“Adam and I both feel that the eventual joining of your culture with that of the outside world is inevitable. It’s going to happen, whether anybody wants it to happen or not. It would be better if it was put off as long as possible, but at the same time, you’d better start preparing for that eventuality right now. The first step is cultural. We have to teach your people about the outside world. For a start, we’ve got a VCR and a tape library here. That’s sort of like a movie projector and a lot of movies. I’ll set it up sometime in the next few days, and show it to you. I think you’ll love it, and since our tapes are all in English, it should encourage your people to learn what is becoming the world language. We would like to see you start some formal classroom courses in English as well.”
“Yes, I don’t see why that can’t be done,” the warlock said.
“Some legal preparations ought to be made. I don’t know what this will entail, exactly, but when the world discovers you, we’d better have all the legal angles covered. I mean, twelve thousand is a very small population for an independent nation in this world. Possibly you might be best off being under the protection of some larger power. A number of small nations are currently doing this, and without exception, they are better off for it. Nauru, for example, is under the protection of Australia. Monaco has an arrangement with France, and San Marino is somehow connected with Italy. I don’t know what Liechtenstein and Andorra do, but I can find out. All of these countries have populations of about your size.”
“Well, that’s something for the duke to decide, of course. In fact, none of this can be done without his permission,” he said. “But please continue.”
“Then there is the welfare of your people. Your country is currently doing a number of things that I’m sure that most of you wish it didn’t have to do, simply because you have more people than you have land. I’m talking about such draconian measurers as sterilizing people who have been servants for two generations, for example. With trade, we can easily solve these problems. Consider. The current price for grain on the Chicago market runs between three and seven cents a pound, depending on which grain we’re talking about. I think that we could sell that high- strength fiber of yours for at least fifty dollars a pound. In terms of vegetable mass, that’s a ratio of something like a thousand to one. One pound of fiber for a thousand pounds of grain. You’ve got the room to house a far larger population than you have, and with trade, you can feed them better than you ever have before. Besides food, there are a thousand other products that you could use. I’ll bet that some chemical fertilizers would do wonders for your crop yields. Electric lights would give you three or four more hours a day to enjoy yourselves in, and they are a lot healthier than breathing the fumes of smoky oil lamps, too. Not to mention obvious things like good steel tools, as well as some sort of transportation devices. Heck, a wheelbarrow would triple the productivity of your porters, and some very simple farm machinery could vastly multiply the work your gardeners get done. Do you realize that in the United States, which is the world’s largest food exporter, less than three percent of the population works on the land?”
“Interesting, mate, but I’m not sure that we should become just another one of your `modern countries,’ ” he said.
“Nor should you be. What you have and what you are is unique. I’m not suggesting that you should buy the whole bag of toys. Look over each item one at a time, pick and choose what’s best for your people. I’m just saying that there are some options that you and the duke should have, and I’m offering to get them for you.”
“I’m delighted to see that the two of you are taking our welfare so much to heart. While I’m sure that you are very generous men, still I expect that you will want more than just a handshake for all of this. What is it you want in return?”
“We want two things. The first is a monopoly on the trade between your islands and the outside world, with this monopoly to last until at least ten years after the Western Isles have been discovered by the outside world. The advantages to you are that we will be doing our darnedest to keep you a secret for as long as possible, and that through us, you will be able to control exactly what comes in and what goes out. The second thing we want is money. We propose that we will bring in anything that you want on an item cost plus transportation cost basis. We will sell any of your products for all that we can get, and keep twenty-five percent of the selling price for ourselves. We suggest that the duke should take fifty percent of that selling price and use the money for improvements on the islands, and that the producer of the product get the remaining twenty-five percent. Thus, if, say, two pounds of fiber were to sell for one hundred dollars, then we would get twenty-five dollars, the duke fifty, and the producer twenty-five. Since the producer could then buy five hundred pounds of grain with his money, he won’t be hurt by the transaction.”
“And you won’t make any profit on what you sell to us?” he asked.
“We would charge you only for our actual costs in purchasing it and getting it here. Our books will be open to you. We will provide you with the manufacturer’s catalogs and price lists on any product that you might want to buy, so you’ll know that you’re not being cheated. Since we will be making our profit only on what we sell, you can be sure that we will try to get the best prices possible for your products, and since we want you to produce as much as possible for us to sell, we will want your people to need money, and thus we will be trying to get them to buy as much as possible from the world outside. It’s as fair a deal as we could come up with. Also, Adam and I plan to live here as much as we can, and so much of our profits will be spent right here, with the money going right back into your economy.”
“It all sounds reasonable to me, except perhaps for your proposal to put a quarter of the entire nation’s production into your own pouch. But those are details to be discussed later. What specifically do you propose for the near future?”
“Well, we must get the boat repaired. That will take a few weeks, but then it would be best if we let the patch cure for at least two months, to harden properly. During that time, there will be plenty of mechanical and electrical things to keep us busy. After that, it will be another week before she is ready for sea. While all that is happening, I think that I should spend much of my time doing an inventory of the local products available here on the Western Isles. We’ve talked about your amazing high-strength fibers, but I’m sure that you have many other things that would be of interest to the outside world.”
“Good. That will give me perhaps three months to work on the duke and, more importantly, the archbishop. As to familiarizing you with the state of our technology, I will arrange for you to have a technically competent guide to show you the island, and to take you through our various horticultural and animal husbandry research facilities. Perhaps we can schedule it in a few days. But for now, it looks as though your good ladies have a lunch prepared for us, so I think that we should oblige them.”
“Agreed, my lord. One last thing. You might want to mention to your friends that it would be a profitable idea to plant as much of your high-strength hemp as possible. Adam and I will be putting our entire fields in hemp, and buying such food as we need.”
TWENTY-FOUR
Indeed, while I had been talking with the warlock, Roxanna and the Pelitier sisters had arrived. They had set up an American-style banquet table, and were loading it with food. The fine ladies here took pride in taking good care of their men.
The table was filled with the usual Western Islands fare, but as a treat for our guests, I broke out some of our supply of foreign “delicacies,” such as canned sardines, Hershey bars, and Spam. Again, Spam was a major hit, so I passed out cans of the stuff for people to take home with them. Adam must have gotten that canned pork fat cheap, since we had cases of the greasy stuff. I never could stand it, myself. I found the case of Foster’s I’d mentioned to the warlock, and gave him one of the oversized cans.