-see now everything in this next part is ENTIRELY made up
So after spending a day gouging themselves on Hungarian treats, after a long break, Sigismund slept deeply, staying in a noble resort in Buda. Buda-Pest is the capital of Hungary, of course, where the Magyars decided to continue the Carpathian Empire started by the Huns. The city is bisected by the Danube River which flows from the Alps in the west to the Black Sea in the East. Buda is the actual administrative and royal capital. It is hilly but holds all of the castles for the needs of the govrnment. Pest is the flat village side with lots of farmland but also a marketplace for merchants and housing for workers. There was even a recently revived ghetto (neighborhood of Jews). Pest can display the wide diversity of Hungary with Saxons, the Szekelys, Czechs, Slovaks, Balkan Slavs, Croats, the Romani, self declared Huns, and then the true minorities of French, Hispanic, Italian, Greek, and Jew. In both towns, Prokop found the Luxembourg allies. Pulling them aside to Sigismund’s room, they were put in a lineup.
“Alright, first we have Janos Tamasi. He’s from Szolnok County and is a low noble. He’s a trained warrior, 20 years old.”
“Any special talents?” Sigismund asked.
Tamasi showed a staff, “I wish to be a Doorkeeper. I’ve even gone to school in Athena for a special magic. The Hermes Spell.” He was wearing a petasos, a kind of sun hat, and a silk cloak known as a chlamys. The cloak was brown. He had a regular build with long brown hair. The staff was a Caduceus although not the original. The staff was made of wood with wooden wings branching off the top. Two stoney snakes were coiled around the snake with their heads meeting at the wings.
“What the fuck is the Hermes spell?”
“A kind of hex but on locations. Marking the ground with the staff allows instant teleportation to that place later, unless the mark was disturbed but it is easy to not make it disturbable.”
“Disturbable.”
“With this power, strange to Europe, I would provide a unique security to every castle in the Kingdom being able to go to and fro with you.”
“I see, you’re in.”
“And next we have James Laczk Szántó, a captain of 100 men.”
“And they’re the best 100 archers you’ve ever known,” James said. He was a handsome looking tan man with short black hair and a sharp nose. “Let me not exaggerate. They’ve gone against the Mongols and left more arrows in their eyes than what I supplied them with. The Anglos were so impressed by their performance that they became longbowmen. The-”
“Enough, you’re invited.”
Prokop whispered to Sigismund, “I didn’t know he was like that. Anyways! This one’s Janos Maróti, a journeyman goldsmith and part time builder, only at 18. He said his specialty is enchanted armor so maybe he can do yours Sigismund.”
“Yeah, is there a way to enchant luck into something?”
Janos had black hair and a stern face, as if he was already 50. “Luck…that property is only found in four leaf clovers in Ireland.”
“So no?”
“I mean it will take time and money but I will make it for you, Margrave.”
“You in. AND GET TO IT!”
“Ah, apologies, Maróti. He simply means to be quick but I will get you the funds for the journey tomorrow. Anyways, next is Miklos Szécsi. You should’ve met him before, he was a general for Lajos all his life. Now you’re 63, you codger, why help us?”
This was an old man with a scar across his face, from Lithuanians, and sand white hair. “I stood when Maria asked for supporters because she has always been a nice enough person to be king, whether here or in Poland. It was also the will of Lajos so I should respond in kind!”
“Understandable! And you’ve been to Krakow before, correct?”
“Yes, to defeat a similar occupation as the one holding it now. I know the ins and outs, where the snow falls and where the babies sleep.”
“Crazy”, muttered Sigismund.
“But it will not just be me. I have the Szécsi army of 3000 men and my two sons, Miklos and Frank. They are as young as you and perhaps just as skilled but I can’t teach as well as King Lajos.”
“It would be very easy to. You’re in”
“Okay, now Butko Kurjaković-”
“Margrave!” Sigismund straightened in his seat. Despite being a Croat, this was a buff and hairy dude twice Sigismund’s size. “I come from Croatia’s 12 saintly families, the Gusic! I am of the Kurjakovic branch. I whole-heartedly pledge to the safe succession of Maria to be King of Hungary, and Hedwig to be King of Poland! Or else I die!”
“Ah. Okay. Can’t stop ya.”
“Thank you, Butko. Now next is…Simon Szécsényi. This baron also stood up for Maria and told me he would be in favor of your kingship.”
“Anything that brings my family glory also brings glory to the Kingdom of Croatia,” Simon said in response. He was a tall thin man with black hair tied in a ponytail. He was thin in frame but packing muscles. He wore black on black. He was chewing on a carrot although not really consuming it. “I also have a brother, Frank, and together we lead an army of 2000.”
“Nice! You’re in.”
Simon had been gazing before when he spoke. But then he dramatically lowered his gaze and said, “good”. Sigismund frowned as the man walked away.
Prokop pointed at the next person, “then we have a famous journeyman alchemist who studied all of the way in Champagne, Janos Alsáni!”
This is a bright smiling fellow with curly brown hair in a small afro. He wore an alchemist’s cloths; a long sleeved robe covering the whole arm, loose pants that were tied at the bottom, sandals, and a dark drape over his head. “I have the finest potions and poisons. Poisons for the enemy…of course.”
“Right, for the enemy.”
“I swear it.”
“Okay. Well, you shouldn’t have to. I would’ve assumed so.”
“No need. On God, the poison is only for enemies.”
“I feel like if you need to argue about what we already agree to, it makes you suspicious.” Alsáni quietly nodded and then he sat on the ground next to Sigismund. “Nice. I totally feel comfortable now.”
Next was Pal Besenyo, a fatter man with black hair and the others noted his eastern face. He commanded an army of 600 mercenaries. Then there was Peter Perenyi, another Croat from the Šubić clan. A leaner man with a big beard and wearing a large red cape over his blue tunic and pants. He commanded an army of 250 cavalrymen. “100% success rate for my recruitment? I’m lowkey the best,” Prokop said patting his own back.
Later, Prokop and Sigismund were in a restaurant running the numbers. “So, so far we have recruited 5,960 men. Most of them regular warriors and then a handful of magicians. Now Sigismund, do we have the funds for this?”
“Yeah?”
“Oh let me ask again. Do you have the funds for nearly 6,000 men?”
“What? What about being one united Little Castle against the world?”
“Buddy, I already have to pay my own troops for this campaign. This is your army. You gotta pay for it. Don’t you have some taxes collected from Brandenburg?”
“Bro I’ve never been there!”
“Jesus Christ.”
“What am I supposed to do? They’re gonna abandon me!”
“That would be bad. You know, there’s three parties in the Diet. There are two who agree that Maria should be King but only one who thinks you should be involved there. Obviously the last would like Durazzo but the ones who don’t like you; they are led by the Csák House and the Voivode. If you don’t have money, they’ll just join the Voivode and you should never come back to Hungary.”
“Maaaaaan.”
“Sigi, baby, you have no liquid but you do have an asset.”
“An asset?”
“Brandenburg. Sell this March to someone for like 1 billy, and you got money to pay this army for quite a while. The yearly salary you’d need to give them is should be about 120 ducats a month.”
“DUCATS?”
“To each of them. Oh, did you want to use florins?”
“I don’t know the difference.”
“Lajos didn’t teach you currency? Listen, most of us in Christendom don’t have the time to mint coins and even then, to distribute them via a bank. The Serene Bank (Venetian) with their ducats, the Medici Bank (Tuscan) with their florins, and the Superba Bank (Genoan) with their genovino. These three bank the gold made by other countries that may just use them or mint their national variation. From what I understand of Hungary, their gold mines are sold to Venice with their ducats that can make more of.”
“Uh.”
“And you might be asking why do those three get to control the money, like a couple of Jews? Well they have wide connections across the Mediterranean so they can set the value of their coin with traders all of the in the Red and Caspian Seas along with the North Sea. The merchants are a class of their own who agree to the value of each coin so that their trade is committed profitably and so their kings don’t kill them.”
“Uh.”
“And of course, if they have a deficit, the king will have less money to war with so they’ll bring Jews back to their country to borrow off of them. Lajos did that a couple of years ago actually.”
“Uhhh.”
“But this is mercantilism, that’s what those banks are practicing. Weighting the value of goods by their supply, holding onto money for security, and giving out loans for interest profit. That is what Venice, Florence, and Genoa are up to. Subscribing to one of them will mean you have to keep that money. You don’t want to be investing into multiple banks with too much money or your own accountants will be confused about your value, your budget.”
“AHHHHH,” and thick black smoke busted out of Sigismund’s ears as his eyes became lazy and his head collapsed.
After some recovering, Prokop wrote what he was saying in Sigismund’s grimoire so that his brain would at least retain something. “So there’s three ‘magics’ you can do with money and property. You could just Sell Brandenburg to Jobst so that you have a lump sum of a bunch of money. He has ducats, of course. So then you’d open an account with Venice, save some ducat in there and they will accrue interest so that when you withdraw, you have more than what you started with. It can’t go down unless the Serene Bank dies, somehow.
“Siiiimple.”
“If you did have coin already, you could Mortgage it to Jobst.” He took two different cups and placed them upside down. Then he took out a rock and a coin. “You are the stone cup and Jobst is the glass. The rock is Brandenburg. This coin, surprise, is money.”
“Wow.”
“Crazy, I know. Now if Jobst loans you this coin, he could technically own Brandenburg as insurance. Meaning, if you don’t pay the loan, it actually becomes his. Put for now, you have a bit more money. Problem is that loans always accrue interest, this is a Biblical fact! Even in the days of Babylon, they had interest like this. So say in a year, what you pay back will be more than what the loan was in order to technically regain Brandenburg. So if you don’t have that extra money, that’s when he gets that March.”
“I see now. But I don’t even have money to start with.”
“Yup. And by the way, the last was Parceling out smaller parts of Brandenburg, like a castle or two. This means you still own the whole March even if those grimey counts actually control more land. You don’t wanna give up more than 51% though, otherwise, that gives them leverage in a revolt if you’re a bad ruler. You’ll only have 49% of the country to help you.”
“I see. I understand everything.”
“Yup, thank God for books.”
“Why did you keep mentioning Jobst?”
“Oh? Did I? Just an example but we could give it to him. HehasalotofmoneyanditwouldmeanheisawayfromMoravia.”
“What?”
“Wanna go ask him?”
“Sure. But then, we need to come up with our selling price-”
“Yours, I’m not involved here, for legal purposes.”
“Okay. But then also, that lump sum sale only needs to last me until I become king. Then I’ll have taxes from Hungary, right?”
“Correct. So if this campaign is successful but you still don’t become king, you will be economically raped. Durazzo will raise a large Neapolitan army to come against your 6000 but only if you can still pay them. And once they disband, you don’t even have any other assets.”
“Okay! SO THEN UM! What would the budget need to be and then what is our selling price?”
Prokop bit his lips. “So. I’m not like a mathematician. This is just what my old man taught me so far. Basic theory, but not actual data. Or multiplication. And that’s a really big number.”
“COUSIN!”
“I’ll look for an accountant, and you should too. But I’m gonna go for a ride, I’ll see you for dinner tonight.”
“Bleh, you suck.”
“I helped you like 90% of the way,” he said, rising out of his seat. “Just like God, I can’t do everything for you.”
Sigismund was fuming for a moment and then ranting the next. He then sorrowfully paced the streets of Pest until the sun was nearly setting. A boy started to follow him but he didn’t pay any mind. “Freaking Prokop can’t even give me one ducat. How am I supposed to pay for an accountant? All this freaking financial pressure for paying 6000 dudes because they don’t wanna fight for free? Greedy. And who’s my damn tax collector in Brandenburg anyway? I should’ve asked him for something when I was in Neumark. All the nobles and peasants just get to keep filling up the treasury for a ghost margrave.” No the nobles weren’t. They were keeping that coin.
The boy following him touched his shoulder and Sigismund curbstomped him. “Ow!”
“Bro, oh you’re just a kid. I thought you were like a debt collector or something.”
“I mean it doesn’t sound like you have debt yet.” The boy rose. He was slightly shorter than Sigismund with a frail body. His brown hair spun around his head and he wore Italian clothing.
“Why is your latin so fancy?”
“I’m from Firenze!”
“What?”
“It’s in Italy. Pretty big city. Hard to miss.”
“Speak plainly brother.”
The boy narrowed his eyes, and then said, “Flo-ren-ce.”
“Ah. The Medici are already after me. Well I don’t know if I want to subscribe.”
“No-, they’re a high born family! I’m poor! But I am an economist. I am Filippo Buondelmonti!” The boy is actually just a year younger than Sigismund.
“Oh sweet Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. You were just spitting at me for like twenty years.”
“I don’t care about helping you anymore,” he said, turning away. Sigismund just looked at the back of his head. Filippo slightly looked back, with just a side eye. “I know numbers but too bad I guess. I’d even do them for free for a future king,” he said quietly. He slowly, slowly, began moving away.
“Pippo Spano! I kept rehearing it in my head, was that your name?”
Spano lowered his head in even close, “not even close.”
“Narrator agrees with me.” Then Sigismund caught up with the boy and put his arm around him, “say you wanted to do numbers for me for free?”
“Yeah. I work at the Royal Treasury already but if you’re going to be king, I could make a good impression on you. That’s called a social investment.”
“Invest your time in me and I will make you the head of Treasury when I’m king.”
“Fine with me.”
“Do you know Hungarian?”
“Yeah, I guess,” but now his accent was really bad.
“GREAT! Listen, I need to pay, let’s say, 6,000 dudes a yearly salary for the Queen’s Campaign in Poland next month. Help me out for that budget so I know how much to sell my March for.”
Spano nodded and he pointed to a bench. There, he could take out his own grimoire where there were numerical notes everywhere. Sigismund felt dizzy looking at it for a moment. He found a blank page and started. “So warriors like to get paid most of it upfront if not all of it and at all times they will sign an insurance contract with their general. This means that their family will get paid if they die although they can only get paid half before the campaign.”
“Yeah sure.”
“If you did only need them for the campaign, that would be two months’ pay but since you still want to use them after, a year’s salary is the best thing especially paid upfront.”
“Oh I see. I pay them all tomorrow and they’re mine for a year. Then I only have a year time limit to defeat Durazzo and become king.”
“Exactly. But you’re not just paying for the time but also any new equipment they might need to buy and food supplies. A horseman will also need to be covered for their horse’s expenses. For this campaign, the Queen will probably pay for transportation so you don’t need to worry about it this time.”
“Aw jeez.”
“So a healthy 1 year salary to a single one of these men would be 175 ducats. Or 160 florins, if you want.”
“It’ll probably be ducats.”
“So that is a minimum budget of 1,050,000. Although I said this assuming everyone was infantry. How many cavalry?”
“Two-fiddey”
“Ah. Let’s say the horse will only require 100 if nothing crazy happens. So now the new minimum is 1,075,000.”
“Do archers cost any extra?”
“Hahahaha, no. Now let’s increase this by 10% for breathing room.”
“Percent?”
“Now we are at 1,182,500 ducats.”
“Damn.”
“Hopefully you can loot Krakow a bit to cover some funds. What March are you selling?”
“Brandenburg.”
“Oh. The whole thing?”
“Yeah”
“From Altmark to Neumark?”
“You know a lot about Brandenburg, Florentine.”
“Yeah well I’ve seen a map. This is a lot of acres of land. I wouldn’t know how to appraise.”
“Hmm. Well, I’ve never been there either so maybe Jobst will just take it for like 2 million ducats, just to be safe on the budget.”
“I feel like that’s a really low ball. How about 5?”
“Hm. Maybe he would know. Let’s just go ask him.”
So they went to go just ask him, right before dinner. Jobst was in the bath. Sigismund and Spano stood before him holding the datasheets. He looked at them plainly.
“So you need a budget for the campaign. And you obviously won’t have time to go to Brandenburg to collect taxes. Listen. You’re not selling me the whole thing. Did my brother tell you to sell it to me? He’s trying to take me away from Moravia. Instead, you will sell me the sovereign right to the March.”
“What does that mean exactly?” Spanno asked.
Sigismund answered, “it means he’ll kind of act as a regent-”
“Co-ruler. So at this, Brandenburg could’ve been appraised for something outside of my own budget. It has good rivers, heavy forests, and some mines. It is also an Electorate. This part, being an Elector, is what you will keep in our contract. I’ll have my Treasurer make the purchase by the end of this week. But of course, you’ll have to open an account with the Venetians so that I can send the money.”
“Okay, how?”
“I’ll do it for you.” Spanno said. “I have a route to Venice that’s real cheap. I could get there in ten days and then Jobst’s treasurer can officiate the sell.”
“And in doing you, you’ll officially be Sigismund’s accountant. Sigismund, he will simply need two badges from you.”
“Easy,” Sigismund said, and he equipped two badges, handing them to Spanno who threw them in his pocket. The badges of the Luxembourg symbol with his name on the etched in the edges.
“Well, to do everything in one trip, I will also need a list of all the soldiers in your army, or at least their captains.”
“Okay, I have a few captains so that’ll be easier. Prokop has their names.”
Jobst then reached out his hand to Sigismund. “So, 3 million ducats will be the deal.”
“DAMN!”
“Yes, with that, a less than 3 year time limit to become king.”
So Sigismund shook his hand. On his side of things, everything would be set. Using one badge, Spanno set up an account with the Venetians for Sigismund. The other badge was for himself. There, Spanno also gave the names of the other accounts to transfer all of the salaries to, luckily each of his captains were Venetian subscribed.
tdwriter 