Merchant of Venice

Not including his businesses, Will's shipping company alone was insanely lucrative. Four months after the award ceremony, his expanding fleet flooded international markets with inexpensive textiles, goods, and grain.

In return, his ships brought back minerals, sugar cane, tobacco, exotic herbs, and foreign crops like sorghum, bananas, mangos, olives, and cassava. Will was the largest importer of goods in Fermion.

After the plague decimated Duress and Vlore wharves, Fermians were happy to have import favorites return. And happiest of all were the general store owners who were happy to stock their shelves with a wide variety of goods.

Durres' markets boomed with activity and now overflowed with imported goods and rare commodities that it sold for a silver per unit.

Those imported goods traveled north and south, from Duress to Yorkshire, and east to west on his airships or trains. His train tracks looked like the Cross of Lorraine, covering the northeast to northwest and southeast to southwest, with Gadreel in the middle.

Furthermore, his twelve airships crisis crossed the skies debarking and refilling in Duress, Vlore, Rohm, Tirana, Lezhe, Gadreel, Ballard Barony, Guidon, Yorkshire, Claybaugh Viscounty, and Whitby Duchy.

As soon as the airships or trains arrived, the captains, attendants, and ground crew worked simultaneously to debark passengers and prepare the aircraft for departure. Whether it was his trains or airships after safety, turnaround time was the most important thing to Will. His expert staff worked to complete the safety check and reload cargo and passengers for the next flight as efficiently as possible.

The best part was the goods were brought in on his ships, transported by his airships and/or trains, and delivered by his wagon drivers. Will's Silver Phoenix crest was plastered on the masts of ships, the balloons on his airship, and the sides of his trains and wagons.

Other than the Royal Crest, it was the second most recognizable crest. When people saw his crest, they knew two things: people and goods were on the move.

Will's trains, airships, and wagons were the kingdom's arteries pumping goods wherever they stopped.

Within four months, Will had already achieved two of his five goals. He was the primary seafaring trading company in Fermion. While he only had 600 ships he wanted, he already controlled 50% of the national sea trade and 10% of international sea trade.

This was arguably Will's toughest goal to achieve, even though he was impressed by how quickly he accomplished it. However, he forgot to account for three important external factors. Factors that he should have expected.

Most of the previous shipping fleets were owned by wealthy noble families in Vlore and Durres. Those were the first families the king moved elsewhere. The King intentionally broke up the Durres and Vlore power blocks.

Then King Roland awarded lucrative shipping charters to his most loyal allies.

However, these families lacked two things that gave Will a competitive edge: money and personnel. Claud started buying ships as soon as he landed in Tirana, and never stopped. After the Congress of Tirana ended, the losing Durres and Vlore shipping families sold their ships to earn seed money for their new fiefs. Claud bought every good quality ship.

Second, Will had Claud and Elliot. Elliot was a Marine with decades of sailing behind him. Elliot knew everything there was about ships and how to sail them. When he hired a sailor, he could guarantee the sailor's abilities.

Claud had decades of shipbuilding experience behind him, he could read the wood grain on a ship and tell how durable the ship was. Claud saw the imperfections that others couldn't. If Claud said the ship was quality, he could guarantee it.

Between these two men, Will owned quality ships operated by a qualified crew.

All the other families could do was purchase ships Claud rejected and build new ships. Which gave Will the domestic advantage.

The second external factor that Will should have accounted for was the Orca Clan pirates. With the 50-year peace treaty, the Orca Clan needed to pirate other countries' ships. Which opened an international trade gap.

If a country had to choose with whom to develop a trade deal, they'd choose reliable every day every time. And Will's ships were reliable.

With the Orca Clan controlling 50% of international trade, and Will's good relationship with the clan. The Orca Clan advocated on behalf of Will's shipping company.

With the clan's stamp of approval, his reliable ships, and the inexpensive textiles, Will's shipping company exploded in popularity.

The second goal Will achieved was patenting his Tudor Caravel. It was not long before Will's ship construction business was overwhelmed with orders. Will increase Claud's budget to expand his workforce. With greater personnel, Claud was able to cut down the production time.

Will's business ship construction client was the kingdom, who order 20 frigates, 20 galleons, and 20 carracks.

It was a monstrous order, for which Will was happy to oblige. Moreover, the kingdom agreed to a 20-year service agreement.

As far as the other goals, Will was making sustainable growth to achieving them in a year or two. Steady wins the races, as the idiom goes.

Yet, Will's nautical insurance business struggled. The families with the new shipping charters refused to let Will manage their fleet for remuneration. However, merchants in Durres or Vlore were happy to put their ships and insurance in Will's good hands.

However, Will found better success in his shipping shares, which he listed on the Fermion Times and Stock Exchange (FTSE).

Currently, his banks managed 10% of the assets for ship stockholders and his stockbrokers provided directed investments for interested parties. As his shareholders were finding, owning stock in a ship could be very lucrative.

Will's last goal was also his most important. He had set a goal to own, manage, and operate the largest warehouse company across the coastline.

Currently, his affiliate businesses rent space. Most merchants had their warehouses and the new shipping families did not want Will's help with the logistical distribution of goods throughout Fermion. By the time their goods arrived in Tirana, Will's airship was already at Korce or Gadreel.

Yet, their obstinance allowed Will's business to expand domestically. Will envisioned a global conglomerate that embraced separate streams of activity which would include – maritime, air, and land services were insight.

While his seafaring business blossomed, Will did not neglect his other businesses. True to his word, expand his casino, auction house, and banking business at every port city his ships docked.

Will used space magic to connect every bank and auction house. His customers enjoyed having access to their money across various locales. Even better they could purchase items from auction houses across the world using their bank account and the conversion was done automatically with magic. The same went if their item was sold in the auction house.

With all this money floating around, the speed of business and transactions increases. Driving more business to ports, where Will's ships docked.

Finally, the last external factor was Will and the von Muller duty-free and airship agreement.

Fermion's number one trading partner was the Great Eastern Empire. And only Will was allowed to trade duty-free in their ports, giving him another leg up over the competition.

Furthermore, most of the goods unloaded at the port flew on Duke vont Mueller's airship, for which Will owned 15%. The Great Eastern Empire was three to four times larger than Fermion, and its currency was stronger. This meant Will's dividend paid out 10 to 1 because 1 Imperial gold coin equaled 10 Fermion gold coins.

With all this money coming in, Will quietly tucked away millions in gold.

Without a doubt, this was Will's golden hour. He was on top of the world. Like Cosimo de Medici, he was a famous Italian banker and an effective ruler of Florence during the Italian Renaissance.

He was always Will's ideal and hero. And now he was this world's, Cosimo de Medici.

Cosimo de Medici belonged to a 300-year-old Florentine dynasty that possessed a global wealth beyond imagination.

House Medici was founded by a Florentine merchant class, Giovanni di' Bicci. His eldest son, Cosimo Medici was responsible for expanding the bank, and his family's wealth and influence throughout Europe.

The family was so powerful they indirectly oversaw the election of four popes. That part always made Will chuckle. With enough wealth, a person could even buy the papacy. Based on Will's experience clerics were just as corrupt as everyone else. After all, everyone had their selling price.

And those too moralistic to after bribes were fools, who didn't understand how the world works. Currency was commerce's lubricant. It kept the societal gears humming.

This was something Giovani instilled in his sons, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

Cosimo listened to his father's advice to remain invisible, powerful, and charitable.

Whether on Earth or Terra, Will modeled himself as Cosimo. Wherever he was, Will was rarely seen by the public. He usually worked out of his home office. Since becoming Deputy Minister he worked out of his office and rarely left the capital. Preferring to travel back and forth from Gadreel.

While Will demonstrated great respect for authority figures, he was not afraid to wealth around. In matters of business, Will was a tyrant. His employees still told stories about a troublesome group of troubadours, Marquis vont Hanover, or Baron vont Hernandes.

Finally, his family was the largest philanthropist to orphans, artists, writers, and the Church of Gaia.

While Will and Elizabeth openly expanded Gaia's Purse and Endowment For the Arts, less known was that the orphanage [Miss Jane's Home for Children] was expanded to Tirana, Durres, and Gadreel.

Just like Cosimo de Medici, Will leveraged his great wealth to control Fermion's economy and use philanthropy the gain favor of the populace, and the admiration of the bourgeois, humanists, and literati to overcome his enemies.

Will's hidden power could be displayed in two locations. The first location was his Silver Phoenix Company value FTSE. With his active and passive streams of income, Will's company stock far exceeded the rest.

The second place was on the sides of paintings, sculptures, and buildings where a small golden placard was attached. The placards detailed the patron. Thousands of placards around the kingdom read the [Patron: Lord vont Ballard & Family] or the [Patrons: EFA and Lord von Ballard & Family]. His enemies would consistently see his family's reach around the kingdom.