__________
- Some explanations
1 cruzados = 400 réal vellon in 1652.
1 réal is like 1 dollars comparatively, used for day to day transactions, while cruzados ( gold stamped or silver stamped ) are used as trade currency, and exchange support via banks, or any institution that harbored the early banking system. The thousand of dollars or million of dollars, are used like the gold stamped and silver stamped currencies.
Comparatively, maravedis, is for the same use in spain and its coloniesas the réal vellon, while the spanish ducat are used as trade currency
There are many other currencies, by countries, ( like livre tournois in france ) and even in the same country, also réal vellon is used as a reference in the novel with the cruzados, there are many more currencies, colonies had their variations of the same currency
Basically it was a real mess of currencies, just so you know -
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After hesitating for a long time, Joao decided to go directly to the administration to register as a shopkeeper in Lisbon.
All Cochin's papers were lost in the storm that sank their little fleet.
Joao explained his plan to Luis, and to keep the ingots with him, and take only one.
Before heading to "Porto de Mundo", one of the affectionate nicknames of the port of Lisbon, to the administrative and royal district.
Direction: The Chamber of the Commercial Register.
The richly decorated entrance with guards in easily recognizable uniforms watches over the crowd of people who wander through the meanders of the administrative building, there is even a man with his apron, obviously he is coming straight out of his forge, as if an urgent matter had taken him out of his forge.
At the end of the morning, Joao finally gets an interview with an administrator: Mr. Manuel Perreira.
The dressing of this Mr. Peirrera, resembles that of a nobleman, which frustrates Joao a little, no bribe, nor even attempt with this kind of guy. Normally he wouldn't have needed it, but all the documents of the Cochin merchants were lost during the shipwreck.
In the office, the papers are piled up, and an assistant classifies them in shelves.
A luxurious chair for the administrator, and a few other rudimentary ones for all applicants
A question runs through Joao's mind: what does a nobleman do here? -
The administrator begins: "So what can I do for you?"
"I want to transfer my reocnnaissance as a Cochin merchant here to Lisboa"
"Do you have your papers?"
"My fleet was attacked by the Dutch as we were returning, then we encountered a storm, among the 500 men 12 brigantines and 4 flutes, 11 men and only one brigantine survived in extremis before paying for a transport to Lisboa from Angola, by another merchant who agreed to transport us with the rest of the cargo of the brgantine completely irreparable after all the damage" - Joao added an attack to the disaster in his story.
"Certainly, certainly, but here we are not basing ourselves on phantastic, nor extraordinary reciots, if you were recognized in Cochin, you would have to know some people who could testify?"
"Yes, Antonio Viera, Luis Lobo, these are the two directors of Cochin that come to mind, there is also the captain of the Cochin Guard: Miguel Fernandes, but I think he is still in Cochin, while the administrators were finishing their mandates before I left with my crew."
"How old are you? "
"22 years old, I don't understand the direction of your question"
"At 22 years old, you have already met Luis Lobo, a few years ago?"
"Yes, that's what I just told you." - Luis Obo is that well known in Lisboa? "
"Of course," says Perreira sarcastically, "I'll let you confront Luis Lobo directly, but I'll warn you, he's pretty dry, so bothered for nothing."
" ..." Joao looks at him with a questioning frown.
"You can still retract, I'll let you go and we'll talk about it more" Perreira goes one step further in a kind of narcissism that seems to her own
"But call him, he will be able to testify, that I am a very official merchant in Cochin."
______
1649
Luis Lobo: what is that? I've been told you're hacking now?
Joao simply replied, "Come on! My crew and I are honest traders, these cathay merchants whom we valiantly rescued insisted on giving us as much jewelry, trinkets in their eyes.... Will you take a few of them to share with me the kindness of the merchants of Cathay?
Luis Lobo: It would be very rude to refuse a gift that this generosity suckles.
A certain kind of friendship began at this meeting, the young man of 19 years old captain of a fleet of merchant pirates and the administrator of Cochin, within the limits of the classes of course.
_______
Perreira: Mr. Lobo, a young man, named Joao, pretend to come from Cochin, where you worked, I hesitated to send him away to save you useless tractas
Luis Lobo looked at him as if he were dealing with a fool: What did you say?
"That a certain Joao, a priori arriving from Cochin..."
"Yes, I had heard I'm not deaf," Luis Lobo interbroke, pausing as if to catch his breath, "Understand, Joao Carrasca is a very skilled young man in ... Ahem... honest trade, always for the benefit of Portugal. And he can defend anyone who hinders his affairs, and also shows a certain generosity to those he considers his friends, which your... How can I say..., ha it doesn't matter, has already deprived us. And yes, he had a business certificate in Cochin, you want me to write it down for you? In case you don't remember? In full derision.
____
"What?"
"This guy attacked a Dutch trader directly in Ceylan in retaliation for the attempted hacking of his ships on their way to Cathay."
"He has .... attacked a base in Ceylan directly, in spite of the Dutch guards, by sinking one of his ships as a diversion to attack the other pirates, to transport everything these guys had without taking anything else? To later after all that come back with part of his crew and get the Dutchman's ships? ... I understood correctly"
"Yes... he wanted this little bag to reach you, mentioning that Commander Ferandes should not be forgotten in this affair, for a certain loan whose nature you will be able to understand. "
"A purchase of weapons, yes!! OK. Give me the bag"
Filled with precious stones, enough armed with double the guards.
____
Luis Lobo, reminiscing his memories, "two years ago already...."
Luis hacked by the Dutch? More likely that it is for the décor, a storm therefore...
Perreira walked out of the room without asking for further details after the near-reprimand he got.
While Luis lobo continued to ruminate on the memories, and other hypotheses... if I'm not mistaken, they should have come back a year ago already...
In spite of his young age, his aggressiveness in counterattacks where his enemies would have never expected him to strike had surprised much, and he had left a huge impression on all those who knew him in Cochin, as well as his ability to more or less always describe what he did as nothing execptional, at first some thought it was modesty, or excessive deference, but no, he always really found that: normal.
Luis Lobo knows this all the better because he had talked about it with him during a drinking party a little before their departure back to Portugal.
Suddenly a crazy idea germinated in Luis Lobo's mind: Seville! A storm, and Seville !! The silver of zacatecas, which the Spaniards do not mention if they found it or not in the end.
Ha! Hahaha! Ha.. No.... he didn't ? Did he ?
_____
Mr. Pereira went back to his office, looked at Joao, grabbed a parchment and began to write
Joao interrupted him, "Aren't you asking me to come back in a few days when the papers will be written by your scribes?"
"No Mr. Carrasca, no, I'll write all this right away personally, at least if you have the time"
"I have time, I have time! Proceed, then!" ( do I give him the bar or not ? Probably it's luis lobo, he always expressed that my crew was doing impossible especially with a captain of my age, I thought it was flattery, but in fact ... ) "Have you met Luis Lobo?"
"Yes exactly he confirmed everything to me" before continuing to replete the necessary documents for the merchant's license in Lisboa, as well as the transfer of his license from Cochin.
After an hour of writing, the documents were finally ready.
Joao, decided to give the ingot, it may be better to proceed like this, with those "work for" and not "work with".
Pereira was quick to refuse, considering the reaction of Luis Lobo, his office manager, but Joao explained to him that it was more for Luis Lobo, in memory of their friendship. Pereira did not dare to decline.
Before going to find Luis, the other Luis, with the documents.
_____
Luis Lobo's Office
"What ??????????????????????"
" a fortiori. It's a silver bar from Cathay..."
" from Cathay ???", realizing that Pereira could be a problem: ha yes from cathay, obviously from cathay!! It can only come from Cathay, look at these signs on the ingot: from Cathay, of course... about two Libras, commonly used for Grossed Transactions in Cathay..., therefore from Cathay." With a sounding air, a little stumbling, but enough to convert Pereira to his cause, an excellent gift to the crown that Mr. Carrasco made, didn't he ? "
"Yes Mr. Lobo, okay Mr. Lobo" Luis Lobo's nervousness became contagious...
"And so I'm taking care of registering the donation of Mr. Joao Carrasco, personally, to the crown, maybe the crown will grant us some donations too."
" It's better for our careers without a doubt mr lobo ( for those who don't know there is word game with the spanish word loco which mean "crazy" and lobo which means wolf in portuguese, well it's a tripartite wordgame: english, portuguese and spanish. Hard to find )
_____
Finding Luis "hey, there was Luis Lobo at the Chamber of Commerce"
"Seriously?"
"Yes, the first guy was playing his grandiose nobility in front of me, and so I was quoting the names of the important guys in Cochin we encontered, and Luis Lobo was there, but I didn't meet him personnaly, probably too busy, and then the guy insisted on writing all the documents personally"
Luis laughed a little, "so you didn't have to grease their palms ?" no but Luis Lobo, it's a bit like finding one of our guys who had sunk, so I spun the ingot"
"hahahahaha"
"What?"
A double portion of laughter later, Luis asked "so we're going to change the money into coins?
"Yes. Directly to the "casa de moeda" (royal minting forge), as planned, I hope they have some in advance otherwise, we'll be a little short on food, and for the purchase of the other workshop for our .. honest blacksmith. "
"hahahahaaha" triple portion of laughter later
"Luis, I think you took a little too much vinasse under the sun"
"Possibly, come on, shall we go?"
"yes"....
The building of the casa de moeda, didn't have anything impressive except for the guards and the decorum, not much special.
The two men arrived carrying their small bullion chest.
One of the guards at the entrance stoped them briefly, but Joao handed over a document with the seal of the Câmara de Comércio, and explained the reason for their visit
Guard: "Ah... a trader's certificate, signed and registered. Come on."
"Thank you," both replied at the same time.
Shortly afterwards they enter a cold and bright room, where the air is charged with the smell of worked metal. Craftsmen watch over the flames of the kilns while a scribe takes meticulous notes at his desk.
"64 silver ingots approximately two libras each, assumed to be 99% grade. Each bar weighs about one kilogram." Luis throws to the scribe.
The administrator, an old but imposing man, raises his head following this statement, gets up and walks towards the two men, surprising them a little.
"I'm the administrator here"
"Ha nice to meet you, MR ...??"
The man didn't even bother to answer the question, just asking to inspect the ingots.
He observes the contents of the coffer.
"Where do these ingots come from?"
"From Cathay, Mr. ....?" trying again to get his name, but in vain
The administrator signaled to a technician, who was approaching with measuring instruments. Before their eyes, the ingots are examined, each stroke of the tool resonating like an insignificant noise in this precision workshop.
They accompanied the experienced technician in charge of the evaluations in a room where the master of metals.
(after a moment): "Purity is confirmed. We can proceed with the transformation into cruzados. How much do you want to withdraw immediately?"asked the administrator
"If you have any available,, a few hundred cruzados, the rest later?"
"Quite possible. All expenses deducted, it done, uh, taking back one of his sheets, to check: a total of 2720 cruzados in total from which we subtract the manufacturing costs and taxes: 2500 cruzados, I can give you 500 directly the rest will be ready in a week, or two. If it suits you, I fill out the paperwork right away"
"Impeccable," Luis replied enthusiastically
"It seems reasonable to me," Joao replied more somberly, "we can proceed like that then."
A scribe wrote the acknowledgement of debt for 2000 cruzados as well as the range of availability, which Joao read twice before nodding his head, satisfied, among other things, with the royal stamp, while an assistant collected the 500 cruzados. (1cruzados = 400 reals at that time: so the equivalent of 200,000 reals (15 years of annual salary of a skilled worker at that time)
About 11 kg of cruzados coins (from jean 4 from portugal) (a cruzados weighs 23 grams, 91.7% refinement in silver or gold metal) go into the small chest that had been used for the transport of the ingots.
All this done, the two companions headed to a trade guild to deposit some of the 500 cruzados, having taken information beforehand, Joao selected some with relations with Cochin and Goa, among whom he had noticed that he and adherents had met there.
"The Brotherhood of Merchants of the Grey Anchor".
Arriving at the "grey anchor", Joao and Luis already felt more in their element, organized, and... somewhat... misguided.
After making a few presentations, showing the few papers of the Chamber of Commerce, and having "inadvertently" let the information of the mint house leak out, Joao and Luis briefly explained what they intended to do with the money and that it was only an evaluation for them of the solidity of the brotherhood.
They left 450 cruzados there, in storage, planning to take them back as soon as the purchase of the workshop for Domingos, the blacksmith, would be possible.
They left, serene, for the first time since Seville, a moment of tranquillity blew through them.
_____
Juan arrived in the office where two personal imortates are conversing in the brotherhood of the grey anchor
" ... Joao Carrasca, yes!! Here at libonne! A year late! "
"That's the most curious thing, but it's authentic, it was Luis Lobo who told me, he had a dealer's license redone"
"A year late all the same, I thought he had settled in Angola..."
"Ha! Luis, so hang on: Luis Lobo, then, told me that he got back to this fake Pereira, that his fleet have sunk, and that he had managed in extremis to get out of it, with only 10 other survivors, like a prisoner in Angola, until a merchant brought him back here to liboa"
"But he has not disembarhed at the port, if so we would already know about it!"
"What still doesn't hold up in the future, but why recount such a story?
"A silver bar for the crown, with symbols of Cathay on it."
" Silver bars stamped in "cathay"?"
"Not just one, to avoid being accused of corruption Luis Lobo and Pereira registered it as a gift from Joao Carrasca to the crown"
"ahem ...."
"Ha, we even had you to come in, what is it for?"
"There are two people who have just deposited 450 cruzados"
"yes, so what?"
"Uh, all their papers are in order, but I don't know them, so I wanted to ask your opinion"
"Who is it?"
"Joao Carrasca, and another man who accompanied him"
"What did the other one look like?"
"A little older, muscular, with black hair and green eyes like ... amused"
"Luis"
"Luis" replied the same time.
They leaned back in their seats, as if reminiscing some stories.
Juan was the first to recover: "These two lunatics..."
"Ho they only did it once, I'm not sure they're crazy"
"Organized the capture and plundering of a small Dutch port, for a little offense ? And twice in the same day, once in the morning and once at the beginning of the night; If they're not crazy, I don't know what you need, they even burned everything"
" Ha ! Obviously no, they didn't burn everything, but they still sank one of their own boats on purpose to succeed in their "honest transfer of funds.... crazy, maybe that's it...."
"Always with that "honest traders" honest transfers of funds, but they never attacked the Portuguese, in fact no Europeans, except for this unfortunate Dutch crew who had provoked them.
"So, then, what do I do with their funds?"
"You didn't listen or didn't you understand the story?"
"Yes, okay, we can accept them into the guild and..."
"Yes we can accept them in the guild that's not the problem, the problem is: not to piss them off, even if he lost his crew, he's the one who taught those men to do this kind of crazy thing"
"Simpler you treat them as one of the memes of the guild or one of its best customers, is that okay with you?"
_________
Luis and Joao had a little party that night, before getting ready to buy the building for Mestre Domingos.