Herald of Steel

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.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

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!"

"Asparagus, artichokes, bell peppers, and mushrooms. Freshly picked! Come, come, 15 ropals, just 15 ropals a bag."

"Pomegranates, dates, plums and apricots. All from Sybarsis and the warring states."

"Spice from all over the world- if you can name it we have it salt, pepper, garlic, cloves, saffron, ginger, cumin. Come, come, we assure you, you have never seen these things in your life. We have spices from all over the world!"

There was indeed a reason why all these options were not available to the western districts.

One just needed to hear the quoted prices.

Even though the apartment blocks were in the affluent part of the city, and many of the families earned around 250 to 300 ropals a month, it was still too much for most to spend that much on food regularly as demanded by some of the merchants.

For instance, a kilogram of meat cost anywhere from 5 to 10 ropals depending on the cut, and for most families, this very hard to bear it more than once a week.

The same went for things like fish, cheese, and eggs.

So regular people stuck to vegetables like broad bean, chick peas, lentils, and kidney beans, which were only 2 to 3 ropals a kilo, completing them with olive oil and occasionally smoked meat and fish, which were a bit cheaper than their fresh counterparts.

People did not need to eat the same amount to feel similarly 'full'.

And similar type of calculation went for the wine too.

In the western district, only cheap wine and wheat beer were sold, costing only 2 to 4 ropals a liter, magnitudes lower than some of the sweet wine sold in the southern markets.

The price difference was because in Adhania, it was thought the sweeter the wine, the higher the quality.

So the sweet wine that the merchants sold, made simply by mixing brown sugar with regular wine was still considered a delicacy and only served to guests.

After all, a liter of it cost about a tenth of even a skilled worker's monthly salary.

And the same reasoning went for many of the other things being sold, as the place catered to both the ordinary and nobility.

The people in the western district thus came to the markets here on average once or twice a week, whenever they wanted something a bit more fancy.

…..

As Alexander toured the food stalls, even he was a bit surprised by the extent of some of the choices present here, speaking nothing of the native womenfolk.

Such as, being a kind of a foodie himself, he was very pretty sure some of the spices like saffron and fruits like dates and apricots were definitely not accessible to him before.

It seemed like opening the city to trade had created new channels for previously unknown goods to flow.

Alexander even decided to buy a few of the fruits for his family and a bit of saffron for the day's dinner, much to the flattery of the merchant there.

He even wished to gift the things for free, but Alexander naturally declined.

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!

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