Finances

Heap produces another bestseller chapbook, _A Guide To Business Ownership for Ladies_. This book deals with basic management issues, such as selecting subordinates and dealing with moneylenders and bankers.

[Paige]
Again, copies for the ladies, Vialle and Solace, and one for Solange, too.

"I know you'll probabaly never need to worry about this, but it can never hurt for a lady to be well read, Solace, especially on a variety of things. Plus if you need help with any of the harder concepts, it gives me an excuse to come play with people who act their age," she picks up Hope for emphasis, tickling her with a stuffed purple bunny, "as opposed to courtiers who just act like children because they can." She smiles at her cousin.

Since someone else has bought Solace a copy of the book, Lucas will simply encourage her to read it.

Gerard is ready to come down like a ton of bricks on the broadsheet printers for lese-majeste. As a political crime, lese-majeste is punished at the discretion of the monarch, or in this case, Regent.

Paige thinks this is a bad idea. "If we come down on them, it'll give the appearance that we do have something to hide, Uncle. We're not the totalitarian rulers that Grandfather was, and the people know that. If we were going for that, we've started a bit too late."

"How d'ye propose to decide when they've gone too far, then?" Gerard wants to know.

"I can't really say, Uncle. As people are fond of pointing out, I'm rather new to this royalty thing." Paige smiles at her self-depreciating humor. "When it becomes more that just ink and paper? More than jokes over drinks at the Naval? Like us or not, we've gotten them through some serious hardships without much failure, and I think the common person recognizes that. The merchant or the nobles? They know they couldn't have survived without us. If it were sparking discent that we had to worry about rebels in the street, then it's too far. Until then, they're throwing pebbles at the Castle walls and we need to notice it as much as the walls would." Paige pours a drink for herself and a short one for Gerard. Handing it to him, she says, _Solange is strong enough to handle this_, but the room hears, "We're strong enough to handle this."

Lucas will make it known only privately and only to those on the council (including Gerard) that he thinks this is a petty thing to come down "like a ton of bricks" over.

Gerard would like to know what Lucas thinks it would be worth coming down on the broadsheets over.

Not much. Lucas feels that as long as the council is doing what's right, and maintains a good PR, who cares what the broadsheets say? There will always be assholes with an opinion. There will also be more who will just say things to get noticed. To come down like a ton of bricks will imply they have something on us.

This is not to say that we shouldn't deal with them. But just through more indirect methods.

[GMs]
Such as...

[Lucas]
Why don't we have our own broadsheets?

"Are you suggesting we finance a new broadsheet," asks Martin, perking up a bit, "or use an existing broadsheet to our advantage?"

[Lucas]
"Either. Or both. There's nothing to say that we be directly connected to it."

"I can see advantages and disadvantages either way," Martin muses. "An official propaganda organ would be useful, but it teaches people we care what they think. And I'm not sure we do." (He says, having listened to the other thread.) "Having an 'unofficial castle source' solves that problem but gives us a lot less control over what is said."

Paige suggests the idea of a "state" sponsored news-sheet. Not sure if it would work, but if this is, as Lucas suggests, a PR machine, well then I think we need to move it into overdrive. Let the people know who's responsible for the food on their tables. Just a thought off the top of her head.

[Reid]
Is Heap still printing broadsheets now that his book publishing has taken off? Have any of the offending broadsheets come off his press?

Even though his book printing has taken off, Heap still prints some broadsheets. All of the broadsheets carry potentially offensive political commentary.

The premier broadsheet printer is a fellow named Drudge. He is the source of the most offensive cartoons and satires. The contents of his broadsheets are written anonymously or under sobriquets, and even he probably doesn't know who the authors and artists are.

Stout has a completely respectable book business and prints no broadsheets.

Darling has a baby girl, whom she names Jasmine. There is no public announcement of the child's paternity.

Paige arranges to visit a few months later, to do some sketches and deliver a few small gifts, including a board book with Darling's likeness and a prince of minstrels who bears a striking resemblance to Reid.

Lucas will send a gift.

After Jerod and Solange's departure, Gerard reshuffles the administration to fill the hole in Court. [Note: Solange and Jerod are not expected back for at least six months after their departure.]

Lucas will help out where he can.

He moves Paige to regular Court duty, and Vere is now scheduled to attend court one day each week. (He looks rather apologetically at Vere when he says this last.) Paige's caseload is mostly redistributed among the senior judges, and Loring remains on duty in the courts. Ossian is saddled with more duties at the harbor, but since things are going well there, his role is more supervisory than active.

Good. Paige is glad Loring's doing well, and she'll keep an eye on her friend, trying to schedule a working . She drafts Liam back from Castle duty to serve as her personal page, if possible. More time with him, even if it's not the quality time she'd like, and and extra set of hands would do her well.

Folly gets to deal with the Golden Circle Ambassadors. Reid picks up more responsibility dealing with mid-level bureaucrats and officials such as Sir Archer. Martin remains on procurement, Cambina remains on reconstruction and civil engineering, and Brita keeps the Rangers.

[Lucas]
What? No special thing for me?!

Lucas is, as I recall, dividing his time between Garnath and Court. Gerard is reluctant to assign him to a role that would take more time away from his wife and daughter. If Lucas wants to take on some additional duties at Court, such as shmoozing Golden Circle ambassadors, Gerard would be very grateful.

I thought he was dividing his time between Garnath, Court, and getting food. Lucas will be happy to shmooze Golden Circle ambassadors.

Getting food is assumed for everyone who can shift Shadow. I will add shmoozing GC ambassadors to Lucas' list.

[Lucas]
Hey, I could even multi-task and take GC ambassadors to Garnath and shadow as part of my shmoozing.

Due to their new additional duties, Ossian and Reid have less time for their students, and lessons from them are accordingly considered more prestigious. The same is true of Reid's gigs.

Gerard announces to the Council that the royal treasury is depleted due to the significant deficit spending he's been authorizing to keep the city afloat. This is a problem Solange would be best suited to deal with, but something must be done before her return. He is open to suggestions from the Council.

[Lucas]
I take it the trade missions have done little for the finances of the kingdom.

There's been a definite upper limit on the income available from trade -- most of the trade has been for food, and Amber is no longer a trade hub that can make significant money from harbor fees and the like. While money is still coming in, the outgo on public works (e.g., rebuilding the aqueduct system) is far more than the income.

[Reid]
"Forgive me, but since when has lack of finance been a concern to the blood of Amber? I say we send the architect off to a shadow suitable for a mining expedition... suitable geography, no natural preditors, no sticky land ownership issues, and a reasonably fast relative timeflow. Isn't this how we've all managed in the past?"

Paige nods her head, "That's the exact thing I was thinking of suggesting. I've always had a penchant for jewels, myself, normally a bit lighter. A hellride for a suitable cavern and a day's worth of work could probably ruin the economy if we needed. I'll assume that's not our goal." She smiles slyly.

Reid ponders the matter further, taking a coin from his pocket and bouncing it off the table a few times with a ringing clang.

"You know," clang "there's another possibility." clang

He palms the coin and makes a quick substitution before showing it again, rolling it between his fingers.

"It seems like we have a shortage of gold, and an abundance of food."

He peels gold foil off of the coin revealing a chocolate disk, which he shows before taking a bite.

"Could the two be related?"

"The Architect is relieved that you've found better ways of getting money", Ossian sneers. He contimues in a more friendly tone; "So how do you propose we use the food to get money? Not that there is a large abundance of the food, but that is possible to acheive."

"Ummm.... We could find a shadow where I could write and record a bunch of dreadful catchy pop songs and make millions off the royalties," suggests Folly. She's only half-joking.

Gerard, who is actually in attendance at this meeting, says, "The problem isn't that we're out of money this week; I'd not have left things that long. And in fact young Martin here has been, ahem, supplementing the Treasury just as you say, Paige."

Martin waves from his corner of the table.

"The problem is that Amber herself has always been self-supporting. My father paid the judges and the watch and the harbormaster and such from trading revenues. We've lost most of those reevnues. We've also paid a lot of money out to rebuild parts of the city and the castle damaged in the Sundering. We're keeping a lot of those people on the payroll since we've nothing else to do with them. I'm no financial wizard like my daughter, but even I can tell what happens if you keep spending money you don't have."

Gerard looks at each of you in turn. "The advice I need is how to change the way we're doing business. The economy's broken, there's no reason to believe we can lay permanent shadowpaths quickly enough to reverse the decline, and we can't plan on Benedict coming home and bailing us out any time soon. Ideas?"

Ossian smiles: "Economics is not one of my stronger branches. But..

"Before we had an economy based on the trade going through the city. Now our economy _should_ be based on food. We control much of the food through the trading expeditions. I wonder if it would help if we tied the value of the coins to a specific amount of food? Food has real value, while money has not."

Vere frowns thoughtfully and looks into the distance. "The problem," he says to no one in particular, "Is that the economy of Amber was set up for a city with a constant inflow of wealth, and a Royal Family that could go out and get whatever they wanted anytime they wanted it. Now, the Family is working night and day to support the city, and we are taking in nothing of value from the city to support ourselves.

"This is wrong." His expression hardens. "The Family is the state, and money should be an unimportant consideration for us. We have been allowing the merchants and nobles to deal with us as near equals, as part of our attempt to maintain the status quo until the rest of the Family returns, and the Shadow-paths can be reopened. But we are not equals, and it is a fallacy to act as though we are. Money is the token they use among themselves, it should have no bearing upon us."

He shrugs slightly. "I am not sure where to take it from there, but I believe we need to use this as a basis for our financial planning."

[Lucas]
I haven't been paying attention to the other posts on this bit, but the thought occured to me: Do we necessarily need gold? Do we need physical money? The royal family has been doing all the necessary work to keep the city fed. That must earn us some degree of credit.

Brita, visiting the castle at this point, says "But Cousin Vere, not all of us can 'go out and get whatever we want'. Not all of us are initiates. As to 'the Family is the state', my da's family was much the same way - they were remote from the people. It was a rare day that a human was brave enough to petition the gods of Asgard in person. Here we seem much more involved in the lives of those in Amber City."

Vere nods. "I understand the former very well, Cousin Brita. I arrived in Amber very shortly before the Sundering, and have never walked the Pattern myself. It severely limits my usefulness to the City and to Father. And while we are more accessible to the populace of Amber than your family seems to be, and I suspect much more than Oberon was, I fear that we are going too far in trying not to seem arbitrary and despotic. The actions of the lawyers in the courts, the hoarding of food by nobles, the broadsheets, these are all signs of a cultural shift towards a more egalitarian society. Is this what we want?" He seems to be asking the question quite seriously. "It is not the sort of society I was raised in, and I fear Mother would be calling down all sorts of dreadful curses on the people of the city right now for their lack of respect." He looks at Gerard and lifts an eyebrow slightly.

Gerard looks down at the table; his shoulders slump a little.

Brita turns to Gerard. "Since we are doing less trade with outsiders, we also shouldn't be expending much money to the outside world. Our main goals should be to keep the citizens fed and safe, which we appear to be doing since there is this odd non-shortage of food. In the city, it seems they would now have more of a closed loop on currency flow. Who are we paying to rebuild? If it is citizens in Amber, then somebody is getting really rich."

"Well, Vere," says Folly, "I did grow up in a more-or-less egalitarian society, and at the time I agreed with the general principle, when I bothered to think about it. But as I've said to Solange, I can't really reconcile egalitarianism with a ruling family made up of immortal superheroes. We're all created equal, but some of us are more equal than others, y'know?" She shrugs and stares into her teacup. "This isn't really my forte, either. But I do think Brita has framed the question well: where is the money flowing now, and how can we alter the path so that some of it gets back to us? Doing something with food is a possibility, but we have to be careful --" she looks at Ossian "-- because hungry people who think their government is keeping food away from them get really pissed off really fast, and then they do things like dumping all the canned hams into the harbor rather than paying their taxes. But we might be able to figure something out."

Martin says, "I've done a little economics, and what I think I should see financially is that we put money into the city and it circulates within the city. Used to be the city was like a vacuum cleaner, sucking the good stuff out of Shadow, but there was at least a bag to be emptied of loot and stuff to spend it on. Now I'm not sure that people have anything to spend money on. Maybe they're hoarding cash against uncertain times?"

"As I said, we turn around too quickly and we'll have a rebellion on our hands and all this time and effort to save these people will be for naught." Paige shrugs. "I suppose if we're to begin to crack down, we need to begin somewhere."

"What about the idea that we stop backing all the travel voyages and caravans? We declare that now that the surplus is shown, we're allowing merchant sponsered voyages. Make them spend their money and we charge each ship a pilot's fee for leading them, enough that they can afford to still back the voyages and make a profit and we can recoup our losses." Paige suggests. "Or at least fall no further while Martin goes spelunking to refill the coffers."

"That's a possibility," says Gerard. "What do those of you who spend your days in the city think of it?"

Vere considers it for a moment. "It seems reasonable to me," he says. "We had originally offered this free transportation to favoured merchants as a reward for their support during the worst days of the crisis. They have had sufficient time to benefit from it, beginning to charge is a reasonable action now." He smiles. "We certainly won't force them to make the trips, if they don't wish to pay."

Martin nods in agreement with Vere's sentiment.

"How do you want to hand this down in Court and more specifically to the Merchants, Uncle?" Paige asks. "No matter what, we can't let it seem that funds are an issue, really, just our right to tax/charge for use of Royal services, no? Power percieved is power achieved and we don't need anyone to perceive someplace where they might aquire a power over the Council."

"Do you suggest that we should present this tax as payment to the one of us who actually leads them through shadow?" Ossian asks. "Perhaps," says Vere, "it is best represented as a return to the status quo, that now that the worst of the emergency is over we are suspending the free service we had offered the merchants of Amber during the crisis."

"Ossian, you and Vere know the merchants and the sailors the best. I'd suggest you draft the writ with a suggested rate of charges, or better yet a flat tax, to be levied in goods or coin upon the return to Amber, perhaps. Set up a new tax collector, or a specific one, that we can trust. By taking the fee after the return, ther's no grumbling about the idea that they are paying for nothing, for a voyage that might not..." Paige catches herself and continues, "pan out for them."

[Ossian]
"We'll have a look at it."

Vere nods. "We will begin by determining exactly what the situation was before the Sundering; what fees were charged and what rules pertained thereto. The closer we can match that the less reason for complaint there will be."

Ossian grins: "And miss this opportunity to change things for the better? We have a grand chance of doing that now, you know."

"It depends," Vere says seriously, "on whether we are most interested in minimizing complaints, or in making improvements. There is also the fact that we do not have the experience of our Elders in determining what the long-range effects of any changes we might make would be."

"As far as I understand we are in an entirely new situation now. Do you think their experience would help?" Ossian asks.

Martin shakes his head. "All the economic theory available in Rebma when I was studying trade and economics was predicated on an expanding economy, or at least a stable one. The idea that the economy could just implode and the shadowpaths could be lost never occurred to anyone as far as I know. So we play it by ear, looks like." And he shrugs.

"Well then, we paint broad strokes and do the best we can, as we have with any other charge we've taken, no? I hate to play this point, but we don't know when, if ever our Elders might return. Either way, we will be the ones reaping what is sown today. With the Regent's permission, I'd like to have a proposal by midweek, so the Council can review it and Uncle can sign off on it. The sooner we put it into effect, the soon we begin recouping our loses, or at least stop sinking."

Paige jots something else in her small journal before putting it back within the pockets hidden under her skirt. "I'll prepare it for presentation to the court. Ideally, it would be wonderful to have some supporters of this. Lucas, any ideas who can we make offerings to that might be willing to back us in this? Perhaps merchants who haven't had the chance to participate in a voyage yet. Hell, as a tax, almost anyone could afford to back some cargo if they've got what the other needs. I'll have to look deeper into who might need such a boost and like to be on the first "open" voyage out."

"On the other hand, if we present the tax as personal payment to the royal leading the trip, we might even auction the right to join. That could give us large incomes indeed." Ossian adds.

Gerard looks around the table. "Ossian? Folly? Lucas? Cambina? Are there any reasons to oppose the proposal?"

"I see no reasons to oppose it your Gerardness."

Gerard shoots Lucas a Look, but doesn't say anything. "Anyone else?"

Folly shrugs. "It seems reasonable to me."

"Then we're settled," Gerard says. "Paige, please draft the decree."

And you all move on to the next agenda item.

Almost forgot this one:

Baron Kaliq is sponsoring a public concert featuring Sandra. One of the pieces he wants to have sung at the concert is an old favorite of his late wife's. The piece in question is a duet for male and female voice. There will be a competition to see who can sing with Sandra, and the Baron is seeking both judges and contestants.

Reid would be happy to judge. He's convinced he has the best ears in the kingdom despite the large number of musical kin he has.

Paige, while she doesn't have the ear, would like to try and arrange to be present at the concert. She asks Worth to escort her.

If the male part is suitable for a tenor, Ossian will join the contest, otherwise he will offer to act as a judge.

The male part is suitable for tenor voice. Among the other competitors are Barenthkov himself and Maunder, one of Rein's premier students. Maunder, Barenthkov, and Ossian are exempt from the earlier rounds of the judging; there are a lot of singers who ask for auditions, but the Baron knows the quality of some of the better singers and gives them a bye compared to unknowns.

Folly really wishes she could disguise herself as a boy and compete, but her voice just isn't low enough. She offers to judge. She also presents the Baron with an obscure folk song she discovered while researching Golden Circle song styles -- a love song from a sea nymph to the sailor she rescues -- which Folly thinks would be perfect for Sandra's voice.

The Baron gratefully accepts the additional piece and assures Folly he will have Sandra begin practicing it at once.

The Baron settles on a panel of five judges for the finalists: himself, Folly and Reid, Kermit la Grenouille the master luthier, and Kaia, the Rebman ambassador. (She's fascinated by Amber music, which is very different from what they have in Rebma.)

As for invitations, all of the Royals are invited, and it's sure to be one of the events of the season. Worth is happy to accompany Paige.

Solace is very interested, as this will be the first chance she has had to hear Sandra sing.

A number of events of note happen in the fall and winter of the fourth and fifth year.

Baron Kaliq gives the Sandra concert, more on which later.

The fourth anniversary of the Sundering is observed. Vialle again arranges the memorial with her usual skill.

Aunt Felicity throws a midwinter ball, although she is a little sad to be doing so without her niece present to enjoy it. The celebration is less lavish than in the years before the war, of course.

Darling resumes her social life after the birth of her daughter. She has enjoyed visits by Reid and Paige, and is appreciative of the gift from Lucas.

Last modified: 1 Jan 2002