Prince Eric had been tied up. When he saw his stepmother leading Wang Ji into the castle with a flattering smile on her face, he immediately said angrily: "What do you want to do? Have you already surrendered to the enemy?"
The queen was too lazy to pay attention to her stepson, but said to Wang Ji: "Your Majesty, please come with me. It's dark down there. Be careful, there are torches on the wall."
Wang Ji asked someone to take down a few torches and light them, and followed the queen to the basement.
The queen lifted a corner of the carpet, revealing an iron floor, and said, "It's too heavy, I can't open it."
The two soldiers pulled the ring and worked together to pull the iron floor apart, revealing narrow and steep steps.
Wang Ji came to the secret room with a torch and saw several boxes inside.
The first box was opened and it was full of copper coins.
The second box was opened and it was full of copper coins.
The third box...all the way to the sixth box contains copper coins.
Finally, starting from the seventh box, it finally turned into silver coins.
"Old Chen, check the quality." Wang Ji said.
One of the attendants grabbed a handful of silver coins, without bothering to examine them carefully, and said to Wang Ji: "Your Majesty, the weight is wrong. Even if it is really a silver coin, the fineness is probably very poor."
Wang Ji's face instantly turned dark: "Is this the fucking king's treasure?"
Any prince of a prince in India is more than ten times richer than the king of Sweden, and those sultans are even more extremely rich. Wang Ji has already made a lot of money from fighting in India.
The queen trembled and said: "Your Majesty, the King of Sweden is the richest monarch in Northern Europe. There were some gold and silver coins originally, but the military expenses for the attack on Norway have been used for the expedition."
Poor guy!
Although the King of Sweden owns two-thirds of the country's land, the agriculture here is not developed, and the yield per mu is less than one-tenth of that in the Jiangnan area of the Ming Dynasty.
Sweden's real financial resources are copper ore, iron ore and timber.
In central Sweden, there is a forest called Nellislagen, which is full of copper mines, iron ores and lead-zinc mines. The copper mine output in this place alone accounts for two-thirds of Europe's copper mine output, and the iron ore mines are all
It is a rich ore with large quantity.
However, Sweden's population is too small and its iron-smelting technology is underdeveloped, resulting in a stagnant increase in steel production.
Sweden's domestic currency is mainly copper coins, which are made with rough craftsmanship and are looked down upon by the nobility. They cannot be circulated abroad and can only fool small landowners and farmers.
Nobles liked silver coins, but Sweden's national silver production was very low.
Silverware is a symbol of nobility in Sweden. The craftsmen of silverware are highly skilled. Nobles and priests of all sizes like to use silverware. Gustavus I overthrew the church and the great nobles. Among the trophies he took, the most valuable was not the land, but the land.
All kinds of silverware.
This guy steals silverware, melts it, mixes it with copper to make silver coins, and then uses it for military expenses.
Swedish silver coins are ridiculous. 60% of them are copper. They cannot be circulated outside the country. They are a joke in the eyes of merchants from all over the world.
Wang Ji no longer thinks about making money. The Swedish king's treasure is only enough for his military expenses for one month (excluding the navy). After spending all the money he brought, he really doesn't know how to raise an army. This place really has nothing.
Conquer value.
After coming out of the secret room, Wang Ji went to take over the royal family's property.
The main industries are copper-iron ore and land, and the Nellislagen mining area has all been nationalized.
All kinds of account books and documents were written in Latin. Zhou Fei, who had already learned Latin, was immediately stunned by Sweden's annual copper production, and exclaimed: "My dear, if it were placed in the Ming Dynasty, it would be better to guard that mining area."
Rich as a country!"
"It's a pity that copper coins are not valuable in Europe, and no one wants them outside Sweden." Wang Ji sighed.
Before the great voyage of discovery, the price ratio of silver and copper in Europe was about 1:100 or more.
After the rise of the Great Navigation, due to the large inflow of silver, except for Sweden, other countries did not accept copper coins at all. At this time, copper coins were almost extinct in the European continent. It would probably take another hundred years for copper coins to revive and become widespread in Europe.
At that time, Sweden took the opportunity to issue a large number of copper coins. While making money, the value of the currency collapsed. It simply switched to issuing more deceptive banknotes.
As for why European copper coins revived in the seventeenth century, it was because at that time steel smelting technology improved, copper production from the colonies increased, and the increase in population also provided a market for copper coins.
I don’t know if they learned from China. The government issued copper coins to the people, but only collected gold and silver for taxes, profiting from it and plundering the people, causing chaos in the financial system. The French government felt something was wrong and banned the minting of copper coins, but it was unable to take them back.
They can only continue to be used by the public. The French government no longer issues copper coins, but nobles and capitalists took the opportunity to mint them privately, causing copper coins to become increasingly widespread and of poor quality.
At this moment, Wang Ji, who owns the largest copper mine in Europe, is beginning to worry about having no money to spend.
Sold abroad?
Of course, copper mines are strategic resources and can be used to cast cannons. However, Sweden's foreign trade has long been monopolized by the Hanseatic League. The price is so low that it is like giving it away, and it cannot be sold at the price it deserves.
Hanseatic League... Wang Ji suddenly laughed.
The Hanseatic League is a federation of commercial cities. Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, and Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, are all affiliated cities of the Hanseatic League. German merchants have tax-free privileges in Northern Europe and exclude other merchants. They regard the Baltic Sea as their inland sea.
Wang Ji's navy really has no fear of other forces in Europe except Spain and the Ottomans.
Then fight, the Baltic Sea is full of merchant ships of the Hanseatic League, and the Danish navy has all turned into pirates to rob. Domestic goods must continue to be sold, so introduce Dutch merchants. Of course, the Netherlands cannot monopolize trade. In the end, a balance point must be reached.
, pitting Dutch and German merchants against each other.
Looking at the Swedish king's land book again, Wang Ji felt a sense of despair.
Two-thirds of the country's land is owned by the Swedish royal family, which sounds awesome. But at this time, Sweden was covered in forests, the amount of land cultivated was very small, and the yield per mu was appallingly low.
Farmers can't make much money out of oil and water.
The only thing that pleased Wang Ji was that the Swedish king had cleared away the local nobles, and the degree of centralization of power was much higher than that of Denmark and Norway.
"What's the sound outside?" Wang Ji suddenly raised his head.
Before he left the room, a personal attendant ran in: "Your Majesty, the pirates are plundering the city, and I can't stop them even if I want to. The country...Li Guozhang is taking the lead in the plunder..."
Li Guozhang is the Australian pirate leader Li Shun.
When Wang Ji was adventuring in Australia, he was forcefully recruited by Li Shun as his son-in-law. This time, he dragged his family and his family to follow Wang Ji on his expedition to Northern Europe.
Wang Ji and Zhou Fei quickly went out to check the situation.
It turned out that not only the pirates were robbing, but Indian untouchable soldiers and some of Wang Ji's old subordinates also joined in the robbing.
Poor Stockholm, as the capital of Sweden, has only 20,000 citizens, and thousands of people have been killed by rioters at this time.
Wang Ji was furious, summoned his personal guards, rushed to the streets and began to suppress them.
When attacking the castle, Wang Ji's soldiers suffered no casualties, but now he himself hacked to death more than ten.
Holding the heads of the rebels and shouting all the way, the commotion finally subsided, and everyone knew that the king was serious this time.
Wang Ji rushed to his father-in-law and shouted: "Li Shun, don't stop me yet!"
Li Shun couldn't help but tremble when he saw the heads of the rebels, and said with a shy smile: "Your Majesty, why should you take it seriously? They are all our own."
Wang Ji asked: "What did I say before going to the expedition?"
Li Shun defended: "When we were in Denmark, we didn't plunder. After all, it was our own territory. It's different here. It's an enemy country. If you don't rob, you won't rob. To be honest, this place is really poor. Except for a few shops,
The rest are just poor people."
Wang Ji said angrily: "This is also my territory! You are the head of the state, what is your status? Are you afraid that you will have no money to use it in the future?"
Li Shun smiled and said: "I have been a pirate for too long and I am used to it. I won't be the same again... Haha, I won't be the same next time."
Wang Ji held the handle of the knife with his right hand, tightening it and loosening it, then loosening it and tightening it again. Finally, he slashed out with the knife and hacked his father-in-law directly to death.
After cutting off his father-in-law's head, Wang Ji rode on horseback and shouted: "Gather the whole army, I want to lecture you!"
These pirates are so serious that they don’t even know what military orders are!