Elias de Oro

"'Monarch after monarch sits upon the throne, with their different ideologies and policies and wars. To a banker, ideologies and factions are irrelevant. Only one thing remains constant: the Crown will always need money.' ~Elias de Oro"Elias de Oro (born Elias Mateo Avila), also known as the "Spice King" is the Keyholder of the Spanish Treasury, and one of the primary investors in said institution. He is a shrewd, greedy, and calculating banker with a polite, but condescending set of mannerisms. Elias is the Chief Executive Officer of Spain's Iberian Trading Company, and is widely regarded as the richest man in the Spanish Empire, aside from King Ferdinand Clemente VI himself.

Biography
Elias Mateo Avila was born on May 17th of 1682, in the town of Llafranc, Spain, a small fishing village in the northeastern portion of the realm, along the Mediterranean Sea. His upbringing was meager, with his father being a poor fisherman, and his mother being a washwoman. Elias learned the craft of his father, fishing from an early age. However, throughout his entire childhood and young adult life, the young fisherman yearned for something more. In his young life, he would often get himself into trouble for pickpocketing and petty thievery. Opportunity presented itself in autumn of 1699, when Elias was seventeen years old. On the shores near Llafranc, a spice trader's ship ran aground. As the ship's crew headed into town to inquire about repairs to their vessel, Elias and a handful of his childhood friends pilfered the cargo of the vessel, gleaning approximately 100,000 gold pieces and thousands more in spices from the boat before the spice merchants returned. From there, Elias convinced his small group of friends that their newfound wealth would best be used in the purchasing of supplies to peddle their stolen spices and begin a trading business. His compatriots agreed, and Elias set out to purchase a ship, which he named the Fortune King.

With his merchant vessel purchased, Elias Avila sailed around the Mediterranean Sea, selling off the spices and earning a profit. However, once all the spices were sold, instead of returning and splitting the wealth with his supposed "business partners," the emerging merchant took all of the profits for himself, and set out to purchase more spices to sell. From there, he expanded his business further and further, having great success, until he had established a monopoly over spices in the Mediterranean by the year 1710, becoming very, very rich. By 1710, Elias had earned the nickname of "Rey de las Especias" (Spice King in English), and in 1710, he decided to expand his business horizons. Christening himself "Elias de Oro" rather that Elias Avila, the spice mogul established the Iberian Trading Company, which would peddle nearly anything a man could wish for, from the ripest fruits, to the shiniest silverware, to the finest silks. Most importantly, however, was one product: weapons.

In the early 1700s, King Philip Clemente V was in grave need of weaponry for his campaigns against Lord Leon Goldtimbers of the East India Trading Company, and needed the funds to buy said weaponry, as Spain has been nearly bankrupt in the First Spanish Civil War. Elias saw and took advantage of this need, sealing a deal with the Spanish Crown that the Iberian Trading Company would be the sole supplier of the Spanish armies, and he would loan the Crown a large sum of money. From then on, every time he needed money or supplies, Philip turned to but one man: Elias. For years, de Oro provided coin and goods to the Spanish government and to its allies, throughout Philip's various (and abundant) military campaigns, causing his business to skyrocket. However, Philip had a habit of not paying his debts, a habit that would later come back to bite him.

In the year 1749, Prince Ferdinand Clemente VI and the Lion Coalition went to war against the Spanish crown during the War of Spanish Succession of 1749. Again, Philip called upon Elias de Oro for funds and supplies. This time, the king received no answer from his long-time ally. Elias had grown tired of not being repaid, and took a different approach. Instead of supporting and funding the Spanish Crown, Elias gifted a large sum of money to the honorable Ferdinand, whom Elias knew would repay his debts. For his heart was like his mother's, Grace Goldtimbers, and a Goldtimbers always pays his or her debts. Without the necessary funds or supplies, Philip's armies, though greatly outnumbering their opposition, fell. After the war, King Ferdinand made Elias de Oro the Keyholder of the Spanish Treasury, which he became the prime investor in, meaning that he would have the means to deposit money and manage Spanish financial affairs.