Chapter 57: Trade Routes

Chapter 57: Chapter 57: Trade Routes

I

Constantinople, Rüstem Pa?a — 7 December 1914

Zeynep pinned a large sheet to the warehouse wall and called the partners and Elias to read it.

The sheet showed every road by which paper, rags, ink and brass reached the House, with the days, the cost and the risk written beside each.

"The Black Sea is closed to us since the Russian declaration, and the Straits are closed to merchant ships by order of the Porte," she said. "That leaves four roads, and I wish each of them to be examined before it fails."

"Name them," said Ayaan.

"The railway through Sofia to Vienna, the Anatolian line to Konya, the coast of the Marmara to ?zmit, and the sea to Smyrna and Beirut, which I trust the least."

Elias traced the Vienna line with his pencil and counted aloud.

"Forty-one days from Pichler by the Bulgarian rails, if the wagons are not held at the frontier," he said. "Before the war it was sixteen."

"Then we shall order for four months in advance and pay for the delay in the price of the stock, not in the price on the board." Zeynep pressed the last pin into the wall. "Every road shall have a second road behind it, and no shed shall depend upon one."

Ayaan read the sheet from the left edge to the right and found that it contained no hope that a clerk could not check.

"Why do you trust the sea least?" asked Elias.

"Because a ship may be sunk or stopped by a power that has never heard of the House," said Zeynep. "A railway may be late, but it does not change its owner in the middle of the voyage."

II

Constantinople, Galata — 12 December 1914

Agop Kalfayan knew the manager of the Anatolian Railway’s freight office, and he had arranged the meeting in the back room of a coffee house near the station.

The manager was a tired Greek gentleman who spoke of wagons as other men speak of debts.

"The army takes the first call on every wagon between Haydarpa?a and Konya," he said. "A merchant’s goods may wait three weeks, or they may wait three months."

"What if the House engaged four wagons a week, and paid for them whether it filled them or not?" asked Zeynep.

The manager raised his eyebrows and wrote the figure on the back of a ticket.

"Then the company would have a fixed income from you, madame, and I could put your name upon a list that is not touched by the first call," he said. "It would cost you a fifth more than the ordinary rate."

"It would cost us a fifth more to be certain, and nothing to be uncertain, until the day the army comes." She extended her hand across the table. "I will take the four wagons."

The manager copied the agreement into the freight book in two hands, and each of them signed beneath it.

Afterwards, in the street, Agop shook his head and smiled.

"You paid for a promise and received a place on a list, Han?m, and Allah knows that in a war the list is the more valuable of the two," he said.

III

?zmit, the Hamidiye Paper Mill — 19 December 1914

Nikolaos Efendi walked Ayaan and Zeynep through the long drying hall, where the cast rollers turned slowly under a sheet of damp paper.

"The mill has not stopped one day, but the rag supply has," he said. "The Vienna mills used to send us the fine linen rags, and now we have only what the Anatolian towns will give."

"How much do you need each week?" asked Zeynep.

"Six tons, and I have four." He wiped his hands on his apron. "The fine grade will fall to a third of its former output by February."

Ayaan looked at the stacks of grey rags that had come from the province.

"The House can buy rags in Konya, Smyrna and Trabzon through the sheds, and send them to ?zmit by the Marmara caiques," he said. "Hasan and Osman will collect them with the same price board that they use for paper."

"And the mill will pay at the weight and the grade, as always," said Nikolaos Efendi. "I will not pay a kuru? for a rag that I have not weighed."

"We would not ask it," said Zeynep.

They signed the agreement upon the mill-master’s own desk, and the first caique was ordered for the following Tuesday.

IV

Constantinople, Galata — 11 January 1915

A letter from Beirut reached the Financial Office after twenty-three days upon the road.

Haddad wrote in a careful hand that the coastal steamers had stopped, for the French cruisers were reported off Tripoli, and that his stock would last until the spring.

"He asks for six months of paper to be sent by the Aleppo rail before the army takes the wagons," said Zeynep. "It is a large request."

"It is also a reasonable one," said Ayaan. "What does your sheet say of the Aleppo road?"

She read from the wall of the office with her finger on the line.

"It is slow and it is long, but it is not at the mercy of a ship," she said. "I shall send three months now and three in the spring, and I shall ask Haddad to pay the carriage by the ream and not by the load."

Samuel Aboab wrote the figures in the book as she spoke, and he checked the sum twice against the carriage tables of the Aleppo line.

"The carriage will be a tenth of the price, Han?m," he said. "Beirut will pay more for its paper than Constantinople."

"Then the board in Beirut shall say so openly, and the reason shall be printed beside it, for the shopkeepers there are not fools." Zeynep closed the letter. "A price that has a reason is easier to bear than a price that has none."

She dictated the answer to Haddad that same hour, and Samuel carried it to the telegraph office before the clerks had gone home.

V

Constantinople, Süleymaniye — 24 January 1915

Mustafa sat on the stone bench beside the fountain with Mehmed, who was feeding crumbs to the pigeons and counting them aloud.

"You have a map on your wall, my son, and four roads upon it," said Mustafa. "I have walked beside many merchants, and every one of them was ruined by a single road."

"Zeynep has put a second road behind each of them," said Ayaan.

"Then it is a good wall, and it is a better habit." The old man lifted a crumb for the child. "A road that one man controls can be closed by that one man, and a road that ten men use is not easily closed."

Ayaan watched the boy and thought of the sheets he had kept in the strong room.

"The House should use the roads that other men use, and not ask for any road of its own," he said. "That is the reason I would give a clerk."

"It is the reason I would give a son," said Mustafa. "Teach Mehmed to count, Ayaan, and teach him to ask who holds the key."

The child looked up and announced, with pride, that he had counted fourteen pigeons.

"Then count them again tomorrow, and see whether the number has changed," said Mustafa. "A man who counts only once has learned nothing about the road."

Mehmed nodded gravely, and he began again from the first pigeon at the edge of the fountain.

VI

Constantinople, Galata — 9 February 1915

Cevdet came to the office with a paper folded in his sleeve and shut the door before he unfolded it.

"The Berlin house has offered Hac? Arif’s association free carriage of its paper on the military wagons from Haydarpa?a to Konya," he said. "Three of the forty members have already signed."

Zeynep read the offer through to the last line.

"A free road that belongs to the army is a road that the army may close, and a member who has taken it can no longer refuse the man who gave it," she said. "Does Hac? Arif know?"

"He knows, and he has asked for the House’s answer before he speaks to the association."

"Then the House shall offer its four wagons to any member of the association at the cost of the carriage and nothing more," said Zeynep. "Elias shall keep the list, and the Friday count letters shall go to the Compact as before."

Cevdet read the answer and folded it once.

"You will lose a little upon each wagon," he said.

"I shall lose a little upon each wagon, Cevdet Efendi, and I shall keep forty members who did not need to ask a stranger for a road."

That evening Mihran brought word that the first three hundred reams from Pichler had crossed the Bulgarian frontier at last.

VII

Constantinople, Rüstem Pa?a — 22 February 1915

The guns at the mouth of the Dardanelles had sounded on the nineteenth, and the whole city knew it before the gazettes did.

Zeynep walked down the long row of the warehouse with Elias at her side and the Friday sheets in her hand.

"We hold nine weeks at the ordinary rate of sale, and the ?zmit fine grade is now one third of what it was," she said. "The price board has not moved, and it will not move until the stock falls to four weeks."

"The Konya shed has eleven weeks, and Smyrna has seven," said Elias. "Trabzon has not sent a count since Thursday."

"Then send Osman a telegram on the Constantinople wire, and ask him to reply by the Samsun road if the sea is closed." She paused at the last shelf. "Every shed shall write by two roads from tonight."

Elias wrote the order on a card and pinned it beside the door of the office, where every clerk who passed would read it.

The warehouse was quiet, and the sound of the distant guns came faintly across the water from the south.

Ayaan, who had come in from the yard, read the Friday sheets in the grey light of the doorway.

"The sheet on the wall has held for ten weeks, and it is the reason that no shed has been empty," he said.

"It has held because each road is poor and the four together are not," said Zeynep.

"Then we shall add a fifth, if the sheet can bear it," said Ayaan. "Ask Cevdet which road the army does not use."

"I shall ask him tomorrow, and I shall write the answer on the wall."

VIII

Constantinople, Emin?nü — 1 March 1915

The four years of the protective paper duty ended at midnight, and Server Bey brought the notice of its expiry to the house himself.

"The Ministry has not proposed a renewal, for the war has made the question a small one," he said. "The Chamber has other duties than paper."

"Then Vlastos and the Berlin house may bring their paper under the ordinary tariff," said Ayaan. "The House has asked for nothing, and it will not now complain."

Server Bey looked at the map that Zeynep had copied for the study wall and read the lines of the four roads.

"The Ministry of Finance would value a copy of this, Han?m, if the House permits it," he said. "We have no sheet in the Treasury that shows where the empire’s goods can travel."

"The House will send it on Monday with the weights and the days, and the clerks may check every figure," said Zeynep.

"The Treasury will be grateful, though it will not say so," said Server Bey, and he smiled with the first warmth that he had shown that evening.

Hac? Arif, who had come to the door with the evening gazette, read the notice of the duty and shrugged his broad shoulders.

"Four years it protected us, and four years we did not ask it for more," he said. "I have seen worse treatment given to better institutions."

When he had gone, she took the small ledger of the Financial Office from her bag and wrote beneath the entry of the thirtieth of November.

The third quarter of the office: Four roads held. Stock nine weeks. Prices unchanged. Wagons engaged: four each week.

Ayaan read the line over her shoulder and said nothing for a moment.

"Allah willing, the fifth road will not be needed," he said.

"Then I shall be glad to have drawn it," said Zeynep, and she closed the book.