17.1 Shares
Characters can launch an investment in shares in a business of their choice (please specify in orders, feel free to use your imagination) without going to Court. Such matter are usually arranged by the Shylocks on the Pont au Change. Shares cost 100cr each and provide an annual dividend (after being held for 12 months) as follows:
Buying shares is a weekly action and as many shares as can be afforded can be bought during any given week. (Characters can buy shares on behalf of others and hand them over as a premonthly action afterwards). Once an investment is launched, any further shares bought in it before the dividend date will have to wait a further year before showing a return. Eg
- Character A launches an investment in January 1630
- Character B buys further shares in the investment in February 1630
- Character A receives a dividend in January 1631
- Character B doesn't receive a dividend until January 1632
Shares can be traded, gifted, sold, bought from another character or willed as a premonthly action. Shares bought from another character will enjoy a dividend at the time the original buyer would have received one.
17.3 Businesses
Children of Commoners can inject cash into their families' operations to improve their family's lot (and increase their own allowance) as per the table below.
The costs are cumulative so, for example, to transform a peasant family into Wealthy Merchants would cost (600+1800+3600)=6000 livres in total. The allowances are NOT cumulative, however, so the child of this newly established Wealthy Merchant Family would recieve an allowance of 50£/month, NOT (5+20+50).
Family improvement can begin at any stage so that, for example, a character beginning as the son of a Merchant could, over time, give the family 3600 livres (to make them Wealthy Merchants) and then a further 6000 livres (to make them Very Wealthy Merchants). It is not possible to improve the family's lot beyond 'Very Wealthy Merchant' or provide them with multiple businesses. (This means that all there is for the GM to do is amend the Allowance figure on character sheets when improvements are bought).
The bastards of Nobles and Gentlemen, if they determine their mothers to be commoners, could also make use of these mechanics on their Mothers' behalf.
Total cost of Very Wealthy Business, from scratch, is 12000 livres. This is the same as a Rich Estate (which would give the same revenue) but it is possible to "get on the ladder" sooner (600 livres for a small business vs 1200 for a small estate).
Example of the Above In Action
Jacques is the bastard son of a well-to-do Knight (Allowance 45£/ month). His mother works as a laundress in an establishment in the Louvre Quarter catering for the upper end of the market (which is how his parents met - she was delivering to his father's lodgings when he was visiting Paris). Having been whisked away to the country at an early age, Jacques returns to Paris, joins the Crown Prince Cuirassiers as a Captain, and seeks out his mother. His first foray to the front nets him enough to purchase a majority and set his mother up in a small laundry of her own (though in a less salubrious area - the Ville de l'Eveque near the Cavalry barracks). (Cost 600 livres, new allowance (45+5).
Over the Summer Campaign Jacques gains enough loot to secure the Colonelcy of his regiment and establish his mother in a bigger establishment in a slightly better location, the Mortellerie (Cost 1800 livres, new allowance (45+20)). A later foray enables further improvement and an establishment on the Quai des Celestines. (Cost 3600£, new allowance (45+50)). For the first time Jacques is receiving a bigger allowance from his Mother than he is from his father.
Finally, now a Lt.General, Jacques serves as Military Governor of Normandy for a while and returns to Paris with enough cash to fulfil his mother's long-held dream - purchase of the Louvre Laundry where she started out. (Cost 6000 livres, new allowance (45+100)).
(Of course, what trades PCs set up their families/mothers in is totally up to them).
17.4 Arms, Finance, and Commerce
The return on these investments is determined by the campaigns. Arms investors gain money when more troops are sent on campaign. Finance investors, having a stock in a stable currency, lose money when large numbers of troops are sent. Commerce investors profit from stability and national security and thus gain more when the armies are successful (military success is determined by averaging the battle results of all Army Commanders).
Investments must be made in October in blocks of 1.000 livres. This amount is referred to as investment capital. All investments are initially solvent, but may become insolvent. Tables showing the returns are below.
When a + result appears, that is the amount that the investor receives as a percentage of his capital investment as a dividend. When a - result appears, that is the amount the investor must pay next month to make his investment solvent. If it is not paid in time, the investment is completely lost. If it is paid, the investment is solvent at its original level. In other words, the additional payment does not increase the investment capital.
Solvent investments may be liquidated at any time for the capital in them minus a 10% liquidation fee.