"The envoys of the Kingdom of Castile, as well as the envoys of Venice, Genoa and Florence are here to meet you!" The sound of announcements rang out from the main hall to the side hall where the envoys from France were waiting, and then to the last person who was waiting here.
It was heard by five envoys representing four countries and translated into Castilian by students taught by Clavijo who knew Castilian.
"Alonso, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty finally summoned us. It's great. I'm impatient to wait." One of them said.
"Yes, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty is going to summon us." Alonso glanced at him, replied, and then whispered: "Since the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty is going to summon us, we'd better leave to see him now instead of
Continue chatting here. I don’t want your diplomacy to fail because of your disrespectful behavior towards the Ming Emperor.”
"In addition, you should have also been trained by Ming Dynasty diplomatic officials. You must completely follow their instructions in saluting. Otherwise, you will be kicked out of the palace and will not be able to talk directly with the Ming Emperor."
"The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty is really more arrogant than His Majesty the Pope." Another person shrugged and said: "Even if I was the ambassador to Rome before, when I met the Pope, I didn't need to use such complicated etiquette, and it couldn't be wrong at all.
.”
"This is of course because the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty is a more powerful person than the Pope. Although the Pope is the spokesman of the Lord, the people whom the Lord shines on are not as many as the people whom the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty rules. Although I don't want to admit this
.Okay, stop talking and follow me to see him." After saying this, Quijano walked out of the side hall with his head held high and walked towards the main hall under the guidance of the usher, with James Churchill following behind him.
.The remaining three people looked at each other and quickly followed.
…
…
"Your Majesty, Alonso de Quijano has already been received by you three times, and there is no need to introduce him again; this time his deputy is named James Churchill. James Churchill is not actually a Castilian.
But he is an Englishman. Of course, he is an English nobleman and holds the title of viscount. Because after Quijano returned, he told Prince Ferdinand and Queen Catherine, the regent, that you speak English, and Queen Catherine happened to be English, so
So he sent his trusted nobles back to England to select people to serve as deputy envoys for this mission to the Ming Dynasty. James Churchill was selected because his English accent was very similar to His Majesty's English accent."
"The other three people are envoys to the Ming Dynasty on behalf of the three republics of Venice, Genoa and Florence."
"I will first introduce to Your Majesty the basic situation of these three countries. Venice, Genoa, and Florence are all city-states, and their local areas are very small, only slightly larger than Shanghai. In addition, Venice and Genoa are also city-states.
It occupied some islands on the east coast of the Mediterranean, around the Aegean Sea and on the Black Sea coast as colonies. But even counting the colonial lands, the territories of Venice and Genoa are very small, about the same as Zhejiang Province; as for Florence, which has no overseas colonies
"Although we got the Port of Pisa in the fourth year of Jianye's reign, it was at most as big as Hangzhou Prefecture."
"Their populations are also not large. There are only more than 100,000 people in the three republics, including adult men, the elderly, women and children. However, this only refers to those who have citizenship rights. If you include those who do not have citizenship rights, the number is much higher.
"
"Before further introduction, I would like to explain to Your Majesty what a colony means. A colony refers to a colony that does not have any independent power, including political, economic, military and diplomatic aspects, and is controlled by the sovereign state, but the people are not citizens of the sovereign state.
Areas that do not enjoy civil rights. According to the Ming Dynasty's system, the army must accept the command of the Ming Dynasty court, and trade with surrounding countries must also be guided by the Ming court. They must pay taxes to the court, but the people cannot participate in the imperial examinations and cannot
Coming to the Central Plains to serve as officials is just like the status of the Han people when the Mongols ruled the Central Plains."
"But these three republics are considered powerful countries in Europe. Venice and Genoa have very powerful navies. They have used their navies to monopolize trade in the Eastern Mediterranean for a long time. They have developed commerce and have a lot of wealth through business, at least in Europe.
A lot of wealth. The armies of these two republics are very weak, but their territories are located in narrow strips or islands along the coast of the mainland. The army is of little use. If they need to use the army, they will pay to hire soldiers from other countries.
Mercenaries defend themselves, or mobilize their own citizens to fight. Because they live relatively affluent lives and have been doing business abroad for a long time, most citizens of Venice and Genoa are in good health and know some self-defense skills, so they can serve as soldiers."
"Florence is not the same as Venice or Genoa. Florence's main source of income is not its monopoly on trade in the Mediterranean, but its handicrafts and finance. Among the handicrafts, the textile industry is a pillar industry. The woolen fabrics and cloth produced in Florence are sold throughout Europe.
Even sold to West Asia and North Africa. Another pillar industry of theirs is the financial industry. After hearing that there were Jews in the Ming Dynasty, I once told His Majesty that the Jews in Europe are considered to be very good at doing business, and they almost monopolize the entire
The financial industry in Europe, with the exception of Florence. The Florentines absorbed the advanced business concepts of the Jews and established a bank that received a lot of business and made huge profits. With the profits from the textile industry and the financial industry, they also established a wealthy
nation."
"Your Majesty, I would like to say one more thing. The way you use the Jews is too wasteful. Jews are natural bankers, and they can manage the bank head office very well for you. But you cannot trust them too much. Jews.
They are all thieves, and they will try their best to make false accounts and put their employer's money into their own pockets. You can regularly replace them, search their homes, and acquit those who don't have extra property, and convict those who have extra property."
"Militarily, Florence has a small but capable navy and army with strong combat effectiveness; at the same time, Florentines actively court the Holy See in Rome, partly because of their faith, but also to obtain the protection of the Holy See, and also to earn money.
Profit. The Medici Bank, established by Giovanni de' Medici, managed part of the Holy See's wealth on its behalf and made huge profits by doing so."
"Next, I would like to introduce to Your Majesty the systems of these three republics. From just now, I have said that the three countries are republics. This term was borrowed from the Zhou Dynasty when the Duke of Zhou and Duke Zhao jointly handled the government affairs with King Li of Zhou.
The word 'republic' was coined because I felt that this word was the only one in Chinese history that could roughly describe the systems of these three countries."
"Take Venice as an example. The real authority in Venice is the Parliament. Members of the Parliament are elected by all adult men with citizenship, but only nobles can be elected. There is no hereditary monarch in Venice. The person with the highest power is elected by the Parliament through a complex
He is elected in a democratic manner, and his power is limited by parliament. Of course, the person with the highest power holds office for life until his death."
"Venice's military system has just been introduced in part. Here is one more point: Venice implements a compulsory military service system. All adult men with citizenship must be drafted when the country is in crisis. However, Venice rarely encounters this situation.
, and the country also has a lot of money, enough to pay high military salaries to soldiers, so that they will not fall into poverty because their business is delayed by serving as soldiers."
"Economically, Venice also has a system that is completely different from other European countries and from the Ming Dynasty. As mentioned before, Florence has a developed banking industry, and so does Venice. And they have also developed something that I don't quite understand.
Various commodity trading systems have been formulated to protect merchants. Various laws have been enacted to protect merchants. Some ministers do not understand this well and it is difficult to introduce it to Your Majesty. If Your Majesty wants to know more, you can ask the envoys of the three republics later. Although the systems of the three Republics are in detail
There are some differences, but it’s basically the same.” Claviyo ended his introduction with these words.
It is very tiring to say such words in one breath. Although Claviyo did not improvise and prepared for several days in advance, he not only recited it from beginning to end, but also wrote it on his clothes in very small characters, but he still said
There was sweat on his brow. After he finished his introduction, he couldn't help but wipe the sweat with his robe, and then stood quietly, waiting for Yun Hei's questions.
But after waiting for a while, he didn't hear any sound. He couldn't help but look up and saw Yunxi sitting on the chair with a gloomy face. His eyes seemed to be fixed on the door, but if he looked carefully,
, you will find that he is actually not paying attention to anything and is concentrating on what is on his mind.
'What's going on? Why did His Majesty react so loudly? What on earth is he thinking?' Claviyo couldn't help but think.
‘How is it possible, how is it possible, how is it possible that a country with such a system now exists?’ Yunxi thought uncontrollably in his heart.
In history textbooks, the importance of ancient history is lower than that of modern history. The roughly four thousand years of history from the Xia Dynasty to before the Opium War are only covered by two books, while the events from the Opium War to the recent past are only accounted for more than a hundred years.
There are only two books on foreign history, one on ancient history and one on modern history. However, how big is the world, and ancient history only occupies one book. For the European Middle Ages, I basically only introduce the European feudal system.
The development of Christianity, the Frankish Kingdom and the Holy Roman Empire, and even the expulsion of Tianfang believers from the Iberian Peninsula were mentioned in passing when introducing the opening of new shipping routes. Republics such as Venice were not mentioned at all. Anyway, Yunxi could not remember his previous life.
History books mention Venice or Genoa.
Moreover, because European scholars have always talked about the "dark Middle Ages", Yunxi was not interested in the history of the Middle Ages. He always believed that Europe in the Middle Ages was a backward feudal country, and that various modern systems were gradually developed after the opening of new shipping routes.
The established history of more than three hundred years from 1500 to 1800 seems to be enough to develop modern political and economic systems.
But after listening to Clavijo's explanation, he realized that his idea was probably wrong. In the Middle Ages, Europe already had the germination of the capitalist system! A parliament elected by citizens, the highest authority that cannot be hereditary, and compulsory military service.
System, based on business, legislation to protect businessmen, etc., are very similar to modern European capitalist countries, such as the Netherlands and Britain!
‘The Netherlands was not founded by a group of Venetian and Genoese merchants who transferred their capital to the Netherlands after the Mediterranean trade gradually declined, right?’ He even doubted the origin of the Netherlands.
Yunxi thought for a while and then asked Clavijo: "Ke Qing, how long have these three republics existed?"
"Your Majesty, Venice has existed for more than seven hundred years, the Republic of Genoa has existed for more than three hundred years, and the Republic of Florence has a history of more than two hundred years." Clavio replied.
"It's been so long." Yunxi said with a hint of doubt: "Won't the Pope care? Does he want such a country to exist?"
"Of course the Pope did not want the Republic to exist. But because of the complicated situation in Europe at that time, the Pope actually did not have enough ways to deal with the Republic of Venice. Moreover, in the early days of the establishment of the Republic of Venice, it also received support from the Eastern Romans. As it became stronger
In the end, the Pope had no choice but to treat it as if he had not seen it. The development of subsequent republics such as Genoa was also similar."
"It's very interesting, really interesting." Yunxi murmured a few more words, stopped asking questions, and said to Fu An beside him: "You can summon the envoys from these countries to meet you." Fu An agreed and hurriedly gave instructions.
.
Jijano and others had been waiting impatiently outside the hall for a long time. When they heard the official summons, they puffed up their chests, straightened their clothes again, some even wiped their sweat with handkerchiefs, and lined up to enter the hall. When they saw the main seat
Quijano immediately knelt down to salute the man wearing a bright yellow dragon robe, and said in Chinese: "The foreign minister, Alonso de Quijano, the envoy of the Kingdom of Castile, has met His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Empire.
"
"James Churchill, the foreign minister and deputy envoy of the Kingdom of Castile, has met His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Empire!" James Churchill said in English.
"Diego de' Medici, the envoy of the Republic of Florence, pays homage to His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty." Another young man knelt down on one knee and said in Italian. The remaining two people looked at each other and also knelt down on one knee and said: "Venice
/Niccolò Doria/Alessandro Gordenico, the envoy of the Republic of Genoa, pays homage to His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.” (To be continued)