Life and Times of a Priestess : Ch.13 : New Friends In Dumis : Part 1 (Section 5)

Part 1 : Section 5

 

   “What business do you own Valery,” asked Danella, feeling it was time to return to a more normal Prancirian subject of conversation. She wished to learn more of the background of these people now that she was sat amongst them.

 

   “Now that is a good question,” he sighed. “Do you have much time?” he laughed at his own joke.  Danella understood his meaning but interpreted his response as a refusal.

 

   “If you do not wish to say then don’t.”

 

   “No,” he laughed again, “It’s a very good question.  But you won’t mind if I don’t give you a very full answer I hope,” he laughed again and Jeanette laughed with him and Alfred too, who had withdrawn from the conversation with Mireau, perhaps because talk of companies and matters interested him more than whatever the others were discussing.

 

    “Just a quick answer will do,” Danella said submissively

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    “Valery does not mind discussing his own wealth and profitability.  It is what he does most of the time,” said Alfred, introducing himself as a good humoured man with an easy relationship with the owner of the business which he managed.

 

    “Except when he is living and behaving like an animal,” said Jeanette mischievously.

 

    “Ah thank you,” riposted Valery, “I only behave like an animal sometimes because it is the only way you understand my love.”

 

    “I own many companies today.  I am one of the wealthiest men in all of Prancir,” he declared. “Has Mireau not told you?”

 

   “He told me only that you were a friend of his, but he preferred me to meet you without preconceptions I suppose,” said Danella.

 

    “I had quite a good start in life, I suppose,” he went on.  “My father was a gunsmith.  He was a craftsman who worked for a firm.  But he was so good at his profession his employers made him works manager and paid him well.  When he had saved up some capital he bought shares in a rival company.  They achieved some good contracts, government contracts to make new rifles of the time. His shares became very valuable and he was able to sell some and buy shares in the company of his bosses.  He soon became rich as both companies grew.  He became a director of the company he had worked for and bought out some of the original family who owned it until he became the controlling interest. When I reached the age of manhood I was able to become a director with my father and was granted some shareholdings.  I made deals with the governments and with some foreign governments and was able to organise the take-over of rival companies including the one my father had first made money in.  My father died some years ago.  I inherited all his wealth being the only son and I embarked on a course of expansion.”

 

   “Valery I am sure Danella does not want to hear the full story.  Just shorten it a little,” Jeanette yawned again to underline that she had heard it before many times.

 

    “Yes Valery.  We have all heard it so often,” said Lady Arabella.  The others had now joined the conversation, despite having heard Valery’s story many times before.  Somehow the power of Valery’s entertaining voice made them all listen.  It was easy to see how he could have been persuasive in his business deals.  Danella knew little of business and how it worked in Vanmar, but she was curious to find out how it drove and controlled this society.

 

     In Pirion all ‘business’, as the Prancirians would have described it, was conducted for the benefit of the whole society by the local councils, ‘employing’ the towns and village people for whose benefit it was conducted.  These shares which Valery referred to and which she had both heard and read a little about, were difficult to understand, but she had been able to grasp that they were units of ownership which enabled the owners to become rich if the company was profitable.  Thus in Prancir individuals benefited from their shareholdings and became far richer than the people who did most of the hard work in these businesses.  Thus Valery, being a shareholder, had become very rich and had bought shareholdings in other companies. It seemed to Danella that shareholders were very lucky, while everyone else in Vanmar had to work hard for the rewards which they needed to pay for living, shareholders could relax and enjoy life while their investments made them rich.  With the profits they made they could invest in yet more shareholdings and become even richer without doing any more work than deciding where to invest their money and ensuring their managers ran the companies adequately.

 

     Ravelleon and Mireau and Paul had all mentioned about being shareholders; Ravelleon and Mireau were both shareholders in certain companies but they needed to work also to finance themselves and their dependants.  Valery evidently was far from being a mere wealthy investor.  He had directed and managed his companies and had made sometimes difficult decisions in keeping them profitable and in fighting the competitors.

 

     Danella could still not really appreciate why they should need to ‘fight’ with competitors in order to stay profitable.  If the governments needed weapons then surely a few suppliers could produce them.  Just because someone else was in business surely did not mean that your own business should be excluded.  She asked this of Valery, but he said, “If you are in business you need to make as much money as you can.  To maximise profit you must capture as much of the market as is possible because then you achieve savings for higher economies of scale. If you only have part of a market you will always have competitors ready to undercut your prices. It is better to fight your rivals.  Buy them out if you can or leave them only a small market share.”

 

     None of it seemed to make much sense to Danella.  His explanation used phrases she was unfamiliar with and she did not wish to spoil the evening by becoming too technical. Although she noted that it was a subject she would have to return to someday if she was to gain a full appreciation of Vanmarian society.  Fighting in Vanmar, it seemed, was not limited to the battlefield, or to the competitive status positions in the career and class structures, but also to ‘economics.’

 

    “It is no use Valery. A lady from Pirion will never understand your complex economy,” she declared.  Valery laughed understandingly. The others all laughed politely also.  Not wanting to be rude to her for the difficulties she had in understanding business.

 

    “It is easy when you have been brought up as I have although many of my workers do not appear to understand our economy very well,” commented Valery.

 

     “You are an intelligent woman,” said Jeanette, “more so than I would have expected from a Priestess of Pirion”.  Another judgement from Jeanette but despite the prejudice it contained it was a compliment and Danella took it that way. The prejudice was only to be expected here deep inside ‘enemy’ territory, but she had not particularly expected it from Jeanette who seemed to hold unusual views on most  subjects.

 

     “Priestesses are no less intelligent than anyone else I would have thought,” said Mireau joining in to defend his lover.  Danella wondered whether the two of them knew each other.  For Mireau to have made such a comment seemed an act of some danger.  Ravelleon would never have said such a thing, for though he now held her in great respect he did not have such a great respect of the citizens of Pirion.  He considered Pirion to have a lazy culture in need of conquest and change.  As a leading General in the prosecution of the war how could he hold any other view.  But Mireau was more flexible and she loved him for it.  He was willing to accept that she did not belong to him.  He was willing to accept that the land of the Goddess might have many good attributes.  He revered Danella as one of the fruits of that land.  But she did not expect him to stand up for Pirion in public or in the company of other Prancirians.  She felt again the warmth of friendship and love for him.

 

      “Well this one is certainly very intelligent,” said Valery, again playing the tactful host, “I know a great many women and very few would be prepared to discuss the science of economic competition and they have lived here all their lives.  They find it of no interest whatsoever.  But then they are wives or young courtesans, some of them are secretaries, but few of them have any responsibility for running a business or need to understand it for their jobs.”

 

      “That is typical of you Valery,” said Jeanette playfully.  “You don’t think women have any brains at all.  Danella just proves that you are wrong about women.  We could run your companies for you quite easily.  If some of us are not interested in economics it is only because we are not allowed any control.”

 

     ‘I would be interested to find out how Valery knows all of these women,’ thought Danella.  He seemed to enjoy mentioning all of his friends as much as bragging about his business success.  Valery seemed to be a man who was not afraid to show his life to the world.  She had a suspicion that the women he referred to were his lovers.  He was an interesting man indeed, not one she had thought to find in Prancir.  She might be wrong about the lovers but if he were so unusually free with his love she would like to join his list.   He might be an easier target for her than Philippe, although she had not yet been able to converse with him to find out.  Jeanette’s statement proved again that she was unusual.  Danella suspected that although she was playing with Valery the views were probably genuine.