Chapter 246 Profits Drive Expansion

Paris, the capital of France, is synonymous with fashion in later generations, but Paris now has nothing to do with fashion. The Hundred Years' War brought great trauma to the city, and local forces did not listen to the king's command. Only Paris and several surrounding places had influence, which is also the origin of the Count of Ile-de-France.

At this time, the King of France was Charles VI. After his father's hard work, France fell into chaos again due to Charles VI's mental illness. There were many contradictions between the feudal lords. The Orleans faction and the Burgundian faction fought endlessly for the regency of Charles VI. Urban residents and farmers rioted many times due to the harsh living environment. In 1382, Rouen and Paris both had citizen riots against heavy taxes (Plumb Party Movement).

Peter and his party left Genoa and went to Toulon, a city in southern France, and then went north to Paris. There was another quarrel in France about who would be responsible for diplomacy with Rome.

Charles I, Duke of Orleans, and Philip II, Duke of Burgundy, both wanted to be responsible for themselves. Their supporters quarreled endlessly at the Regency Meeting, and finally unanimously decided that both sides would be responsible together. The guests from the East must be given the highest level of welcome.

Peter saw along the way that the peasants were in ragged clothes, there were few merchants and travelers, and many places had not yet recovered from the smoke of war. It was no wonder that England occupied a large area of ​​land in the future war, and even Paris was lost.

He wanted to meet the mentally ill Charles VI, but the regent would definitely not agree. Charles VII, who led France to victory, was not born yet, and the trip to Western Europe was just like that. He just wanted to complete the task quickly and return to Constantinople, which he had been thinking about.

The relationship between Rome and Britain and France was lukewarm. They were too far apart, and no one could get there in time if they had any trouble. Besides, Rome no longer needed help. This was just an ordinary visit.

There was nothing going on in Western Europe, but Central and Eastern Europe began to get lively. Sigismund, relying on the support of Upper Austria, gathered an army of 12,000 people to recover the lost land of Hungary. Mary also assembled the army, and a total of 10,000 Hungarian troops and 3,000 mercenaries were concentrating on Buda. Duke Bozzoni also assembled his army and was on standby at any time. Both of them sent letters, hoping that he would join their side.

In Bozzoni Castle, since the Duke was often absent, he appointed an oriental noble, Count Pinsk, to handle government affairs.

"According to the latest news, His Highness has arrived in Paris and will come to Hungary at least three months later."

The Count listened to the news without stopping his movements. Although he knew which force to invest in from the beginning, he still couldn't believe that the prince of the Roman Empire would be loyal to the King of Hungary as a duke. It was not in accordance with etiquette no matter how you looked at it.

Spending so much money to get a title in Hungary, although there was a lot of land, it could be lost at any time on the border between Hungary and Poland. This was too unsafe.

But Caesar's mind could not be understood by him as a count. It was precisely because it was located on the Polish border that he had to control this place, especially Bozzoni, which was the northern fortress of Buda. Without this place, Buda, located on the plain, would be easily attacked.

Another key defense of Buda is Vienna. The two places are more than 200 kilometers apart. Buda can be attacked by going down the Danube. Why did the Ottomans attack Vienna? It was to gain a barrier to consolidate Hungary.

If the Habsburgs want to stay in Austria, they must take Hungary, otherwise Vienna will be exposed to the enemy. Although they can move the capital to Linz, it is unrealistic under the current situation of the Habsburg division.

"The showdown is about to begin. I hope this place can withstand their attack."

The Hungarian War is about to restart. As the third force, Bozzoni cannot escape. In this case, embrace the war.

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Rome has a colony in the East. This news is currently known only to the people of the Chamber of Commerce. The Southern Chamber of Commerce has developed slowly due to its late establishment and small business. Now that it has a colony, they immediately determined a new direction, which is to be responsible for the distant Eastern trade.

Because of Timur, the trade between Syria and Anatolia has not yet resumed, and only the Egyptian trade route in the south is operating as usual. Venice was also keen to buy spices from Egypt, so opening up and monopolizing the Egyptian trade route was the primary task of their Chamber of Commerce.

To open up the trade route, it was not enough to rely on land navigation. A canal must be opened to connect the Mediterranean and the Red Sea to promote trade.

To open the canal, sufficient labor must be obtained. Recruiting from within the empire was impossible, and no one would go thousands of miles away to dig a canal, so slaves became the only option.

The Chamber of Commerce bought slaves from the Arabs and transported them to Suez to dig the canal. This alleviated the pressure of labor shortage to a certain extent, but the cost of the canal and the cost of buying slaves caused the Chamber of Commerce's expenditure to increase dramatically, which forced the Chamber of Commerce to find ways to obtain income from other aspects to alleviate financial pressure, otherwise there was only one way to go bankrupt.

Fortunately, the three Chamber of Commerce ships that returned from the port of Andronikos returned with some spices and ivory. They were sold at a price of nearly 80,000 ducats in the market in Constantinople, which made up for the loophole. The Chamber of Commerce decided to continue investing in the canal excavation, only in this way could the Chamber of Commerce's income be guaranteed.

If you want to invest, you need money. Whoever has more money can occupy more colonies. Besides the Chamber of Commerce, who else has the most money? The answer is the bank.

The Roman bank, which was founded by Caesar, developed and recovered very quickly. They were not only engaged in deposits and loans, but also in foreign exchange and currency exchange projects. The bank collected commissions from them. Relying on these projects, the Roman bank was able to gain a foothold, and it did not affect the business in various regions after Peter withdrew 300,000 gold coins. It can be seen that the strength of the Roman bank now. In each bank, they adopted the Genoese accounting method. In the East at that time, no one knew about this accounting method. The bank's assets also grew rapidly.

The Southern Chamber of Commerce had a closer relationship with the Southern Bank located in Palermo and Cairo. Due to the half of the Mediterranean Sea, the foreign exchange business was very prosperous. The Chamber of Commerce decided to cooperate with the Cairo Bank to jointly realize this adventure.

Constantinople gradually improved. With the influx of nobles and merchants, the industries they brought were also settled around. The whole place had gotten rid of the economic impact of the Crusaders and was developing in a good way. Of course, Galata was still very uncomfortable in the hands of Genoa.