The Cold Light of Day

[bravesirrobin]

[We're drawing the other three threads to a close now. Actions can happen in the intervening period, but we'll continue from this point. It may be necessary to ret-con minor parts of this due to intervening actions. Sigh.]

The fires have been quenched, the rioting and the partying it was magically transformed into have ended. It is early morning on the day following the battle of Maluka. Many injured soldiers lie in the fields, more injured civilians lie in the streets or homes of the city. The only major damage was done to the state rooms of the palace, most of the infrastructure has survived, though more than one inhabitant has lost their livlihood to damage from the fires.

In the council chambers in the basement of Maluka, 4 solars and 4 council members are gathered. Falon Dinan sports a nasty black eye thanks to Kairos, but has calmed a little from the intervention of Napan Brisk and Omar Munye. Bukola Sesseryn is not a picture of full health, and still requires the attention of physicians. The blood of Zheng Walusimo has been mostly cleaned from the floor, but it is Slavion Ysa who poses the greatest mystery, as no one has seen sight nor sound of him since the previous day.

Napan and Omar have sworn the oath as Kairos requested, with the remaining councillors to do it now. But Napan is the first to speak, as he was yesterday.

"Well, Kairos, it seems you have manage to save our city from the brink of ruin. You say you will not interefere in our future affairs except where necessary, but I am anxious to know what you plan to do about our two missing councillors. And their are further matters where your assisstance will be greatly appreciated.

I believe we may be able to restore most of the havoc in our infrastructure due to Manaas demise, but it will be tough going. Enforcing changes will be slow and difficult work, but I am most worried about your promise to double the stipend to our citizens. We would only just have been able to afford this at previous levels of production, I don't know how the upheavals will affect it."

[Learned Hand]

'I believe we must assume Slavion has undergone voluntary exile. In accordance with your sovereignty you may select new councillors as you see fit, or not at all. You may want to wait for Slavion's return, or you may decide that his place on the council is forfeit. I shall offer further counsel only if you desire it

'Indeed, that can be seen as summing up my intentions towards Maluka. My desire is not to rule, only to see that the people are happy. I shall intervene only if I am asked for advice, or if I fear that you return to the tyrannical ways of Manaas, and even then I should prefer to offer counsel, rather than enforce the terms of the oath.

'I should also like to say now that whatever counsel I do give I give on behalf of my circle. If I am overruled, then I shall speak no less eloquently for that course of action, than I would for my own.

'Your economic problems are our first major concern. I would wish you to take the credit of the inevitable years of bounty, but we shall take the blame for this month of hardship. I suggest using the grain in your granaries. I will be able to offer you a loan on behalf of Tredemin; a kingdom East of here, if you so wish. This will provide you with some insurance in case of emergency. If I may speak frankly, I have fallen in love with, and am bethrothed to their queen, and I have already been able to consderably improve their economy in the last two months. We therefore ask for no interest - we have no need to, only for a favourable negotiating position in future trade talks, which I hope in time will benefit both our nations.

'I know this information may be a shock to you. However, I favour openess over secrecy. If you wish I shall swear a binding oath that I shall never use my mandate to interfere in the running of Maluka in the interests of the nation of Tredemin or her people. I was and am here for the people of Maluka.

'I believe these current problems will be nothing more than a blip. One concern I do have, however, is the nature of Manaas' heritage. Zheng seemed afraid of his father. Please share any information you have with us, so that we can redirect any wrath on to ourselves, rather than Maluka or its council.'

[bravesirrobin]

"He often spoke of his 'Celestial Father' but I knew no more than that. He did not like to reveal his heritage, except to the Inner Council. Though he trusted me, I think I would say that his two closest confidants were the late Zheng and Slavion himself. If we could find Slavion we might be able to learn more.

As for further councillors we will have to find those to promote from within our own ranks. We should either number 5 or 7 - and we shall take decisions for the time being from the quorate that remain.

[Napan would accept the loan from Tredemin, and though Tredemin could justafford it, it'll be a significant drain, and may delay other projects there. You may or may not want to offer it...]

[Learned Hand]

[I'll make the loan.]

[Can I also take this opportunity to apologise to real economists?]

' "Celestial Father?" That doesn't bode well, but we may need to cross that bridge when we come to it. In the meantime, I shall summon an elemental to track Slavion and return him to us.

'We should discuss your long-term economic situation. The farmers may have twice as much food, but they won't need to eat twice as much; instead, they will want to sell most of it. This provides you with an opportunity to profit.

'At the moment, the produce goes to you, then back to them; this system need not change, only the amounts involved. Once they have their surplus they will need to sell it. For any individual farmer travelling to the city will be expensive in terms of both time and money. If somebody could offer to buy the grain of them without them having to go to the trouble of travelling, that person may be able to get a favourable price.

'This is where you come in, you can offer to buy the corn from them at [intelligence + bureacracy roll, using an excellency for max motes] X silver talents per Y . This is below the market price but its convenience will lead many of the farmers to accept. If they do say no, and come to town, then who are they going to sell to? You pay the workers in the city in food as it is! Your agents will be the only ones buying and they'll offer the same price they would have got in the fields.

'Of course, there's no point delivering grain that you will then buy back so you may as well keep it in your stores and simply deliver the silver; but then you already have to make regular deliveries to these farmers anyway so that's no hardship

'This leaves you with a large surplus of grain yourself; most of which you have collected as a tax, some of which you have bought. You can use that as you always have; to feed your troops or to sell or trade externally, at an increased price. In fact, you will almost certainly have nearly as much grain as before.

'What it seems you won't have as much of is silver; because that's what you're giving the serfs. But this will only be the case in the short term. Because you can sell them your imports - at an increased price of course - in exchange for the silver you gave them.

'Basically, you're going to be buying what is currently your own grain and then use it to turn a profit. It sounds impossible I know, but trust me, money needs to be put to work. You have an incredibly productive land, but your economy has been stagnant. As soon as the money moves around it will grow, because at every stage you cream off a bit for yourselves. That's how The Guild works; they literally sell things to themselves to get money moving, and the result is increased growth.

'So, you give them about as much corn as before and, say a silver talent. You have one less talent and the same amount of grain. You sell the grain for two talents worth of imports. Then you sell the imports for four talents. Before, you only had the two talent profit from the first round of imports; now you have three talents profit *and* a happier populace.

'The Guild may be the best source for imports; however I suggest that you export some to Tredemin in exchange for silver. It may be easiest way to repay the loan and I'm sure we can negotiate a satisfactory price after that'.

[bravesirrobin]

[Aww man, you mean I need an economic adviser to run my Exalted campaign now!

As I see it, there are three potential problems. First, enough funds to get the system started. Second, enough imports/exports for the system to work properly. Third, the citizens may not accept this as the 100% increase they were promised.]

Napan is clearly lost. But Omar steps in to help him out and together the two of you manage to hash something together. It becomes increasingly clear that Manaas was some sort of trading genius. His system was insanely optimised, and actually worked to a similar plan, except more was concentrated in the hands of the state. Lucklily this means the city's coffers are pretty full. So much of the shortfall can perhaps be made up from savings.

Economic predictions being what they are, it is hard to see how the plan will fare. Most of your projections have Maluka just barely breaking even. It would seem even Kairos' formidable bureaucratic talents pale in comparison to Manaas handling of the system. In the end the best he's able to do is put a solid plan in place and offer a quick prayer to the Unconquered Sun that nothing will go wrong.

[Learned Hand]

[K will settle for this; the growth in well-being of the people is worth an overall drop in the economy. If we can keep it stable then that's a bonus. A small increase is a double-bonus]