Near Carcasso, Gallia, October 180
Marcus Aurelius, emperor of Rome, was resting. Travelling on the safe waters of a canal was always more comfortable than being on saddle or in a car where every dip in the road could be felt in one’s back despite the cushions… Being on water he had none of those problems. It was especially comfortable after the fifteen days it had taken to cross the area between the mine and Burdigala, including the Pyrenees mountains...
The boat was not very wide but still roomy. While not the most ornate thing he’d seen, it was also richly decorated and fit for an emperor, even if said emperor was not one to really like luxury and would not have cared if it had been less ornate.
Here he could read and write in peace or simply admire the landscape through which the canal went, always remembering that this was no usual river but a fully man made waterway. From time to time they had to go through a clever system of doors and pumps actionned by donkeys on the quay.
The inventor of the canal had explained the mechanism at the first of such gates, happy with the interest the emperor was showing for his creation. He’d also explained the issues he’d had with getting enough water for the whole canal, and how he’d found and brought a number of streams and springs together to make a large reservoir near the highest point of the canal, the saddle between two valleys.
The work was truly awe inspiring and in the end the project had not cost as much as one could have expected and was already repaying itself with the small usage tax that was levied on the trade : given how much cheaper it was to carry goods by water rather than by road, the small tax was seen as a small annoyance but not as a burden.
Every day the imperial barge had crossed at least three or four barges, and the canal had not yet operated for a full year… Authorities in Burgdila, which he’d reached after following the coast from northern Hispania to the city on the banks of the Garumna, had told Marcus Aurelius of an increase of wine trade, sending local products to the Mediterranean, and of an increase of trade on the Atlantic sea toward both Hispania and Britannia.
Hispanian and Lusitanian salted fish and garum sauce was now exported north instead of south, through the gulf of Cantabria, and then carried toward the Mediterranean too, arriving somewhat faster and, more importantly, safer in southern Gaul and in Italy. The canal was creating a whole new economic ecosystem.
From Burgdila the imperial party had gone to Tolosa and then onto the canal on their way to Narbona where they’d spend the winter before taking a ship to Rome, concluding the emperor’s tour of his realm after some 3 years on the roads. In those cities too they had heard of booming trade and of a developing countryside, truly the availability of cheaper transport was a boon for the whole region. It would be good to identify new potential canals, especially to develop the new lands in Germania and in the transdanubian provinces…