Council Meeting, Winter 720a
Erika entered the chamber in a grey dress and shoes, hair tied back into a business-like ponytail for the meeting. She had some faint circles beneath her eyes, and one could not help but notice the cup of oil-black Korlanese coffee laid out beside the map of Elbreth on the strategy table. She nodded curtly to the men and women assembled.
"Lords, ladies, gentlemen. If you are not yet familiar, this is Master Arialdi, who will be spearheading the restoration and expansion of Sheepstead's factories. He is here in an advisory capacity and will remain so until I determine otherwise."
Erika picked up her cup, drained a third of the coffee and grimaced. She shuddered as the draught went down and pulled a stack of charts and papers in front of her, opening them and gesturing as she spoke.
"Now then. Everything is functionally on fire, so let's start putting it out. If I miss things, say, there's a lot to get through.
"We are bankrupt, or close to it. No surprise there. We may make it to spring, but my hopes are not great. Arialdi's work will start to improve matters in the long term, but we have short term needs as well.
"We need to fix the roads of the country and start work on a railway system. We can't do that because we don't have any money.
"We need to get our goods to trade partners. We can't do that because we don't have roads, and because as of last season we are landlocked. Not to mention the complete lack of diplomatic relations we have.
"We need to properly account and fund trade. We can't do that because we don't have any banks and because people are making change in piastres. In fact, for the same reason we cannot collect taxes - " Erika stabbed a finger at an offending page in one of the ledgers, " - as evidenced here, where somebody tried to pay their taxes in Mounish lira! I'm not sure that's even an extant currency!
"On top of that, agricultural reform is impossible because of a lack of education, and the aristocracy don't particularly care for more efficient management of resources."
Erika took another draught of coffee and cracked her knuckles.
"So. Roads will have to wait until we can afford it. Maintenance on vital highways only, and I expect to see our military patrolling them accordingly. We don't want to be surprised by a Prestonian counter-offensive because we're too busy sitting here gazing at our navels.
"Standardisation we can start working on. Weights and measures need to have a grounded, easily replicable series of standards, and they should match across forms if possible. Perhaps make the unit of weight for a given amount of water equal the volume. If we can't find someone to work on that, I'll take it on as a project, but frankly I have better things to do - running the country, for one. If someone wants to sort this out, we can start printing the official standards and distributing them along with the tax collectors.
"We need a unified currency, and one that makes sense; twelve pennies to a... what was the old term? Groat? Shilling? Call it a shilling. Twenty shillings to a... Flavia, what was the old standard back in Sigurd's day? He paid his men in, was it, pounds of silver? Call it a pound, then. We will work out the details.
"We'll need a bank to serve as mint and standardiser, and to provide loans - to us, amongst others. More than that, we need to decide what to base our currency on. Gold? Silver? I remember reading a treatise by a Ligorian fellow, Arialdi might know the chap, talking about something called a fiat currency? If anyone knows the details, I welcome hearing it.
"The aristocracy... I think that one's for me to sort out. They want a big role in government, and I want their money and their land if we're ever to rise out of the Dark Age. We'll sort out the appropriate bribe, I'm sure.
"Finally, we need to start making diplomatic inroads. I want someone talking to Lonemine, they have resources but no money, and they have a coastal connection. I remember they made a bid to fund the restoration because they were bankrupt, maybe we can find a way to work that. Miring's closer, and I need to know a lot more about their government. They're under Preston as we were, maybe we can prise that gap open a little, suggest an alliance. We need a port, or we won't get anywhere."
Erika looked around her council.
"This is your chance to volunteer. After that, I'll start picking people."
Author
Topic: You Are King! - The Steam Age - Chapter I: Liberty [Game Thread] (Read 20338 times)