was moving education in a better direction, wages must be reasonable and housing should be affordable. He wanted an overhaul of the current system.
For the moment he had no plans of replacing the Rex. He wanted to influence the empire subtlety. Besides he still could not use external magic. He tried all the visualizations, and he was already officially of age to be trained in spells as a n.o.ble. Maester Grimfire thought that something was wrong with him.
"For me to be able to change the system. I must improve every aspect of life. Yet, right now I need money. Laughable really." Ezra thought to himself.
He was at the market with his mother, he was eyeing goods to buy and sell looking to make a difference in the spread. He was considering making a merchant chamber of commerce to traverse the whole Rex Imperium.
It was common place actually to make one from one of the lords, they would sanction a caravan with their official seal. These caravans were heavily guarded and were attacked less by bandits, thus it was harder to compete if you were a freeman with these chambers of commerce, but there were still powerful traders among the freemen.
"Mother, what are the main exports of Fulmen?" he asked. Before he didn"t bother to actually know what Bren was exporting, but now that he was away from his experiments because of lack of money he wanted to know what he could possibly sell and make a profit on.
"Well since most of Fulmen is in the plains, our main exports are livestock and grain. Bren is known for its exquisite gla.s.sware. There are iron and silver mines in our domain as well." Aerwyna answered. She was happy to see Ezra"s interest and was serious on trying to acquire funds to finance his hobbies.
"With this, he will surely become a capable Lord someday." Aerwyna smiled and kissed Ezra"s forehead.
"Mom, stop that, it"s embarra.s.sing." Ezra said shyly.
"Why? Who would dare humiliate you here?" She pinched Ezra"s cheeks. "A few more years and I can"t do that anymore. So it"s best I do it when I can." Aerwyna smiled as she doted on her son.
"Okay, okay mother, just stop smothering me, I"m trying to think." Ezra pouted but he still allowed it, the part of him that was a child actually liked the endearment. He didn"t know when this happened but he got used to it.
"Mother, I am planning to trade products from Fulmen around the empire. I plan to make my own chamber of commerce." Ezra said.
"Well it is up to you, but you can"t accompany the caravan though, you are still too young." Then Aerwyna bent over and whispered on his ear. "Besides you can"t use spells so it would be too dangerous for you"
"Hmm, I don"t want that. I want to be able to observe at first." Ezra said. "A caravan seems slow to make a money anyway. I"ve got to think of something else. There must be a faster way to make money without travelling, I can"t leave my lab behind. Father said that he would rent out the building I"m using." Ezra pouted.
He looked at the mult.i.tude of merchants, buyers sellers, and haggling could be heard everywhere, there were laughter and merriment. As shops sold their wares, everything was lively.
Then he had an idea. He knew how to make money within Bren without travelling to the other domains, he would first establish it in Fulmen and leverage Reitz"s reputation as a kind and fair lord. He understood that he had to do this sooner or later and it would be optimal that he do it sooner. He just realized there had been no actual precedence of the idea in the empire and it was going to be lucrative. After all, money was mostly held by the government in Rex Imperia.
"Mother, I"m going to make a bank."