Herald of Steel

Chapter 466 Slave Reforms

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Alexander had designed the harbor using the exact same blueprint as the famous harbor of Carthage.

And as Diaogosis was interpreting the drawings, Alexander leaned forward and offered, "Here, let me explain,"

"The center crescent will be used to house military ships. It will be 300 m in diameter and be surrounded on all sides by 10ft walls. Its entrance will be guarded using chained gates that can be raised or lowered and this is where we will build our new ships."

He then moved his fingers to the horizontal strips and said, "And these two strips of the harbor will be where the regular, civilian ships will dock. They will be an artificial construct extending half a kilometer into the sea and will be able to hold more than a 100 ships at a time."

Alexander sounded very proud of his design as he then asked Diaogosis, "So if I give you the 2,000 slaves I bought, how long do you think it will take you to build?"

"..." Diaogosis somewhat regretted asking to see the design.

Building anything over the water was hard, building anything over the sea with its waves and natural disasters was even harder.

Never mind it would have to be about a kilometer of land the width of a football field.

And if they did not have cement, Diaogosis would have simply told him it was impossible.

But given that they did have that, that was not exactly an option.

"...I will have to look at the site first. Figure out the depth of the water and as such," So finally after a long pause, Diaogosis could only reply this.

While the others seeing their words fall on deaf ears could only sigh.

They had tried, but it seemed Alexander had decided to go ahead with this new port nevertheless.

The building of which they all felt was pretty pointless.

All were of the mind that rather than wasting their meager resources on building a half-assed navy or making a giant port that would most likely only to 10% of its capacity in most days, it would be far better for them to concentrate their efforts on building a strong army first.

That way they would have one very strong force rather than two weak forces.

But Alexander held too much prestige and power among the council members.

And he controlled all the factors of production, land, labor, and capital.

And so when Alexander really wanted something done, the others really had no way to stop it other than with their mouths.

And Alexander really wanted this port because he had plans the others could not even imagine.

And so to that effect, he moved Diaogosis from overseeing the construction of the residential buildings to tasking him with building the port.

And after a week later, Diaogosis would come to Alexander with the finding of his survey, stating that with 2,000 men it would take him around 18,000 tons of cement and about two and a half to finish the whole project."

This put the cost of the at around 12 million ropals, which was quite a lot, but Alexander thought was definitely worth it.

And thus, after allocating the construction effort 25 tons of cement a day, Alexander greenlighted the project, which was scheduled to be finished by the winter of next year.

But these decisions were for future Alexander.

Though for now, after revealing his grand port idea much to the dismay of this council members, the man decided to get to the issue of money

"So! Let us go back to the issue at hand. How to raise money? Or rather how to increase the businesses in the city?" He posed this question to everyone.

And most wanted to retort, 'Stopping that port might be a good idea.'

But since that was not an option, Heliptos, being the expert here pointed out the main obstacles, "My lord, I believe we just need some time. Zanzan is just starting to recover and patience is the most important thing. Everything requires time."

He was right about this.

The new Zanzan was still an infant just six months.

So it would be unreasonable to expect it to be a hustling trading hub right now.

Hence the simplest solution would be to wait.

But getting to know his master a bit more the time, Heliptos was sure this answer might not satisfy this young man.

Alexander had a lot of good qualities, but one bad one was his impatience and tendency to do everything at once.

And this was evidenced by all the huge projects that were simultaneously going on currently.

So Heliptos decided to give him some secondary reasons.

He said, "Besides, after the drought, most people have lost all their life savings. They simply have no capital to start a business."

"And lastly we have a lot of slaves who earn no wages. So they cannot spend any money. As such that group of hard-working people is not part of the economy."

Heliptos's competency to identify the limiting factors in the market frankly impressed Alexander.

"Hmmm, I see," Alexander tapped his fingers on the table as he nodded, while trying to figure out the remedy for this conundrum.

The lack of easy availability of capital made him remember how there were no banks at this time, which made it very hard for anyone to start a business.

So if one truly wanted to, he would have to either raise the capital himself, such as by working, or selling property, or the worst option of it all, by borrowing it from loan sharks.

These people were usually nobles or affiliated with ones, and would charge them an astronomical 20 to 30% interest rates, the failure on the repayments of which would either result in death or enslavement.

And if you died before you could pay them back, no worries, your sons and daughters will have to bear the cost.

These made setting up businesses really unpopular, which stifled the economy.

So Alexander felt he should set up a bank.

After all, his 300 million ropals were still sitting in his treasury gathering dust.

The others could certainly use some of it.

But then the question arose who would get to run it?

He certainly was not going to let Heliptos get his hands on it.

Or any of his retainers for that matter.

What if they embezzle the money?

Or worse waste it in foolish loans.

No, Alexander would have to be hit on the head by a donkey to give access to his cash to such nove rich whose self-control towards money could be said to be non-existent.

But then again, who else?

All of his girls were too busy to take on another job.

And so for the time being, Alexander decided to put that thought onto the shelf.

So secondly came the issue of the slaves.

"How many slaves do we have again?" He asked as he lost track of the numbers, and after adding each of the answers, got the answer as 22,000 bought, 1,000 captured as criminals, and 8,000 as POWs.

"Hmmm, for the 22,000 how about this?" With a bit of thought, Alexander firstly proposed dealing with the most innocent group, "They can either choose to work as slaves for 5 years. Or they can choose to become free men right now, but they would have to pay 40 ropals a month for fifteen years?"

If one did the maths, he would find the five years as a much better option.

You got food and a house and no expenses.

But Alexander was sure most would choose the 15 years.

Because 'freedom'.

"That…..um…40 ropals might be too much my lord," Heliptos felt that demanding more than a quarter of a man's wage might be too steep.

Living in a city was inherently more expensive and so he felt that even if the slaves wanted to, they might not be able to afford the plan.

And besides, if the plan was to boost the economy by increasing consumption, slapping a 40 ropal 'mortgage' was no way to do it.

"Then make it 30," Alexander lowed the value,

He knew Heliptos was hoping that he would free the slaves, but Alexander felt giving anything for free to anyone was stupid.

He would bet his head that if he simply set them free, these people would not cherish their freedom and be grateful to him as much as they would if he let them buy it.

After all, many saw free things not as priceless, but useless.

But Alexander did plan to increase the minimum wages to 200 ropals, which he felt would be able to compensate somewhat.

But those were for later years, so when Heliptos grumbled even that might not be enough, Alexander simply said,

"Then tell the men to marry a good, earning working woman. We have lots of jobs here for them, like paper makers and tailors."

"And if someone really wants to, they can always work in construction, brick making, or coal briquettes."

Alexander felt that instead of holing women up, they should work.

And the current policies should incentive that a lot.

Alexander did not talk about the other 10,000 who were either hardened criminals and POWs, both of whom were not suitable to be released.

Maybe in the future.

And so, after answering the question 'What would happen if the slaves cannot pay back their dues' with 'They will have to serve their remaining term,' the council meeting came to an end.