Director of Passengers

The Director of Passengers (冗人令, njung-njing-ringh), or more coarsely translated as Director of Superfluous Persons, is an officer of the Inner Court of Themiclesia. The office had a multitude of functions before the modern period, but the most important was in the navy, where the office holder managed the fleets' "passengers", personnel onboard that were not involved in sailing.

History

Director

The history of the Director of Ancillaries is linked to that of the Themiclesian Navy. As an institution, the pre-761 fleet operated on a complex set of obligations of "league merchants" that paid sureties to the government to receive protection at sea. Shipbuilders were bound to supply a certain number of warships to the government for the privilege of accessing government forests, while merchant guilds supplied the mariners that operated them at sea.

When the fleet was annexed to the state, the shipbuilding operation was turned over to the Director of West Woods, the composition of fleets and their schedules to the Director of Fleets, the management of crafting houses and sourcing of supplies to the Director of Naval Engineers, and everything else to the Director of Ancillaries.

During the latter part of the Dzi Dynasty, the role of the Director of Ancillaries became increasingly financial.

After the Dzi Dynasty, the two fleets completely took over the jurisdiction of the Director of Ancillaries. According to military historian Thomas Barter, this was "the natural step in developing a more advanced navy, where different components of a fighting force become more tightly integrated and less attached to its source". However, the Director of Ancillaries remained in control of pay and ranking of "ancillaries"; this survives into the modern day, as evidenced by doctors, nurses, procurement officers, and several other small departments of the Navy having their own rank structure. Meanwhile, as Themiclesia's control over the seas and Hemithea receded in the 1600s, the Director of Ancillaries lost influence further; in response, the collection of tariffs was brought home to Themiclesia's coast.

Subordinates

The subordinates of the Director of Ancillaries are difficult to enumerate at times. After Themiclesia had established trading ports in Hemithea in the 700s and Meridia in the 900s, it fell to the Director of Ancillaries to govern the commercial order in them. When the number of ports increased, the original Administrator of Commerce was split into three, one managing the west coast of Hemithea, one, the Halu'an coast, and the other the north coast of Meridia and on Portcullia.

The Administrator of Pharmaceuticals and of Physicians are two distinct officers created at different times. From the days of commercial sailing, fleets relied on physicians' guilds for medical assistance. The physicians' guild would supply a number of physicians for the fleet, while the fleet would return with usable medicinal herbs and minerals found abroad. The Administrator of Physicians co-ordinated the distribution of physicians in the fleet and their stationment in port cities, while the Administrator of Pharmarceuticals led a panel of experts to seek out useful medicinal ingredients in the localities where the fleet landed. As harvesting of medicine and description of their functions was a highly-skilled task, they were managed by a particular official. The duties of the Administrator of Many Things remains mysterious. It is possible it was not an office at all, but a general name for other administrators that were unimportant or ephemeral. The Director of Ancillaries was responsible for the procurement of many resources that would have required temporary bureaucracies, and it seems most likely the "Administrator(s) of Many Things" catered to these temporary needs.

Relationship with the Marines

For many decades, historians have assumed that the Director of Passengers also controlled the Marines, for the simple fact that the Marines were called "passengers". It is quite common in Themiclesia to name departments after the people they administer, e.g. the Director of Oranges does actually oversee orange farms, and the President of the Privy Council, preside over Privy Council meetings. This view was endorsed by Tyrannian military historian Arthur Ashley Ascott in his authoritative reference to the Themiclesian military in 1901. Contrary views were first expressed in 1948, on the grounds that no received record older than 1434 connects marines (who were known to be salaried from 1318) with the Department of Passengers. This was also connected with the peculiar observation that the Captain-general of Marines (800-bushels) outranking the Director of Passengers (600-bushesl), when this should not be possible if the latter was a superior to the former.

It was argued that the word "passengers" had a very broad definition in medieval Themiclesia, meaning anyone who was not a crew member. This included sailors from a different ship. On the other hand, the Director of Passengers controlled only salaried passengers that held regular, technical positions onboard, such as physicians and accountants. Early marines were pressed ad hoc into service, not a regular, salaried part of the crew, hence not falling under the Director's jurisdiction. From the crew's perspective, neither technical officers nor marines were part of the crew, so both were called "passengers". However, other scholars questioned the motivation for calling two unrelated things the same name, which Themiclesian jurists forbade to avoid ambiguity. In 1969, an 503 edict prohibiting "passengers" from adhering to enemy ships.

Structure

The structure of the Director of Ancillaries' department fluctuated dramatically during the first few centuries of its establishment, reflecting the changing structure of the Navy in its formative phases. The following represents the organization in the 1100s, after the Navy's broad structure had settled.

• Director of Ancillaries (冗人令, njung-njing-mlings)
  • Secretary of Ancillaries (冗人丞, njung-njing-gljing)
  • Administrator of Commerce of Ngjep (岌市長, ngjop-dje'-trjang')
  • Administrator of Commerce of the East (東部市長, tong-boh-dje'-trjang')
  • Administrator of Commerce of the West (西部市長, ser-boh-dje'-trjang')
  • Administrator of Finance (緡長, hmen-trjang')
  • Administrator of Many Things (諸長, tja-trjang')
  • Administrator of Pharmaceuticals (藥長, ngljakw-trjang')
  • Administrator of Physicians (醫長, 'je-trjang')
  • Administrator of Mages (祝長, tjoh-trjang')
  • Captain of the North Sea Marines (北部舫人長, pek-boh-pjang-njing-trjang')
  • Captain of the South Sea Marines (南部舫人長, nem-boh-pjang-njing-trjang')

See also

• Themiclesia