There was a rush, but it was a small one. It dried up almost before it began. By the end of the day, the Barbies had stabilized at forty-three American dollars to the judi, about eleven percent over the face value price. And the Barbies weren’t trading at all. Everyone who had one was holding onto it.
Heather Mason wasn’t on the floor. She had called in the offer to the Barbie Consortium’s broker. When he called her back at the end of the day, it was to inform her glumly that he hadn’t managed to get more than a few percent of the BarbieCo stock in Grantville.
“It’s okay, Jacob,” Heather said. “It was just Judy making sure that anyone who didn’t want to play could get out with their skin intact.”
“What’s the game?”
“I’m not sure. All the radio message said was that they were going all in.”
Heather heard Jacob swallow.
* * *
“Anyway,” the radio operator in Grantville said to his friend, “the rumors in Regensburg are that the Barbies are buying Austria-Hungary.”
“That’s crazy.”
“Yeah? What else is new?”
* * *
Over the next several days, the price of BarbieCo stock went up. Everyone who wanted out had gotten out that first day, and quite a few hearty souls decided that they wanted to gamble.
The Hofburg Palace, Vienna
The Regensburg Weekly News printed the stock quotes from Grantville and Magdeburg that they got over the radio. It took three days for the steam barge carrying the latest price for BarbieCo Preferred to reach Vienna.
When it did, Ferdinand and the Barbies were still in conference.
* * *
“No.” Karl didn’t say it loudly nor particularly belligerently, but he did say it firmly. “I know that Sarah doesn’t care about rank. Prince or peasants, it’s all the same to her. But, much as I love her, I am not Sarah. I was willing for it to be a morganatic marriage, given the circumstances that held sway. But the circumstances have changed. You need her. Both Judy and Moses have pointed out that giving Sarah imperial rank would help this work. Yet Gundaker insists that she not receive that rank till after the marriage, and that any issue from the marriage be excluded from the family inheritance. I won’t have it.
“I will not consent to the merging of our stock into reich money unless Sarah is elevated now, and the marriage contract is adjusted to reflect her new rank as an imperial princess.”
There were no up-timers in the room. It was just Emperor Ferdinand, Gundaker, Maximilian and Karl.
Gundaker was pale. “She’s not Catholic.”
“Which Catholic? Urban’s or Borja’s?” Karl countered. “If our children decide to become Protestant of some sort, then the issue of their faith may be raised. But for now we don’t even have a single Catholic church.”
“Very well, Karl. I’ll bring up her elevation at the next general meeting. You’re probably right that it will make things easier. Come to think of it, we might as well elevate her sister as well. What about the rest of the Barbies?”
“If you elevate any of them, Your Majesty, I recommend you elevate Trudi von Bachmerin. If you just elevate the up-timers, the up-timer Barbies will have a fit.”
“By denomination, do you think?”
“No. The choice of denomination was almost random.”
Ferdinand waved a hand. “Fine. We will make them all imperial princesses. It will simplify things. Considering the rest of this arrangement, they are going to be among the richest young women in the empire anyway.”
Fortney House, Race Track City
“So, what’s the latest word?” Annemarie Eberle asked Dana Fortney. After her failure to realize that Hayley Fortney was the money behind the SFIC and the raking over the coals that she had gotten from Janos Drugeth, Annemarie had taken to simply asking questions. It worked surprisingly well.
“I don’t know. They have agreed to back the reich money, but they are still working out how it’s going to work. Last I heard, the barbies are going to be gradually pulled from circulation, replaced with a new kind of barbie that doesn’t provide interest but is legal tender for all debts in the Austro-Hungarian empire.”
“What about people that already have barbies?”
“I don’t know. I can’t see Hayley letting them do anything unfair, though, so don’t let it worry you.”
“I heard at the beauty shop that the Barbies are buying up BarbieCo stock for ten percent more than the face value in silver. At least in Grantville. Do you think we’ll be able to sell ours that way?”
“I would imagine so.”
“Do you think I should?”
“How should I know, Annemarie? Do I look like Susan Logsden?”