Chapter 2—Bargainer in Chief
July 20, 1631
Delia Higgins' House
When Johan got back from the dentist's office, he had another surprise waiting for him.
"But, Lady Higgins, that's too much. Giving me any of the company is too much."
"Nonsense. And you need to stop calling me Lady Higgins. It's Mrs. Higgins or Delia."
"That wouldn't be proper, Lady Higgins. Chief Frost said you were a lady, and you own the lot and the dolls and the company. It would be above my place. And with all due deference, ma'am—" With an effort, Johan didn't call her Lady Higgins again. He wanted to avoid the distraction. "—there's no call, no call at all, for you to be giving a full twentieth part of the company to the likes of me. That's beyond my pay and maintenance. You up-timers, Lord love you, are too generous by half and half again."
Lady Higgins took a breath. "The sale of the dolls has been finalized, Johan, and you are the biggest part of the reason for that." She stuck a finger at him. "Don't you think I didn't notice what you were doing. Now the company is legally formed. And the kids insisted that I get sixty percent since the start-up capital came from my dolls. Brent, Trent, Sarah, and David each get ten percent, and they insisted I get the rest. But if it's mine, it's mine, and I can do with it what I want. I'm giving five percent to Ramona and five to Dalton and neither of them has done a thing to earn it. I'm giving two percent each to all the grandkids. I'm giving Jeff and Gretchen five percent as a belated wedding present. And I'm giving you five percent for your help in finding the buyer and negotiating the deal."
"What about your parents?” Johan asked. "Surely the . . ."
He trailed off as Delia shook her head. "After the way they've ragged on me over the whole project, they aren't getting any. Family is family, Johan, even if they are idiots. But business is business, and you are important to the business. I want you to have a reason to want it to succeed."
She wouldn't back down from that at all.
Well, Johan had a reason to want the business to succeed. A powerful reason. But it wasn't the stock, not exactly. It was that she had given him the stock and David Bartley had given him even more. David had given him himself.
There was one other reason for the gifts, and Johan got to watch as she explained it to the kids.
"I figure the thing most likely to kill the company is if you all give up on it, and the thing most likely to make that happen is if you feel you have lost control. That your decisions, your actions, don't matter. You know and I know that it's unlikely any of the others will ever vote their shares," Delia said. "Maybe Johan, but he'll probably vote the way David tells him to.’
"I remember the concern you all had that the grownups would take it away. Well, we won't. As of now, the four of you can outvote me, and nobody can outvote you without me on their side. This was your project in the beginning and it still is. I want that clear in your minds. You kids thought it up, you did the work, and more importantly, you'll still be doing the work. If it's going to work, you're the ones who'll make it work. If it's going to fail, well, that's you too.
"Delia grinned a very nasty grin. "Scary, ain't it?" She softened a bit. "I'll be here if you need advice. So will your parents. But this is yours."
Johan watched the faces of the youngsters as Lady Higgins said that. He could see how their expressions changed and firmed. Trust can be a heavy load, but it can strengthen even as it weighs you down.
July 23, 1631
Delia Higgins' House
Johan knocked on the sewing room door and then stepped into the room. "You wanted to see me, ma'am?"
Lady Higgins turned away from her sewing. "Yes. I talked to Judy Wendell earlier today, and she says we need to be spending more money. Do you think you can find me another guard or two?"
"I'm sure I can, ma'am, but where are we going to put them?" Johan considered. "I guess I could share the bedroom in the mobile, and if we hire more than one maybe we could clean out one of the storage containers."
"No, that won't work. Maybe I can move my sewing stuff into the living room and you can stay here?"
"I don't need this whole space, and I don't want to push you out of your work room." Johan had, in some ways, a better understanding of how much income was coming out of the sewing room than Delia did, at least in terms of relative value. The money Delia made from sewing paid for most of the groceries eaten by the family. Anything that interfered with that would be worse than the cost of hiring a couple of extra guards.
"You're sure?" Delia looked around. The room was full of stuff, baskets of clothing in need of repair. By now about half of it was clothing that had been originally made down-time. The Valuemart bought old German clothing and sold it to Delia, then bought it back after she had fixed the tears and busted seams, and resold it. It was a fairly standard pattern for seventeenth-century Germany, even if Johan knew it seemed strange to up-timers.
July 24, 1631
Delia Higgins' House
"This is the life," Hans Bauer said.
Johan opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of beer. It was down-time made, bottled in Grantville, and pasteurized. It was good quality beer, rich and dark with flavor. Johan used a bottle opener and passed over the bottle.
"It's sure better than catching a pike in Tilly's tercios," Johan agreed. "How are you liking life in the National Guard?"
"It's better than Tilly's tercios, but I envy you, Johan, I truly do."
"You don't have to, Hans. I talked to Lady Higgins, and I can get you a place here if you want." As he was speaking, Johan pulled a plastic, microwave-safe bowl out of the refrigerator and stuck it in the microwave. As was usual among up-time made stews, it was heavy on the meat. Delicious, but heavier on the meat than most down-timers were accustomed to.
While it warmed, he pulled a loaf of bread from the cupboard and sliced off a big piece. Bread machines were present in Grantville, and while they couldn't be reproduced down-time because they used integrated circuits, they could be repaired. The heating element, even the motors, could be rebuilt and strengthened. Bread machine bread was common in Grantville these days.
Johan stuck the bread in the microwave for a few seconds so it would be warm and passed it to Hans. Hans was a good fellow, sturdy and dependable, if not bright. He had some English, so he would at least be able to follow Master David's instructions, and he wasn't pockmarked like Johan was, so he wouldn't upset Mistress Ramona. He could be counted on to make his rounds on time every night and keep a good watch.
By the time the meal was done, Hans was Lady Higgins’ second guard, and Johan went looking for a third. He also knew Dieter Eichel and Liesel Jung from Tilly's tercio. Liesel had a little English, though Dieter didn't have any. Dieter was okay, but Liesel was the real prize. Johan had decided that the Higgins family needed servants. It was indecent for people that wealthy not to have servants. It demeaned them even if they didn't understand it, and it made them seem miserly to the down-timers. Liesel would go to work, and by now Johan was familiar enough with Lady Higgins to know that she would start paying Liesel soon enough.
July 25, 1631
A Smithy in Badenburg
Johan watched quietly as young Master Brent went on, again, telling the blacksmith what the part did and why. "It's really just a lever," Brent said, "but it's clever how it works. This end rests against a rotating cam that makes one complete rotation every two stitches. The cam has a varying radius. As the cam rotates, the short end of the lever is moved in and out. That moves the long end of the lever up and down, pulling the thread or loosening it as needed to make the stitch. So it's very important that each end of the lever is the right length, and while the major stresses are vertical it needs enough depth to avoid bending. The model and the forms provide you with a system of measuring tools to tell how well the part fits within specifications." Then Brent looked at Johan to translate.
Johan did, sort of, in his way. "See the pattern drawn on the board with the nails in it?" The board was a piece of one-by-eight about a foot long that Brent and Trent had made. He waited for the nod. Then took the wooden model and placed it on the nails where it fell easily to cover the internal line and leave the external line exposed. He wiggled it. The inside line remained hidden. The outside line remained in view, as there wasn't much wiggle room.
"See the way it covers the inside line and doesn't cover the outside line? This model would pass the first test if it was iron."
He removed the model from the nails and slid it through a slot in the wood. "It's thin enough it would pass the second test." He then tried to slip it through another slot but it wouldn't go. "It's thick enough it would pass the third test. The fourth test is a weight test. But if it's good iron and it passes these, it should pass the last as well. So that's the deal. Each one of these that passes the tests, we'll pay you. If it doesn't pass, we don't buy it."
Then the bargaining began in earnest. It took a while, but Johan got a good price. Not quite so good as he wanted, but better than he really expected. With the craftsman's warning, "Mind, all my other work will come first."
And so it went. Over the following days, they visited craft shops of several sorts. They ordered finished parts where they could, and blanks where the techniques of the early seventeenth century weren't up to the task. The blanks would be finished by the machines they had designed.
August 12, 1631
Delia Higgins' House
Johan was cleaning his pistol when Liesel knocked on the door. "Mrs. Higgins wants you in the living room. Some townsman wants to talk about the sewing machines … ”
He looked at the clock. It was two thirty in the afternoon, and he'd been out with Master David and Brent talking to a leather worker in Saalfeld till noon. He had an appointment with a smith in Rudolstadt in another hour, but this probably took precedence. He quickly reassembled the six-shot revolver that they had found in one of the storage sheds, and put on his pistol belt and the baseball cap.
∞∞∞
Johan entered the living room.
“Johan, this is Herr Schmidt," Delia said. The room had fewer dolls now. It gave the doll shelves a half-empty feeling, at least to Johan.
Then Delia said, "He's here to discuss the sewing machine business. At least, I think that's why he's here. Between my lack of German and his lack of English, I'm not entirely sure."
Johan gave the man a nod. He thought he recognized him through his resemblance to his son. He thought for a minute . . . Adolf Schmidt? No, that was the son. Karl . . . that was it. "Herr Schmidt, I think we talked to your son Adolph."
"Yes. Adolph said you insisted on a surcharge if we weren't willing to take American dollars."
"Yes, I am afraid so. The bank of Grantville is hesitant to accept the local silver coins. And carrying large sums of silver to Badenburg is a risk, if a small one. We find it much easier to simply write a check."
"A check?"
Johan reached into his right breast pocket and pulled out his checkbook. He had a bank account now at the First National Bank of Grantville.
Lady Higgins gestured them to the dining table and they all sat.
He showed Herr Schmidt the check book. "Right here, where it says 'pay to the order of,' we would fill in your name or the name of your company account. I really recommend that you get an account at the Grantville bank or the credit union, Herr Schmidt. That way you can turn over the check and have the money transferred to your account in perfect safety."
Johan watched Herr Schmidt's face and was amused. Not for the first time, either. He knew precisely what was going through the mind of the Badenburg foundry owner. How was Schmidt to know if they had the money in their account to pay the check? Considering that Schmidt was from Badenburg and not living in Grantville, he was probably also wondering if he could trust the bank.
"You can find out if a check is good readily enough. A simple phone call." He stopped. There was no phone service to Badenburg yet, though they were putting up the phone lines for it now. Even so, it would only be the one hook up for the whole town. It was going to be a while before Badenburg had full phone service. It hadn't been a slip of the tongue. It had been a reminder that in Grantville you could call the bank or the police readily.
They talked about money, but both Johan and Lady Higgins insisted that they couldn't do anything final till they talked to Master David. Johan could tell that Schmidt thought it was a ploy, and Johan was willing enough that he think that. He saw no reason not to use the fact that Master David needed to sign off on any agreements as a bit of extra pressure on Karl Schmidt. But it wasn't just a ploy. Young Master David was showing signs of turning into a real man of business.
Johan watched them as he translated, each for the other. Herr Schmidt and Lady Higgins were alike in some ways and different in others. He didn't think Lady Higgins really trusted Herr Schmidt, which Johan felt was a good thing. The up-timers, especially his up-timers, tended to be too trusting.
Bank of Grantville
August 15, 1631
Karl Schmidt sat on a chair in the loan officer's cubicle, and Lady Higgins sat on another. Johan stood in a corner of the small space and watched as Herr Schmidt and Lady Higgins each signed the contracts. Master David and Miss Sarah had convinced Herr Schmidt to open a business account at the Bank of Grantville, which was useful not just for the foundry's dealings with HSMC but its dealings with all the other shops in town.
There were two contracts, one in English and the other in German, but both had been checked and they were consistent. Once Lady Higgins and Herr Schmidt had signed, the bank officer signed as witness and pulled out the notary stamp. He shook Lady Delia's hand and Herr Schmidt's.
Karl would be having several new devices made for his foundry, using in part money from the contract with HSMC, and having an account at the Bank of Grantville meant that he could buy a device from Olly Reardon with a check. And Olly could verify the check with a phone call.
It meant that even money spent in Badenburg was staying in Grantville.
September 10, 1631
Delia Higgins' House
Johan opened the door for Karl Schmidt and his family. This evening Johan was wearing a dress coat with sergeant's stripes on the sleeve. He was the Higgins’ Guard Sergeant, and this was fancy dress. He showed Herr Schmidt, his son Adolph, and his three daughters into the living room where Lady Higgins and Mistress Ramona were waiting.
Ramona had invited Karl Schmidt and his family. They had been seeing each other since mid-August. Not every day, but once a week or so, Karl would bring in a load of parts and Ramona would take the afternoon off.
In the beginning, Master David and Lady Higgins had been concerned about the developing relationship between Karl and Ramona. But David wasn't, not anymore.
Acculturation works both ways, and it works faster on kids. Johan had been acculturating David right along. David had had a conversation with Master Schmidt. Ramona Higgins was a lady of high station, with a family which would take it very badly if she were treated with a lack of respect. Normally such comments from a boy just turned fifteen might be ignored. In this case, however, Johan was sitting a few feet away cleaning a double-barreled shotgun and adding translation and mistranslation as needed. Besides, in the discussions about the sewing machine parts, David had gotten to know Karl a little bit. He was bigoted, but no more than most, and he wasn't a user, unlike some of David's mom's previous men.