“But right or wrong, they don’t put their money, or their time or energy, into the project. When it does work, they make no profit, because they weren’t involved. When it doesn’t work, they take no loss but again, they make no profit. Uncle, while I was in Grantville I made fifteen major investments and a host of minor ones. Of the fifteen, six were unmitigated failures and three were ‘Grantville failures,’ which means they broke even or made only a little profit. The least profitable of the real successes paid for all six failures. From what I understand, the Barclays made no major investments. Partly that was because they were visiting Grantville at the time of the Ring of Fire, so they had very little money to invest. But they also failed to invest their labor, requiring payment up front for whatever services they provided.” Karl grinned at his uncle. “In the same amount of time, Sarah went from a child with no money of her own to an independently wealthy young woman.”
“I take it you’re saying your young lady. .” Maximillian von Liechtenstein paused clearly looking for just the right phrase, “. . is different from the Barclays.”
Karl nodded.
“What about the Sanderlin and Fortney families?” Gundaker asked. “Those girls seemed well acquainted with the daughter of the mechanic that the emperor hired to take care of his toys.”
Karl paused. He had not given a great deal of thought to why Sonny Fortney had gone to Vienna while his daughter was getting rich in Grantville. He had just assumed that family necessity had trumped the daughter’s preference. But Sonny had been added by the Sanderlins. That was clear, as he thought back on their discussions last year. Why had Sonny Fortney agreed to go? He was a friend of Herr Sanderlin, or at least he had seemed to be, but they hadn’t struck Karl as that close. And Karl had wanted him to survey a railroad, but that had come later. Karl pushed it from his mind. He had other matters to deal with. “Hayley Fortney is a member of the Barbie Consortium. She knows quite a bit about the mechanics of up-time tech and a reasonable amount about business. I would expect that she has done well here, hasn’t she?”
Gundaker’s son, Hartmann, had been to Grantville too, if only for a short time. He laughed. “Someone certainly has, though I had no idea that the girl was more than peripherally involved. I told you, Father, that they do things differently in Grantville.”
“They do things stupidly in Grantville, then,” Gundaker said. “Those idiots out at Race Track City are giving credit to all the wrong sort of people and they are going to lose their wealth when their debtors are unable to pay.”
“I wouldn’t count on that, Uncle,” Karl said. “Sarah is quite well off, but her younger sister is even wealthier. And a good part of-” Karl managed not to say “my wealth” and converted it to “-our wealth is due to the investments that the Barbies have made for me. I’ll have Josef look over the situation out at Race Track City when he gets here, but I suspect that they are in better shape than it might seem at first.”
“One hopes,” Maximillian said, “that they, or at least your Sarah, can help us to prepare for the Turks.”
“I don’t think that’s likely, Uncle,” Hartmann said. “At least not the young ladies. Julie Sims is more the exception than the rule, I think.”
“Are there rumblings from the Turks?” Karl asked.
“Yes, there are,” Maximillian said. “We’re not sure how serious it is yet, but His Majesty is starting to be concerned. Or, at least, his close adviser Janos Drugeth is concerned.”
“And you want Sarah’s help?”
“Moses Abrabanel seems to think she is some sort of financial genius,” Gundaker said, doubt clear in his voice.
“Well. .” Karl paused. “Yes. But David Bartley is the real businessman. Sarah is more oriented to the big picture, as she calls it. Understand, no actual economists came back with the Ring of Fire, but copies of economics books did. Sarah Wendell has read every economic book available. Literally, everything that is known in this time about economics, Sarah knows. That is not the same as knowing what they knew up-time, but in at least one way it’s better. They have some records of how the economy of the HRE developed in their history and they have the development of the USE since the Ring of Fire to compare it to. That is something the up-timers never had. Sarah has written several papers on comparative economics, focusing on the effect of monetary policy.”
* * *
While the men were at their brandy, the ladies were having wine and sweet cakes in another room. Sarah Wendell had pled fatigue and escaped to her rooms. Karl’s aunt Katharina was just as glad Sarah hadn’t joined them, since she would without doubt be the topic of conversation among the ladies this evening. The arrival of Sarah Wendell had brought to mind several things that were bothering her.
Her sister-in-law, Elisabeth Lukretia von Teschen, Gundaker’s estranged wife, was living in territory that was now under Wallenstein and apparently quite happy to do so. Most of Katharina’s own lands were now in the hands of Wallenstein as well, and at least nominally still in the family as long as Karl Eusebius remained in Wallenstein’s good graces.
Katharina started the ball rolling. “Did you see Gundaker’s face?”
The ladies chortled or sniffed as dictated by their attitude about the up-timers in general. There was considerably more sniffing than chortling.
“What do you expect? All the up-timers are peasants.” Countess Aldringer, whose husband had been made a count by Ferdinand II, was a countess mostly because of her husband’s money.
“Careful, dear. From what I understand she could buy your husband out of pocket change,” Katharina advised with a certain malice.
Countess Aldringer was clearly less than pleased at that observation. “There are other things than money.”
“Yes, there are,” Katharina said. “Charity, honor, piety. What I am less sure of by the day is how those things apply to the up-timers. And how they apply to us. When, after all, was it decided that showing appreciation of service lacked in charity, honor or piety?”
“It lacks in both charity and piety!” Countess Aldringer insisted, “because it encourages the sins of pride and sloth in the serving class. It confuses them as to their proper role. It is well known that the peasantry is at best easily confused and must be reminded of their station constantly. She did the serving girl no favor by her condescension.” She sniffed. “Not that it was much of a descent for that one, but how is a serving girl to know that?”
“Yet God put them here, and seems to favor their endeavors,” Gundaker’s daughter Maximilliana Constanzia, called Liana, said.
“Or the Devil,” Countess Aldringer countered. “Even Urban has not said they are God’s handiwork and Cardinal Borja has made his opinion clear.”
“Pope Urban!” Liana said hotly.
Gundaker’s daughter by his first wife was, in Katharina’s opinion, what the up-timers would call a suck-up. She was surprised that the young woman wasn’t parroting her father’s attitude toward the up-timers. She guessed that Liana was coming down on the Urban side of the issue. And that was strange. The girl’s confessor was a Dominican, after all.
* * *
Anna was wondering whether she was going to get in trouble for the up-timer lady talking to her. “I didn’t invite it,” she assured Stephen, the chief butler, who confronted her in the kitchen.
“You didn’t smile at her?” Stephen, who ruled the servant’s quarters with an iron hand, didn’t seem entirely convinced that Anna was innocent in the affair. “Look her in the eye?”