“So, what do you think?” Polo asked.
“It’s so overwhelming! We have just made it to the first Greek port and we have already made all the deals for the entire year. I cannot believe that all that salt that is so abundant in our marshland behind where we grew up… I cannot believe how valuable it is, and how rich it is making us!”
“Yes, and this is only the first port. Imagine when we have more ships and we can really venture farther away in the Mediterranean…”
“This has been a lot of fun, Polo, but it is also a learning lesson… there are several things we need to adjust…”
“What do you mean?” Polo asked.
“For instance, we brought too many people for just three ships…”
“We do need to defend ourselves,” Polo disagreed. “Everyone is friendly to us, because we are a large crowd, but if it were just the two of us… believe me, we would be fearing for our lives at best, and be sold as slaves in Alexandria at worst!”
Polo laughed, but Primo was focused in making his point:
“Of course. But still, we are paying for what? Two dozen people to eat and have fun at brothels for what has now been a few weeks?”
“I see what you mean, the more people we bring, the more we deplete our gains…”
“We need to find the right balance: just enough to sail and have protection, but not too many to squander our gains… maybe we can ask Sabino to calculate…”
“We don’t need to ask Sabino anything,” Polo interrupted. “It’s not a numerical problem. All we need to do is observe what experienced merchants do… In fact, we are the only ones with crowded ships… It looks as if we are on our way to a festivity! Now that I pay attention, all seasoned merchants have a lean crew…”
“That’s smart,” Primo added. “We just copy and mimic what others have been doing for centuries. If they are still trading, that means they are successful at what they do.”
“But another thing…” Polo interrupted. “If we trade salt we need one type of crew size, but if we are going to get into slave trading… We might need more people as guards…”
“More money to be made, but more costs incurred…”
“Do you think we should do it?” Polo asked.
“Supply slaves to the Arabs? I think we should look into it,” Primo answered. “Perhaps we can buy prisoners that the Longobards took from their battles… we can buy them cheap, and sell them high… why not?”
Later that morning, Primo and Polo were back at the ships and everyone was awake. The Egyptian merchant came by with three slaves: an older man and two not too young women, all Asian.
“Hello my Venetian friends!” The slave trader greeted the two brothers. “As promised, I bring you three slaves to choose from… or you may take all three of them for a good price if you wish!”
“No wonder you are offering us a discount!” Primo answered. “You are setting sail because you already sold your best slaves, and now you want to get rid of the leftovers!”
“Oh, don’t be fooled by appearances!” The slave trader objected, pointing at the older slave. “This is a medicine man! He knows secret medical remedies from the distant Orient!” Don’t use these slaves for hard labor, no, no… These slaves are good for exotic knowledge!”
“My Egyptian friend…” Polo replied. “Next time we will come better prepared, and we will definitely buy slaves from you… but we really cannot afford it at this time. We overspent already and taking a slave would seriously cut into the gold we must bring back…”
“Twelve solidi!” The slave trader immediately offered. “Take this woman slave for twelve solidi! You will never find a slave this cheap in the whole Mediterranean! Consider it a gift from your Egyptian friend!”
“Polo… I think she is pretty, and twelve solidi is really cheap! I say we take her!” Marcello suggested.
Polo turned around and spoke to Marcello in a low voice:
“Marcello… we really don’t know anything about slaves. It’s a big risk. I have no way to assess whether it’s a good deal or not. Price is not everything…”
“I will personally try to sell her in Ateste or Patavium,” Marcello offered. “I am sure I can find a Longobard duke willing to pay for an exotic slave. Consider it my personal commercial endeavor…”
Polo breathed deeply. He really would not know what to do with this slave. There were too many unknowns, but he did not want to let Marcello down. If it was going to be a mistake, it was going to be a learning lesson for his younger protégé. Polo turned around again toward the slave trader:
“Fine… we will take her for twelve solidi…”
Chapter 16
THE BETRAYAL
A few days later, the Venetians departed Kerkyra as well. They were sailing north, up the Adriatic, and their lives had changed. They had seen a completely different world, much different from what they were used to. They already lived an independent lifestyle in the marshland, unreachable for the Longobards, and too far from Byzantium to really feel subordinated to the Empire. This trip had literally opened new horizons for them. Even for Adalulf and his men, this was a different type of experience, having many men in close quarters finding mutually beneficial exchanges without resorting to war. They all had smiles on their faces, each with their own particular fond memory.
They were half way up the Adriatic when one morning Marcello yelled from his ship:
“Polo! Primo! The slave is sick! She is throwing up everywhere!”
Polo came up on deck and found Adalulf already there, looking toward Marcello, and worried about his men on that ship. Polo then said to Adalulf:
“I knew it… I knew it… the price was too low…”
“Her complexion was different, so we could not really tell if she was pale or tanned…” Adalulf commented. “Her eyes are slanted compared to ours, so we did not have any reference to know about her health…”
“That’s twelve solidi!” Polo complained. “That’s like losing four barrels of salt… that’s not too bad… Some young slaves get sold for fifty solidi… It’s an acceptable loss, a learning lesson…”
“That might not be it!” Adalulf warned. “We might lose more than that. We don’t know what kind of disease she is carrying…”
Polo realized what Adalulf was implying. It was something he had not even taken into account. He immediately yelled back at Marcello:
“Marcello! Put her inside your ship’s launch-boat and tie it to a long line. You will drag her behind your ship and keep her separate from the crew!”
“Aye!” Marcello replied.
“Make sure to clean up all the vomit,” Polo continued. “Throw away everything she might have touched into the sea.”
“Shall I throw myself overboard then?” Marcello replied ironically.
Marcello was implying that whatever the slave had, he was sure to have it as well.
They navigated for the rest of the day with the slave riding on the ship’s launch-boat being dragged behind Marcello’s ship. It was evening, and as it happened on their way down, they spotted again some fire in the distance. It was the same three sailboats. Pirates again.
As they approached the pirates, Polo made sure that Marcello maneuvered his ship so that the ship’s launch-boat dragging behind swung outwards. Polo then yelled at the pirates:
“Thank you for taking care of the merchant ship from Ravenna!”
“Now we expect to be paid as agreed!” the pirate yelled back.
“What did I offer?” Polo played dumb.
“You said you would pay us five times more!”
Polo perfectly remembered that he said he would pay triple. Three times the barrel of salt he left them on the way down. In Kerkyra he sold at three gold solidi per barrel, but he figured that the pirate did not know that. And the pirate also did not know how much he paid for
the slave in the ship’s launch-boat, nor that the poor woman was sick.
“I tell you what!” Polo replied. “I want to establish a long relationship! This time I pay you ten times the amount! But only this time! Take the slave woman and leave us the ship’s launch-boat!”
“I don’t want no stinking slave!” the pirate leader replied. “I want spices and textiles! Or even better pay me directly in gold!”
“Sorry, we don’t have that! Take the woman or nothing!”
“What else have you got?” The pirate leader insisted.
“Nothing else! We have three ships full of slaves! I selected the best one just for you!”
“You are lying!”
“Ok, not the best one. That one I am keeping for myself! But a pretty good one nevertheless! Take it or leave it!”
The pirate approached the ship’s launch-boat, and after cutting the line, he took the slave with the ship’s launch-boat as well. Polo just let it go. It was only a small wooden boat.
“Next time tell me what you want me to bring back for you!” Polo yelled one more time.
The pirate yelled something back, but Polo was already walking away from the stern of the ship and he asked Sabino:
“Sabino… you do the math… how much did we lose?”
“Well look, you had promised him to pay him triple, so that would have been three barrels, which is nine gold solidi. You gave him a slave woman that you paid twelve gold solidi, so you really only overpaid three gold solidi. That’s the value of one barrel.”
“So of that major mistake of purchasing a slave, we really ended up exchanging it for what we promised to the Dalmatian pirate… Overall, we lost only one barrel of salt? That’s not bad at all!” Polo concluded.
“But again, that might not be all we lose,” Adalulf insisted. “We are not back to the safety of the lagoon yet. We don’t know if we will lose men to this disease…”
“We better not hurry to go back to the lagoon,” Polo realized. “Let’s stop in Istria and wait there to see if anyone else gets sick. I have some business to conclude there for my farm anyhow…”
The Venetian convoy had been idling in Istria for quite some time. They kept busy by purchasing crops and other agricultural products to bring back to the lagoon. It was small change compared to the huge gains they attained in Kerkyra, but their main issue was to make sure no one became sick. Everyone appeared to be healthy, and they had been sitting around Istria for almost two weeks. Precisely, they were docked in the fishing village of Ruvinium.
“Maybe we overreacted… maybe she was just sea sick!” Marcello wondered.
“Or maybe she was pregnant…” Primo suggested. “By the way, I should have another daughter or son waiting for me in Rivo Alto… I can’t wait to get back!”
“Yes, I think we waited long enough,” Polo concluded. “Let’s go back. And either way, I think we are better off without a slave this time around. Next time we come better prepared. I first want to make sure we know in advance who to sell them to…”
They noticed a small sailboat approaching and as it reached port, they spot Father Leontio on board.
“Father Leontio! What are you doing here?” Polo exclaimed.
“Fishermen word of mouth!” Father Leontio replied. “I heard you have been idling in Istria for quite some time, and I thought to take the day trip and come update you of all the news!”
Marcello, Primo and Polo gathered around Father Leontio, while everyone else was farther away and could not hear.
“Let’s hear! And first of all, did Livia give birth to a healthy baby?” Primo immediately asked.
“Yes she did, Primo! Congratulations! You are the father of a beautiful baby girl!”
“Splendid! I shall name her… Tiberia!”
Polo and Marcello looked at each other, both aware of Marcia’s predictions on Primo’s lack of imagination with baby names.
“What else is new?” Polo asked. “Anything we should worry about?”
“Well yes… but officially no… But first let me give you the main news…”
“Let’s hear!” Marcello asked impatiently.
“First of all, Emperor Constantinos IV has squashed general Mezezius ambitions. So, there is no alternate emperor in Sicily… that lasted less than a year… Second, Grimwald is just back from his war against the Avars… Apparently he massacred them, and took several Slavic prisoners…I think he is currently still in Patavium…”
“All right, that’s news, but not really surprising news…” Polo commented. “…and we did hear about Constantinos IV defeating Mezezius while we were in Kerkyra… What else?”
“Well, things are changing with the Church, and Patriarch Cristoforo is not happy about it…”
“That does not make sense…” Primo interrupted. “First he changes things and then he is not happy about it? Why doesn’t he change things back?”
“No, the change is that he lost the autocephaly…” Father Leontio explained.
“He lost what? He lost his head?” Marcello misinterpreted.
“No!” Father Leontio continued. “Because of the alliance of Emperor Constantinos IV with Pope Vitaliano, the Emperor has conceded that our Patriarch, and also the Patriarch of Ravenna, be under the Pontiff of Rome. They lost their independence, that’s what it means!”
“But in practical terms, what does it mean?” Polo asked.
“That he has to follow orders from the Pope, essentially, and in the worst case, the Pope can replace Patriarch Cristoforo the same way an Exarch replaces Tribunes in Heraclia.”
“Well, we cannot allow this to happen!” Primo reacted. “He is our Patriarch!”
“It has already happened, and it is not the only thing,” Father Leontio continued. The Exarch of Ravenna has sent a new tribune to Heraclia. His name is Stefanos, and things are quite different than with Gregorios, who had nothing to do with Ravenna as he was sent directly from Emperor Constans II.”
“What is so different?” Polo asked.
“He is more on top of things. The impression is that Ravenna is more controlling of the lagoon. It’s not considered anymore as marshland on the verge of being lost to the Longobards. They have information. I don’t know from whom, but they know that things are happening in Rivo Alto…”
“We need to go back right away!” Polo concluded. “Primo, why don’t you take Adalulf and his men with you? You and Marcello go directly to Rivo Alto, and you know what to do… I will go to Heraclia and see what’s going on.”
Primo and Polo looked at each other, understanding one another of what needed to happen. Father Leontio sensed something, but had no idea what the two brothers might have been up to.
Polo’s ship was approaching the port of Heraclia. As they were docking, Sabino, who was on board with Polo, spotted his father Saverio waiting for them next to whom must have been Tribune Stefanos.
“Father! It was amazing! You should have come as well!” Sabino yelled.
As they landed, Saverio greeted them and introduced Tribune Stefanos. Saverio was being more formal, and somewhat cold.
“Welcome back! How did the trade go, Sabino?” Saverio replied.
“We sold all the salt!”
“And how much salt was that?”
“Three hundred barrels!”
Sabino answered, but then he had an inquisitive look. His father knew exactly how many barrels the three ships had left with. Why was he playing dumb? Polo noticed the change in attitude as well, and he understood it must have to do with the new tribune.
“Sabino…” Polo interrupted. “My boat can only hold one hundred barrels at best!”
“Yes, but we also care about the other two ships that continued to Rivo Alto…” Saverio quickly replied.
“And what did you exchange them for?” Tribune Stefanos asked.
&nb
sp; “Well, we only managed to sell for one solidus per barrel…” Polo lied. “You know, we were late to the market, but then we purchased a slave for fifty solidi, but unfortunately she got ill and died during the trip back… We had to bribe pirates not to burn our ships… We could have used your protection, Tribune Stefanos… and finally we stopped to purchase produce in Istria! We brought freshly harvested vegetables! Would you like to taste?”
“Yes, I would like to taste the farm yields from your Istrian farmland, Polo,” Tribune Stefanos replied. “But first let’s complete our duties here… Sixty gold solidi, I think that’s adequate as a tax. Don’t you think so, Saverio?”
Saverio nodded while looking down. He could not look Polo in the eye.
“What!? That’s ridiculous! …Saverio?” Polo protested. “I gained only one hundred solidi, I lost fifty on a dead slave, I had to pay for entertainment for my crew while staying for several days at a foreign port, I had to bribe pirates… You are asking double of what I have left!”
“First of all,” Tribune Stefanos began to reply, “the fact that you brought too many men and had to pay for them, or that part of your merchandise has supposedly gone bad – I am referring to this slave of yours – that is not my concern. Second, I am having you pay also for the other two ships that did not bother to stop in Heraclia… I shall take a trip with my soldiers in Rivo Alto and inspect what’s going on there… And third, if you insist that you do not have sixty gold solidi with you, I will board your ship and inspect it myself. Shall I do that, Polo Licio Anafesto?”
Tribune Stefanos stared at Polo with a smirk, letting him know that he could read through merchant talk. He did not believe for a moment the numbers Polo gave. In fact, as a rule of thumb he always tripled what merchants told him.
Polo was still upset. Sixty gold solidi was twenty to forty barrels of salt, depending on market price. That would be about half a cargo ship. That was a hefty tax, even if he were paying for the other two ships as well. He was not happy at all, but if the Tribune boarded the ship, he would find that he had several hundred gold solidi. Most importantly, he wanted to discourage Tribune Stefanos, or anyone else for that matter, from setting foot in his Rivo Alto. That was his den, his safe place. He could play being a vassal of Grimwald, or being a subject to the Exarch, but no one had better touch his Rivo Alto.
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