Volume 4: The League of Dionia, Chapter 11: The Tua Union Through the Eyes of Outsiders (Part 1)

Mesis shot a nervous glance at Davos but still answered truthfully: “I... I also gave them a share from the daily rations and supplies we allocate to the citizens of the Thua Alliance…”

He hurriedly added: “But all of this was recorded in the accounts and can be checked.”

Davos said calmly, “Are these grains and supplies counted as money?”

“Of course they are…”

Davos smiled: “You see, you’ve already realized the difficulties faced by the lowest-ranking public officials. Before our bill was even introduced, you jumped ahead and started paying them salaries.”

The senators burst into laughter.

Mesis was speechless.

Seizing the moment, Davos pressed on: “All of these bookkeepers of yours used to be freed slaves who followed us back in Persia, right? Now the *Land Leasing Law* is about to be enacted, and a large number of preparatory citizens will go to Bourkos to apply for land leases. But your bookkeepers can only silently contribute to the polis. A year from now, when other preparatory citizens have food and clothing and are relatively well-off and content, while yours still depend on your charity to get by—what will they think? What will their families think? Will they still consider holding public office an honor?”

“In the future, we could use... regular citizens,” Mesis muttered.

“Use citizens to serve as the lowest-tier public officials of the Alliance?! You mean that since a citizen’s land is looked after by his slave, he can work for the polis with peace of mind, right?”

Mesis nodded.

“In our Alliance, an ordinary citizen’s household usually has only one slave. Doesn’t the citizen also have to lead the slave in working the fields?” Davos asked Cornelius.

“That’s right, Magistrate. Some households don’t even have a single slave,” Cornelius replied.

“If a citizen works for the Alliance, his household labor force is cut in half. Won’t his family income also decrease?! If this continues, won’t public office become a burden to him? Yet our Alliance’s ability to function properly depends precisely on the hard work of those at the very bottom—like Raphias’s scribes, Cornelius’s firefighters, sentries, jailers, jurors, Mariji’s navigators, market supervisors… these lowest-level public employees! We cannot keep making the horse run without letting it graze. We not only need to make them feel that serving the polis is an honor, but also a benefit—let them take money home every day and make their families happy. Only then will more and better citizens be willing to dedicate themselves to the polis! Of course, those of us here in this room will receive no salary—we cannot let money corrupt the dignity of our senators in the Senate!” Davos’s words struck a chord with everyone.

“Well said!”

“Perfectly put!”

The senators sat up straight and voiced their agreement.

Davos patted the disheartened Mesis on the shoulder and comforted him: “Besides, paying public officials will also help you collect more taxes.”

“Really?!” Mesis raised his head abruptly.

Davos looked around and saw even Kynogoratas looking surprised, so he declared loudly: “When citizens have money in their hands, they develop desires to buy things—a bronze kettle, a clay pot, a jar of olive oil, a table and chairs… and even more luxurious items: wine, spices… When citizens all have money to buy things, the market will thrive, and the commercial taxes you collect will increase…”

Mesis perked up: “But most of that money ends up in the hands of foreigners.”

“That’s true for now. But soon, our own goods will be produced. Let Mariji explain that part.”

Mariji stood up excitedly and said: “As of yesterday, the Thurii market already has one pottery workshop, one olive oil workshop, one brick and stone workshop, one mill, two carpentry shops, one paint shop, one stone-carving shop—all in operation. At the same time, a large wine workshop is also being planned and will soon start construction.”

“That’s Oryphus’s wine workshop. His family’s wine has been famous throughout Magna Graecia for decades!” Kynogoratas pointed to a senator and interjected.

“I have to thank Cheiristoya’s bank for granting me the loan so that my family and I could rebuild the vineyard and wine workshop!” Oryphus nodded to Davos in gratitude—everyone in the Alliance now knew who the real owner was behind that bank, which had contributed so much to Thurii’s reconstruction.

“We should impose high tariffs on foreign goods of the same type to protect our Alliance’s fledgling local commerce,” Kynogoratas suggested.

“Very true!” Davos nodded. “Now, our commercial officer Mariji is preparing to implement some new measures in the Thurii market. The days of foreigners raking in our money are almost over. We must vigorously support the industries of our own Alliance people. If the same goods appear in the Thurii market, levy low taxes on our own merchants and high taxes on foreign merchants. For goods we urgently need but cannot yet produce ourselves, keep taxes low to encourage merchants to bring them to Thurii for sale. For very important goods that we can produce but temporarily cannot compete with foreigners, the Alliance should provide subsidies. For foreign luxury goods, given that our citizens’ pockets are still limited, we should for now impose heavy taxes so that easily tempted citizens spend their money where it truly matters. In this way, we guide them to buy our own goods. Only then can our own commerce flourish!”

The attendees nodded in agreement.

Davos raised his voice again: “Noble senators, we must understand that silver coins sitting in the treasury unused are not money—they are just lumps of metal. Only when they circulate do they generate enormous profit, enable our citizens to live better, make our trade prosper, and at the same time fill our treasury even more!”

“Agreed! Agreed!” The senators, led by Kynogoratas and Cornelius, expressed their approval, and some even applauded.

…

Theos, a Corinthian merchant, strolled through the noisy, crowded Thurii market. He overheard excited Thurians animatedly talking to each other: “The Thua Alliance has enacted the *Public Office Law*. Any citizen of the Thua Alliance can apply for a public office, starting from the lowest rank. If they perform well, they can even be promoted to high positions. The Alliance is even planning to pay these officials a salary—one to four obols a day…”

By Zeus above, was the Thua Alliance trying to imitate Athens? Were they as wealthy as Athens?! Theos no longer had the heart to listen to the conversations of the Thua Alliance citizens. Although he didn’t think the Thua Alliance could achieve what Athens had, deep down he felt envy.

As an ordinary citizen of Corinth, though Theos was wealthy, he could only serve as a low- or mid-level official in the polis because only aristocrats could become members of the city’s Council (Corinth was an aristocratic regime). So he had chosen to go into business. He had come to Thurii because tensions between Corinth and Sparta were high, with war threatening at any moment, so he needed to stockpile grain against emergencies.

Two hundred years ago, Corinth’s trade was flourishing—weapons, pottery, and other goods were sold to city-states all along the Mediterranean coast, making it the wealthiest of all. Later, Athens caught up and competed with Corinth in every aspect of commerce, dealing a severe blow to Corinth’s once-proud pottery industry, from which it never recovered. Now Corinth’s commerce was far from what it had been, but it was still a major power on the Peloponnese and remained wealthy. As a polis that did not produce much grain, Corinth always bought grain from abroad, usually importing it from the Euxine Sea. But now the Spartan fleet dominated the Aegean, and to avoid mishaps, Theos had chosen to come to the western Mediterranean.

Sicily was his first choice, but unfortunately the Greek city-states there, known for their wheat production, had recently raised grain prices. Word was that Syracuse was buying up grain in large quantities—so something big must be about to happen on Sicily again. When Theos sensed that, he hesitated about whether to go to Carthage. Just then, he heard that Thurii was being rebuilt and was urgently in need of large amounts of supplies, and that its tariffs were very low.

Theos was quite tempted and promptly asked someone in the know about Thurii’s grain situation, because he knew that in the time of old Thurii, the Sybaris Plain had been famous for its wine, wheat, livestock, and beeswax. When he got the answer “grain is abundant,” he decided to change course and head to Thurii (by late summer, Amendolara’s wheat had already been harvested, while Thurii’s wheat had been forcibly reaped early by the Crotoniates and ultimately ended up entirely in Davos’s hands; therefore the Thua Alliance had ample grain—enough to meet the people’s rations and still have surplus for sale).

After his merchant ship finally squeezed into the harbor and he stepped onto the dock, he found the so-called “market administration office” and greeted the manager with his first complaint: “Your harbor needs expansion—it’s too small! It caused a lot of delays!”

The manager replied politely: “You’re absolutely right, sir. We are indeed expanding the harbor. I apologize for the inconvenience this temporary port has caused you. Is there anything I can help you with?”

The manager’s apology dissipated most of Theos’s irritation. He had initially planned to stroll around the market first, but the manager’s attitude won him over, so he stated his business directly.

The manager immediately checked the day’s transaction log and introduced him to a seller. In fact, that seller, Nikobulus, was a subordinate of Bourkos, the agricultural official, responsible for selling Amendolara’s agricultural products.

After inspecting the samples and negotiating the price, Theos decided to purchase five shiploads of wheat.

But Nikobulus told him: “Five shiploads is quite a lot. We don’t have that much in stock at the market. We’ll need to bring it over from Amendolara. Delivery won’t be possible until tomorrow.”

Theos expressed his understanding.

Out of courtesy, Nikobulus also informed him: “The hotels in the harbor district are all full right now. If you want accommodation, it’s best to go to Amendolara. They have a dedicated merchant hotel district—comfortable, cheap, and quiet.”