The Great Ledger

Among the Gori there is no scripture, no constitution, and no crown — there is only the Ledger. It is at once their philosophy, their etiquette, and the nearest thing they keep to law: the shared reckoning by which every Gori measures a dealing, a stranger, and themselves. Every Gori keeps a private ledger as well — a lifelong account of debts owed and credits earned, of favours banked and slights unsettled — but the Great Ledger is the common inheritance, recited from childhood, traded in fragments, and never, if a Gori can help it, shown in full to an outsider.

Its individual tenets are called Reckonings. There is no fixed number; a Gori will tell you there are exactly as many as are profitable to remember. What follows is the portion an off-worlder is most likely to hear — usually a moment too late.

1. Every breath is a transaction. Charge accordingly.
2. Nothing is free. What seems free is only a debt you have not yet been billed for.
3. The first price is a question; the last price is an answer. Never confuse the two.
4. Trust is the most expensive thing you will ever buy, and it comes with no warranty.
5. Trade with your enemy. His coin spends exactly like your friend's.
6. Information costs nothing to carry and everything to give away.
7. A bargain sealed is sacred. A bargain broken is theft — and theft is a crime only when it is done to you.
8. Hide your wealth as you hide your ship: in plain sight, mistaken for nothing.
9. The fool names his price first. The Gori names it last, and twice.
10. Sentiment is an unsecured loan. Expect to lose the principal.
11. Family is the one creditor you cannot refuse — so keep your dealings with them small.
12. Listen with the ears the makers gave you, and speak with the caution they did not.
13. Weigh every word before you spend it. The mouth is small for a reason.
14. He who owns the route owns the cargo. He who owns the cargo merely rents it.
15. A war is a market where the goods are scarce and the buyers are desperate. Arrive early.
16. The empty ship is the honest ship, and the honest ship goes hungry.
17. Count your profit only after the buyer is out of weapons range.
18. Never let them see the bottom of your hold or the bottom of your price.
19. A reputation for fairness is the cheapest advertising and the most expensive habit.
20. Charity is simply a transaction whose return has not yet been negotiated.
21. Profit shared is profit halved; risk shared is risk halved. Share only the second.
22. When two Gori agree at once, one of them has already lost.
23. The Ledger forgives no entry left unbalanced — least of all a profit left unclaimed.
24. Owe everyone a little; let no one owe you so much that killing you becomes the cheaper option.

The Reckonings are held and interpreted by the Master of the Ledger — by long custom, the wealthiest among the fleet, on the reasoning that the richest Gori is, by definition, the one who has understood the Ledger best.