Chapter 42 February 404 AD Flattop Mountain-Meeting of the Dissidence (Patreon)

                When Jinka entered the meeting room with Busara, he looked like a mess. He was dirty, sweaty, and his beard and hair were messy. It looked like he hadn’t cleaned or groomed himself in weeks. The reality was that he hadn’t. When he heard about the steam weapons and the ire the Illuminati had drawn from the seventy families, Jinka immediately left his armies to come meet with his new ally. Jinka rode a horse during every waking hour and took a ferry down the canals of Paulsland as he slept, with every intention of making it to Flattop Mountain as soon as possible. His excuse to his army was the need for these new weapons in their battle against Rome and Kush. His real reason was his battle against the seventy families.

                Jinka journeyed with twenty of his most trusted men; one of them was General Kisu, one of the five militia generals. Kisu came into Jinka’s meeting with Busara to make sure that the five general’s interests were met, and he was just as messy as Jinka.

                When the men reached Flattop Mountain, they showed a tremendous sign of trust by taking the crane to the top of the mountain instead of going through the front gate and walking up the mountain. They did this for a couple of reasons. One, it was a sign of good faith, as they were trusting the Illuminati not to ‘accidentally’ have the crane fail while they were being pulled up the mountain in the elevator. They also did it because they were in a hurry to start this meeting so they could immediately start their way back to their army. They needed to return to their army before their army met with the Kush army in the field of battle.

                As they came into the meeting room, both Jinka and Kisu were pleased to be greeted by the head of the Illuminati and hot food. They didn’t even wait to sit down before they began grabbing food and eating it.

                As they stuffed food in their mouths, Busara asked, “So why did you journey all this way to meet with me?”

                Jinka swallowed his food and said, “I want to build factories to make these new steam weapons.”

                “Is that all you want?”

                “No. I need wealth to compete with the seventy families. The only reason why I am still the Kingsminister is because I am leading soldiers in war against our enemies. As soon as this war is over, the seventy families are going to remove me from my position. If they could have, they would have already fired my family members in retaliation, but thankfully, my matchstick factory was opened before the war started, so their jobs are safe.”

                Kisu said, “I am Militia General Kisu. Unfortunately, my family members have already lost their jobs with the seventy families. When they found out that I sided with Jinka over them they retaliated, and they will remove me from my position as soon as they can. The other four militia generals are facing the same fate.”

                Busara calmly asked, “If you are facing problems with the seventy families, why are you coming to me?”

                Jinka said, “I am not like most of the other political leaders in Paulsland. In order for me to do my job as Kingsminister well, I have to know certain secrets. For instance, the seventy families are very interested in developing commercial lightning and are disappointed that progress in developing it has gone so slow. In contrast, the seventy families are outrightly suppressing steam power, and since you made it public, they will retaliate.”

                Busara asked, “Do you know why they are so interested in commercial lightning?”

                “Because according to King Paul’s notes, commercial lightning has to be centralized, allowing them to keep their monopolies. In contrast, a steam engine can be used anywhere, and it can use wood or coal for fuel. It would break their monopolies, taking away their control.”

                Kisu added in, “If the seventy families lost their monopolies, they wouldn’t last too long. Although Paulsland supposedly has a descent jury system, what jury would vote against any of the seventy families when their family members will immediately lose their jobs controlled by the seventy families?

                Busara turned to Jinka and asked, “Is that what you are here for? To break the monopolies.”

                “No, I am here to create new ones. I no longer want to be the servant, I want to be the master.”

                “How are you going to tear down the seventy families from their monopoly and build your own?”

                “I honestly don’t know; that’s why I am here. From what I understand, the seventy families fear the steam engine because if farmers had their own, they would no longer need to sell their goods to factories. For instance, cotton farmers could set up their own steam-powered spinning wheels and weaving machines to industrialize their crops instead of having to sell raw cotton to the factories for a pittance of what cloth is worth. With steam engines, you don’t need a river or canal to power your industry, which will bankrupt the seventy families. Their power and wealth comes from monopolizing the few places that can be industrialized. If they are right, and steam engines will kill waterwheel factories, then I want to know how to monopolize steam steam engines.

                “And what's in it for me?”

                “Busara, my dear friend, you will be an equal partner. You provide the plan, schematics, and Illuminati funding, and I will provide the land to build whatever factory you need to build these things.”

                Busara shook his head. “Until we build steam engines, we don’t have the power to build steam engines without water wheel factories, and the seventy families have a monopoly on that land. Unless you want to build it up in the great swamp, but that will take a decade at least.”

                “There is a lot of available land in the east, thanks to Kush, and Rome going on a rampage. We just have to finish demolition on what our enemies have already destroyed and rebuild to your specifications. Taking that land and building the factories needed to construct steam weapons won't be too difficult.”

                “And how will you legally do that? Do you think the seventy families that jealously guard their monopoly will let you take their land without a fight?”

                “Legal is whatever the juries say it is. Since the land where their factories were destroyed is not currently in use, it is once again under the stewardship of Paulsland, so I, as Kingsminister, with our dear king too young to make wise decisions, have the authority to use the land to build the factories needed to produce these new weapons to defeat our enemies that ravaged our land. If I and a few friends like you happen to own that factory on what used to be seventy family land, who will dare complain when we built the factory to help secure our nation? Especially since the people that occupy that land, who do not happen to be fighting in the militia right now, who will be on the jury trial that the seventy families try to bring against us, will be coming to us for jobs. Why would any jury go against their own interest?”

                “How much interest in our factories will the jury have?” Busara was, in essence, asking how the company would be split.

                “Assume you can give me a monopoly; you, me, Kisu, the four other militia generals, and the king will own eighty percent of the company. The employees will own twenty percent and thus get twenty percent of the dividends from the company. That’s much better than what the seventy families offer their employees, and what jury would give up such a nice percentage for themselves or a family member that works at the factory, by voting against it and for the seventy families?”

                Busara immediately noticed something he was sure Jinka didn’t want him to. “But the King is a child, so for the next few years, that would in effect, put you in control of his portion.”

                “Does that matter? Yes, I will in effect, have twenty percent control, but it should be simple to outvote me if I am wrong. Furthermore, its not like I am foolish enough to keep the king's dividends, although I can use his money to more or less buy half the factory while only giving him ten percent.”

                “No, don’t do that. Use an Illuminati loan, we want to keep everything above board. Instead, when we build a steam-powered factory use the King's money to pay for the employee's share.”

                “Why wait?”

                “Because the steam factory will be much more expensive to build.”

                “I’m confused. Why are the seventy families fearful of steam, if a steam factory will be more expensive to build than a water wheel factory?”

                “The seventy families are stuck in the past. When they think of a factory, they are thinking of a building powered by one engine that makes one product. In their experience, you build the factory around one or maybe two engines. They are in the habit of only producing one good in the factory and then sending it on further to be finished. For instance making thread in one factory and sending it to another to be made into cloth, then to another to be sewn into clothing. With the steam engine, you can put as many engines as you want to inside of a building so raw goods can come in one side and finished goods out the other.

                Busara continued to explain, “If we build a water wheel factory on the east side of Paulsland to build the steam weapons, we will need to build at least three. One for the steam vessels, one for the sniper rifles, and one for the specialized hoses that transfer power from the steam vessel to the hoses, but the reality is that the seventy families likely won't trade with us, so we will need another factory to turn ore into iron, and another to turn raw rubber into galvanized rubber. Five factories will be the least of what we need for steam weapons.

                “To go all in on steam power we will need far more than five engines. Thankfully, a steam powered factory will allow us to put however many engines we want into a factory and build everything we want inside one building. That’s why our factory will be expensive to set up, a factory to us won't be just one engine but at least two dozen. We wont be competing with the farmers, we will be competing with anyone who can think big.”

                Jinka nodded, then asked, “How does this give me a monopoly?”

                “The steam engine factory will allow you to build things bigger than anyone else. For instance, King Paul started the process of building twin sets of iron rails across Paulsland to move goods more easily, or so he publicized. The real reason why he did so was in preparation for building steam-powered carts called locomotives. The Illuminati have long ago figured out how to build them. We can make a locomotive that can pull twenty forty-foot-long carts with twenty tons of goods on them at fifteen miles an hour nonstop for days. The thing is that the locomotive is almost sixty feet long, and weighs one hundred tons, with fuel. We can build these locomotives without a steam-powered factory but each one takes almost a decade to build, with a steam-powered factory you can build several a month. Then with the power of the Kingsminister, you can make it so that only locomotives, those things you have a monopoly on, are the only thing allowed to use the rails.”

                Jinka nodded and asked, “Is that it? How long until someone else makes their own locomotive factory and breaks my monopoly?”

                “A decade or two. Gathering the required steam engines needed for the factory to make them won't be easy, especially when we will have the only factory making steam vessels and engines for some time.”

                “So it's not a real monopoly?”

                “There are no real monopolies, if there were, the seventy families would be one family, but there is another monopoly you could try.”

                “Yes?”

                “Your factory could make steam shovels to collect the coal needed to power steam engines.”

                “We already have men collecting coal all across Paulsland.”

                “We have men collecting coal with shovels and picks. A steam shovel will be able to collect coal by the cubic yard. Imagine, if you will, Paulsland’s weapons powered by coal, and each farm, smithy, and ship also powered by coal. In order to get that coal, they turn to you because you mine and transport the coal all across Paulsland at a price nobody can afford to compete with because you make the only locomotives and steam shovels in the world. Everyone will be beholden to you. In fact, at that time, you can retire as Kingsminister, and the next one will have to follow your orders because the seventy families will be gone, and you will have a monopoly on the thing that powers the nation.”

                Jinka considered Busara’s words for a minute. He understood that what Busara was offering wasn’t a true monopoly, but there was no such thing. Technically, in Paulsland, the seventy families had a monopoly on cloth, but the reality was that any woman in Paulsland could make their own thread and weave their own cloth. They didn’t do it because it was cheaper to buy it, thanks to the factories. It sounded like to Jinka that even though technically anyone could make or gather their own coal, with locomotives and steam shovels, he would gather and distribute coal so quickly and efficiently it would be cheaper to just buy coal from him than gather their own.

                After a moment Jinka said, “I can agree to this since it will give me the monopoly I want.”

                Kisu said, “Give us the monopoly we want.”

                Jinka nodded and said, “Yes of course, the monopoly we want. You know I can't betray you or the other generals because we need this war to extend long enough to finish building the steam factory.”

                Kisu said, “Don’t forget it.”

                And with that, the three men began hammering out the details. Before night fell Jinka and Kisu left to return to their troops, meanwhile, a messenger went north to give orders to begin building the factories needed to build steam weapons. He was told to emphasize how important this was for the nation.