Enlightened Empire

From the outside, Saniya's new stock exchange didn't look like much. The building made of cheap brick and cement was certainly large, but it looked no different from the countless manufactories which had sprung up around the city these last few years. After all, this was the cheapest way to quickly build something of this size, so every large building ended up looking roughly the same. Still, even among manufactory buildings, this one didn't look particularly large, nor particularly special.

"Are you sure this is it?" a skeptical Sami asked. "It looks worse than my old workplace."

"Don't be fooled, my friend. This place is a much bigger deal than it looks," Chanca replied. "If I didn't get the tip from father, we wouldn't even get the chance to be here. Father says that one day soon, this will be the place where all the money in the city is made. Come on, let's go in, and see what it's all about."

As he spoke, Chanca pushed open the unguarded door and stepped into a large, open hall. Only here did the first guards appear, something Sami had expected on the outside of a supposedly important building like this. However, while they only showed up inside, their quality was surprising. Unlike the simple watchmen one would find at any manufactory — usually the goon enforcers of the master — actual policemen stood guard on both sides of the door. However, Sami barely noticed them.

His entire field of view was occupied by a massive blackboard hung up high on the other end of the hall, covered over and over with characters and numbers, in a complex system Sami was too stupid or uneducated to understand. On five places along the blackboard, long ladders led up behind it, with people atop them scribbling something or other. Though since they were on the opposite side of the board,it was impossible to see what they were doing, exactly.

Underneath the blackboard, numerous desks were set up, with complex looking machines atop them. Presumably, this was where all the buying and selling would be going on, at least if Chanca's claim of this place's purpose was to be believed. Every desk was manned by an official-looking worker, and to the side, there was a long counter with yet more workers behind it.

Clearly, there was a method to the madness, as everything seemed set up with some purpose in mind, though Sami couldn't quite tell what that purpose was meant to be.

Although the place seemed well set up, somehow, it still felt a bit strange. It took Sami a few seconds of silent ponder until he realized the problem.

"I mean, it looks nice and all, but there isn't much going on, is there?" he finally concluded.

Although everything seemed primed for purpose, there were only a few people wandering around the large hall. Most of the workers at the tables had nothing to do, and were casually talking to each other instead. As far as Sami could tell, there were actually more workers than customers in here.

"Still early days, my friend. The bloody thing only opened yesterday," Chanca explained. "Father says that Rapra is gonna tell people about it one of these days. But until then, only a few important figures know about this place. Most of the those are fat merchants. They don't care about these new ideas of our king, I guess. So they stay away."

"So this place is still unknown in the city? Like a secret opening? Why would the crown do that?" Sami wondered, before he came up with a likely explanation. "Maybe they're trying to test it first, to see if everything runs smoothly, before they allow masses of people inside and get overwhelmed? Having their fancy new marketplace fail on the first day would probably harm the crown's reputation. That might also be why the outside still looks so unremarkable."

Predictably, Chanca only lazily shrugged in response to Sami's guess.

"Don't know, don't care," he said, and began to walk deeper into the half-empty hall. "I just know that it's good for us. Less competition means cheaper ships. And we'll need every discount we can get, since we don't have much coin to play around with."

The words made Sami blush. Of course, he knew that his friend had more than enough money. Maybe Chanca himself wasn't rich, but his gangster father-in-law Ekkoko certainly had enough silver stashed to buy an entire fleet. The only one who didn't have enough was Sami, who had taken all of his and Ulan's savings, and it still would only be enough to pay for a small fraction of one ship.

Yet Chanca didn't blame him, and didn't embarrass him for his poverty. Thankful for his friend's considerate words, Sami just mumbled his agreement and carefully observed the room as he followed.

"Speaking of discounts," Chanca broke through the awkward silence and pointed at one desk in the corner which had a few more customers around it than other places. "I think I heard someone talk about ships over there. I'll talk to the guy in charge, maybe say father's name a few times to make them drop the price a bit. We can forget about a five-finger-discount, but a clenched fist discount should always work, right? Wanna tag along?"

For a second, Sami stared at the distant and weighed his options, before he shook his head.

"I don't think I have anything of value to contribute," he said in the end. "I'll just look around the place. I'm curious how everything works here."

In the end, Sami thought this was a better use of his time. While Chanca would use his family connections to intimidate the local officials, he would collect information to make sure they wouldn't get scammed somewhere Chanca couldn't see. Luckily, his friend didn't insist.

"Then I'll be right back," he just said, and sauntered towards the counter which was presumably selling ships, somehow.

"Right. Good luck," Sami replied, but his friend was already on his way.

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For a while, his eyes followed Chanca's back, until he merged into the small crowd around the desk.

Although Chanca had talked like he was getting ready to buy a ship immediately, that wasn't something he could do in the first place. After all, Sami was still clutching his bag of money to his chest. How would he buy anything without the money?

Not to mention, based on the complicated setup of desks, writing boards, and inexplicable machinery in the hall, it looked like buying anything here would be a fairly involved process. It was certainly not something a newcomer could handle with a few words.

At most, Chanca would be able to collect some info on the prices of available ships over at his desk, and maybe make his name known to intimidate them in advance. Sami didn't have to be present for any of that.

Instead, he breathed in the smells of fresh paint and wood polish — smells which reminded him of his old work — as he sauntered around the hall. Like the outsider he was, he remained an earnest observer towards all the busy people throughout the hall, all of them eagerly betting on their futures. As he realized that their goals were the same as his, Sami finally calmed down somewhat.

Though even then, he still wouldn't loosen the grip on his bag. Until they bought their ship, this bag still represented all his potential for the future. Now all he had to do was convert this potential into truth. For that, he needed — above all else — more knowledge.

Thus, he sauntered around the place for a while, listening in on conversations in an attempt to figure out the way business was done here, always in the background to avoid embarrassment or suspicion. Every time he heard someone shout a number, he slowed down to listen more closely. Soon, he was shocked by the crazy figures being thrown around so casually. Were there really this many rich men in the city? How could they spend such sums so casually?

Eventually, Sami ended up near the giant blackboard, so large that he had to stretch his neck and take three steps back just to read it. Row upon row, the white lines formed numbers and characters, all of which represented staggering sums of gold and silver, as he had now learned from the various conversations around him. Sami had a hard time even imagining all the wealth written down on this thin piece of stone.

The more he heard and saw, the more he realized that he didn't belong here, not even with his and Ulan's entire savings in tow. The more this was the case, the less could he let others see his poverty. If he did, he would never belong to the people in this room, which was the very reason he had taken this risk in the first place. Thus, he quickly moved to a quiet corner in the building, and then hid his little bag of money by tying it around his neck and hanging it down his back, hidden by his cloak.

Although the cloak was still cheap, and his poor status was obvious at a glance, at least he would be able to stand upright now, no longer hunched over to protect his possessions. Once he had fixed his appearance, he returned to the blackboard and walked up to a counter which had been devoid of customers ever since his arrival.

"Hello, friend, I have a few questions," he said towards the worker who had his body lazily draped over the counter.

"I am only responsible for settling civil disputes here," he said, without even looking at Sami. "I doubt you already have a business conflict that needs resolving."

"Of course I do, that is why I came here," Sami said, and confidently slipped a few coins across the counter, right in front of the lazy man's face. "I simply also had some more general questions related to civil disputes, if you would be so kind."

Although based on his vague description, Sami wasn't quite sure what the man's actual work entailed, that much didn't matter in the face of silver, or even copper. Immediately, the bored worker prepped up as if he had only been waiting for his opportunity.

"Of course. Informing the public is also part of my work, after all," he said with a beaming smile as he deftly clawed at the coins on the counter. "And since it seems like I will have nothing better to do for now, you may ask away."

"In that case, could you please explain from the start? How is this blackboard read? And how are things like ships being bought and sold here?"

Thus motivated, the desk man patiently explained the details of the stock exchange to Sami. Beyond his payment, he was probably also glad to have something to do for a change, so his explanations were quite detailed. After some time, Sami began to understand.

"So the products need to be registered over there, together with a confirmation of ownership, and information on how much of a percentage one wants to sell, and how many shares in total. Then, potential buyers can buy these shares at a minimum price, or more if there are multiple buyers competing against each other... and the prices are all recorded on the blackboard over there, which is updated once an hour, is that right?" Sami tried to summarize.

"Not exactly, but that should be enough to get started without getting ripped off," the desk man replied, and stared at the giant, mechanical clock which was built into the wall opposite the blackboard, above the entrance. "Ah, it seems like you are in luck. They are about to update their numbers."

In awe, Sami watched as the clock struck to the full hour, literally. As the two pointers aligned, a gong sounded from somewhere. In response, the massive blackboard was flipped around its center, until it was completely turned around. All throughout the hour, the workers on the other side had written down updated numbers with the most recent offers for various stocks, and now they finally revealed the new numbers to the public.

As he saw the process at work, Sami also realized that they must have written down the numbers back there upside down to show them right side up later, which only made their work all the more impressive.

"Unbelievable," Sami muttered, and slowly walked towards the blackboard. He didn't even consider the helpful worker who had explained everything to him any more. All his thoughts were transfixed by this marvelous piece of work.

Not only was he impressed by the craftsmanship such a massive, smooth stone table would entail, he could also finally read the numbers and characters — thanks to the desk man's introduction — and roughly understood what they meant. Now, he was even more baffled by the wealth on display. However, he had come here for a purpose, and he finally had the means to pursue it.

Thus, he first focused on the rows which listed the ships on offer. Apparently, according to the worker, Saniya's navy had set aside a number of outdated vessels for sale to help the opening of the stock exchange and attract clients. The royal shipyard itself had also provided a few additional ships, some of them still under construction in the dry dock. Thus, there was quite the selection.

However, no matter their origin or their make, after searching for some time, Sami realized that they all had one thing in common. Once he multiplied the price for each stock by their total available number, he found that each ship's total cost amounted to a staggering figure.

"Are they sure this is supposed to be in Sila? This is outrageous," Sami muttered under his breath. If all the ships were really this expensive, then Ulan's money wouldn't even be enough to pay for a tenth of one of these. Once again, the feeling grew that he didn't belong.

As he stood there, faced with such impossible costs, worries over his future returned as well. Though fortunately, his thoughts were quickly interrupted, even though the cause of the interruption itself was anything but fortunate.

"If you cannot pay, rube, then simply disappear from this place," a rude voice with a foreign accent interrupted him from behind.