Chapter 49: First Acquisition

Chapter 49: Chapter 49: First Acquisition

I

Constantinople, Galata — 11 December 1912

Agop Kalfayan sent for Ayaan before noon, and he spoke without any greeting.

"The foundry of Stavros Mavridis in Pera is to be sold at public auction on the twenty-eighth of this month," he said. "His creditors have seized it, and the notice has been posted at the court."

"It is the foundry that cast the brass fittings which failed in the army’s trials," said Ayaan.

"It is also the foundry that cast the cracked rollers at ?zmit." Agop turned his spectacles in his fingers. "Mavridis is not a dishonest man, but he is a careless one, and he trusted his old furnaces more than his instruments."

"What does it own?"

"Two crucible furnaces, a pattern store, a rolling shed, and twenty-six workmen who have not been paid since October." The old sarraf paused and lowered his voice. "I also hear that a buyer from Berlin has sent a nominee to attend the auction."

Ayaan did not answer at once.

He thought of the foundry at Kas?mpa?a, and of the orders that were already coming faster than ?smail Usta’s men could cast them.

"Agop Efendi, I wish to see it before I decide anything," he said. "May I go tomorrow?"

"I have already sent word to Mavridis that you will come."

II

Constantinople, Pera — 12 December 1912

The foundry stood at the end of a narrow lane behind a wall of blackened brick, and its gate was held shut by a chain and a rusted padlock.

Stavros Mavridis opened it himself, a thin Greek of fifty with grey in his beard and ash upon his coat.

"Efendi, I will hide nothing from you," he said. "The army was right to reject my lots, and I was a fool to cast them in a hurry."

Halil R?fat and ?smail Usta had come with Ayaan, and they went through the shop floor slowly and in silence. ?smail Usta knelt beside the larger furnace and rapped the lining with his knuckle.

"The lining is sound, and the draught is good," he said. "My own furnace is not so large."

Halil R?fat found the pattern store and came out of it with a grim face.

"Half the patterns are rotted by damp, and the rest are mislabelled," he said. "A foundry cannot cast to a tolerance with such patterns, because it does not know what it is casting."

Ayaan walked among the workmen, who stood by their idle benches with their caps in their hands. None of them spoke, but several looked at him with the plain hope of men who have been out of wages for two months.

"How many of them have worked here more than ten years?" he asked.

"Fourteen," said Mavridis. "And not one has left, though I could not pay them."

Ayaan thanked him and walked back through the gate without further comment.

III

Constantinople, Rüstem Pa?a — 17 December 1912

Zeynep spread Mavridis’s account books across the long table, and Elias Benveniste sat beside her with a pencil and a clean sheet.

By evening they had a figure, and it was not a kind one.

"The foundry owes one thousand six hundred and forty liras," she said. "Four hundred are owed to a coal merchant, five hundred to the workmen and the landlord, and seven hundred and forty to a moneylender in Galata named Karaka?."

"And the assets?" asked Ayaan.

"At auction they would fetch perhaps nine hundred liras, if the bidders are many and the day is dry." She turned a page. "That means every creditor will lose something, and Karaka? will lose most."

"Then the creditors have a reason to listen to us," said Ayaan.

Zeynep set down her pen and looked at him steadily.

"I would not buy the foundry at auction, Ayaan. I would buy the debts before the auction, at a discount, so that there is no auction at all."

"Why is that better?"

"Because a man who buys at auction pays the price that his rival is willing to pay." She smiled very slightly. "A man who buys the debts pays the price that the creditors are afraid of."

Elias made a note in his careful hand, and he underlined the figure of seven hundred and forty.

IV

Constantinople, Emin?nü — 20 December 1912

Cevdet came to the house after dark, and he declined the coffee that Zeynep offered him.

"The nominee at the auction is a man named Necip Bey, a former customs clerk," he said. "He has no money of his own, and he has been seen twice at the house of the Berlin firm’s agent."

"Herr Brandt’s firm," said Ayaan.

"The same." Cevdet drew a small notebook from his coat. "They have offered him a commission of fifty liras if he buys the foundry at or under one thousand two hundred."

Zeynep looked up from the lamp. "Then the Berlin firm values the foundry at twelve hundred, or a little more."

"I have also learned that Karaka? has been approached by Necip Bey, and that he is considering an offer for his debt." Cevdet closed the notebook. "He may sell it to the Germans before the House has spoken."

Ayaan rose from his chair and walked to the window.

He did not doubt Cevdet, and he realised that this too was a change in the past months. The Scarred Man now brought him news without waiting to be asked, and he brought it in the order of its importance.

"Cevdet Efendi, you have given the House the one week that it needed," he said. "I will see Karaka? in the morning."

"I thought that you might," said Cevdet, and he left by the garden door.

V

Constantinople, Galata — 21 December 1912

Karaka? kept his office above a cloth merchant’s shop, and he received Agop, Zeynep, and Ayaan with his hands folded upon a ledger.

He was a heavy man of sixty, with small eyes and a voice that never rose.

"I am told that you wish to purchase my claim upon the Pera foundry," he said. "I am also told that another buyer has made an offer."

"We know of it, Karaka? Efendi," said Agop. "That is why we have come early."

"The other buyer offers four hundred liras in cash for a debt of seven hundred and forty." The moneylender’s eyes moved from face to face. "It is a fair price for a bad debt."

"We offer five hundred and twenty, and we will pay it today, in coin," said Zeynep. "We will also release you from every claim against the foundry’s workmen, which would otherwise come to you at the auction."

Karaka? was silent for some time.

"Your offer is higher, and it is certain," he said. "But the Germans may pay more if I wait."

"The Germans may pay nothing, Efendi, since the auction may be void," said Ayaan. "A debt that is bought before the auction cannot be bought by a stranger after it."

The moneylender unfolded his hands and drew a paper from beneath the ledger. He signed it slowly, and Zeynep counted out five hundred and twenty liras upon the table.

Agop gathered the document and bowed.

"May Allah increase your profit, Karaka? Efendi," he said. "And may you always sell to those who pay at once."

VI

Constantinople, Sultanahmet — 28 December 1912

The auction was to begin at ten o’clock in the hall of the commercial court, and by half past nine the benches were nearly full.

Necip Bey sat in the front row in a good coat that did not fit him, with a folded paper upon his knee. Beside him sat a stout foreigner who never once looked at the room.

The court clerk entered at ten and read a short statement in a flat voice.

"The creditors of Stavros Mavridis have assigned their claims to a single holder, and the holder has settled the debts in full by private agreement," he said. "The sale of the foundry is therefore withdrawn."

A murmur ran through the hall. Necip Bey stood up with his paper in his fist.

"Who is the holder?" he demanded. "I was told that the claims could not be assigned before the sale!"

"The holder is the House of Hassan, and the assignment was registered yesterday at noon." The clerk did not raise his eyes. "The law permits it, and the registry has confirmed it."

The foreigner leaned toward Necip Bey and spoke a few words in German. Necip Bey sat down heavily, and his colour was poor.

Zeynep, who had come with Agop to watch from the last bench, did not move or smile.

"He will be paid his fifty liras by the Germans in any case," she murmured. "It is only the Germans who have lost anything today."

"They have lost a foundry, and they have also lost a lesson," said Agop. "They had assumed that Constantinople would wait for an auction."

The coal merchant and the landlord had sold their claims on Thursday at three parts in four, and both had been glad to take the coin before the new year.

Agop had arranged each of those purchases quietly, and he had told no one but Zeynep until the last signature was dry.

They rose together and left by the side door, and the cold air of the street met them with the first flakes of snow.

VII

Constantinople, Pera — 30 December 1912

By the end of the month the House held every debt of the Pera foundry, and Stavros Mavridis stood in his own yard as a man who owed money to a single creditor.

"I do not understand why you are doing this," he said to Ayaan. "I cast bad metal for the army, and I almost ruined two mills."

"You cast it because you had no machine to measure it, and you had no machine because you had no money." Ayaan gave him the deed. "The House has both, and it wishes to employ a master who understands the pattern store."

"You wish me to remain?"

"I wish you to remain as master of patterns, at a wage of eight liras a month and a share of the foundry’s profit after the first year." Ayaan paused. "Every pattern will be listed, labelled, and tested, and every casting will pass through the machine at Kas?mpa?a before it leaves."

Mavridis looked at the deed and then at the workmen assembled near the gate.

"These men have not been paid since October," he said.

"Their wages are in this purse, and they will be paid before the sun is down." Zeynep stepped forward and laid it in his hands. "They will be paid again on the last day of every month, as the men at Kas?mpa?a are."

The master’s composure failed, and for a moment he could not speak. Then he turned and called to his workmen, and the fourteen elders came forward with their caps in their hands.

By noon the larger furnace was lit, and ?smail Usta stood beside it with his sleeves rolled.

VIII

Constantinople, Emin?nü — 31 December 1912

The year ended in a cold clear dusk, and Zeynep sat at the table with the House’s annual ledger open before her.

"We began the year with a single foundry, a warehouse, and a school," she said. "We end it with two foundries, three accounts in the provinces, a compact of thirty-one merchants, and a credit line at the Ottoman Bank."

"We also end it with a debt of five hundred and twenty liras to ourselves," said Ayaan, smiling. "It is the strangest debt I have ever recorded."

Mehmed was asleep in his cradle in the corner, and his small breathing was the only sound in the room.

"Are you afraid?" she asked.

"I am afraid of the year to come, because I do not know what it will bring." He looked at the ledger. "But I am less afraid than I was a year ago, because I know who stands beside me."

She laid her hand over his, and she said nothing.

Outside, the muezzin was calling the evening prayer from the mosque, and the sound carried over the roofs of Emin?nü. Ayaan closed the ledger, took the notebook from the shelf, and wrote the date.

The first thing a House should buy is not a building but the trust of the men who work in it.