Chapter 5.2 Tycho Nestoris

Tycho Nestoris had just arrived in the North, and the first thing he thought as he stepped off his ship in White Harbor was; 'How damned cold.'

The man had come on behalf of the Iron Bank, and was headed for the Barrowlands. One of the top brass of the Braavosi organization had exchanged letters with Barbrey Dustin, and they had arranged a face-to-face meeting.

The Iron Bank was very interested in distributing the newly discovered gold in the Dustin territories throughout Essos; such ore was scarce on the continent, since most of the mines, which were not too many, were concentrated in what was formerly Valyria.

The mines were exploited to exhaustion by the slaves of the dragon riders, but after the destruction of the impressive empire, all subway resources were buried by ash. Now that territory was a forbidden zone, from which no one could return once they set foot on it.

House Lannister was increasingly diminishing the gold it sold to Essos, so the Iron Bank became very interested in this potential new supplier. Unfortunately, House Dustin itself had already begun to sell gold, not simply pure gold, but already processed into ingots, to different places in Westeros, mainly to the Crown Lands, but apparently they were not satisfied with that; they generated a large surplus with their production, which, in order not to lower the price of the mineral, they decided to sell in Essos.

As Tycho left White Harbor, heading for Barrowton, he noticed something, a thing he did not remember the last time he had come to the northern port city, and that was a large road made of stone that stretched eastward.

House Dustin and House Manderly, growing closer and closer, ever since Wyman decided not to antagonize them over the discovery of their gold, had made a joint project, which was to build a road of the best quality between the two lands, to facilitate the transportation of materials between the two.

From White Harbor to Barrowton traveled much lumber, stone and meats, while from Barrowton to White Harbor went mostly gold, and also some soap, which Lord Manderly had requested, but the quantities were minimal, so it was more a gesture of good will on Wolfgang's part.

From White Harbor then the gold departs, in ships of the Manderly Fleet, bound for Gulltown, Kingslanding and Sunspear.

Tycho Nestoris frowned when he saw all this movement, and he knew that, although they might have some problems at the beginning, it would not be at all impossible for the Manderly Fleet itself to export the gold to the Free Cities of Essos, which meant that the Iron Bank had competition, and since there was competition, they would have to take care to give House Dustin more favorable conditions than the Manderly could offer.

Arriving in Barrowton, he could see the vastness of the town, it was already more extensive than White Harbor itself, with countless stone houses, each one the same as the last; except for the houses closest to Barrow Hall, the castle at the center of town, over the hill, which were made of wood, but Tycho could see a wooden house near the castle being demolished, while a stone one was being built in its place, using a strange paste to glue the stones together, but there was one other impressive thing to note.

From the east, a large road, excessively wide, ran through the entire eastern part of the city to the castle, a large avenue, with many soldiers patrolling around it.

Tycho finally arrived in front of the castle, and he had to say it didn't look all that impressive. It hadn't undergone any renovations since the mass migration began, so Barrow Hall looked quite out of tune compared to the incredible city that was expanding more and more.

There were still no more inhabitants than in the Manderly port city, since, although the expanse of houses was wider than White Harbor within its walls, the white city stretched a considerable length outside its walls.

Arriving at the castle gate, an elderly man awaited the Iron Bank envoy with a smile.

"Lord Nestoris."

"I presume you are Master Qyburn."

"The very same, and I have the honor to receive you. Please join me."

The duo wandered the halls of the castle, and finally arrived at Wolfgang's famous office, where, in addition, was Barbrey Dustin, his mother.

"My lord, it is a pleasure to finally meet you" greeted Tycho. "My lady, the same to you."

"The pleasure is ours" replied Wolfgang, but he rather disliked the man in front of him. Vulgar and ambitious merchants, Tycho couldn't help but remind him of the Jews. If there were any in this world, they definitely worked at the Iron Bank.

Tycho was wearing a black silk suit, with golden decorations, probably gold. However, over this was a heavy coat, to protect him from the cold. Not that it was too much, it was summer right now, but it was definitely a much colder climate than it was in Braavos.

"As much as I would like to have long conversations with you My Lord, about how you are a true example of stewardship and development for the rest of the lordships, time is pressing."

"I can say the same."

"Then let's get to the point" Barbrey commented.

"As I understand it, My Lord, House Dustin sells in Westeros about 40,000 gold gilded dragons a month or so. Which would come to 480,000 a year, although well, they haven't been selling for a year yet, but those are the predictions."

"That's right, it's not easy to deduce that with the information we gave them by correspondence after all. We have an agreement with Manderly House, who, with their large fleet, are our distributors. Though we also sell to some merchants who roam the Seven Kingdoms with their caravans."

"I also understand, My Lord, that, with the arrival of new craftsmen, House Dustin is manufacturing quite a few ornaments and decorations in gold, which he then sells."

"That is also correct, Lord Tycho, since the main destination of the gold is the minting of coinage, the rest is mainly used in decoration."

"But, from the size of your mines, they seem to produce more gold than the amount you sell in Westeros, quite a bit more."

"That's right, we have quite a surplus."

"And if they don't sell it, it is naturally so as not to overload the market with too excessive a supply. That's why the Iron Bank wants to offer House Dustin new... prospects."

"Don't waste our time, banker, all this has already been discussed by letters" commented Barbrey Dustin from behind, but Tycho was not offended, but adorned his face with an amused smile.

"Oh, excuse me then, I'll get to the point. The Iron Ship wants to sign a contract with House Dustin, to distribute their gold bullion throughout the Free Cities. Naturally at the market price. We want to know how much gold in gold dragons they can supply us with for our fleet to transport."

"We have a surplus of 15,000 golden dragons in gold every month, that can go to your ships."

"Oh, excellent. Now, the Iron Bank would like to ask for 30% of that 15,000 golden dragons for distributing it."

Wolfgang just smiled with a mocking tone.

"¿30%? The Manderly's charge us 8% only. Besides, we have to pay big taxes. Of those 15,000 golden dragons we only keep 7,500" Wolfgang said, but in reality it was a lie, for every 10,000 golden dragons they got for the gold, they only paid House Stark 1,000, and not the 5,000 they should pay. "If we subtract the commission you ask for from that 7,500, we are left with 3,000, and you with 4,500. It certainly isn't fair."

"Well, my lord. Paying for the Braavos Fleet is quite expensive."

"Yes, but the Braavos Fleet doesn't just carry our gold. On the same ships that carry our gold, they carry many more commodities. And I insist, the Manderly charge us 8%."

"But exporting it to other parts of Westeros is not the same as exporting it to another continent."

"It is clear to me, but the difference between the two situations is not worth the 22% commission increase."

"We believe it is, my lord. House Lannister also produces gold, we can always turn to them."

"House Lannister broke its contracts with the Iron Bank, and exports less and less gold, and directly to the Crown Lands, which is much cheaper for them. In addition, Casterly Rock is in the far east of Westeros, so it is much more expensive for them to mobilize their resources to the Free Cities. The road between Casterly Rock and Kingslanding is also much more dangerous than the one from Barrowton to White Harbor. Certainly House Lannister gold can no longer compete with us."

Tycho was silent, for he knew Wolfgang's words were true. Something was going on with House Lannister gold, for they had been looking for excuses to cut contracts and greatly decrease their export. This would normally have gone unnoticed; it was them trying to increase their price, but such a strategy made no sense now, because all the demand that House Lannister left unsupplied was being filled by House Dustin's supply.

"So how much are you asking?"

"I can understand the difficulties it might take to get this gold to Westeros, so... 12%."

"I'm afraid that's too little. For 1,800 golden dragons it's not too worth the trade. I can offer 20%."

"20 is still too much, so I have a better offer" commented the young Lord, and Tycho arched his eyebrows. "Make it 15%, with the commitment that in a few months we will increase production, and those 15,000 golden dragons will be transformed into 25,000. That would be a similar profit to what the Iron Bank expected in their original deal." "That... is reasonable. But what guarantee do we have that you will be able to increase production that much?". "If we can't do that, we'll simply take some of the gold we deliver to Westeros. House Dustin keeps his word - do we have a deal then?" Tycho hesitated for a moment, but in the end, with a smile on his face, he said, "We have a deal."