Herald of Steel

Chapter 1385 Re visiting the Southern District

Alexander's only current plan for the central district was a stadium, built almost as a carbon copy of the Roman Colosseum.

But the site was still just in the 'laying foundation' stage, so Alexander only observed the bustle of workers digging the grounds and piling in pillars from afar, before moving on to the southern district.

As the part of the city overlooking the sea, a majority of the people's livelihood here depended on the docks, which were as usual full of ships.

All around these wooden vessels, workers with their muddy and dirty hands and feet toiled tirelessly under the scorching summer sun to move cargo to and fro- either using hands, by cranes, or horse drawn carts.

Many of these goods were moved to warehouses for later distribution to the various cities by land, while at other times, they were loaded directly onto carts and driven out of the city through the many small and large gates.

But some of the goods also naturally ended up in the nearby shops which, given it was currently around late afternoon and many of the men had just gotten off work, were bristling with business.

Something for the kids, the missus, or even just a bite to eat with friends and colleagues, people from all walks of life flocked to the various stalls, making the heart of the city vibrant with activity.

This place was the main marketplace of the city and the scale of it really showed.

The shops in the western districts might have had their own loyal customer base, but at the end of the day, the southern markets still trumped it in every aspect.

There were vastly more stalls, offering far more choices, had much larger stocks and were even a bit cheaper- a consequence of economies of scale and a shorter travel distance from the dock, leading to reduced transport cost.

Thus there were many things you could only find here, and nowhere else in the city.

Let's just take food for example- which was the most abundant item in the residential district.

But when they were compared to the shops here, the housewives would easily find just how much of the things they were missing.

Along with all the produce available from back there, there were also many exotic ingredients as hawked out by eager vendors,

"Sweet wine! Buy the best sweet wine in the city! Only 20 ropals a liter! Made from real sugar! Only 20 ropals a liter. Not a cheaper price in town!"

"Fish sauce! Made from mackerel and mallow leaves! Only 15 ropals a jar! Come, come!"

"Fish paste! Mussels, scallions, sea oysters! Caught just this morning!"

"Mackerel, sturgeons, and tuna. Only 10 ropals a kilo!"

"Octopus, lobsters, and squids. Only 20 ropals a piece. Free! Free! This is basically free!"

"Freshly butchered pork and mutton! Shanks and rounds are only 5 ropals a kilo."

"Rib eyes and T bones, only 10 ropals a kilo. Come and see! Quickly!"

"Peacock, bear, dormice, pheasants, fowl and more. Whatever your fancy desires. We have it all! If you can afford it!"

Instead, looking at the merchant, the pasha found that he was not a native and got to know him bit a better.

Apparently, he was part of a large trading commence operating from the warring states, which did business all over the Central Sea.

This was immense news for Alexander and he initially wanted to invite the man into his home to discuss further business immediately.

But upon remembering his identity and not wanting to appear too eager and be taken advantage of, he reigned his excitement and only lightly invited,

"Then mister Eshmun, I hope you can welcome more of your colleagues to my city. If you can bring me more of these exotic fruits and spices... perhaps we can discuss some preferential treatment."

The offer naturally generated an immense amount of excitement from the foreign merchant and he very solemnly promised to try his utmost.

.....

Alongside the abundant grocery shops, the second most popular business seemed to be selling clothes, as row after row of shops showed.

There, bolts of colorful fabric- black, blue, red, yellow, orange, etc. were stacked up one after the other on the wooden shelves for display.

And whenever it took their fancy, potential customers, both men and women would point to the rolled up clothes, whereupon the shopkeeper or his assistant would take down the bolt and unfurl a bit for the interested party to examine.

"The finest linen! Double knitted. Imported straight from the capital and dyed in the best walnut husks."

The shops here sold all types of fabric- linen, wool, fur, as well as a blend of the three, and of varying quality- meant for the poorest of the poor who could only really afford white low quality flax or linen one pieces, to regular people who liked to add vibrant dyes to their flax or blended garbs, to wealthy merchants who had a preference for pure wool or fur and expensive colors like blue and green- sourcing and creating these dyes were quite labor and time intensive.

There were even some occasional noble men and women who visited some of these shops, although the much more usual practise was for the cloth merchant to take their products to these distinguished people and show off the quality.

Only a few shops like the one owned by Gelene had regular customers of that caliber.

As for the regular joe, once he liked the look and feel of the cloth he was examining, and was able to reach an agreement on the price, he would ask for a certain length of cloth, which the merchant would cut from the total bolt using a knife or since Alexander had introduced it- scissors.

The man would then either take this cloth to a tailor to have it made into a proper tunic, pant, etc, or if he was not that wealthy, try and do the sewing himself- preferably with the missus's help.

The craftsmanship in the latter case would no doubt be a bit shoddier, but for the regular populace, this was good enough.

Most people tended to wear loose clothes anyway, making them fit by using belts, claps and strings.

Let us say no to piracy! Don't take part in a crime! Don't patronize thieves!

Please come Here!

=>Link to the original site:

/book/herald-of-steel_24388579605084705