“Oh!” Anna stopped dead in the street. “Oh, would you look at that.” She wasn’t speaking to anyone in particular, since she’d come alone. But the words just flew out.
It was a bra. A lace bra. “Oh.” On a mannequin. “Oh, my.” In the window, with a sign. “Oh, I want one. I want two.”
She hesitated. Bras were the very latest thing. Everyone who was anyone had one.
She made her way to the window. And stared. “Oh.”
“Would you like to try one on?” the shopkeeper asked, knowing a sale when she saw one.
“Oh.” Anna hesitated some more. “Oh, yes. But I know it’s going to be too expensive.”
“Oh, we can work something out.”
* * *
After the fitting, still wearing her new acquisition, Anna began turning out her bag to see how much money she had. In the process, she pulled out her latest purchase of BarbieCo stock.
The shopkeeper asked, “What’s that? It’s pretty fancy printing.”
Anna explained, while continuing to check inside her bag. She didn’t have enough money.
“Let me send a runner,” the shopkeeper said. “I’m curious about something.”
A boy was called over and sent on an errand. Anna said, “I guess I’d better take this off. I just don’t have quite enough money on me. Can you put it back for me? I’ll be back next week to pick it up.”
“Surely, if that’s what you want. But let’s wait just a few minutes, until the boy comes back. We do sometimes give credit, if your reputation is good and your employment steady.”
Anna laughed. “I work for the people who issue these stock certificates.”
“In that case, your credit is probably pretty good. At least here in Race Track City.”
The boy came running back and passed the shopkeeper a note, which she read aloud. “This is from Mrs. Sanderlin. It says ‘BarbieCo stock certificates are to be accepted at par value, good as cash. The par value is written on the stock certificate.’” She looked at Anna. “So you do have enough money, after all.”
Liechtenstein House, Vienna
As soon as Anna got back to work, she began telling about her purchase, and even showing the lace off a bit. Anna was just a bit vain about her looks.
“Where did you get the money? I saw one of those and it was too expensive.”
“Race Track City. Frau Krauss’ shop.”
“Yep. That’s where I saw it. Did she give you a special price? I’ll go there tomorrow and insist on the same one if she did.”
“No. But she took my BarbieCo stock certificate. Said it was as good as cash. She even gave me change.”
* * *
That started the story of BarbieCo money. It wasn’t as planned as they might have preferred, but it wasn’t unplanned either. Word spread from servant to workman, from tavern to shop. And the Barbies went to considerable effort to convince people that they would really prefer not to let any of the stock out of their control.
The shopkeeper Anna had talked to got her bras from a four shift “sweat shop,” which, in turn, made them using the Higgins sewing machine brought by the Fortneys. By now everyone in Race Track City had heard about Hayley Fortney being one of the Barbies. Based on that, the shopkeeper had been considering taking the stock in trade. She was doing well now and the notion of a bit of investment for the future appealed to her. But she wanted to hear what Frau Sanderlin thought about it first. The “good as cash” from the note had been a bit of a surprise, so once race day was over she headed for the Sanderlin house-stock certificate in hand-to find out what was going on. The maid let her in. Frau Sanderlin was usually willing to talk to the merchants and craftsmen of Race Track City, and today was no different, except a little busier. Race days always were, especially since they added horse racing to the 240Z and Sonny Steamer laps.
There were half a dozen merchants who were bringing in IOU’s they had gotten from customers. And Frau Krauss, the shopkeeper who had taken Anna’s stock certificate. The others were a bit concerned because SFIC was getting more strict about who they would let the shopkeepers give credit to. They had to be. Frau Krauss was simply curious. She already had approval.
Frau Sanderlin wasn’t all that helpful. “I don’t really understand, but Hayley was here when the boy came with the note. It’s one of the Barbies’ business deals. I understand Susan Logsden doesn’t want their investment diluted by too many shareholders, so they buy them back whenever they can get them.”
Frau Krauss didn’t know it, but Gayleen Sanderlin didn’t understand what Hayley had told her even as well as Gayleen had thought. The Barbies weren’t in any great hurry to buy back BarbieCo stock. But Hayley realized that reputation was important, so the Barbies would, at least for now, buy them at par value in reichsthaler. To Gayleen, the important part had been that Hayley said they were as good as cash. Frau Krauss was left with the impression that they were better, since you could spend them if you wanted to, but if you held onto them they would grow at two percent a year or more.
* * *
The next morning, there was a sign by the door of the shop. WE ACCEPT BARBIECO STOCK. GOOD AS CASH. That led her neighbors to question her, and Frau Krauss explained the situation, adding her own interpretation and not clarifying what came from her and what from Frau Sanderlin.
The next day there were similar signs on half a dozen shops in Race Track City. And still more the day after.
* * *
Tuesday morning, before having the Fortneys over to dinner the next day, Duchess Eisenberg and two other ladies of the court were in Race Track City. They intended to buy some of the strawberry wine that was becoming quite popular with the very upper crust of Vienna after the dowager empress had come out to see her stepson race around the track and discovered it.
The wine had quadrupled in price in the last week and Duchess Sophia Eisenberg wasn’t at all sure that her servants would have the clout to get some. Besides, any excuse to go out to Race Track City was a good excuse. After it had been learned that she had invited the Fortneys to her home, she had found herself the center of a storm of curiosity. So, along with her servants, this trip had her accompanied by Katharina Schembera, Maximillian von Liechtenstein’s wife, and Gundaker von Liechtenstein’s daughter, Maximilliana Constanzia, called Liana, who had married Johann Baptist Mathias von Thurn und Valsassina about five years before.
The trip was quite fun. They chatted as the pontoon boat carried them down the Danube to the canal, and up the canal to the docks. The emperor wasn’t racing today, but the Sonny Steamer would be making a few laps this afternoon, driven by Bob Sanderlin. Which Liana, in particular, was looking forward to. She was trying to get her husband to have such a car built.
The weather was warm and the flowers were blooming. There were smells of baking bread and sausages from the shops along the street. They reached the wine shop and swept in. Duchess Eisenberg proclaimed to the air, “I will have ten bottles of the strawberry wine.” She knew about the fad of addressing servants and merchants directly, but it made her uncomfortable. Not so much with her own servants, whom she knew, but with a clerk in a wine shop such familiarity might lead to who knew what. The next thing you knew the fellow would be asking her for an introduction at court or a loan.
“I am most sorry, but there is no more.”
“What? Why not?”
“It was an experiment suggested by some of the texts that young Brandon Fortney von Up-time brought with him,” the shopkeeper explained. “We only made a gross of bottles and we almost didn’t make those. We used strawberries from the imperial gardens and mixed the juice with the grapes from. .” He apparently saw her expression because he stopped explaining how the wine was made. “Well, anyway, we could only make a little. The strawberries in the imperial garden plots were not extensive before last year and this year’s crop will make next year’s wine. Most of our limited stock went to the imperial cellars and Victoria Emerson von Up-time bought several bottles as well.”