Chapter 185 After the Madness, the Price Was Heavy

Peter stayed in Thessaloniki for half a month. He transferred some money from Sofia to support local investment.

"Your Highness, a total of 100,000 lei, all here."

Peter looked at the money boxes. Because Wallachia used more silver coins, most of them were silver coins.

Peter opened a box at random, and the white inside almost blinded his eyes. This is the result of the development of the Chamber of Commerce, but why do some silver coins look so familiar to him?

He picked up one, and it looked no different from the others in appearance. It was even more exquisite, but he was still worried. So he split the silver coin to see what was inside, and then burned it with fire, and the result almost made his brain crash.

There was no silver in it, all tin and lead, plus a little copper. Isn't this the counterfeit money he ordered?

Damn, he went too far.

Why didn't he set an upper limit? Now it's good, maybe he will get burned.

"Have you traded a lot with Hungary recently?"

"Your Highness, there is too much. Those Hungarian merchants are scrambling for goods. As soon as the goods arrive, they are all gone."

Okay, he understood. Hungary sold too many goods, which caused a major change in currency without anyone noticing. As a result, all the trade with Hungary is counterfeit currency. Is this good or bad?

"By the way, how long have we been buying a lot of Hungarian goods?"

"About nine months."

For nine months, Hungarian farmers missed the best opportunity to grow food. Although they still want to continue, they may get into trouble if time passes. Wallachia may also suffer, so they stopped the loss in advance.

"Tell all chambers of commerce that in a week, they will no longer purchase Hungarian products at high prices, and lift the production ban on Wallachia, and the export of grain will return to the original price."

Although they don't know why the adults made a policy change, they know that they finally don't have to look at the faces of the Hungarians. They don't know how they survived these months. Dealing with the Hungarians is really torture.

At the same time, Peter also ordered the counterfeit currency factory to stop production and not use it anymore. If Wallachia was used again, counterfeit currency would probably be rampant.

Since Peter issued an emergency order, the spread was very fast. The Wallachian Chamber of Commerce in Transylvania took the lead in refusing Hungarian goods transportation. The Grand Duke of Wallachia and the Grand Duchess of Transylvania ordered to increase the production of products and refused to transport and purchase Hungarian goods.

From heaven to hell, it took only half a month. Hungarian nobles, lords, merchants, and farmers were horrified to find that Wallachia would not accept their goods, and at the same time, the price of grain had doubled a lot, which was not something the farmers could afford.

The nobles were not panicking because they made a lot of money; the big merchants were not panicking because their assets could survive this crisis; the real panic was those small nobles, small landlords, small merchants, farmers, and handicraftsmen. Their property had been invested in this trade, and they thought they would achieve a surge in wealth, but in the end they lost everything.

In the week after the announcement of no more imports, the price of Hungarian products dropped again and again, and no one wanted them even if they were given away for free. A large number of merchants and craftsmen went bankrupt, and small landlords and nobles were forced to sell their land and became paupers and beggars. The price of grain went crazy, and the nobles started to grow grain again. After repeated tossing, Hungary's economy was in chaos.

Sigismund did not expect Wallachia to play such a trick. The original good momentum in the country was interrupted. Although he made a lot of money, Hungary's national strength was also weakened. He had to go back to solve these problems.

This commercial war that lasted for nearly a year came to an end. The agriculture on which Hungary relied for survival suffered a major blow. A large number of lower-class people went bankrupt and became refugees, and Grand Duke Mary and Grand Duke Mircea took advantage of this to offer generous conditions to attract them. In this way, Hungary, Wallachia and Transylvania achieved a win-win situation (Hungarian nobles and Wallachia).

As for counterfeit money, Peter took all measures to prevent it from flowing in. He prevented some Wallachian merchants from trading with Hungary and raised tariffs on some commodities. But there is no need to worry about this kind of thing, because the Holy Roman Empire and Venice took action.

Seeing that Hungarian goods were in short supply, the states in the Holy Roman Empire, Bosnia, Serbia and Venice took advantage of this to make a fortune. They used the goods they produced to earn several times the profit. They didn't know that almost all the money in Hungary was counterfeit, so those counterfeit coins were circulated in other countries.

In any case, Wallachia weakened Hungary through this, attracted a large number of people to it, and caused instability in Hungary. Sigismund had to deal with it with all his strength. It was a great trick.

Of course, Wallachia was also affected. Some merchants in the country who traded a lot with Hungary suffered heavy losses. Peter gave them a new opportunity to go to Crimea or Anatolia, where they could make a comeback.

Of course, Ragusa, a vassal state of Wallachia, also suffered heavy losses. Previously, thanks to Hungary's prosperous economy, many merchants in Ragusa joined this feast. Many merchants went bankrupt and hoarded goods, intending to make a lot of money. As a result, before they made any moves, the Hungarian economy was over, and their assets were also over.

There were only more than 20,000 people in the whole of Ragusa, and one-tenth of them went bankrupt at once. Ragusa's foreign trade was severely hit, and it had to ask Wallachia for help. A large number of Wallachian merchants and chambers of commerce entered Ragusa and infiltrated every aspect of the city. No matter how much the city council tried to stop it, it was useless because of its size.

The Wallachian leu became the only currency in the Balkans. Under the coercion of force, Serbia was forced to abandon its original currency and adopt the leu as its own currency. At the same time, letters between the Serbian monarch and the Ottoman Sultan were intercepted, and the Ottoman army was exchanged for the territory of Wallachia and his loyalty to the Ottomans. They realized that Wallachia was a more dangerous country than the Ottomans.

Brankovic actively contacted Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, Poland, Bosnia, and Venice, attempting to create an anti-Walachia alliance, but Christian countries could not tolerate pagan alliances. Poland had no interest in Wallachia, and Hungary was busy fighting with Transylvania. The alliance failed. In response, the Wallachian navy set out from Belgrade into Serbian territory and plundered countless supplies.

As for Bosnia, Wallachia had no desire to deal with it for the time being, at least until it annexed Serbia and bordered it. In addition, Bosnia is located in the mountains, which will naturally increase the difficulty, so it still needs to be planned well.