Enlightened Empire

"I really should have seen this one coming," Corco muttered to himself. All the while, he watched Egidius and Ella, the clock maker’s new bride, step down the pier and into the decorated wooden boat together. Now that he thought about it, it had been strange that the adventurous and curious clock maker had decided to stay in Saniya rather than follow Atau on his journey around the world. He even remembered the girl’s portrait, hanging in the clock maker’s workshop during his frequent visits there.

Maybe it was the constant work or his general lack of a romantic strain, but somehow he had been blindsided by their relationship. Out of nowhere, Egidius had announced his intentions and now only three days later, a group of the city’s elites had come together in Saniya’s harbor to say their goodbyes to the first married couple between an Arcavian and a Medalan.

"Do you mind your people getting fresh with outsiders?" When Corco turned towards the voice, he was confronted by the mischievous twinkle that he had become so familiar with. At some point during the proceedings, Sumaci had stepped next to the king to speak her mind, like she did so often.

"Who’re you calling an outsider?" Corco asked back in a bemused tone. "He’s a citizen of Saniya just like everyone else. As the city grows, we’ll have more and more people immigrate from all over the place, so it’s a good idea to be open and not put too much emphasis on heritage. Rather, I’m glad that those two have found each other. A few of my Arcavian subjects seem to have had flings with local girls, though I’d prefer if all of them worked out like this one. In fact, if I had the choice, I’d rather they all got married and started families right this second. That way, they are much more likely to stay around once their contracts are up in a few years. Now that one of them has taken the first plunge, I’m sure others will follow suit soon."

"You think so? And all of them will convert to the Pacha faith?"

Corco followed Sumaci’s pointed finger towards the ship the couple had boarded. Although the vessel’s wooden exterior looked a bit worn, it had been decorated with various cloth streamers, as well as waves and animals symbols of Medalan faith. From what Corco had been told, Egidius had loaned the vessel from a local fisherman for a considerable price. After, he had added his own decorations in secret, together with his bride-to-be.

At this point, the two of them had begun to row away from the pier and towards the open waters. In accordance with Medala tradition, the young couple would spend several days in the wilderness by themselves, before they would return to their home as husband and wife. Though of course, wilderness was a relative term. They were well-prepared to face their time alone, and a small island in the Mayura River had been prepared for the young pair to call home during this time. After generations of civilization, the tradition had evolved into more of an early honeymoon rather than the original pair-bonding fight for survival it had originated from.

Even so, it was surprising that an Arcavian would play along with Medala’s traditions in the way Egidius had.

"It’d be nice if they all were to convert, but I doubt it’ll happen," Corco answered after a long pause.

"I assume they don’t get married like this in the Orient."

"That’s the problem right there. Nail on head. Egidius is kind of a weirdo among the Arcavians, at least by today’s standards. He says he believes in Arcavus, but I’m pretty sure it’s only because he’d be ostracized otherwise. At the very least, I haven’t seen him practice any religious rites ever since he left Arcavia. That’s why it was easy for him to agree to this type of wedding. Not that it means that he’s actually converted to the Pacha faith with this. So I don’t think we can draw any conclusion from his choices. Whether or not the others will follow his example remains to be seen."

"At least they looked happy," Sumaci said as she looked back along the river.

Again, Corco followed her lead and checked on his head engineer and his new bride. Indeed, the two newlyweds had sat down and snuggled together as their little boat slowly drifted downstream. As the distance and low-hanging sun turned them into silhouettes, the people disappeared and only the boat remained within Corco’s sight.

"Oh crap, that reminds me," the king shouted out of nowhere, and rushed back towards his castle out of nowhere, followed by his silent guards.

"You are not staying? There will be a reception held by Ella’s family later. They invited some traveling folk for music and dance. It sounded like it would be fun," a surprised Sumaci remained glued to the pier, but still called out to the inconsiderate Corco.

"No time," he called back. "This is important work, so I gotta get this done before I forget again. You have fun though."

And with that, the king left a visibly upset Sumaci to her own devices while he charged back into his work.

__________________________

Minutes later, Corco was once again seated behind the desk in his study, with Fadelio before him to answer his questions and take his orders.

"Okay, first off: Do we have any solid figures on the number of fishermen in the Chawir territory? Actually, I’d prefer numbers on all fishermen in the southern kingdom if that’s possible."

For a moment Fadelio looked up from his notes with a furrowed brow, before he replied at last.

"We don’t, not for the entire kingdom, nor for our estate. I can look up the numbers from the last full census if you want, but it’s been a long time so I doubt they would be very accurate. As for the entire south’s numbers, I don’t think anyone has those. How would we get those numbers in the first place?"

"Well... we’re already running around registering all the farmers in the territory, aren’t we? Didn’t we just do the same for all the other villagers while we were at it?" Corco countered.

"Yes we did, but only in the farming villages. And we’re barely keeping up with things as is, so we don’t have the manpower to frivolously spend them on a new census. We never sent anyone to the uncounted number of fishing villages along the coastline, because there’s nothing to do or to report there. Since they don’t need our fertilizer, they have no reason to hand their children over to school in Saniya, and we have no stakes in any of their businesses, so we have no particular incentive to control them or count them up. The only reason to go there is to collect taxes once a year, and that’s still done on a village-by-village basis, not per citizen."

"In that case, it’s high time we change that," a self-satisfied Corco said as he leaned back in his chair.

"Is that really necessary?" Fadelio looked even more unconvinced than before. "There isn’t much money in fishery anyways. The fishermen are considerably poorer than the farmers, even without the fertilizer and new tools, so I feel like our efforts would be better spent elsewhere. What about supporting the merchants or craftsmen instead?"

"The merchants are fine, as are the craftsmen. For now, there is little we can do for the artisan class now that we have our first machines and manufactories up and running. At this point, we need to wait for natural accumulation. As time goes by, more craftsmen will join us from all across the empire, while our own apprentices will come of age and contracts of our old experts run out. Only then can they start setting up a freer, more competitive economy."

While Corco was speaking, Fadelio took notes of everything, even though they were plans the king had already reiterated several times in the past.

"As for the merchants, they’ll find a way to grow, whether or not we support them. It’s in their nature," Corco grinned. He understood the merchants more than most, since he himself had been one of them. "And it’s not like I won’t play guiding light for a bit, I already have my plans. Though I’d prefer to wait until Brym’s back before we get into that. When it comes to money, he’s the expert after all."

"Understood," Fadelio replied, still scribbling away.

"As for the fishermen: You’re underestimating their importance, criminally. All of that just because you’re not considering scale, nor the future. First off, as our numbers increase we need a lot of food anyways. Adding some more fish to our collective diet is both healthy and helps us build up a stockpile faster. Also, kelp makes for a great source of phosphate, so harvesting it helps our fertilizer business. It’s also rich in iodine, which is a nice bonus. We’re always looking for new sources of fertilizer even though we have such a treasure trove right at our door step. After all, it’s not called the Verdant Sea for no reason. All we need to tap into it is to scale up our production. Then the fishermen will stop being so inefficient, or poor, if you prefer. Bigger ships, bigger nets, larger crews and such. Once they get into deeper waters with better equipment, our fishing business will become a goldmine."

"Although I’m sure you already have a solution for this, I doubt these people will just accept such a dramatic change in their lifestyle. They are poor for a reason, despite the rich waters close to their homes. They don’t have good ships and won’t dare go out to sea too far for fear of pirates and sea serpents."

Every time Corco came up with one of his ambitious plans, this was Fadelio’s role: He would invoke counterpoints and force Corco into explanations. If his plans didn’t stand up to Fadelio’s scrutiny, it was usually a good idea to hold back and think matters through more. Luckily, this time the king was well-prepared.

"Well, the pirates are working for us now, at least the Verdant ones. So that should no longer be a problem," Corco said. "As for the serpents: We should be able to convince them that the waters are safe once they have some strength in numbers and a ship that has a deck more than a meter off the water. Good old-fashioned greed and ambition will take care of the rest."

"Which still leaves the problem that we simply don’t have the larger fishing vessels you want, nor could the poor fishermen ever pay for them if we did. Where would those ships even come from?"

"Of course we’ll build them in our shipyard, right here in Saniya. As for the purchase cost, I intend to let each fishing village get their first ship on a loan. That way, the entire village can work together on one large vessel, which increases their output. Probably also a good idea to give every crew member partial ownership of the ship, which guarantees the prosperity of the entire village and reduces the chance that one of them just sells the ship to live a life of luxury, or that they get a big head and turn dread-pirate."

"More costs, again," Fadelio moaned. With the humor of a stone brick, he ignored Corco’s comedic timing and instead bothered with more administrative details.

"Nonono, not this time!" Corco half stood up to preempt another annoying talk about budgets. "I mean, we’re not giving them any money from our treasury, are we? All they get is the output from our shipyard, and that one’s producing ships either way. They’re more useful with the fishermen than in our harbor, where they’d do nothing. Rather than spend money on the measure, we’d slowly increase our income as they pay us back for the ship, and we could set up contracts that gives us a portion of the fishing businesses in the territory. Same deal as with the farmers: They pay for their advantages with a portion of their profits, and they need to get registered and controlled by Saniya, plus we get their children into school."

"It’s a good method to integrate more of the empire, that’s for sure," Fadelio agreed. "Though if the shipyard only builds these fishing vessels, what would we do about our military presence at sea?"

"For now, we don’t need a presence, I don’t think," Corco replied in a calm tone as he sat back down. "I mean, we won’t have a fleet to rival the Bornish in the east any time soon, and we already control the Verduic Sea through our alliance with the Verdant Isles. Rather, if we increase our presence in the west, our allies might think that we are trying to rival their dominance, which would only cause unnecessary confrontation. Plus, it’s not like we won’t build any battleships at all. We’ve built our shipyard a year ago and started on the first ships three months later. By now, we’re getting close to producing the first batch of modern vessels, a group of galleons. Once that’s done, I intend to split the apprentices into smaller groups and see how much they’ve learned from their masters. Of course they’re nowhere good enough to build a galleon all by themselves, but building a larger fishing vessel should be a good first test of their skills, and good practice for the future. This way, we’ll massively speed up our output in the long run. We can also include a handful of merchant vessels in the project, since I expect our trade with Chutwa and the Verdant Folk to heat up a lot in the next few years."

Corco’s speech got faster and faster as the future developed before his mind’s eye.

"Then, as the apprentices learn more and the shipwrights from Arcavia get more used to the surroundings, we’ll start producing galleons like there’s no tomorrow. And here’s where you failed to consider the future: Once we start mass-producing ships, we will need a great deal of sailors to operate them. Where are they gonna come from, I ask?" The king spread his hands in dramatic fashion, before he answered his own question.

"The most obvious place would be from our own fishing villages. But for these villagers to accept their new responsibilities, they need to be properly prepared. They can’t just go from a tiny fishing jalopy to a modern battleship. But just like the apprentice shipwrights, everything will go a lot smoother if they can take an intermediate step and try their hands on larger fishing ship first."

While Corco gloated about his grand ideas, Fadelio looked up from his notes with a sigh and leaned back in his own seat.

"As always, I’m surprised by how well you’ve thought everything through. The detail you put into these plans... sometimes I feel like it might be better used for administrative work."

"Isn’t that what I have you for?" the king smirked.

"Of course, master," the servant replied with an unnecessary degree of severity.

"Ah, that reminds me!" Corco jumped up again and began to pace around his studio as he painted more of the future in his head. "Here’s another useless detail I’ve been thinking about: I want the fishing vessels to not only collect fish and the kelp for fertilizer. I also want to offer a price for empty sea shells. Right now, the lower class people turn a few of them into cheap jewelry and the rest is thrown back into the sea, so they should be cheap and it won’t strain our budget too much even if we buy literal tons of them."

Again, Fadelio had returned to that critical look from before.

"Do the sea shells have any value I am unaware off? As far as I understand, they’re just calcium, correct?"

"That’s right," Corco stopped his march around his office to give a more thorough explanation. "Grind them up and you’d basically end up with limestone. Yes, we got our limestone mines already, but we need it for just about anything anyways, from cement to steel production, so it’s not like we won’t find a place to use them. I admit that the purchase is a bit of a waste since it’s more expensive than simply hiring another worker or three for the mines, but in the short term, you can consider it an early investment in the fishing industry. While in the long run, I’d consider it a security measure."

With one of his characteristic, enigmatic smiles, Corco looked into the future, where more and more of his plans would bear fruit. In response, Fadelio only had a shrug to offer. Corco was glad that he finally had his assistant back, the voice of reason to calm his own enthusiasm from time to time. Still, this one time he wouldn’t tell Fadelio all the details to invite an argument. At some point, the warrior would realize the importance of the sea shells. Corco was really looking forward to his reaction at that time.