As I mentioned before, my mercenary contacts come in very handy, such as in this war between the Medici and the Savonarola. I first met the Swiss via a trade network flowing from the mighty Arno, my family had been dabbling in the transport of wool from England and Spain for some time now, although I am the first to not only transport it to merchants, but to actually transport, process, and sell it as one in the same. At times I even allow some of the smaller merchants I am affiliated with to share the costs of processing the wool and the voyage to make an even higher profit for all involved. In a particularly successful venture, the Swiss did not have enough gold florins on hand to make a full purchase of a very large shipment of our finest wool. Instead the Swiss, me and a few merchants, hired a banker back in Florence to send small payments toward the cost of the wool from the Swiss, safely into our hands back in Florence, to which the Swiss were much appreciative. We merchants were compensated in full thanks to the banker. This helpful banker even extended a line of credit toward the Swiss and later the Germans for being such prompt and eager return customers, which actually allowed us merchants to squeeze more money out of them over time, because of this pay back system to the banker. Everyone involved was thrilled with this prosperous new venture, the Swiss and Germans got their wool, us merchants our gold and the banker got a new customer. However by 1496 the trade relationship had become rather stale, and with the purchase of my house on the Arno, I needed to open more trade. I did not want my wife and children yet unborn, to live in squalor and filth. My earlier ancestors were such fools,  we as people now have the means to make a future for ourselves, we can control our destines for the lord helps those who help themselves. I would never allow my family to end up like that of my father’s, that mediocrity would kill a man as surely as a sword. I want them to live in the riches and splendor that I was denied in my youth, my children will have the finest tutors in Italy, my wife will look like a queen when she walks about. My dreams must become reality, even now with the war, and the trading of grain and wool to mercenaries; I am not at my dream. I need to expand my modest trade empire into a large network of golden calves. I need to open trade with countries farther away than those in Europe. The larger merchants have had great luck with the Ottomans in the past, so perhaps I shall give it a try as well. Very soon, when I receive payment from the arms and mercenaries I sent to the Medici army, I will send a shipment of grain to the Turks. I will hire a captain with the proper Ottoman licensing to bring my grain to the Turks, for everyone everywhere has to eat. I will establish a small but rock solid grain shipping branch to the Ottomans at Istanbul. Very slowly I will start offering more and more of my products with each shipment, if all goes well with the first shipments of grain and processed wool, and then I may start introducing my fine weapons and armor to them as well. If relations between Italy and the Ottomans hold I may even sell mercenaries down there as well, surely an empire of that size still needs mercenaries? At any rate I will have to ask an old merchant friend of mine Lorenzo il Coraggioso if I can send a shipment of grain with his Ottoman captain, maybe he will have an ‘accident’ in his trading paper work and not make it back from the wrath of the Turk. One way or the other I will come into ownership of Lorenzo’s captain and open and entire new trade artery to the Ottomans. I have recently received word from a medium sized merchant by the name of Federico de Umbra in Venice, he wants me to buy his shops and workers from him as he is having trouble controlling them and wishes to be rid of it all so that he may live his life how he wants to. I wish to purchase these businesses, which would effectively double my size as a business. The only drawback is that I would be competing with enormous merchants from both Venice and Florence. I would be pushed by wealth into the public eye with thousands of people scrutinizing my every action. I need to make the people like me, without over doing it so that rival merchants would see me as a direct threat to their power. Perhaps I will commission the construction of a statue somewhere, or upgrade the local tailor’s shop to make it shine like new. I must be careful not to do so much good as to push into dangerous territory; I will be hiring many private battalions of mercenaries to protect not just my shops and vendors, but the general area around them as to encourage safe trade all around my locations. The people will love and fear me for this; I will make it safe for them to do business which they will love, while the sheer number of militant men I wield will make any who see them think twice about crossing me in my territory. Throw in the handful of public works and financed events I will sponsor, the people will love what I have done for their cities while respecting the power I hold on them. My competitors will try and slander my name for being a threat no matter how small I try and appear, I must control my actions carefully and never indulge them as to put my business at risk, for if my competitors ever knew of these vices I shudder to think what would happen to my modest empire. However I could appear generous by repairing many of the major buildings that are falling onto disrepair in Florence and Venice, they would draw more business from their beauty making me more money, and I could show in subtle ways that I am a powerful man who can afford to do these things, albeit slowly, to the masses which would raise the family rank in social class. I will not reap the rewards from my new empire as much as my children, who will be born into a family near that of royalty, and all at the relatively small cost of repairing old shops and even building some new ones. After all if the Medici could raise themselves from squalor to rulers of Florence over the building of a dome, I certainly can become the most powerful merchant for building tens of shops in both cities. The construction of buildings and paintings show a glimpse into the financial situation of the patron behind it, the more splendid the work the more the patron had, and the more money a patron hold, the more power he can buy and wield over the other patrons. I can take it farther though, the Medici were brilliant in their manipulation of art for social power, if a can study this more, and get it to an exact formula, I can achieve the perfect balance between loved patron of the people’s city and hated arrogant rival to the other merchants.                     

My name is Michelangelo de Inverno, I was born in 1464, under the rule of Cosimo from the Medici family, only bankers could wield that kind of power in Florence, here the money buys the power and the Medici held and still hold most of the power. I come from a small Catholic family in Italy, my father was a grain merchant and we had a modest fortune, considering the diversity of Florence, from its rich bankers such as the Medici and great merchants to the lowly beggars in the street, we were closer to the top than the bottom. Until the year 1485 I was educated adequately by my mother and father who taught me to write and read from the great stories of Rome and Greece which we acquired from the printing shop from a wonderful new device called the printing press. When I took over the business upon my father’s murder in 1485, due to a dispute with another merchant over the ownership of an ass, I set out to expand our relatively small shop into new territory. I am now a great merchant for the city of Florence, the greatest city for growing piles of gold in all of Italy, who deals primarily in arms, armor, wool cloth, and mercenaries, while still dealing in grain in memoriam to my father. In the year 1490 I married my beautiful wife Victoria Simona, We now live in villa with 3 servants, facing the Arno River that cost me an arm and a leg back 1495. I acquire my arms and armor from the blacksmiths who work in my 4 buildings, they mostly come from peasant farm stock but they work cheap and are fine craftsmen, in return for allowing them to work out of my property; I pay sixth tenths of the true value on all works, instead of receiving full price rent. My mercenaries come from German and Swiss contacts I have made trading the processed fine wool so prized from our city as well as grains to feed their armies, it is a small wonder that these cold northern cities are in need of our superiorly processed wool, and grain that their barren soils could never produce in quantity. Recently I have made a purchase of 500 falchion swords, 10 of which not unlike that owned by Cosimo Medici during his rule, in preparation for an impending war between the Medici and the Savonarola,  who now hold the city. It is a wonderful time to sell arms and armor, the Medici cannot get enough of the finely crafted steel helmets and cuirasses I supply, while the Savonarola cannot throw enough gold florins at the finely honed blades my blacksmiths produce, how I love these patron family squabbles they are great for business and so often in Florence. The finely crafted steel blades make short work of the standard Spanish armor the Medici army wears, which only increases the Medici’s hunger for the steel armor I am selling them. When my mercenary contacts in Switzerland and Germany reply to my requests, I will be able to sell both armies additional troops when their original numbers dwindle, soon I will be able to buy an army and have enough gold left from these sales to equip every soldier in golden armor wielding a sword made of the purest florins.