Resident (ESB)
A Resident is an employee of the Honourable Company retained on a salary by one of the continental directorates of the same and appointed, as the name would suggest, to reside in a specified port or other location for the purpose of organising beneficial trade and of collating and relaying timely reports on all matters that may be of concern or interest to the Board of Trade in their parent directorate or else for the attention of the Board of Directors of the Honourable Company itself.
The staff reporting to the resident divide into two broad categories – registered traders, being responsible for the conduct of commercial activities on behalf of the company, and correspondents, whose duty pertained to information gathering at the resident's behest. In addition to arranging for the provision of suitable warehouses and offices it is the duty of the resident to maintain halls of residence for the registered traders and correspondents in his charge.
These aforementioned buildings, taken together with the resident's own abode and any cantonments required for housing of security forces, comprise the residency and should be enclosed by a perimeter wall of concrete no less than seven metres in height and a minimum of eight metres in depth, with access controlled by one or more barbicans that should, if the location permits, be built in the manner of a ziggurat flak-tower after the Babkhan fashion. Any wall that is constructed should be faced by a scarp and a counterscarp. Where local conditions permit, the wall should enclose an area sufficient to house the residency buildings and the wharfs, quayside, and docks, required by the Honourable Company for its operation. Where achievable, the residency should endeavour to establish its own inner harbour distinct from that of the main port and separated thereof by breakwaters and causeways that lend themselves to further fortification. Access to the inner harbour of the residency should be facilitated by the operation of a boom defence system, with a raisable harbour chain and a series of anti-submarine nets. The housing of the harbour chain should be of ferroconcrete construction and built to resist bombardment and assault. A flooded moat and a trapezoidal-shaped anti-tank ditch, each four metres wide, should complement the wall.
All structures built within the wall, no matter their ostensible purpose, must be built in a sturdy manner so as to serve as blockhouses, capable of an independent defence if the perimeter is compromised. Investment should be made by the resident to ensure that each building is linked via secure communication tunnels, with access to further subterranean levels, housing bunkers, shelters, and storage areas, being controlled by blast doors. Ventilation systems for subterranean parts of the residency should feature multiple redundancies so as to limit any harm for inhabitants that could be caused by interference, the obstruction of airways, or the introduction of gas.
Residencies also enjoy an indemnified limited liability to speculate for profit in local markets, to establish subsidiary enterprises, to bid for government outsourcing opportunities in their areas of responsibility,
