Chapter 317

In John's opinion, it was good enough that he could ensure that Florence would not be plundered by the enemy. As a result, he was attacked because of this, or he colluded with the enemy, which was almost the same.

This Florence can't stay, so move to Constantinople, where the market is recovering, and it shouldn't be difficult to do business again.

There are too many political families in northern Italy, and the so-called ancient Greek system changes too quickly. Some families can control the government for a long time, while others are forced to go into exile, and some rely on a big country to turn this place into a hereditary system, such as the Della Rovere family in Romagna.

After relying on Rome to obtain the Romagna region, the Duke began to eliminate local forces. With the help of Rome, centralization has been completed near Ancona. And relying on the port, agricultural products produced in Romagna can be transported to other places.

After the Black Sea, the Adriatic Sea was also controlled by Rome and its allies. It is no problem to keep the main body of the east by relying on natural barriers such as the Alps, the Carpathians and the Danube.

In the vast overseas areas, the East India Company began to vigorously recruit immigrants to overseas colonies. According to the report of Mason, the governor of the East, there are less than 1,200 natives in the places they rule, and most of them are men.

They have also thought about assimilating local residents, but except for the Aden colony, the people of other countries are not very good. So it is still a policy to support local local snakes, but it is possible to be bitten back.

Let alone immigration, even the local population is not enough. The last census showed that there were nearly 7 million people in Rome. With this territorial expansion, the population can reach 8 million.

8 million people live in an area of ​​1 million square kilometers, which looks a bit sparse. The Roman central government and local governments have taken various measures to encourage fertility, and have vigorously built hospitals and improved the social status of doctors, but population growth is not achieved overnight. It is a long process.

At this time, let alone Rome, all European countries have to increase their population. The Black Death a few decades ago directly took away a quarter to a third of the population in Europe, and some countries lost more than 60% of their population. But due to the impact of war and local policies, some people began to move again.

The East India Company tried to recruit immigrants from Naples and Poland to fill the population, and also used the Arab slave trade to buy slaves in the Caucasus to expand the labor force. As for the pirate from the East, the colony is working hard to expand its armaments, and at worst it can stick to the current expansion range.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the company has been established for two years. We have achieved great success, and the trade of spices is firmly in the hands of the company."

Kadaj told the directors of the company about their achievements, because the monopoly of the Eastern trade is enough to make everyone present rich. As long as they want, they can leave the company at any time to live their own lives.

Other departments may be like this, but the missionary department is not interested in profit. They are all selected from religious orders and churches in various places to form a department dedicated to spreading the gospel of God.

An idea that combines expansion, religion and other factors is widely circulated in the Orthodox Church. Influenced by the Iberian Reconquista, the Orthodox Church strongly supports missionary and military expansion after being oppressed for centuries. They set Anatolia and Jerusalem as their targets and supported the restoration of the empire's original territory.

As the scope of the colonies became larger and larger, Mason also established five local institutions in the eastern colonies: Aden Province, Andronikos Province, North India Province, South India Province and Ceylon Province. Each place is managed by the personnel of the trading post. In addition to trade and missionary work, they also negotiate and expand with local snakes in various places.

Ceylon Province should be the easiest because it is an island. The forces on the island are complicated, and the company took this opportunity to expand its power. After Aden was captured, those Arab merchants could only trade from Muscat, and the trade with Ceylon was reduced.

The Arab merchants who stayed here also moved to other places, and their trading posts were sold to the company at a low price. After obtaining more trading places, the governor of Ceylon Province began to gradually erode the island. Use differentiation and weapons to expand their control.

Such colonial expansion began to lead to a trade, first buying slaves from the Golden Horde and the Caucasus, then taking them to Aden for trading, leaving some to go to India and Ceylon, and then using slaves to trade spices and gems, so that a small triangular trade was completed.

However, it was still a bit far to buy slaves from the Golden Horde. In Andronikos Port, the locals preferred to use black slaves, and those who wanted to serve would be castrated first. The rest went to work in plantations or other places.

The king of Abyssinia looked at the money of the East India Company and had already ruled most of East Africa. The king began to take a step further and give more privileges to the company.

David planned to rebuild a capital on this plateau, but he had no money, so he sent someone to the East India Company to see if he could borrow more.

Since building the capital was a huge project, the company had to be very cautious. According to Minister David, it would take 400,000 gold lei and ten years to complete it. This is still a preliminary estimate, and the more money you need in the future, the more money you will need.

"Special Envoy, the Empire is in urgent need of this money, and Your Majesty hopes to demonstrate the country's strength. Besides, our country has always been your partner. As long as we can lend money, we can discuss everything except ceding land."

Hearing this, the high official Andronikos was tempted. However, he still had to report to the governor. In order to retain the other party, he first said that he could solve part of the funds, and then it would take a long time to negotiate and then conclude a contract.

Abyssinia was already inseparable from the Roman colony at this time, and the port of Andronikos exported a large number of products from the kingdom. After the sales of coffee in Constantinople soared, port merchants began to purchase a large number of these red fruits. Local farmers benefited from this business model to make money, and David also saw the opportunity and directly announced a tax on coffee nationwide. This gave him a long-term income.

In addition, the East India Company also had exclusive trade rights for wine, ivory, etc. Some prisoners of war could also be sold to Rome, and Abyssinia began to be involved in the market of the Roman Empire.

There are good and bad ones, and those local rulers who lost their land hated the East India Company in their hearts. If they could make a comeback, they would raze this place to the ground.