The perennial question haunted almost every soul who found themselves transmigrated into the annals of a pre-industrial antiquity: how exactly does one forge a sprawling financial empire from the dust of a bygone era? The standard operating procedures, codified by countless tales of the genre, were deceptively simple: plagiarize the timeless verses of dead poets, transcribe the literary masterpieces of another world, or ignite a technological revolution with modern inventions.
In the quiet, calculating moments of his new existence, Liam had seriously weighed the merits of becoming a pioneer of industry. He imagined introducing the marvels of glass, the gray utility of cement, the explosive potential of gunpowder, or perhaps even the rhythmic thunder of the steam engine. He envisioned hims
