David held up his hand. "I know, Lieutenant. Basically I agreed to take payment partially in beckies."
"Beckies, sir!" Lieutenant Kappel's voice squeaked a bit.
"You know and I know that since the change of governments a number of the army contracts have been shifted to the politically-connected sweat shops down near Hamburg."
"I wouldn't call them sweat shops . . ."
David looked at him. They were sweat shops worse than anything David had ever even heard of before the Ring of Fire. Though, according to the historians, not as bad as some in the nineteenth century had been in the old time line. Kappel's face got a little red and David snorted. "Kids working twelve and fourteen hour days in close quarters with bad air constitutes sweat shops in my book, Lieutenant. Also in the general's and, I'd wager a lot, in the emperor's. I know that they are trying to compete with the up-time produced equipment, but frankly that excuse doesn't impress me at all." David shrugged and got back to the point. "Anyway, to overcome the political influence of the self-styled Crown Loyalists, I had to make a bid that would really show the bias if it was rejected. Selling under cost would do it, but I'm not the sole owner of the business. Besides, that would be cheating."
"There are legitimate suppliers out there, sir."
"Yes, there are quite a few of them and they are mostly booked solid, which is why the sweat shops are still in business. Also, most of them will insist on American dollars. Like I told you, I'm taking partial payment in beckies.
"Ten thousand winter uniforms in five sizes," David continued. "One pair of pants, two shirts, one set long underwear, one buff coat, one pair gloves, one pair mittens, one winter cap. One hundred dollars and one hundred fifty beckies per uniform set. Total order, one million dollars and one point five million beckies. Which, if this works, ought to be worth about one point four million American dollars, and if it doesn't will be worth bupkis. Some of my suppliers will take beckies on my say so, some won't. If this doesn't work, I'm going to be out about a million bucks. But that doesn't worry me. Do you want to know what does worry me, Lieutenant?"
There was a noticeable hesitation before the lieutenant nodded.
"What worries me, Lieutenant, is that the whole economic boom is based on faith in up-timer money and if that faith should be lost . . ." David shook his head. "Now, isn't that a thought to take to your dreams?
"Anyway, I offered to take more than half the price in beckies. The nobles and muckity-mucks that have been issuing their own money all along want 'their friends' to take their money as partial payment. Their friends, the sweatshop owners, say not no, but hell no! Now the muckity-mucks are pissed and we get the contract. Understand, Lieutenant, this was all happening very fast while most of the legislature was in Berlin and the clerks who actually run things were trying to figure out which way to jump. While they were getting conflicting instructions from various people within Wettin's coalition. Anyway, shortly after they gave our company the contract, someone in the procurement office notices that they don't actually have any beckies."
By now the lieutenant's eyes were wide. "What happened?"
"They sent General Stearns a message asking for, well, demanding, really, one point five million beckies." David grinned again. "The general, who is in Prague and kind of busy, forwarded it to me. Who sent back a message saying that the Third Division would trade them beckies for USE dollars at a one-to-one basis. And that, Lieutenant, is when you got ordered here to investigate my morals and upbringing."
"So the beckies were simply a scam to get the contract in place of bidders who offered lower bids?"
"Who offered a lower bid, Lieutenant?" David asked. "Even counting the beckies at par with the dollar, $250 a uniform set is a fair price. If there was a bid lower than mine I'll wager it was a cost plus bid, with an estimated cost that was smoke and mirrors. Mine was a set price offer. If production costs are higher than estimated we take the hit, not the government. Likewise, if the beckies don't work out, I take the hit not the government. I'm not getting one point five million dollars for beckies. Third Division is. I'm the one holding the beckies."
"So, what are you going to do with them?" Lieutenant Kappel asked. "The beckies, I mean?"
"I'm going to spend them, Lieutenant," David said. "More precisely, I am going to invest them in local businesses. Businesses which need goods that the Exchange Corps Stores can provide."
****
"With the Elbe frozen for the winter, it's actually cheaper to ship from Grantville," Johan said.
"Talk about roundabout," Sergeant Beckmann said. "Upriver to the railhead at Barby, then by train to the Ring of Fire, by road to Zwickau and by mule path the last eighty miles or so to here."
"And ninety percent of the cost and the risk is in the last eighty miles."
"It's not that bad, Master David," Johan said. "The Fresno scrapers can be made by any blacksmith with the help of a carpenter or wagon maker and they have been. Roads have been improving all over Europe, probably even in Spain."
David raised an eyebrow at the Spain bit, but he knew Johan was right in general. "All right, Johan, eighty percent . . . fifty percent. But only because we aren’t paying the duties and our supply trains are well-guarded."
"There's a fair chance we'll be able to find a road path that takes us all the way."
"I doubt it," David said. "Even a hundred yard gap between sections of good road and we have to switch to mule train. And that's what we'll end up using for the rest of the trip. We can't afford to have wagon trains sitting waiting for the mule trains. Or mule trains waiting for the wagon trains."
"That might be the best solution. I mean if the gap is short. They probably already have the mule trains," Beckman said. "Heck fire, the mule trains are probably the reason for the gaps."
"We'll know soon enough. I have people out scouting scraper routes," Johan said. Road improvements were spotty and trade shifted as this or that string of towns and villages improved, or didn't, their particular stretch of roads. "Scraper routes" were discussed in towns and taverns across Europe and wagons were starting to replace mule trains because they could go faster and carry more.
In the State of Thuringia-Franconia and in Magdeburg Province, roads were up around the quality of 1900 roads in the old timeline. Mostly dirt, but wide enough for two wagons to pass each other and lots of towns had actual paved streets. In Saxony, not so much. The scrapers were there, but their use wasn't, as a rule, encouraged. Right on the border where good roads meant they could get goods in from Thuringia-Franconia, roads were pretty good. The farther you got from the border, the worse they got. But that wasn't consistent. Some little village would pound out a Fresno Scraper and there would be two little farming villages that were suddenly close enough to each other to support one another. The second village would rent the scraper and extend the road to a third village that had two roads leading to a fourth and fifth village. And without noticing they would produce a roundabout route between two towns.
"Find us a route, Johan. For wagons the whole way if you can, for as much of the route as you can. And if you need some troops to encourage the locals to put their scrapers to work, that can be arranged."
The beckies were already in circulation but sluggishly. They were pushed by the Third Division, not pulled by the locals. Money is a bit like rope-it works a whole lot better if it's pulled than if it's pushed. They needed the people in the area to seek out beckies like they would seek out good silver coins.
****
"Radio message from Grantville, sir," Beckman said. "The wagons are on their way. Should be here in a few days."
"Good enough. We'll have the grand opening of the Exchange Corps Superstore at Tetschen next weekend," David said. "That should give us time to get the store stocked. Have the printers print up a bunch of leaflets announcing the grand opening." David stood and proclaimed, "Send out the luring parties."