Chapter 180: Bourbon Bargaining

Editor: nnpdad

I won’t recount the full tedium of the conversation with Henry Leavenworth and his lapdog co-conspirator Lieutenant Douglas. It was a boring dance that revolved around the exchange of hard currency for soft to get the value I wanted.

It was important to Leavenworth that he have a solid and viable plan for the new encampment down in Kansas to ensure that it was his project and not awarded to one of his adversaries. Needless to say, the idea that I could provide lumber, beef and beer for his upcoming project was enough motivation to earn me a few dollars more on the exchange rate. And in a time where even a penny or two could buy you a simple meal, every dollar was worth pursuing.

The fact that I was travelling to the Capitol motivated him even more; the only stumbling point came when I mentioned Archibald Henderson.

Up until then, Henry was pointing out people I should meet with and concepts I should push; I went along with all of that. However, when I mentioned Henderson, he began to stammer a little and his glib speech disappeared into silence. Even in 1822, the old man’s name carried more than a little weight in military circles; the fact that I even knew who Archibald was appeared to come as a surprise to Henry. Henry’s sudden attitude change was a boon I hadn’t hoped for, though my new problem was that I had to make the influential connection become true before Henry could find it false. My trip back east had a sudden timeline shift, and Mouse would not be amused to hear about it.

Henry was also very willing to do some wheeling and dealing around payment, so I was able to pick up additional rifles and ammunition (powder & shot) at a steep discount. It didn’t hurt that Leavenworth was susceptible to good bourbon and stories; I was able to ply him with good bourbon and tales of buffalo hunting as we spent the hot afternoon relaxing and conversing.

By the time all the news-swapping, booze-gifting and bartering was done, I had managed to wrangle another five dollars an ounce out of him – half in cash, and the other half in a U.S. bearer bond that I’d deposit in our new Rulo bank. It was a strange time in U.S. history when individual regional commanders could write out debt notes for the entire nation, yet at the same time it was simply a fact.

It even made sense, once you got used to the idea: even dollar bills and British pound notes were simply a representation of a promise made by the government to present that specific amount of gold or silver to the holder of that paper note. In fact, that remained true even down into modern times, with dollar bills still marked as ‘Promissory Notes’ on their face long after the nation had abandoned the gold standard to free float the currency. Monetary policies of the future aside, my investment in greenbacks was a sure bet in a world very short of them.