Chapter 64: Reform Pilot

Chapter 64: Chapter 64: Reform Pilot

I

Constantinople, Sirkeci — 9 October 1916

Hakk? Bey unrolled a sheet upon his desk and marked three towns upon it with a red pencil.

"The Minister has approved a pilot of the Market Code in three towns for six months, beginning on the first of November," he said. "He chose Konya, Bursa and Kayseri, for each has a guild that has answered the circular and a governor who has not refused."

"Why three, and not forty?" asked Ayaan.

"Because the Chamber of Accounts will ask for figures, and a figure from three towns can be checked by a clerk with a pencil." Hakk? Bey set down the pencil. "I would not wish to report that forty towns were reformed and then be unable to name a single weight."

Zeynep drew the sheet toward her and studied the three red marks.

"A pilot is only worth the count that precedes it," she said. "Before a single weight is stamped, the students must test every shop that will be tested, and write the number of false weights in a book that the governor also signs."

"And the prices?"

"The prices of flour, oil, paper and cloth in thirty shops of each town, written on the first day of each month, so that a rise or a fall may be read afterwards." She wrote the list upon a clean card. "If the Code does nothing to the price of bread, then I wish the Ministry to know it from our own sheet."

Hakk? Bey laughed shortly and wrote the date in his book.

"The Minister will ask whether the House wishes to be named in the pilot report," he said. "What shall I tell him?"

"Tell him that the House asks to be named only in the column of expenses," said Ayaan. "The credit belongs to the guilds and the students."

II

Constantinople, Darülfünun — 16 October 1916

Mazhar Bey chose the three students himself, and he presented them in the physics laboratory beside their brass sets.

Yakup came from Konya, a broad young man with a shy manner and a very exact hand.

Hamdi, a lean student with spectacles, had been born in Bursa and had learned the silk trade from his uncle.

Rasim was the youngest, and he had never travelled farther than üsküdar.

"Each of you will carry one set, one fine book, and one price book," said Mazhar Bey. "You will teach the witness how to test, and you will write what you see, whether it is pleasing or not."

"And if the guild does not wish to be taught?" asked Rasim.

"Then you will be courteous, and you will ask the eldest man in the room how his father weighed his goods." The professor smiled. "He will tell you the truth about the old weights, and in telling it he will teach himself why they should change."

Ayaan, who had come to see them off, shook each by the hand.

"The House has paid for the brass, and the Ministry has paid for the journey, and neither of them has a claim upon what you write," he said. "I should like your reports to be honest, even when they are not kind."

Yakup bowed, and the other two followed him.

III

Constantinople, Haydarpa?a — 28 October 1916

The platform of Haydarpa?a station was crowded with soldiers, and the three students waited with their brass sets beside the four wagons that the House had engaged.

Cevdet had come to see them off, and he spoke with each of them in turn.

"A witness is trusted for what he does not take, and a student is trusted for what he does not claim," he said. "Accept no gift, and accept no meal that is offered in order to be remembered."

"May we accept a cup of tea, Efendi?" asked Rasim.

"You may accept a cup of tea if you pay for the next one, and you may accept a night’s lodging if the guild writes it in its book." Cevdet smiled slightly. "A kindness that is written is a kindness that cannot be used against you."

The whistle sounded, and the students climbed into the second carriage.

Zeynep handed each of them a small packet tied with string.

"It holds a pencil, a card of the price list, and a letter to Hasan, Haddad or the nearest shed of the House, in case you are in need," she said. "I hope that you will never open it."

Yakup leaned from the window and held up the small packet so that she could see it was safe.

Mazhar Bey stood at the end of the platform and lifted his hand until the train had passed the signal.

IV

Constantinople, Galata — 20 November 1916

Samuel Aboab read Yakup’s first report aloud in the office, for it was written in a clear hand upon eleven sheets.

"Two hundred and twelve shops were tested in Konya in the first week of November, and sixty-one weights were found false," he said. "The witness is a coppersmith named Kamil Usta, who is seventy years old and had never seen a printed card."

"Did he refuse?" asked Zeynep.

"At first, Han?m, for he said that his father had weighed with a stone and that the stone had never failed." Samuel turned a page. "Yakup put the stone upon the scale against the brass standard, and it was short by one part in nine."

Ayaan, who stood at the end of the table with his arms folded, did not speak.

"What did Kamil Usta say?" asked Zeynep.

"He said that his father was honest and the stone was not, and that he would test every weight in Konya himself if the students would teach him to write the numbers." Samuel smiled and laid down the sheet. "He was the first man to ask for a receipt book."

Zeynep read the sixty-one aloud once and wrote it in the pilot ledger beside the first of November.

"Then we have a baseline for Konya, and a witness who is proud to be one," she said. "Write to Yakup that the House is glad of his report."

V

Constantinople, Galata — 2 December 1916

Hamdi’s letter from Bursa was shorter, and it was written in a tone that Samuel Aboab did not entirely like.

"The silk guild of Bursa has its own weights, which are stamped with the seal of the guild and were made in the time of the old governor," he read. "They do not wish to be tested against a standard that comes from Constantinople."

"How many shops use the guild’s weights?" asked Ayaan.

"Ninety-four of the hundred and eighty, and Hamdi believes that they are accurate." Samuel looked up. "He asks what he should do."

Zeynep considered the question for some time and then dictated her answer to Mihran.

"Tell Hamdi to test the guild’s own weights against the standard in front of the elders, and to write the result in their book as well as his own," she said. "If they are true, the guild may keep its seal and add the stamp of the Darülfünun beside it."

"And if they are false?"

"Then the elders will see it with their own eyes, and the seal will no longer be a reason to refuse." She looked at Ayaan. "A reform that respects the old seal will be kept by the old men who made it."

Ayaan nodded and added a line to the card.

"Tell him also that he is to eat nothing at the elders’ table until the weights are tested," he said.

VI

Constantinople, Galata — 15 December 1916

Rasim’s report from Kayseri arrived in the morning post, and it was only half a page.

Samuel Aboab read it twice before he carried it to Zeynep, and his face was grave.

"The witness of Kayseri, ?mer A?a, accepted a sack of flour from a grocer whose weights he had passed," he said. "The guild learned of it last week and has dismissed him."

"Was it a bribe or a gift?" asked Ayaan.

"Rasim does not know, Efendi, but the grocer’s weights were true, and the sack was sent on the day that the stamp was given." Samuel laid the half-page upon the table. "Rasim asks whether he should write it in the report."

"He must write every word, for a pilot that hides its failures is only a performance." Ayaan drew the report toward him. "He should also write what the guild did, for the guild dismissed the man without being asked."

Zeynep opened the pilot ledger and wrote the matter under the heading of Kayseri.

"The witness has no wage, and a man without a wage will take a sack of flour from a man who offers it," she said. "The code must give him thirty kuru? a month from the guild fund, so that the flour is no longer a wage in another name."

"I shall write to Hakk? Bey today and tell him both the fault and the remedy," said Ayaan. "It is better that he hears it from us than from a deputy."

"And the grocer?" asked Samuel.

"His weights were true, and he is to be told so in writing by the guild," said Zeynep. "A man should not lose his name because another man was careless with a sack."

VII

Constantinople, Emin?nü — 28 December 1916

Cevdet came to the house in the evening, and he sat by the stove in the study with his coat still buttoned.

"A rumour is passing in Galata that the pilot is a device of the House to gain a monopoly of the receipts and the brass sets," he said. "It began with the Berlin house, but it has been repeated by two members of the Compact."

"Which two?" asked Zeynep.

"They are not important, Han?m, and I do not think that they intend any harm." He folded his hands. "But a rumour that is not answered becomes the opinion of a quarter."

Zeynep rose and fetched the pilot ledger from the shelf.

"The ledger contains every figure of the House’s expenses and receipts in the pilot, and there is not a single kuru? of profit in it," she said. "I shall have a fair copy made, and Hac? Arif shall read it aloud in the Compact hall on the Friday after the new year."

"It would be answered by a hundred pairs of ears, and no one could say that it was written in secret."

"That is the only answer that I know to a secret, Cevdet Efendi, which is to open it."

Cevdet rose and bowed, and he looked at her for a moment with an expression of plain respect.

"I came to warn you, and I find that you have already prepared the reply," he said. "Allah grant that the House always has such a treasurer."

VIII

Constantinople, Sirkeci — 12 January 1917

Hakk? Bey received the mid-point report of the pilot in the room with the map, and he read it standing by the window.

The report was written upon twenty sheets, and it gave the figures of the first ten weeks in the three towns.

"In Konya, the false weights found in the first week were sixty-one, and in the tenth week they were four," he said. "In Bursa, the guild’s seal has been kept and the Darülfünun’s stamp added, and in Kayseri the witness has been replaced."

"And the prices?" asked Zeynep.

"The price of flour has risen in all three towns, as it has in every town in the empire, but the rise is smaller in the shops that keep the board." Hakk? Bey turned a sheet. "I do not know whether it is the Code or the season, and I am glad that your report does not claim that it knows."

"The pilot is a count, Hakk? Bey, and the final count will be made at the end of April," said Ayaan. "I would rather say less now and be believed in the spring."

Hakk? Bey set the report upon the desk and looked at the three red marks upon the map.

"The Minister has asked me to say that he is content, and that he wishes the pilot to continue as it was designed," he said. "He also wishes me to say that he reads the failure of Kayseri with more interest than the success of Konya."

Ayaan thanked him, and when he had returned to Emin?nü he wrote a line in the small notebook.

A pilot is a promise to count honestly, and most of all on the days that it fails.