Duke Brand is happily reporting the good news from the Ming Empire to the Spanish Emperor Charles V.
"Your Majesty, the Emperor of Heaven has heard that the Spanish Empire is suffering from the Black Death. He is deeply sympathized with it and is willing to provide us with help and support. He is also willing to sell a batch of penicillin to Spain."
Duke Brand feels that the Spanish Empire is still very respectable. The Ming Empire is worthy of being an ally all the time and is indeed very supportive of Spain.
Whether it was the previous wars against England and the French or now, the Ming Empire has provided a lot of help to the Spanish Empire.
Of course, the Spanish Empire also spent a lot of money on this, and it still owes a huge debt to the Ming Empire. The debt of tens of millions of taels of silver weighs on the Spanish Empire like a heavy burden.
Fortunately, the Spanish Empire has huge overseas colonies and can reduce this burden by plundering the colonies. Otherwise, the annual interest alone would be enough to trouble the Spanish Empire.
When the people of the Ming Dynasty were good, they were really good. The food could be sold to Europeans at such low prices, but when it was time to make money, it was not at all good. People all over the world owed money to the people of the Ming Dynasty.
From the Spanish Empire to France, England, to the Ottoman Empire, the Persian Empire, Egypt, etc., almost every country owes a lot of debt to the Ming Empire, or has a large amount of standing indemnity that has not been paid.
The scale of these funds is very large. Someone has calculated that the total may be hundreds of millions of taels of silver, and the interest generated every year is 20 to 30 million taels of silver.
Of course, for the Spanish Empire, these arrears are all willing, and they even think that the Ming people are interested in themselves. Otherwise, how could they sell you arms and weapons on credit and win several important foreign wars in succession?
You must know that when the French wanted to borrow money from the Ming Empire to buy arms and weapons, the Ming Empire refused because of their relationship with the Spanish Empire.
It is not easy to borrow money from people in the Ming Dynasty. It depends on the relationship. Only if you have a good relationship will they be willing to lend it to you.
Just like now, this penicillin is in demand all over the world and it is hard to find a medicine. However, as long as the Spanish Empire opens its mouth, the Emperor of Heaven still gives the Spanish Empire face and agrees to sell a separate batch of penicillin to the Spanish Empire.
.
"Haha, great!"
"With this penicillin, we can treat many people."
When Charles V heard this, he immediately laughed happily.
"Yes, Your Majesty, with this penicillin, the Black Death will be nothing to worry about."
Duke Brand also nodded and said.
"Hurry up and send the money so that the people of Ming Dynasty can transport the penicillin as soon as possible."
Charles V was in a good mood. The Spanish Empire was prospering under his governance. This huge empire was inherited from his grandfather.
There is also the Holy Roman Empire inherited from his grandfather. At this time, the Holy Roman Empire was much inferior to the Spanish Empire.
Although the Holy Roman Empire was an empire at this time, it was actually divided into countless states. These states were very powerful. Even the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was elected by electors.
This is also a common phenomenon in Europe. An empire is often composed of many states. They appear to be unified, but in fact they are not unified and scattered.
Charles V was the Emperor of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. It seemed that the two countries were integrated and under the rule of the same monarch.
But in fact, even if the emperor is the same person, the two countries are still different countries and cannot be merged into one country.
The young Charles V inherited the ambition of his grandfather and grandfather, and his dream was to unify the entire Europe. Now his main task is to unify the Spanish Empire and the Holy Roman Empire first.
However, this encountered strong opposition from all parties, especially the many princes and nobles of the Holy Roman Empire, who strongly opposed this.
It does not mean that he is the Emperor of Spain and the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Spain is unified with the Holy Roman Empire, and the two are still two different countries.
It is only because of a series of complicated marriages between European monarchs and nobles that the two countries share the same monarch.
"Your Majesty, maybe we can't afford that much money."
When Duke Brand heard this, he immediately said in embarrassment.
"I heard that penicillin is very expensive, but it doesn't mean that our mighty Spanish empire can't afford a batch of penicillin, right?"
When Charles V heard this, he immediately frowned and said.
"Your Majesty, the price of penicillin is very expensive. Even in the Ming Empire, the price is comparable to gold. When exported to Europe, the price is even more expensive. A box of penicillin in Europe has reached the terrifying level of more than a thousand taels of silver.
."
"Although the Ming Empire promised to export a batch of penicillin to us, the price is cheaper than on the market, but a box of penicillin still costs more than 100 taels of silver."
"If we calculate it, the total price of the penicillin we purchased will exceed 5 million silver!"
Duke Brand wiped the sweat from his forehead and said.
The products of Daming people are really as good as ever, good and good, but the price is really expensive.
"You want 5 million taels of silver?"
"Isn't this too expensive?"
When he heard the figures reported by Duke Brand, Charles V was dumbfounded. It was just a batch of medicine, but it actually cost 5 million taels of silver. This was really more expensive than gold.
"Your Majesty, these 5 million taels of silver are already a friendly price given by the Ming Empire. If you buy them on the market, the price may be doubled."
Duke Brand quickly reminded.
"That's it~"
When Charles V heard this, he stood up immediately, rolled his eyes and said: "Go and inform all the nobles of the Spanish Empire and the Holy Roman Empire that we have a batch of penicillin in our hands at a cheap price. If they want to buy it,
If so, give me 500 taels of silver per box and ask them to remit the silver first through the First Bank of Ming Dynasty."
"Your Majesty, 500 taels of silver per box?"
When Brand heard this, he was immediately shocked. "Charlie V, you are planning to make a fortune by reselling it. Now you have sold it five times to the nobles, which is equivalent to making almost 20 million taels of silver."
There is no need to worry about selling penicillin now. There is not enough to sell, so the nobles are desperately trying to find ways to buy some.
Duke Brand immediately felt that this was a good deal.
"if not?"
Charles V nodded and said.
"If I don't make a fortune, how can I get the money to build my royal army?"
"Your Majesty is wise!"
Brand understood immediately.
Although Charles V was also very young, only in his 20s, he was a very ambitious, accomplished and intelligent monarch. He inherited the legacy of his grandfather and wanted to unify Europe with the Spanish Empire as the core and establish a
A great unified empire similar to the Ming Empire.
But this is obviously very difficult. If nothing else, just unifying the Holy Roman Empire is very difficult.
The seemingly unified Holy Roman Empire was composed of many states. The nobles and grand dukes in various places called themselves one country and had the right to tax, conscript, etc. in their respective territories. They were the real princes.
They became the biggest obstacle to Charles V's unification of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. They were now a thorn in Charles V's side and the first target to be eliminated.
Charles V has been studying and studying the history of the Ming Empire and the history of the East, from which he also gained a lot of inspiration.
He believed that the reason why the Ming Empire was so powerful was because the Ming Empire had begun to establish a unified empire a long time ago.
The Ming Empire abolished the vassal system and truly controlled every part of the entire empire, so the Ming Empire was able to gather powerful forces to do some major things.
It's different here in Europe. They are extremely scattered. Even if they are unified for a short time, they will soon be dispersed because the language and writing are not unified, and there is no strong system to maintain it.
If he wanted to abolish the nobles and princes of this kind of state, Charles V knew clearly that what he needed was a powerful army, similar to the army of the Ming Empire.
Only with a strong army in hand can you suppress all those who oppose you and realize your ambitions and ambitions.
He still has a lot of things to do, and the basis of all this is that he can truly hold power like the emperor of the Ming Empire and have the strength to sweep away all opposition forces.
In the future, we must learn from the Ming Empire, divide the provincial system, break the monopoly of the aristocrats, and abolish the princes; we must also study the same language and writing system as the writing system; we must also learn the official selection system of the Ming Empire to break the monopoly of the aristocrats.
etc.
Charles V had great ambitions and great ideals. The influence from the East made him determined to a large extent to learn from the Ming Empire in order to build a unified and powerful European empire.
"This thing needs to be done beautifully, and no one will know that I made the difference."
Charles V looked at Duke Brand and said.
The meaning is very clear. Let Duke Brand not leak the news. Some things are better done in secret. Once you have money, you can secretly form the royal army. At the critical moment, you can turn the tide and win the battle.
burden.
"I understand, I understand."
Duke Brand nodded repeatedly, with cold sweat breaking out from behind. This Charles V was even more powerful than his grandfather. The price difference of 20 million taels of silver, such a huge amount of silver, was enough for Charles V to do many things, and
What he chose was to form a powerful army.
Brand can even see the bloody storm in the future.
