Chapter 119: Marijis Business Plan (I)
Davos reminded Epiphanes, “If these new people came, I’m afraid that you will need to submit a new proposal to the council meeting for the elders to discuss and review, because they are after all, different from the freeman of the third brigade, but I can tell you for sure that I will do my best so that your proposal get passed. However, if they want to become a citizen, I’m afraid that the conditions for them will be much more difficult, and they should be mentally prepared. In addition, it’s better to quietly go to the eastern Mediterranean and not to provoke Sparta!”
“Understood!” Said Epiphanes excitedly.
Then he finally, took the flag, and at the top of the flag was an iron statue of Tisiphone, the goddess of vengeance, the goddess feared by the Greeks, holding a torch on one hand and a snake as a whip. The flag under the statue is also embroidered with the Hesperus and the brigade number…
And at the top of the centuria’s flag is an iron statue of Cerberus, the three headed dog of hell…
The whole ceremony lasted for nearly two hours, and from beginning to the end, the morale of the soldiers was high and the cheers from the side, continued.
In the end, Davos raised the army flag again, and the groups of flags such as the legion, brigade, centuria, platoon, the gold(bronze), and iron statues, the red and yellow flag tassels, the red, purple, and white helmet crest has added a bit of luster to this place, but more importantly, with these, the morale of the soldiers will be even higher, and the officers will be able to command them more efficiently and act more quickly…
Davos was happy to see a genuine army taking shape. He waved the flag and yelled, “Where the flag is, the army is there! If the flag fell, then the army is dead! The military flag signifies the armies! Invincibility!”
“Where the flag is, the army is there!!! If the flag fell, then the army is dead!!! The military flag signifies the armies!!! Invincibility!!!…”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Most of the Lucanians couldn’t understand what the soldiers in the square were shouting, but the huge pressure caused by their shouting had scared anyone with hostility.
Both Vespa and his son, Bagul, understood what they said and so they remained silent for a bit longer.
Finally, Vespa let out a long sigh, as if to spit out the uneasiness in his heart, “Son, do you remember the wolves that we often see in the mountains? After a powerful wolf king defeats the other lone wolves, some of the lone wolves would choose to submit to him. Do you think that those wolves are very timid?”
“No, father… I think that they are the most intelligent, because they know that only under the leadership of the powerful wolf king, will they have enough food, and won’t be attacked by other vicious enemies, and their blood will continue!…while those arrogant wolves will either die old and lonely in the mountain or become the food of other beasts!…” Bagul understood what his father was thinking, and so he took this opportunity to comfort him.
Vespa nodded and slowly made up his mind, “When I was young, I used to lead my people around to make a living, and saw many Greek city-states armies, such as Naples, Thurii, Taranto…but never before has an army of Greeks moved me so much as they did! You have to know that Amendolara is just a small city, but with such an army, the archon may not want to stay simple. Since we couldn’t beat them and have become their captives, then…we can only make a choice that is more favorable to the survival of our people. I just hope that the Greeks will not break their promise!”
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When the whole city was still immersed in the spectacular scene on the square yesterday, the commercial officer, Mariji, had told Davos about his business plan at Davos’ home, “My lord, we, Amendolara, are few and poor, our land is also impoverished, and we don’t have many rich citizens, and have no special output, and we have no port, which makes it very difficult to attract foreign merchants to our place to trade with us according to the usual method…”
Nodded Davos, but the truth is that, why has Amendolara been a small city for more than 200 years, and has always maintained the population of citizens at 4,000? Because this small city can not support more people, so the extra people can only migrate to other places to make a living. Therefore, Amendolara has always been a small city. Davos believed that Mariji dares to tell this fact, because he must have come up with some good methods.
“But -” Mariji then raised his voice and said, “Our neighbor, Thurii, has a very prosperous port, and everyday there are hundreds of merchants ships from other city-states that comes to Thurii to trade. Heraclea, our other neighbor, although it has only been built for a shorter time, has 20~30 merchant ships that comes to trades with them everyday. The port of Metapontum, which is further away from us, is also prosperous…but according to my observation these days, there are some problems in their ports and markets. Because there are too many merchant ships and too many goods, that their warehouse is no longer enough, and they need to queue up in order to rent a warehouse. Therefore, the goods are stacked on the open space, but they are easy to get stolen or rot if they are exposed to the sun for a long time. At the same time, because of the large number of foreign sailors and the lack of inns in the city, not only the cost of living is rising, but also the price of food, which made them complain very much. In addition, there are a lot of people in the port, which makes it prone to disputes, and in case of disputes, the city-state is not only too slow to solve the problems, which delays the merchant’s time, but also tends to be partial to the people of the city-state…” Mariji said about the disadvantages of the many neighboring city-states’ ports. Obviously, he did a full investigation and even combined with some of his own experiences when he was a merchant.
Hearing this, Davos could guess what business he was going to do in Amendolara. These days, when he was chatting with his wife, Cheiristoya, he found that compared with the modern people in his previous life, the Mediterranean merchants in this era wasn’t lacking in the economic concepts, and even the banking industry in Athens had insurance (mainly marine insurance). Moreover, the Athenians have learned how to use money to promote and consolidate the commercial hegemony of Athens. Before the Peloponnesian war, the Athenians used the silver from the mines of Laurion to cast high-purity silver “owl” coins*, and even at the most difficult times of Athens, they still did not reduce the purity of their silver coins, which made them very popular among Greek city-states. Then, Athens forced the unification of currency in the Delian League, which made Athens to firmly control the trade of the Delian League and consolidate its hegemon, and only more than 2,000 years later that Uncle Sam picked up the work that the Athenians had done. Therefore, Davos did not dare to underestimate the wisdom of these ancient people, and instead of rashly expressing his opinion, he carefully listened to Mariji.
“The distance between Thurii and us is not more than 25 kilometers, so is Heraclea, and it is only more than 45 kilometers away from Metapontum, which only needs more than an hour to reach by horse, and a caravan can arrive in half a day. Therefore -” Mariji looked at Davos with a complacent smile, “We can build a lot of warehouse between the river Bradanus and river Saraceno in Amendolara for lower rents. In addition, a large number of simple inn can be built and charge them with lower fee and provide rich and sufficient food and drinks. I believe that this will certainly attract foreign merchants, sailors, and freeman to settle in. When there are more people, we can build a bigger and better market next to these warehouses and inn according to the market that we had established in Thurii before, and to protect the interests of these merchants and sailors with our good service and then the trade of Amendolara will certainly prosper!”
Said Mariji confidently, Davos could not help but clap his hands, ‘Isn’t this the distribution center in his previous life?!’
“Excellent! It seems that you are worthy of being the commercial officer!” Davos did not hide his appreciation of Mariji, “Back then, Cyrus the Younger, had only allowed you to be the trade director of Medes, which had really buried your talent!”
When talking about Cyrus the Younger, Mariji became gloomy and said, “Because his highness likes soldiers and farmers more than merchants, and he had said many times that he likes ‘two kinds of people best, one is the one who can buy farm tools and livestock for the land, and cultivate the land well, and the other is the one that can defend the land, farm tools and livestock best.’”
Davos thought carefully and sighed, “Yes, after all, Persia has a vast land, farmers and herdsmen accounted for the vast majority of their people. Therefore, ensuring the stability of Persia is the most important issue, and with so many dependent states, cities and races paying taxes to the Persian royal family every year, Persia is not short of wealth, so Cyrus the Younger is right. If he was alive, he might have been a good Persian king, unfortunately, when many people’s hopes are pinned on him alone, his life is no longer belonged to him. However, he doesn’t know this, and he had instead, took such a huge risk and lead troops to battle in person…what a pity!”
Mariji sighed as well.
“I approve of your plan! However, I would like to add a few more points.” After Davos finished speaking, Mariji immediately raised his ears, as he knew that Davos had extraordinary talent in business. The temporary market that they had built in Thurii before was so lively, is mainly because of the hands of the archon.
“One is the road. At present, there is only one dirt road between us and Thurii and Heraclea, which made it too difficult to walk, and not conducive to the merchants in transporting their goods. Therefore, we must build a flat, wide and solid road, and to also build strong bridges on those rivers, and so we need to start preparing for this soon. The other is that the warehouse and inn should not only reduce the cost of rent, but also to ensure the cleanliness and safety, and no theft or robbery is allowed. This requires you to discuss with Hielos and come up with a solution. By the way, what are the tariff of Thurii, Heraclea and Metapontum?”
“It depends on what kind of goods the merchant is selling. The tariff on commonly used and is urgently needed by the city-state is low, which is generally only 2%, while for foreign goods that are not commonly used by the city-states, or even threaten the survival of the citizens that produce similar goods, has a tariff as high as 20~30%…” Mariji gave a serious account of what he had learned.