Road To The Crown 188 Opening The Marketplace Part 1

27th June 1574

"This place is truly marvellous! I never would have guessed that someone could build such a convenient area just for the sake of us, traders!"

With Jan Bone gone to the senatorial meeting, there was no need for me to stay at the mining town. Considering all the chaos that would envelop the country following the escape of the King, there was no way for the Governor to take care of the gunpowder ingredients problem, leaving the rifle factory a single improvement that I could make.

But even with the low quality of the propellant, I still decided to make a simple ammunition plant. All that it required was a simple press, that would cut the huge piece of oiled paper into smaller squares, that would be then forced into huge arrays of hollow tubes by another machine. As the operating arms would change, the gunpowder would be poured down the tubes made out of the paper and at the end, a small, round piece of lead would be used to close it down.

And just like that, the main problem of producing the ammunition for my repeating rifles was finally solved. As per loading the magazine, it was a job that every soldier had to get used to. With how simple the mechanism was, moved by a simple lever that would spin the wheel after a shot was fired, pus.h.i.+ng the new bullet into the firing chamber. 

"That was the intention behind this entire project. I even invited several well-known figures from various cities to make sure all the problems arising in any other city would be solved here before the market would be put to use."

Replying to one of the first guests that visited the river marketplace on the Dunaj, I accepted the praise while explaining the thought behind the outline of the entire logistical process that was the main reason behind how the entire place looked like.

Rather than lying down the roads for the convenience of the civilians that would use them to walk around the city, everything in Tarnowian marketplace was prepared with moving the merchandise around. The only exception from this rule was a single area of the marketplace, separated from the rest by a huge wall that wouldn't be torn down before everything hidden behind it would be finished.

"Speaking of the uses, I can't help but get curious. When will you officially open the markets? I already attempted to ask around to get this information, but no matter who I asked, their only reply was to wait for the official announcement. Considering how you are doing everything to facilitate the trade in the region, you must surely understand that time is money, especially for us, merchants… Sir."

While Polish, Lithuanian and Prussian n.o.bility was only thinking about how the current problem with the missing King could be solved, all sorts of foreign merchants were already flocking to the Commonwealth-Hungarian border, hoping to make use of the lack of customs. Even if the great majority of them was still closer to the border outpost than the marketplace itself, some of them already managed to get all the way here!

"We are only waiting for two more things to happen. The s.h.i.+pment of the beer from Tarnow to arrive, and for the construction of the trading-office to be finished. After all, we can't expect you all to occupy most of the area here by setting the stalls, can we?"

While the marketplace was already bigger than the entire city of Tarnow, it mostly consisted of warehouses of all types, with only a few buildings like taverns, hotels or brothels. With only three, multi-storey buildings designed for the many workers that would live directly in the area, one could say that as long as some of the warehouses would be turned into shops, not only I could rack up a nice profit from the downpayment alone, but also from all the monthly costs of operating the business on my land!

But I was simply too greedy for that. There was no way I would waste the opportunities that this place gave only to get a bit money out of it! Rather than doing that, every single product that would be traded in this place had to go through the trading office!

Akin to modern stock markets, every merchandise arriving in the marketplace would be registered in the office and stored in the warehouses. The owner of the products would decide on the price of his wares, and only when there would be a buyer ready to pay such price to obtain the products, would the transaction happen.

In other words, instead of scouring the market to find the cheapest product, all the buyers would get access to it as soon as the office workers would put the current prices on the generally accessible board!

Obviously, while trading here would mean that the price on the board would include a small fee introduced by the workers themselves, it was way smaller than what other markets would demand using their s.p.a.ce to trade!

On the other hand, it was promoting this type of mercantile exchange that was the main point behind this entire system. Just by introducing another product on the market at some point in the future, some merchants were bound to buy it just for the sake of hoping that its price would grow with time!

"So, if you would be so kind, would you maybe tell me when can we expect you to open the market, sir? While I understand the reasons behind holding it back, I don't really know how I should judge the time required to finish the matters that you spoke about."

Seeing how this man insisted on getting the answer, I realised that I wouldn't be able to get rid of him with half-truths and vague terms. Since that was the case, it was better to just hit him with a sad reality.

"Most likely, tomorrow morning, but I can't promise anything. After all, some of the workers need to finish their course to make sure they won't make any mistakes while judging the prices of the wares."