Before the war

After finding out that my brother was looking to kill me with Lord Grafton's patronage, I didn't want to act against them at the moment. After all, the best time to make my move and claim the prize will be a few years from now when the trouble starts in Westeros. For now I have to pretend I'm still 'sick' for them to let their guard down.

From there I developed slowly. I secretly contacted some merchants from Essos and Westeros, and after they signed a confidentiality agreement, I showed them samples of soap, soap, glass mirror, and mechanical watch. Everyone soon saw the sales potential of the products and so we decided to form a merchant union for the production and sale of the products, with each of the merchants getting a share of the profits and me with the largest share.

With the gold accumulating, I commissioned the construction of a fleet of ships modified to accommodate a certain weapon, for the arsenal of the Free City of Braavos in the name of the Merchant Union. They were also in charge of training the sailors.