After lunch, Vitus returned to his study.
Sunlight streamed through the windows, illuminating fine dust drifting through the room. A bucket of ice stood in each corner, helping to keep the heat at bay.
Carlo and a group of attendants were busy in the neighboring courtyard. Every so often, they carried a crate of documents into the study, until the crates filled nearly half the room.
"This many?"
Vitus checked the labels on the crates, then carried the one containing documents from the beginning of the year to his desk and began reviewing them one by one.
The first document was an application to mine iron ore in the province of Paphlagonia.
Anatolia consisted largely of plateaus and mountains and was rich in minerals. The northern Pontic Mountains held abundant iron and copper, and new veins were discovered from time to time.
Vitus stamped the end of the document, ordering the central administration to send someone to survey the site before auctioning off the mining rights to bring in some immediate funds.
After Anatolia's liberation, blast furnaces, water-powered bellows, and water-powered trip hammers had spread rapidly. Mining operations everywhere had become more efficient than under Ottoman rule. Mine owners now faced two problems:
Drainage and ventilation.
Vitus remembered that Adrian University had a research project on the subject. He wrote a letter asking the university to report its recent findings.
He was halfway through the letter when Balram, the chief archivist, requested an audience. Once admitted, Balram carefully threaded his way around the many crates in the room. With his bulky build, he looked at first glance like a brown bear performing in a circus.
Balram handed over a stack of documents. His work concerned judicial affairs, and these papers dealt with cases from various regions.
Vitus leafed through them.