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We set up a jurda consortium, a chance for willing investors to make a fine dime off the world going to hell. We bring the Council an opportunity and let their greed do the rest.
This quote can be found in Chapter 25 as Kaz and the gang concoct a new plan to swindle Van Eck and others in the Merchant Council with a fake jurda consortium. Even though the Merchant Council claims that they are upstanding citizens, Kaz wagers that their greed will convince them to seize the opportunity, no matter how corrupt and immoral it is. This emphasizes that those who claim to uphold the sanctity of commerce in Ketterdam are just as willing to cheat to win as the average gambler on the street. They may wear a façade of morality, but all that differentiates the people in the Barrel from members of the Merchant Council is that the Barrel gangs are more honest about their motivations.
Greed is my lever. Pekka Rollins had taught him that lesson, and he was right. They’d been fools….Maybe he could even absolve himself for being the kind of gullible, trusting boy who believed someone might simply want to be kind. But for Rollins there would be no reprieve.
This quote is from Chapter 37, where Kaz manipulates Pekka Rollins into believing that his son has been buried alive. As panic takes hold of Rollins, Kaz reflects that Rollins was the person who taught him that Ketterdam runs on greed. Kaz has spent his life regretting that he was a trusting child who didn’t know that people could be corrupt, and shedding this gullibility was a precondition of his transformation into a tough, steely crime boss. Kaz has internalized Rollins’s philosophy and understands the power that greed can wield. His intimate knowledge of greed has become a driving force in his life, but it has also had damaging effects, preventing him from believing in the possibility of kindness and from forming trusting relationships with others.
Kuwei Yul-Bo... makes available his service and will offer his indenture as the market and the hand of Ghezen commands.... Sacred is Ghezen and in commerce we see His hand.
This quote, in which Kuwei’s auction is formally announced, appears in Chapter 29. Ghezen is the god of trade, commerce, and industry in Ketterdam, and this quote suggests that the people of Ketterdam worship profit with an almost religious zeal. Because Ketterdam elevates money as its highest value, it allows people, like Kuwei, to sell themselves as indentured servants and also permits slavery to flourish. A society that runs on greed doesn’t value human life, as Van Eck’s willingness to murder his son illustrates. Some of the most successful merchants in Ketterdam are morally repugnant, in part because they have sacrificed everything on the altar of greed. In fact, Kaz uses this warped belief system centered on commerce to swindle his enemies, while also protecting Kuwei and winning financial and individual independence for everyone in the gang.
