WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Ceaseless

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◈ The Medieval Heretic King is Too Good at Developing ◈

Chapter 26: The Jew (3)

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"Cyrus, is it?"

I let out a quiet laugh and propped my chin at an angle on the throne's armrest.

'I was wondering what he would say.'

Cyrus II.

The great Persian king who freed the Jews held captive in Babylon, sent them back to Jerusalem, and allowed them to rebuild their Temple.

To the Jews, he was practically a messiah, the only pagan ruler praised in the Old Testament as the "anointed one."

"You're giving me too much credit. I'm not such a merciful and wise ruler. I simply can't stand watching inefficiency."

It would not have been an exaggeration to say that Jews built half of the twenty-first century I had lived in.

Albert Einstein, who developed the theory of relativity, was Jewish. Fritz Haber, the chemist who made bread from air and saved humanity from hunger, was Jewish too.

'Even Einstein and Haber were eventually cast out of their homelands for being Jews.'

The world was full of Jewish engineers, doctors, and craftsmen.

To let such an enormous pool of skilled workers rot away, kill them, and drive them out for no reason other than their ethnicity?

As a chemist and as a king, I could never accept such a waste of human resources. Besides, they had plenty of money.

A man claiming to govern a country who kicked away a blessing that had fallen into his lap? That wasn't deep faith. It was stupidity.

At my dry, calculating answer, Abraham's long white beard trembled as if he were briefly at a loss for words.

But he soon seemed to make up his mind and rummaged inside his robes.

An old, thick ledger bound in black leather.

Its leather cover had been polished smooth by countless hands, carrying a musty smell and an indescribable weight.

It embodied the long years of hardship endured by the Jews in the ghetto.

"Your Majesty."

Abraham knelt on the floor and raised the ledger above his head with both hands.

"This is... an emergency fund that our Jewish community in Bohemia has gathered over the past several decades in preparation for any disaster."

The old man's voice trembled faintly, but the weight behind it was anything but light.

"Separate from the official taxes paid to the Crown, this is... hidden wealth we kept in order to survive. Shameful though it may be, it is no different from our flesh and blood. I will offer Your Majesty every secret account and promissory note written here, along with the locations of the jewels we have hidden."

"This? To me?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Why? Don't you value money more than your lives?"

At my question, Abraham lowered his head deeply.

"Because Your Majesty has shown our people hope. And..."

He swallowed.

"We have eyes and ears as well. We know very well that Your Majesty's present circumstances are not good."

"Hm."

I did not interrupt Abraham.

Taking that as silent permission, he cautiously continued while watching my expression.

"The Pope has excommunicated Your Majesty, and the Emperor will raise crusaders. Every ruler in the world wants to kill Your Majesty."

Abraham's gaze trembled slightly.

"If Your Majesty falls... we are finished as well. Should Emperor Sigismund return, he will slaughter the Jews and confiscate our property again, just as he did in Bohemia twenty years ago. No, this time he will try to wipe us out entirely under the charge that we aided an excommunicated king."

"So?"

"...We've had enough. Of running, hiding, and groveling for our lives!"

Abraham's voice shook with tearful resentment.

"Rather than that... we will place our bet on Your Majesty. Your Majesty has given us the right to live as people, so we will give Your Majesty everything we have. Please use this money to arm your army and raise the walls, and become our shield!"

What Abraham was now offering me looked like nothing more than a bundle of papers, but in truth, it was a desperate lifeline extended by people driven to the edge of a cliff, grasping at even a straw.

I slowly descended the steps and stopped before Abraham.

Step. Step.

Abraham held his breath, trembling as he raised the ledger toward me.

I took the ledger from his hands.

It was heavy.

I could feel the blood, sweat, and tears of a people who had desperately scraped together money just to survive, even as they had been stoned and spat upon for centuries.

Rustle.

When I opened the ledger, it was packed with tiny Hebrew letters and numbers.

Even a quick glance revealed an amount large enough to make my jaw drop.

The Kingdom of Bohemia's annual budget? No, it was an astronomical sum beyond imagination, enough to buy an entire small country and still have money left over.

With this alone, I could hire several regiments of Swiss mercenaries at once. There would still be enough left to repair the collapsed walls and manufacture hundreds of cannons.

Abraham pressed his forehead to the floor, scarcely daring to breathe as he waited for my decision.

He was desperately waiting for me to tuck the ledger into my robes and tell him, "Very well. I will protect you."

'Protection money...'

It was certainly a tempting offer. I was about to wage war against Sigismund, so the more military funds I had, the better.

But.

'This little pile of money isn't what I want.'

Without hesitation, I closed the ledger.

Thud!

Then I lightly pushed it back against Abraham's chest.

"Take it."

"...Pardon?"

Abraham jerked his head up. His eyes shook as though an earthquake had struck.

"Y-Your Majesty... Is it not enough? There is more! If we search for what we have hidden..."

"No. This is more than enough money."

I clasped my hands behind my back and looked down at Abraham.

He was terrified that I might throw the ledger away or berate him for offering too little.

"Abraham. Don't misunderstand me. I'm not some thug who squeezes you dry to fill his belly."

"T-Then... why...?"

I chuckled.

"I'm not foolish enough to slaughter a goose that lays golden eggs."

What would I gain by taking this money? At most, I would spend it all on mercenary wages and weapons.

Money was like standing water. Spend it, and it dries up. But if this money remained in the hands of free Jews?

It would become more than money. It would become capital that circulated.

"I don't want poor Jews. I want rich Jews."

No, not just Jews. Ultimately, I wanted every person in Bohemia to become wealthy.

The fastest way to become a developed country was to raise national income and create a large, prosperous middle class capable of paying taxes.

Meeting the old man's frozen gaze, I raised a finger and tapped the ledger I had returned.

"Instead, there is something I need you to do with this money."

A cold smile formed at the corner of my mouth.

A very capitalist smile.

* * *

The next morning.

The king's third edict was posted throughout Prague.

Like the ones before it, its contents were not merely unprecedented. They were shocking.

The previous edicts had caused religious and political shock. This one struck directly at the people's livelihoods, making it a truly existential shock.

_________

In the name of Ulrich I, King of Bohemia and the rightful heir of Luxembourg, I proclaim the following.

To rebuild Bohemia, devastated by war, and relieve its starving people, I hereby command:

1. Recruitment: Workers are sought for the construction of the Sternberg "Royal Steelworks."

2. Eligibility: Status, age, origin, and gender shall not matter. Serfs, freemen, wanderers, and even foreigners are welcome, so long as they can do their share.

3. Compensation:

- Skilled workers, including stonemasons, carpenters, and blacksmiths: 2 Groschen per day

- General laborers: 1 Groschen per day

- Time of payment: Wages shall be paid immediately in silver coins on the evening of the day the labor is completed.

4. Welfare: Three meals a day and safe lodging shall be guaranteed to every worker in the name of the Crown.

Those who work shall not go hungry.

This is the king's promise.

_________

People lingered in front of the recruitment office, half believing and half doubting.

"They'll give us silver coins every day? Isn't that a lie?"

"When you work on a lord's construction site, you usually only get enough food to survive, then come back covered in bruises."

"They'll pay us instead of making us do unpaid corvée labor? And give us three meals a day?"

"But what is a steelworks?"

This was an era when the very concept of state-led wage labor barely existed. Commoners were expected to provide unpaid corvée labor because they were bound to the lands of lords and kings.

But they would pay money? And pay it that same day, with no fear of being cheated out of it?

Conditions that were too generous only invited suspicion.

The suspicion did not last long.

Jews appeared in the middle of the square and set down heavy chests.

Of course, it was not the Jews' emergency fund, but funds confiscated from the Church before.

Clank!

When the chest lids opened, piles of silver coins gleamed beneath the morning sunlight.

"Anyone who registers today will receive an advance payment!"

János Hunyadi planted a foot conspicuously on one of the chests and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Anyone who can swing a hammer or carry stones, get out here! First come, first served!"

At that moment, the square instantly descended into chaos.

"M-Me! I used to build castle walls!"

"Me too! I'm going!"

"Honey, pack our things! We're going to Sternberg!"

Refugees who had hidden in every corner of the alleys came running out. Apprentices from blacksmith shops with no work rushed out in their aprons.

Thugs who used to pick pockets in the backstreets grabbed shovels instead of knives, while beggars from beneath the bridges threw aside their begging bowls and joined the line.

It was a miraculous moment when Prague's public safety improved all at once.

The guild masters lost their minds too.

"Our entire carpenters' guild will go! We'll provide the materials!"

"Out of the way, you ignorant carpenters! The stonemasons' guild comes first!"

They had insulted the Jews at first, but when money was involved, no one changed sides faster.

Money drew money, and people drew people.

It was a frenzied job fair.

Prague's unemployment rate?

It became zero that day.

Every able-bodied man had climbed onto a wagon.

As vast capital began circulating, the motionless heart of Bohemia's economy began to pound like mad.

Wagons loaded with materials, craftsmen carrying their tools, and their families with bundles on their backs.

Like a scene from Exodus, an enormous crowd was heading toward the promised land... no, the land that paid daily wages, Sternberg.

I watched the spectacle from atop the city wall.

The procession stretched beyond sight.

At its head, Abraham, appointed Royal Minister of Finance just yesterday, sat proudly on horseback and commanded the march.

Abraham's fierce shouts rang through the procession.

"You there, with the cart! Are the wheels loose? What's inside isn't a pile of stones. It's the lifeblood that will rebuild the Kingdom! Spill even one, and I'll deduct it from your wages!"

"Don't rush! Keep order! His Majesty rewards not those who arrive first, but those who do their work properly!"

"Record everything! Every nail and every plank goes into the ledger! If anyone embezzles His Majesty's generosity, I'll chase them straight into Hell and collect the interest myself!"

It was hard to believe that this was the same old man who, until yesterday, had worn a yellow badge and cringed at the mere sight of a Christian's shadow.

Watching him, I smiled in satisfaction.

'As expected, money should be left to the Jews.'

The Jewish emergency fund Abraham had offered was not used for this employment project. Only funds confiscated from corrupt churches and monasteries were used.

Nobles and priests knew only how to spend money, not how to make it grow.

Abraham and the Jews were different. They were people who had staked their lives on the value of a single silver coin.

They would sooner cut off their own fingers than watch money from my treasury leak away.

That was why I could trust them to manage these enormous funds without wasting a single coin.

I tapped the wall's parapet.

"Now the stage is set."

The manpower had been secured. The capital had been invested.

All that remained was execution.

The moment that vast crowd arrived at Sternberg, medieval Europe would soon enter an age of steel, with the flames of the Blast furnace burning bright.

Footnotes:

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