Chapter 161: The Constantinople Accounts II

The whole voyage came down to two open books.

Every document was entered in both, once under the Barozzini’s hand and once under the colony, with each copy bearing the stamps of the houses, Zeno’s clerks, and the brokers who had inspected the goods.

Constantinople kept its accounts in hyperpyra, the Greek gold coin, and the books used the same measure. Zeno bought in silver, as he had in the spring, deducting his usual tenth from the price.

They began with the sales, starting with grain, all 347 tons. The Bulgarians controlled the grain route, so the merchant competition was asking 24 hyperpyra a ton that week, putting the value of the whole lot at 8,328.

The venture refused to prey on the famine price and only charged 12 hyperpyra a ton.

That was the business, and it was also the trouble.

In a city where the poor sold whatever they could spare to buy bread, every belly the grain filled meant one fewer citizen that could rise in unrest.

The colleganza houses bought 172 tons for 2,064, supplying the bakers and Greek districts where bread had been coarse and expensive since the sack.

Zeno took another 75 tons for the colony granaries, paying with dry courtesy as he stamped the same seal. His price was nine-tenths of the going rate, 124 grossi a ton, bringing the payment to 9,300 grossi in silver.

The palace stewards bought the last 100 tons directly from the benches for 1,200, to feed the garrison and the court’s kitchens.

The hides sold at 42 a ton, bringing 3,150 for all 75 tons, of which the tanners on the benches took 45 tons for 1,890. They were the only trade in the city that could welcome the smell of a week’s worth of hides in a hot cargo, while the palace stewards bought the remaining 30 tons for 1,260 to make harness, boots, and shield facings.

Wax fetched 30 a ton, bringing 1,650 for the 55 tons. Through Zeno’s steward, the Latin Patriarch’s steward bought 35 tons for 1,050, as the Patriarch’s new altars were burning candles by the pound, and the chandlers on the benches took the other 20 tons for 600.

The Latin barons’ households bought the furs for their court gowns.

Gray squirrel fetched 2,300 a ton, bringing 4,600 for the 2 tons, while sable and marten fetched 6,500 a ton, so even a tenth of a ton brought 650.

The quantities were small, but those who bought them had never been much troubled by the cost of keeping warm in fine clothes.

The lagoon’s share remained below, 65.9 tons altogether. It included 15 tons of hides and 15 of wax for Venezia’s altars and leather trades, 0.4 ton of sable and marten, amber and walrus ivory, carpets, crimson dye, lapis, turquoise, rhubarb, and boxwood from Phasis, along with the red earth and hazelnuts of Sinope.

Some were small, costly goods, others came from far coasts, and Venezia would pay more for them than the Golden Horn would.

The sales totaled 479.1 tons, 13,314 hyperpyra, and 9,300 grossi, leaving the hold 479.1 tons lighter. No one collected a due, since the colony’s wharf was Venetian ground and the branch’s books were open to the Barozzini’s.

The war had left the merchants with less stock to sell, and the dearer goods were available only in small lots, so Caterina bought what she could find and made up the rest of the cargo with whatever else she could obtain.

Georgian dealers supplied 6 tons of raw silk at 230 a ton, costing 1,380, while Syrian Christians offered 3 tons of figured silk at 300, for another 900, all destined for the looms and brides of Venezia.

Traders from Konya brought 5 tons of knotted carpets at 350, costing 1,750 for palazzo floors and church steps.

Armenians from Cilicia delivered 20 tons of pepper at 150, costing 3,000 through the Cilician ports, the largest single purchase of the stay. They also supplied 0.1 ton of saffron at 3,000, costing 300, the smallest lot in the hold and, measured out by the pinch, the dearest eastern commodity of them all.

Jewish dye houses sold 4 tons of indigo at 300, costing 1,200, and 40 tons of Anatolian madder at 25, costing 1,000. Venezia’s dyers needed blue and red, and both colors required alum for its production.

Syrian Christians supplied 45 tons of Aleppo oak galls at 24, costing 1,080 for inkmakers and tanyards, along with 6 tons of frankincense, gum arabic, and mastic at 157, costing 942 for censers and illuminators.

Greek shippers sold 80 tons of alum at 36, costing 2,880 for the dyers’ vats.

Levantine coasters brought 70 tons of sugar at 17, costing 1,190, plus 120 tons of Egyptian flax at 22, costing 2,640 for Venezia’s weavers, and 80 tons of salt at 5, costing 400, filling the corners left empty by the more expensive goods.

The silks, carpets, saffron, pepper, indigo, and gums occupied 44.1 tons but consumed more than half the money. Everything else was bulk, goods that dyers, spicers, and weavers in the lagoon could always use.

A ship might carry a great deal of value in little space, but it still needed plenty of ordinary goods to make the voyage pay.

The purchases came to 479.1 tons for 18,662 hyperpyra, 5,348 more than the sales had brought in, and the strongbox’s gold covered the difference.

The hold was back to 545 tons, the eastern goods having been weighed and brought aboard from the wharf.

An addition to the venture, the Contarini branch’s galley brought relatives and books rather than cargo, leaving the fleet’s carrying capacity unchanged.

?? [TRADE OVERVIEW — CONSTANTINOPLE II, 1206]

Contacts, East : Established (Armenian, Syrian, Jewish, Konya, and Georgian Dealers)

Goods Sold : Grain, Hides, Beeswax, Gray Squirrel Skins, Sable and Marten Skins

Revenue : 13,314 Hyperpyra, 9,300 Grossi

Goods Purchased : Raw Silk, Figured Silk, Carpets, Saffron, Pepper, Indigo, Madder, Oak Galls, Gums, Alum, Sugar, Flax, Salt

Expense : 18,662 Hyperpyra (Goods)

Cargo, Departing : 545 Tons

Next Port : Venezia

?? [TREASURY — HELD CURRENCIES]

Grossi (Venezia) : 83,662 - ~2.2g Silver Each

The strongbox began with 6,430 hyperpyra, climbed to 19,744 after the sales, then fell to 1,082 after the purchases.

The remaining 1,082 went across the changers’ bench at 11.5 grossi to the hyperpyron, yielding 12,443 grossi. Keeping the gold would only have meant paying the changers again in Venezia, and there was no sense to give them a second bite.

With Zeno’s 9,300 grossi added to the exchange proceeds, the strongbox held 83,662 grossi and not a single gold coin.

Under one flag rode Georgian silk, Cilician saffron, carpets from Konya, and sable from the northern forests, aboard a fleet no private family in the lagoon had ever sent to sea.

November would close the sea, and the lagoon was still weeks to the west.