The Mad Tycoon of Rome

It took thousands of years for humans to come up with the idea of sharpening stones and making them into tools.

And it took tens of thousands of years for them to think of using wheels to transport things.

But it took less than half of that time for them to advance to a much more developed form of technology.

That’s how technological progress works.

The speed of development accelerates and there are countless theories to explain why.

Some say it’s because they use advanced tools to design more advanced tools.

Marcus didn’t know the exact reason either.

But he could see the signs that Rome’s development speed was faster than he expected.

Some of them were witnessed in areas he never imagined.

The beginning was a letter from Julia that arrived from Rome.

She explained that Marcus’s plan was going well.

Julia and Sophia’s prestige was so strong that no one could touch them.

The daughter of Caesar and the wife of Marcus.

The power that this background brought them only grew stronger over time.

Even though the laws, institutions, and technologies were becoming more precise, there seemed to be no problem at all.

“Rome seems to be peaceful as always.”

Spartacus muttered as he read the letter that came to him.

“Rather, this side seems to be much busier.”

“It can’t be helped. It’s been only a few months since we fought a large-scale war. By the way, how’s the establishment of the base for controlling Satabahana?”

To ensure the safe trade of Roman merchants and to suppress Satabahana, they needed to have a certain number of military bases.

Spartacus had been paying attention to the establishment of these bases since the end of the war.

“No problem. We’re ready enough to push back in if anything happens. The maritime control is completely on Rome’s side.”

“Good job. As our range of action expands, the navy’s power will become more important, so we can’t neglect securing the sea power.”

He wasn’t worried anyway.

When the time came to equip the ships with cannons, Rome’s navy would become a completely different world from other countries’ navies.

Marcus leisurely looked at the back part of the letter he hadn’t read yet.

The stable political situation, the smooth reform, everything was perfect.

“Cato is still active, I see. But I’m glad he started to make some constructive criticism lately. I guess it was a right decision not to retire him.”

“Critical opinions are important. Don’t we need to listen to the other side’s opinions when we plan strategies in war? That’s that, but is there any other interesting story written there?”

“Well… nothing much different from usual.”

Marcus was about to put the letter back with satisfaction when he gave another glance at the last part of the letter.

“Is there a problem with the letter?”

Spartacus asked with a puzzled expression as Marcus stared intently at the letter.

“No. It’s just that there’s a note about the flower I brought to Rome last time. It says that the price has skyrocketed lately.”

“A flower? What flower did you bring… Oh, I remember now. You mean the Sharon’s daffodil?”

“Yes. I really brought it without much thought…”

The scientific name of the flower known as Sharon’s daffodil or Sharon’s rose in the West is Hibiscus syriacus.

It is a flower called mugunghwa in Korea, where Marcus used to live.

According to the scientific name of mugunghwa, Syria was known to be its origin, but the real origin was India and southwestern China.

Marcus happened to see the mugunghwa that was brought along by the merchants who traded with Han.

He planted it in his garden naturally because it reminded him of his past memories.

He also took some seeds and planted them when he went to Rome, and he thought that it attracted attention because it was a flower that they had never seen before in Rome.

“Didn’t the things you use always sell for high prices? What was it before… I remember that the chess pieces and cards you used were traded for a huge amount of money.”

“That’s right. This time, too, some money-smelling merchants seem to have come up with a plausible plan.”

It was a flower that had never existed in Rome before.

They must have advertised it skillfully by mixing in the fact that Marcus had personally brought and planted it.

“I see all kinds of exaggerated words floating around, using the characteristic of the flower that doesn’t d*e even in harsh insecticides. Something like a symbol of immortality or a flower blessed by God.”

“Well, since you brought and planted it yourself, it’s hard to say that the latter case is definitely a lie.”

“The market price is determined by supply and demand, so it’s natural for the price to rise. As long as it’s not too excessive, I don’t think there’s much problem.”

“It won’t stop rising at some point. It’s just a flower after all.”

“That’s right. It’s just a flower.”

Marcus tried to erase the contents of the letter from his mind without much concern, but he felt something nagging at him.

It was an event where people went crazy over exotic flowers and the price soared to the sky.

He felt strangely familiar with it.

After thinking for a long time, Marcus finally found the answer in his head.

‘That’s right. The tulip mania that happened in the 17th century in the Netherlands. There was a similar event in history.’

Tulips are known as a symbol of the Netherlands, but in fact, Europe is not their origin.

The tulip mania started when tulips, an exotic species from the Ottoman Empire, were introduced to the Netherlands and became explosively popular.

The rich wanted to own rare tulips and show off their wealth, so people tried to grow and sell rare varieties at high prices.

The price rose by several times a day, and one of the highest quality tulips cost as much as 20 cows.

The reason why such a bubble could occur was because the financial market in the Netherlands was developing at that time.

As a result, various derivative products using tulips were created, and they used bills and credit to inflate the bubble even more.

This wave left many lessons, but it was also a clear signal that the sprouts of capitalism were beginning to grow.

What about Rome then?

The information that Marcus received from the letter was so fragmentary that he couldn’t tell exactly what was going on over there.

It might be a leap to think of the tulip mania in connection with the fact that the price of exotic flowers was soaring.

But if he looked at it together with the fact that Rome’s financial market was developing faster than ever before in history, the story changed.

“I need to find out more details.”

The result of the tulip mania was known to have had a terrible impact on the Netherlands, but in fact it wasn’t that bad.

Even after that, tulips maintained a certain price and had many buyers.

But it was an unconvincing inference to say that it would be the same now as it was in the original history.

It might have a much smaller impact than the tulip mania in history, but on the contrary, it might bring a much bigger wave.

So it was important to identify and solve the problem in advance.

Marcus ordered his subordinates to use the relay system to investigate the details in Rome as quickly as possible.

It seemed like a lot of trouble to find out the price of a flower, but they obeyed his command without question.

Of course, no matter how fast they were, it would take a considerable time for the news to reach Rome from the East.

They could save a lot of time by running straight on land with the relay system, but there was nothing they could do about the sea side.

Fortunately, a week later, he got some idea of the situation in Rome thanks to a follow-up letter from Sophia.

The letter began with this phrase: .

The clever Sophia had a feeling that something was going wrong.

So she had a lot of conversations with her mother Julia and grandfather Caesar and wrote down her thoughts as best as she could.

No matter how genius Caesar was, the financial system that was developing now was completely unknown to him.

He had to be careful about using his hands.

Marcus’s advice to not interfere rashly without a clear solution must have contributed as well.

It would have been best to deal with it before the bubble formed, but it was a good decision not to worsen the situation by intervening poorly.

After that, there were affectionate expressions like always take care of your health, I love you.

He would have been delighted to receive a letter full of love from his daughter on normal days, but this was not the situation.

He had doubts, but this confirmed it.

The craze that was blowing in Rome was definitely an issue that could be recorded as one of the crises of classical economics in history.

If he left it alone, there was a high possibility that by next year or the year after, there would be no room for people who jumped into the Tiber River together.

“I missed several years of signs before this bubble formed… It’s my mistake.”

He didn’t pay much attention to other areas while he was in Rome because he was focused on politics and business.

If Marcus had noticed even a slight hint before he left Rome, he might have been able to stop this disaster.

But there was no point in making assumptions about spilled water.

The important thing was to land this wave of madness that kept rising quietly.

Marcus immediately summoned Surenas, Publius, and his committee to discuss this situation.

End