Banished Prince Charming

Chapter 77 - The Humble Copper Coin

Meanwhile back at Heather's.

"My golly... I didn't know he had a stash of gold coins with him when he escaped from the Manor. This must be the life savings he had informed me and this c.h.e.s.t of silver coins would be dropped in daily as taught by Bishop Levingstone."

"Wow...i did not know he was such a thrifty person indeed. Although the royal family lived a rather simple life, but they do have at times, spend lavish banquets for the visiting ministers, delegates and other royal members of families."

"My gosh... I miss those scones, muffins, cakes and brownies. Ooooo... I can't forget those afternoon teas I used to have with Mars and her sister down where we used to sneak those cakes and pots of tea and bring them to the cellar and through the back garden. That's when we used to be kids until I was offered a chance to go to university together with her sister and him."

"If my parents were not the Royal Head servants, I don't think I would enjoy the privilege of going to school and being able to be on par with a scholar. Besides, it's a surprise to find out that the engineers also known as the Shadows, were also well educated even though their main profession is mainly combat and killing."

"Sigh...and here I am finally with Mars, married but doesn't seem to be intimate enough. Maybe he got too much on his mind and that's why as Gwen had mentioned, not touching me enough."

"Maybe... Tsk... I'm thinking too much. There's no other woman besides the lady guardsman, Michelle Ramsgate... If he ever tried to get near my husband, I'm sure gonna go after her throat. Hmph...! "

Heather piled the gold coins on the table and stacked 25 coins per stack and discovered an amount of more than 400 gold coins. She separated 100 gold coins in 4 pouches and left the balance for the expenditure.

Next, she counted the silver coins into stacks of 50 and soon discovered that the total amount that was inside the wooden drawer was more than 6500 silvers that made up of more than 130 stacks...!

"This must be the savings for the rainy day that Bishop Levingstone had taught Mars. And it proved that today was the fruit of his labour after Mars had managed to squirrel away any silver coin he manages to save and see lying around in the Manor. Hehe."

Once she had replaced back the 135 stacks of silvers back inside the wooden drawer, he put aside some solvers to make the necessary purchases from Marcel when he drops by in a few days time.

The coppers which seemed to be much less value to most others, but it does carry a significant amount since a single copper can be used to buy a loaf of bread as it could last for a single day per person and the lowest-paid serf would be 6c per day. That's less than 2s per month.

Imagine the currency where it was in denominations of dimes, pence, shillings, crowns, pounds et cetera between 50 to 80 years ago and they decided to simply use these 3 simple currencies that were minted in equal size and weight. At least the French would not have full control over England's financial system.

Setting aside the coppers, she found that it had amounted to several hundred and after she kept the entries on papyrus in those that were kept and those to be used, she places everything back inside the wooden c.h.e.s.t drawer and only the ones being used for the sales transactions would be set aside and recorded.

What Audemars had done in the financial control is that instead of draining the coins in his reserves, he in turn trades using the coins back and forth while the citizens would have ample tokens that amount to 3s per month...!

After keeping the wooden c.h.e.s.t drawer back inside the leather knapsack and used the pillows to cover and conceal it, Heather began to roll the woven mat and shook the dirt outside the house. She then took a broom and swept the b.a.r.e floor clean and hung the woven mat after she had cleaned and brushed it at the riverbank.

Since the couple is going to move to the residential house on the district temporarily, she took down the bamboo chick, rolled it and set it inside the house near the doorway. Soon afterwards I returned to the house and seeing that she had done her part and passed the financial report, I can't help but feel elated, hugged and kissed her in full view of the public.

"That's quite a large sum that I've got right now. So you did put in a few pieces gold, some silver and a bunch of coppers here, right? That should be enough for the transaction."

"Alright, you want to sit at home to safeguard those treasures or you would want to put it somewhere safer? I don't have any idea of a safer place except for the windmill on the upper level where there's always a shadow stationed there."

"Just sit around, I need to meet Eagle and also need him to do me a favour. I will get him to send someone to pick up the wooden c.h.e.s.t drawer then." I kissed Heather once again a and I went to meet Eagle at the windmill.

=*=

"Eagle, could you do me a favour?"

"What's on your mind, sir?"

"Could you send someone to pick up the wooden c.h.e.s.t drawer and keep it under your care? Hope it would not be a hassle for you. It's all I've got for the building of this village."

"I will see it then. What else do you have in mind then?" Eagle replied and sent Sparrow, his lieutenant, to retrieve the coins and kept in under the care of Shadows without leaving it out of their sight.

"Could you use your carrier pigeons to send a message? I may need to send a message to Marcel so he would know exactly what to bring to resupply this village."

"That shouldn't be a problem. Since the carrier pigeon may make several stops in between, the message would be sent within a day. It won't actually fly directly to Marcel though, but it would definitely get the message through. What do you wish to convey?"

"Just the usual stuff. 250 pounds of grains and flour on top of the 180 that he promised to deliver, 1 pound of all spices, 5 pounds of condiments, 50 kegs of ale. He can bring anything he would like that might spark our interest to buy. Also, tell him the bakers would be baling him 8 or more kinds of bread when he comes later."

"Alright. Give me a minute while I write them in codes." Eagle began to take a small parchment paper and he wrote using a quill pen and blew the writings dry before handing it to me to read. The note simply read, "Crl. Marc. 250lb grns, flr + 180lb ea. 1lb spcs, 5lbs condi. 50kegs ale. Bred >10. Bring > gds not sold in Grchvn"

"Great... You may send it now. Thank you so much." After I had read the note and handed it back to Eagle, Sparrow entered carrying the wooden c.h.e.s.t drawer and a pouch which I retrieved and hung it on my person. The wooden c.h.e.s.t drawer was placed on the upper level of the windmill and was placed inside a sack and set aside besides the trunks that contained the winter wear.

Eagle then rolled the note and attached it to one of the carrier pigeon's feet that had a tiny canister to it. Even if one intercepts the note, almost 90% of England's population back in the 15th century does not how to read and write.

He then set the bird fly and the message would soon reach a stopping point before it is being replaced with another one to continue its journey. Having pigeon hop lines like this prevents the tracking of the source and its destination. Very ingenious indeed...!

=*=

"A note from GraceHaven? Read it to me, messenger..." Marcel said as he sat up in his huge leather armchair that was set on a mahogany table with all kinds of papers and letters. He is, of course, the chairman of the Merchants Association and his main duty is to keep track of the registrar of travelling merchants, their influences as well as gather intelligence on the whereabouts of these rebels.

He was in fact, part of Shadows but he does not do any killing though. He merely collects intelligence and does a background check to see its authenticity before sending out to the shadows to be taken care of.

This way his involvement within the Shadows was very low key. It was in fact because of him that the current Eagle and his men were able to locate and then to stay on and serve the next ruler of GraceHaven.

The messenger reported what was stated in the note and he smiled. Its been so long since he had tasted GraceHaven's bread and he wanted to get his hands on them no matter what. He had brought some to the nobles to try and they find the taste unique but were dismayed by its size.

"Those nobles are willing to buy 5c for a non-meat loaf of bread and 8c for a meat-filled loaf of bread. I wonder how many kinds of bread he is going to prepare. These upper class really have money to spend especially on food."

"Even the trenchers were of no match as its size was huge but it is so hard that it could break someone's head if dropped from the terrace. Hahahaha." he thought and laughed to himself as a smile as wide as his face curled up like a Cheshire's cat.

"Thank you for the note. I would make sure GraceHaven would receive the required supplies. Boy... Could you come up to my office?" he whistled and then bellowed through a device that looked like an end of a brass pipe that covered his mouth as the sound travelled to his workers a few levels below at the warehouse. It was a voice pipe where one needs to place their ears at the end of it to receive the message.

His worker replied back and soon, his young assistant together with a member of Shadow that works under the guise as an assistant received the instructions from the note.

"Get 2 wagons ready, load up 430 pounds of grains and 430 pounds of flour. 1 pound of cinnamon, coriander, aniseed, whole black pepper, whole white pepper, rosemary, and thyme."

"Then load up 5 pounds of salt and sugar. Also, bring about 5 pounds of those fragrant curries from the merchants of British India as well. Bring along one-eighth if a pound on all seeds of vegetables and fruits."

"We might need 50 kegs of second rate ale, 25 kegs of beer. I'm not sure about livestock but we just leave them as it is. Alright, that should be it then. Let me calculate the sales proceeding into my entry as I would end up buying more stuff to trade as well. Load 2 wagons. We would move out when it's ready."

"Master, we need to go to the docks to get the grains and flour since we only have about 200 plus pounds here. 2 wagon and we need extra hands. Would it be OK to get them to load up and split the weight?"

"Yes, go about as you see fit. I need to check my records if there's anything else left out to trade with GraceHaven. Report for any shortfall. We won't want to disappoint our big customer, do we?" Marcel waved the two assistants as they went to look more hands to load the grains and flour from the docks.

"Doing business with GraceHaven has indeed increased the reputation of this town through its quality products. I am sure there's more to see rather than the normal items that I had asked. His clay bricks were also well accepted."

"Gracehaven's Lord is sure a good person to begin with and have a good reading relationship." Marcel thought to himself as he entered the orders in his books to ensure the flow of the Sales would be a positive sign at the end of the day.

With the resell products to the masses, he had grown his influence in the Merchants Association towards towns that were not under the French revolutionaries anymore.