1636: The Viennese Waltz

CHAPTER 25

July 1635

Race Track City

Before the printing plates got to Vienna, the staff and stuff had arrived. Three more personal assistants, plus a machinist, an electrician and a chemist. All down-timers, and three of them girls. They included one more “von” and four were former students at the university in Jena. They all moved out to Race Track City.

The equipment included things like a movie projector for the new down-time-made celluloid movies. Down-time-made machining equipment, typewriters, and anything the girls could think of. For the most part, that equipment also went to Race Track City. Both the people and the equipment increased the capabilities of Race Track City greatly. They were still selling more on credit than for cash, but you could almost hear the sucking sound as the money flowed out of Vienna. The biggest draw was the new movies.

Not all of those movies were exactly down-time made. A clever chap had figured out a way to project and photograph video tapes from up-time. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it was considerably cheaper than shooting a new movie. Especially when special effects were considered. So there was a stock of movies, like a version of Casablanca dubbed in German, and Elvis would be known in two universes. Not that there weren’t one-reel wonders shot on soundstages in Grantville. Drawing room comedies, mysteries and small scale musicals. But it was Star Wars and the heretical notion of the Force that would cause them problems. All that would take months, and in the meantime the plates arrived.

* * *

Hayley read through the notes that Heather had sent with the plates. There were twenty-eight plates, but the base four of the plates were to be used on all certificates regardless of amount. They were for the black and red ink. Black for the contractual information on the back and outlining and emphasis on the front. The red to combine with the white of the background to make pink, as well as orange and purple when combined with yellow and blue. Together they formed surprisingly effective blend of down-time engraving techniques with up-time newspaper and comic strip coloration. Which produced almost photorealistic images of the Barbies, with backgrounds that were clearly drawn. It took Hayley and the printers three days of trying before they got the inking and placement just right. All the rejects were burned.

Hayley laid them out in order.

Millicent was on the one pfennig, They were going to be printing a lot of those. Heather’s letter to Hayley explained that she figured Millicent wouldn’t mind. Also, she didn’t want to put Trudi on the lowest denomination bill because people might interpret that to mean they thought less of Trudi than the up-timer Barbies.

A milli would buy a half pound loaf of day-old bread. Three of them would buy a meal at one of the stalls on Canal Street.

Heather put Trudi on the six pfennig bill. A trudi would buy a shampoo at the beauty shop.

Gabby got put on the one groschen. A gabbi would buy you a day at the water park, riding all the rides as often as you wanted. Two gabbies were a day’s pay for unskilled labor.

Vicky was on the twelve groschen. And now they were into real money A week’s pay for a day laborer, a day’s pay for a master craftsman, a full day at the spa with massage, steam, pampering and primping. Or a new skirt, or a blouse, or a new pair of shoes. A month’s rent at Frau Krause’s boarding house, without meals.

Judy on the reichsthaler, because it was Judy’s sister who was marrying Karl. A judi would rent a room at the boarding house with meals, or just the month’s rent on a nice two bedroom in Race Track City.

And there, looking back at Hayley, was her own face on the one mark bill, because Heather said Hayley was the one who had been in Vienna the longest. Also because there would be fewer of the one mark bills in circulation. And a hayli could buy a cow, something that Brandon was sure to note.

Susan Logsden was on the face of the variable denomination bills. The ones that would have the amount filled in by hand at the time of issuance. In essence, a check written on the BarbieCo account. Those would be used when they bought a village or a building at one shot. Heather had chosen Susan for that because those bills had to be signed to be good. And most of the time it would be Susan who was doing the signing.

* * *

A few days later, Trudi was talking to the Liechtenstein upper servants about the Barbie Consortium when the issue of investments came up.

“Is it true,” Anna asked, “that regular people in the USE can buy into companies, even servants?”

“Anna!” Stephen remonstrated.

Trudi lifted an eyebrow and Stephen flushed, clearly remembering that Anna was no longer under his authority.

Anna shrank back for an instant, then relaxed, apparently remembering the same thing.

“As it happens,” Trudi said, “Anna is quite correct. Anyone can invest in publicly traded companies in the USE. Well, anyone who has the money. But it’s not always wise.”

“Why not?” Stephen asked. “I mean, from what we hear, people make money all the time. In fact, I heard that Prince Karl was heavily invested with the young ladies of the Barbie Consortium.”

“He is, and he’s made a very good profit,” Trudi agreed. “In fact, so have I.”

“Could I invest?” Anna asked. Clearly, Anna was looking ahead at a dowry and a full hope chest.

“I’ll have to ask, but I suspect so.”

“Is that wise?” asked Stephen. “I mean, in the USE they have the ear of the Secretary of the Treasury. That’s where the real money comes from, surely.”

“Not at all. Fletcher and Judy the Elder Wendell are not particularly wealthy by up-timer standards. Sarah’s money comes from the HSMC, ah, Higgins Sewing Machine Company and OPM which is a mutual fund. Its official name is Other People’s Money. Plus, she has other investments. Judy the Younger and the other members of the Barbie Consortium got rich through a series of astute investments.”

Trudi listened to the disbelieving snorts with no great surprise. She could hardly believe it herself. She hadn’t for the first few months after she got to Grantville High School. But it was true. The elder Wendells stayed scrupulously out of business. Nor did they help their daughters with insider information. Not that the Barbies didn’t get insider information. They knew every mover and shaker in Grantville and were past masters at getting information out of them.

But no one here was going to believe that. She shrugged it off. They would learn. Just not too soon, she hoped. Instead, she told of her father’s problems after Kipper and Wipper and the arrival of the Ring of Fire. “He sent me to Grantville just after they ratified their constitution. So I attended the Grantville high school.”

“Why would he do that, especially with a daughter?” asked Stephen. He was the senior servant here and seemed to feel it was his responsibility to put into words what the others wanted to ask.

“Well, I have no brothers. They were killed in the war in 1625. We were close enough that we could make the trip and see the Ring of Fire. Father felt that the Ring changed everything. Besides, I had always been interested in books. Anyway, that’s where I met Judy Wendell. I got onto the junior varsity cheerleading squad. A lot of down-timer girls were unwilling to do so because of the short skirts of the cheerleader’s uniform.” Trudi stood up and gestured on her body where the skirt fell, to gasps of disbelief and titillation. There were condemnations, but she defended the practice and pointed out that they weren’t all that much shorter than the dress Vicky Emerson wore to the emperor’s ball. Then she told them about the various financial adventures, including the acquisition of American Equipment Corporation. “After that, the Barbies were very short on cash till Prince Karl got back to Grantville from the Netherlands.” She explained that Judy and Karl had made a deal and the Barbies had been funded since then by Karl, through the American Equipment Corporation, and had made him a lot of money.

* * *

From there, the stories about the “Barbie” company spread through the upper servants and the lower nobility. It was all part of Trudi’s plan. They were going to introduce BarbieCo Preferred as an alternative to reich money, and to do that they needed a whisper campaign, not a proclamation. That was also the reason for the change of the name from AEC to BarbieCo. Barbies were expensive and valuable, so BarbieCo Preferred must be the same.

* * *

Anna, the new maid who was getting more money and getting paid on time, asked about getting some of her pay in stock from the Barbies. The girls said “sure.” The Liechtenstein under-servants asked about the availability of stock as well, apparently having heard about it from Anna.

But mostly the investors were the upper nobility. They had more money to spend. They got the word from Judy and Vicky.

The Hofburg Palace, Vienna

Karl Eusebius looked around the meeting room. It was small for the group, and crowded, and Karl was almost regretting bringing the Barbies. The rectangular room had thick walls with the windows set back to the exterior walls. There were two windows set high on the walls, and two lower. The cloudy day insured that the light was not particularly bright. A polished oak table sat in the center of the room, surrounded by chairs and covered with papers and reports having to do with balance of trade and the proposed railroad.

“We need to stop these imports from the USE,” Moses Abrabanel insisted.

Karl hid a wince.

“Just how do you figure on stopping them?” Sarah Wendell asked. “Are you hiding an industrial complex in your back pocket, by chance?”

Uncle Gundaker slapped a hand on the table. “We need to introduce sumptuary laws to counter the flow of silver to the USE.”

“What are you going to do? Make it illegal to own sewing machine-made trousers?” Susan snorted.

“If everyone will just calm down,” Karl tried.

It didn’t do a lot of good. Duke Leopold was representing the royal family in this meeting and being wisely quiet.

Gundaker, representing the court, and Moses Abrabanel, representing the mercantile interests of Vienna, were both pushing for the mercantilist viewpoint. The proposed railroad was fully mapped-out and construction had started in Silesia, but was being delayed in Vienna because of fear of even more silver flowing from Austria-Hungary to the USE. This time through Bohemia, with still more silver in fees and taxes going to Wallenstein. All in exchange for manufactured goods that the USE seemed to be producing at an ever-increasing rate.

“The Swede is trying to destroy the Holy Roman Empire by bankrupting it with cheap machine-made goods and the railroad will just make it work faster. Trainloads of silver will be going from Vienna, through Bohemia, to Magdeburg as the Swede gets stronger, Wallenstein gets stronger, and we get weaker,” Gundaker complained.

It was all very overblown. Yes, the balance of trade between the USE and Austria-Hungary was more than a bit one-sided, but it was far from the deadly dangerous problem that Moses and Gundaker were making it out to be. Even with the rail line, it wasn’t going to become killing.

“Look,” Judy Wendell said. “All you really need to do is come up with stuff that they need in the USE and Bohemia. And, well, you’re farther south. Can you guys grow oranges and stuff?”

“No. It does freeze here in the winter,” Hayley told her.

“But they grow citrus fruits in the Ottoman Empire,” Karl pointed out.

“Marvelous. You wish us to provide Murad the Mad with the silver to pay his armies by shipping oranges from Istanbul to Magdeburg by way of the Silesian railroad?”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Susan Logsden said. “We already get coffee from there. Why not orange juice to go with it? In exchange, we can sell them aspirin and machine-made boots and shoes. Vienna isn’t rich because of what it produces. It’s rich because of what flows through it.”

“You need the railroad,” Sarah Wendell said. “You need it more than Bohemia does, and in the meantime you need steam barges on the Danube up to Regensburg and down to the Black Sea. But you also need native industries for value-added products.”

Judy moaned theatrically. “Value-added,” she whined. “The buzz words are attacking.”

“That is what I have been saying,” Gundaker said.

“No. What you were saying was that you wanted to prevent imports from the USE, not that you wanted to encourage local production,” Sarah said. “It’s not the same thing.”

It was, Karl thought, the next battle in the ongoing war between Sarah and the more conservative economic theorists of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Sarah was chipping away, but they were holding out for a regulation-based structure that tried to protect their industries from foreign competition by outlawing that competition. Sarah, on the other hand, wanted the government to invest in local businesses to encourage development of industry, as was being done in the USE, because some of those businesses wouldn’t develop without government intervention. At least, she was convinced that they wouldn’t, and Karl was willing to take her word for it.

Race Track City

Days later, in Race Track City, the fourth showing of Singing in the Rain, dubbed in German with Els Engel voicing and singing the Debbie Reynolds part, was sold out. The machine shop was up and running with the new equipment, and the howling of Vienna’s merchant class could almost be heard over Els’ singing.

* * *

Father Lamormaini enjoyed the movie, though he found the music strange and a little disquieting. What he resented was where it came from. More and more, the Ring of Fire was getting its hooks into the world, spreading something that his agent in Grantville had described as humanism. Placing humanity above God. Repeating Satan’s sin of pride, and feeding it to every peasant.

There was a natural order in the world that reflected the order of Heaven, with God at the top and the choirs of angels ranked below. So, on Earth, the emperor above, and below-ordered by their natural ranks-the great nobles, then the lesser nobles, the merchant classes, and at the bottom of them all, the peasant working his master’s field. But the up-timers would reverse that order, overturning it like Satan tried to overturn God’s order.

It was the job of the church to prevent that from happening, and that was the answer to Maria Anna’s vexing question, “Is it more important that the Church regain all the temporal worldly goods that she once held? Or that she be free to practice her faith unhindered in Protestant territories? If these were placed before a Catholic ruler as a choice, which way should he go?” It was a false question for it still allowed the Protestant heretics to lead others into heresy, and not just in Protestant lands, but in Catholic lands as well. The restoration of property to the church was not for the church, but to give the church the power to enforce God’s will on the ungodly. It was to the ultimate benefit of the heretic that he be forced to renounce his heresy, and if his renunciation was not heartfelt it still protected another from following him into heresy, and so condemning another soul to perdition.

Hence, Father Lamormaini watching a pleasant movie and resenting not the movie, but those who provided it. He managed to justify again the Edict of Restitution. . and take a further step along the road to fanaticism.

Liechtenstein House, Vienna

A few miles away in Liechtenstein House, Gundaker von Liechtenstein was taking a similar trip by a different road. Karl’s investments in Bohemia were extensive and confusing, but Gundaker was nothing if not thorough. The Liechtenstein Investment Corporation would spend a fortune on building a railroad from Vienna to Cieszyn, then give that rail line to the Liechtenstein Railroad Company, which would be given to Sarah Wendell as her dower right. It was obvious that the great expense of the railroad was the building of the line. The grading of the line was expensive enough, and even using wood rails instead of steel, the cost of the rails were impossible. But once the rail line was built, the railroad would be profitable. Highly profitable, if not so profitable as to pay for the building of the rail line in the first place. But Sarah Wendell would not being paying to build a rail line. She would pay just to run the trains along the line that the family would pay to have built.

He wasn’t yet willing to stop the marriage. After all, a morganatic marriage’s advantages were still there. But Gundaker would find a way to prevent this LIC from wasting the family fortune on building a railroad.

He started working out further arguments against the railroad.

Eisenberg House, Vienna

Amadeus walked into his father’s office, noting his father at the table and, in passing, his father’s secretary, Hans, in one corner at an up-time designed desk, pen in hand. “Father-” Amadeus ignored Hans. “-how would you feel about me courting the daughter of the emperor’s mechanic?”

“Hayley Fortney? The girl at the party? She’s not the one who took Father Lugocie to task, is she?”

“No, Father. That was the one called Vicky.”

“A shame, that. I was rather impressed. Still, she is the daughter of Sonny Fortney. You know he’s a spy, don’t you?”

“Who?”

“Sonny Fortney. Janos Drugeth is convinced that Herr Fortney works for Francisco Nasi and is sending him regular reports. Nasi is a Jew and Fortney is an up-timer. How is a man supposed to judge the true rank of either? Especially with this inverted pogrom that the Committees of Correspondence seem to be carrying out in the USE.”

Amadeus ignored the reference to Jews and just said, “Von Up-time.”

“Oh, don’t be silly. Just because. .”

“Just because God picked them up and put them here. It seems enough to me to justify a von.”

“Perhaps. But what sort of a von? A minor nobility or a duke? How many princes in the Ring of Fire?”

“I don’t know, Father, but Hayley Fortney is quite wealthy. I have been looking into things out at Race Track City since the party. And I think she, more than the Sanderlins, is the one who financed the whole project.”

“They got thirty-five thousand reichsthaler for that car, and they get fifty reichsthaler a month. That’s quite a lot of money.” Peter paused. “No. You’re right. It’s not enough to pay for the canal and all the projects that they have out there. But you’re saying it’s the girl, not the father? Nasi is no spendthrift, but he is not ungenerous to his agents. I hadn’t really thought about it.” Peter paused and rubbed his nose. It was a mannerism that Amadeus knew well. “I should have, though,” Peter continued. “In fact, I should have even more if it had been Sonny Fortney financing the project.”

“What? Why?”

“Because: Why is a spy for Francisco Nasi financing a whole city just four miles from Vienna? Would it not be nice for Gustav to have a fortress next door to Vienna?”

Amadeus laughed. He couldn’t help it. “Race Track City? There is no wall. No fortifications of any sort. There are fifteen soldiers that the emperor sent and a bunch of craftsmen. It’s a lovely place to spend a summer day, but it couldn’t hold off a tercio for an afternoon.”

“Except that until this news about the pope there was increasing agitation among the They of Vienna to put a wall around Race Track City, or even to extend the wall to surround it and make it part of Vienna proper. The argument was that it would put them under the city’s authority. The emperor was, of course, opposed to the idea because he has found placing imitation-Hofbefreiten there both convenient and profitable. But a likely compromise might have been a wall around Race Track City, and some sort of separate city status, like Buda and Pest.”

“Which would put a walled city just a couple miles from Vienna, with a large part of the population loyal to their patrons, the Sanderlins and the Fortneys. Then Gustav invades and Race Track city declares for him.” Amadeus shook his head. “No, Father. It’s a flight of fancy. It would never happen. Yes, the Sanderlins and the Fortneys are popular, but so is the emperor. His drives are a major draw and the making of many of the businesses in Race Track City.”

“You’re probably right. Almost certainly right. But even a slight chance of such a coup would be worth a considerable risk of funds. Especially if there was a good chance that the investment would make an ordinary profit.”

“I think you’re hunting monsters in my wardrobe, Father.”

“Probably. Particularly if it’s the daughter, not the father. Still, I think I will have a talk with Moses Abrabanel about the wealth of the Barbies and where it comes from.”

“Fine, Father, but about my courting Hayley Fortney. .?”

“You were serious about that?”

“Yes, Father, I am very serious about that.”

Peter held up a hand, then examined Amadeus carefully. “All right. I won’t say yes right now, but I will talk to Moses. Depending on what he says, I may have a talk with the girl’s parents on the matter.”

Moses Abrabanel’s Office, outside Vienna

“I don’t believe it, Moses,” Peter von Eisenberg said. “It’s really the girls? Francisco Nasi has nothing to do with it?”

“Nothing we could find,” Moses said. “I wouldn’t be shocked to find that he provided information to the Barbies at some point, in order to make sure that Sonny Fortney’s family was provided for. But, frankly, we haven’t been able to find any financial connection between Sonny and Don Francisco. What letters to Uriel did reveal was a solid connection between Karl Eusebius and the Barbie Consortium. He has been their backer and their bank. In return, they have brought him into dozens of ventures that have increased his wealth dramatically.”

“So, how wealthy is Hayley Fortney?”

“That depends on the fate of Race Track City,” Moses said. “It took me much too long to realize it. In fact, it wasn’t until the rest of the Barbies arrived that I truly saw what was going on. Hayley financed Race Track City out of her own pocket. If the place is a success, if the debts owed to Sanderlin-Fortney Investment Company are made good, she will be richer than you. If not, she could be a pauper in a year.”

Peter shook his head again, not in negation, more like a fighter who had just taken a blow to the head and was trying to shake it off. “What do you think, Moses?”

“I think. . no, I know. . that the rest of the Barbies have come to her rescue. And they bring House Liechtenstein.”

“Yes, that makes sense. A great deal of sense.”

“So what are you going to do,” Moses asked, “if you don’t mind my asking?”

Duke Peter von Eisenberg looked at the Jew. For just an instant he was all injured dignity, then he rubbed his nose and smiled. “I, sir, am going to have a talk with Sonny Fortney. On the subject of courting and the combining of fortunes.” Another pause and more nose rubbing, then, “But first I will have a talk with my wife about the inevitability of change. And children growing up.”

As it turned out, he couldn’t have a talk with Sonny, because, as was often the case, Sonny Fortney was out of town, working on the surveying of the road that would-if the agreements were ever worked out-become the Vienna-Cieszyn rail line.

Fortney House, Race Track City

Dana Fortney stepped into her daughter’s office. “And just who is Amadeus von Eisenberg?” she asked severely.

Hayley looked up from her homework, clearly confused. “Huh?” Then, apparently, the penny dropped. “Amadeus? Oh, he’s that nice count I met at the party just after the girls got here. Why? What did he do?”

“I got a visit from his mother.”

“Really? What’s she like?” Hayley asked, sounding confused again.

“She’s concerned that her darling little boy isn’t being led astray by a succubus from the licentious north.”

Dana tried not to laugh at Hayley’s expression.

“Mom, will you please talk sense?”

“Well, it took some working out, but it seems that your young count was pretty impressed with you. He went to his father to ask if he might court you.”

“He did what?”

Dana watched her daughter carefully, but couldn’t tell if Hayley was pleased or offended. Which wasn’t unreasonable. Dana wasn’t all that sure how she felt, either.

“He went to his father, who is apparently a court duke. He has lands, but his primary title is a court title.” By now they all knew how it worked here. “And he asked if the Noble Family Eisenberg would have any difficulty with an up-timer being married into the noble lineage.”

“Well, he didn’t mention it to me,” Hayley said. “We met at the party, like I said, and he came out to the track a couple of times. But, well, he hasn’t even asked me out yet.”

“But you expected him to?”

Hayley blushed a little. “It was starting to seem like it might happen.”

Dana nodded. “But, being a loyal son of a noble house in Austria-Hungary, he first went to his dad to clear it. His dad apparently decided it was at least potentially an acceptable match, and brought the matter to his wife’s attention. Then Mom came out here to check out the family and I was in the middle of a yoga class when she showed up.

“I get called out of the class and sat down to have tea with her, and then half of Race Track City comes in. Mostly, I think, to find out what’s going on.” Dana grinned, recalling the last couple of hours. She thought that Duchess Eisenberg had ended up a bit intimidated by all the people showing up and asking Dana what they could buy or who they could give credit to. “Anyway, we are invited to dinner with them next Wednesday, and the duchess barely even flinched when I thanked Gloria for the tea. So, do we go or do we beg off?”

Hayley considered. She hadn’t been old enough to date when her parents had brought her here. And once they got here, she had just been too busy. They all had. “I guess we should go. . though he should have asked me before he did anything like this.”

“I disagree,” Dana said. “You know that it’s entirely possible that his parents might have gone ballistic over the very idea of an up-timer in the family. Not that you’re going to be in the family any time soon. You’re not even sixteen yet.”

“Which is another weird thing. What is he doing, wanting to court me at this age?”

Dana knew what she meant. After they hit the seventeenth century, they had been surprised by how late people waited before getting engaged or married. “Nobles, Hayley. The reason that the commoners wait so long is because they can’t afford it earlier. If things work out, you’ll be able to date. . but keep things light for the next couple of years anyway. For your dad’s blood pressure, if for no other reason.”