This marriage is extremely important to both countries, and it is also a matter of mutual benefit to both parties.
After the marriage, the Spaniards were able to gain more support from the Tang Dynasty to fight against the Tatars while maintaining their colonization in the Americas.
In particular, obtaining financial support from the Tang Dynasty is very important to the current Spaniards.
The loan negotiations between Spain and the Tang Dynasty have been going on for more than a year, and have been dragging on with no results, which made Philip II quite upset.
Decades of long wars have already made the Spanish finances unable to make ends meet. This situation is not caused by the Tatars' invasion of Europe. In fact, before the Tatars invaded Europe, the Spanish's financial situation was actually very poor.
Unfortunately, after the death of Charles V, the debt left to Philip II reached 37 million ducats.
The standard gold content of a Dhaka gold coin is 3.545 grams. These 37 million Dhaka gold coins are almost equal to 20 million Tang yuan. This is not a small number, but a quite huge number.
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Even when the Tang Empire ran a fiscal deficit in its early days, the debt it owed was only tens of millions.
Philip II was also a troublemaker. Before the Tatars invaded Europe, they had already launched frequent wars, leading to high debts. Not to mention it after the Tatars invaded Europe.
Regardless of whether Spain is willing or not, it has armed a large-scale army to fight against the Tatars. So far, the number of Spanish troops used to fight against the Tatars on the French front has reached more than 300,000.
In addition, the Spanish also supported France, Austria and other regions in their early fight against the Tatars, and the cost was huge.
So far, the Spanish royal family has owed a total of 50 million Tang Yuan in debt, most of which is owed to local bankers in Europe. As for the Tang Dynasty, it is not much, just more than 2 million Tang Yuan.
, the interest rates are also very low, because these loans are not just loans, they are basically arms loans.
These ordnance loans basically fall into the category of military assistance and are not simple loans.
With so much debt, except for Datang's loans, which have slightly lower interest rates and can be repaid in installments, other debts generally have high interest rates and short repayment times.
With so much money, the Spanish royal family would not be able to repay it under normal operating conditions, even if it is just to repay the interest!
Therefore, Philip II did not engage in normal operations. He had already acted rogue three times and declared bankruptcy!
Of course, bankruptcy does not mean that you will no longer be able to repay your debts, it just suspends the repayment of your debts.
The main operation is to forcibly convert high-interest, short-term debt into long-term bonds with fixed low interest rates. Such an operation has caused many European bankers to go bankrupt, and even the famous Fogel family in Europe almost went bankrupt.
Being driven bankrupt by Philip II, that was a wealthy family with assets of several million yuan!
However, after such a rogue operation, the financial pressure has been reduced a lot, and we can barely afford it.
However, even so, a considerable part of Spain's current annual income must be used to pay interest.
Not to mention that there is still a war going on.
The Spaniards are particularly short of money now, very, very short of money!
We have been negotiating for a loan with Datang for a long time, but because of the huge amount, the Spaniards hope to loan at least 10 million Tang yuan to maintain, form new troops, and build permanent fortress defense lines in Western Europe to completely block the Tatars.
Central France region.
Naturally, such a huge loan can only be negotiated.
Moreover, Spain wanted more than just a loan. Philip II also hoped to develop some mutually beneficial industrial and commercial cooperation with Datang and make money through cooperation.
After all, he is not stupid. He knows that borrowing money is for emergencies and making money is the way to go.
Spain hopes that both parties can carry out deeper cooperation in the development and management of the American colonies. It also hopes that Datang will bring them along when doing business in Europe.
The Spanish's large colonies in the Americas now give the Spanish the biggest harvest in precious metals.
However, in addition to precious metals, with the development over the years, the Spaniards have also opened up large areas of local agriculture. The output of various crops, especially cash crops such as coffee and cane sugar, is increasing, and these cash crops are not only transported back to Europe.
In addition, quite a few of them were acquired by Datang businessmen.
Now Philip II hopes that the two sides will carry out deeper cooperation in the American colonies.
Don’t you Tang Dynasty people buy all kinds of raw materials and agricultural products from all over the world? We have many colonies in the Americas. Even if we don’t have them now, as long as the two parties negotiate, I will hire a large number of workers for free to cultivate plantations!
In addition to colonial cooperation, Spain also hopes that Datang will take them with them in European trade.
For example, in recent years, you people from the Tang Dynasty have gone to Scotland to purchase coal in large quantities. This coal is not a scarce thing, we have it too!
Not only coal, we also have other things.
These are all businesses, and business can be done!
In short, the Spaniards hope to reach many commercial and trade cooperation agreements with Datang, not just loans!
This is also the reason why the two sides have been talking for more than a year and have yet to reach an agreement.
Why?
Datang did not want to reach a similar agreement with an indigenous country!
How should I put it? People in the Tang Dynasty are very concerned about face. They can do business with you, but they cannot sign agreements with you!
Why don't they want to sign these agreements? Because the people of the Tang Dynasty always feel that it would be embarrassing to sign similar agreements with these barbarians.
And another very important point is that without signing an agreement, Datang merchants can do whatever they like without feeling any binding force. However, if they sign an agreement, they need to abide by many rules.
Datang merchants did not like this even more.
People of the Tang Dynasty liked to do business freely, especially those trading companies with overseas trade licenses.
You must know that although Datang has entered the steam age and begun globalization, overseas trade is not the same as in the past. Only a special few trading firms that have obtained overseas trade licenses can participate.
In fact, although Datang has not officially abolished overseas trade licenses, they have become virtually useless. Except for a few special industries that still have strict bans, such as arms trade and trade involving sensitive materials such as machinery and equipment, other
Ordinary trade no longer requires an overseas trade license.
However, although this situation seems common, doing business overseas still requires the support of force, and armed merchant ships and armed sailors are still necessary. Otherwise, the natives in many places still dare to use swords and spears as robbers, because
They simply don't know how powerful the Tang Dynasty is.