The Rise of the European Emperor

As soon as they heard that they were going to pay, the princes all looked as if they were mourning, and their faces were extremely ugly. Although there are many princes in the German region, most of them are in poor economic conditions. After all, most of Germany has a bad climate. The southern region with a good climate is mostly mountainous. As a result, the output of the princes' territories is not high, and everyone has little money.

In addition, the longer the family, the more prosperous the population, the worse the economic conditions. The reason is very simple. Originally a duke, most of the land in the dukedom belonged to him. At this time, his economy is the most affluent.

But if the duke has more than one son, he must distribute the land to the other sons. Then, the land under the name of the next generation of dukes was less. In the era when there was no widespread taxation, less land meant less fiscal revenue.

Then, the next generation of dukes, the old duke distributed a lot of land to other sons, and the new duke had even less land... From generation to generation, the fiscal revenue of the duke became less and less.

Therefore, many European princes encouraged the development of commerce. Why? Because the commercial tax makes them a rare tax income that can be legally collected. In addition, the collection of road tax and city entry tax on the fief is also an important source of fiscal revenue for the princes.

Because, if you stick to the land output, many princes will be unable to make ends meet. Even so, everyone tried their best to make money, but most of the princes were still short of money. For example, Ulrich, the former Duke of Württemberg, owed a huge debt of 1 million gold coins. The other princes were not so crazy, but many of them also owed a lot of debts. You know, generally a German princely state can earn 100,000 gold coins a year, and he is considered a very strong prince-level prince. Generally, in many principalities, the annual fiscal revenue is only tens of thousands of gold coins. However, many princes would owe huge debts of hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of gold coins. Then, a lot of land and income from the vassal states will be mortgaged to the giant lenders. However, there are still very few who owe 1 million like Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg. Generally speaking, there are very few debts exceeding 500,000 gold coins.

It's not that these princes have compulsions in their hearts and dare not borrow too much. Rather, if you owe too much money, those financiers will not continue to lend, fearing that they will not be able to pay.

That is, there are many princes in the German region, and there are also many debts. Therefore, a group of large financial households have emerged. For example, the Fugger family became the top rich family at that time by lending money.

When everyone's money is relatively tight, asking them to come up with hundreds of thousands of gold coins is simply killing them! Therefore, the princes were very unhappy.

But Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, told them the truth of "cold lips and teeth" (almost that's what it means), and in the end, everyone was reluctant to claim the contribution quota.

After Anthony, Duke of Lorraine claimed the quota of 50,000 gold coins, he jumped angrily and cursed:

"Damn, why did this happen? Oh, I remembered, it was that damned Marin, who gave the emperor 900,000 gold coins, so that the poor Habsburg family had money to send troops. It's all Marin's fault, We should settle accounts with him!"

The words of Duke Antony,

It aroused the sympathy of the princes. It's hard for everyone to get money, and no one wants to spend money recklessly. It hurts to pledge tens of thousands of gold coins at once. For many vassal states, tens of thousands of gold coins are a year's fiscal revenue. Even many small princes may not have so much income.

Seeing that everyone was excited and seemed to want to use force against the North Sea country, Elector Frederick III of Saxony hurriedly dissuaded him:

"Don't, everyone! The Beihai Kingdom is not weak. If we provoke them and stand with His Majesty the Emperor, then we will be in danger. Everyone should remember that the Beihai Kingdom has an army of 40,000 people. Moreover, most of them They are all brave and skilled veterans. In addition, there are 20,000 people in Marin in England. If we attack the North Sea country and force him to mobilize all 60,000 people to join the emperor, it will be more than 100,000 troops. At that time, Together with the French, we may not be able to fight..."

"What's more, Marin is estimated to be able to spend more money. If you give the emperor hundreds of thousands of Gulden in a fit of anger, I am afraid that our emperor will be able to pull out an army of 10,000 to 20,000 people... At that time, we will It's hard to resist..."

Frederick III saw clearly that although Marin was not with them, he was not with the emperor either. After all, Beihai State is also a vassal state after all. If the Habsburg family unified Germany, the North Sea Kingdom would also be annexed.

Therefore, in Frederick III's view, emotionally, Marin was closer to Maximilian I who discovered and promoted him. But in terms of interests, the Beihai State is actually consistent with the princes.

Before, Frederick III even thought about wooing Marin. However, the princes refused to get close to Marin because of prejudice and discrimination against Marin's origin. In addition, Marin had annexed many vassal states before, which caused panic and hatred among the vassals. Then, it is basically impossible to unite between the alliance of princes and Marin. However, because of the relationship of interests, the North Sea State was separated from the anti-Habsburg alliance of the princes and the Habsburg family.

As far as the anti-Habsburg alliance of the princes is concerned, they are dissatisfied with Marin, but they dare not completely anger Marin, fearing that they will completely fall to the emperor. Moreover, for the Habsburg family, the feelings of the princes are also very complicated. They don't really care who is the emperor, but they care about the current emperor who publicly expressed his desire to unify Germany and centralize power when he was young...

Although His Majesty the Emperor said many times later that he was talking nonsense when he was young, everyone remembered that he was always on guard against Maximilian I. If everyone is safe and sound, they are not willing to target His Majesty the Emperor. But His Majesty the Emperor wants to annex the whole of Switzerland this time, and everyone is uneasy. Once the Habsburg family becomes really strong, it is really possible to annex the whole of Germany...

...

"We can't do nothing, right? Although Marin did not publicly support His Majesty the Emperor this time, his actions are equivalent to supporting the Habsburg family. If we do nothing, isn't it tantamount to connivance? If so Marin will give more support..." Joachim I, Elector of Brandenburg, frowned.

He didn't want to start a war against the North Sea country. At the beginning, he was captured by Marin, and he was a little afraid of the North Sea country's combat effectiveness. However, if he did nothing, he was really worried that Marin would support the emperor more brazenly.

"So, we put pressure on him to prevent him from continuing to support His Majesty the Emperor?" suggested the new Archbishop of Cologne, Hermann V.

"Press? What if we force Marin to the emperor's side? Moreover, our strength may not be able to defeat him. He may not be able to counter us, but he can still block our joint attack." Duke of Saxony George hesitated.

Duke George was also Marin's defeat back then, but this man is very complicated. Although Marin took away his West Frisian land, it suffered huge losses. But later, Marin heavily sponsored him to develop the silver mines in the Principality of Saxony, which made him a lot of money.

So, later, George's impression of Marin was not good, but it was not bad either. After all, most of the princes in this era were actually not greedy for every inch of land, unlike the later Tsarist Russian Maozi. The reason why George and his father, Duke Albrecht, competed for West Frisia was not for the land, but for the interests of the land. After all, they provided the emperor with a loan of 300,000 gold coins back then.

Later, Marin provided him with financial and technical support for the development of silver mines, which allowed the Duchy of Saxony to increase its annual silver production to about 50,000 kilograms, or 110,000 pounds. Although it is a little short of the average annual output of silver of 70,000 kilograms from 1526 to 1535 in history, it is fast. Because, with the expansion of the development scale, this output will definitely be achieved within three years.

So, now George, Duke of Saxony, is rich. After all, 50,000 kilograms of silver is equivalent to 1.17 million gold coins. Excluding development costs and Marin's dividends, Duke George earns more than 500,000 gold coins from the silver mine every year.

Of course, the princes are not very clear. Because, Marin suggested that he make a fortune in silence and not go out to show off, so as not to be jealous. The silver produced by the Saxony silver mine also quietly passed through the hands of Marin's business firm and the Fugger family and flowed into the market.

Therefore, now Duke George and Marin are actually private business partners. The two parties worked together to make a fortune, but on the surface, Duke George was playing Infernal Affairs, active in the German political arena as the leader of the alliance of princes.

Because of the money, now Duke George is rich and powerful, his voice is very loud, and his whole body exudes a radiance of confidence. Although I dare not speak for Marin publicly, it is still possible to scare everyone with the fighting power of Beihai.

Sure enough, the princes hesitated after listening to Duke George's words and remembering Marin's invincible combat record...

Elector Frederick III of Saxony sighed when he saw this situation. But he was quick-witted and came up with an idea:

"We are indeed not sure that we can defeat Beihai alone, but what if we add the French?"

"What do you mean? The French are going to rescue Switzerland now, and it is impossible to join us in attacking the North Sea country." Duke George said after a moment of silence.

Frederick III shook his head and said:

"George, you're right. The French really don't have time to join forces with us to deal with the North Sea country. But, who can say for sure? Maybe the French are crazy and willing to join forces with us to deal with the North Sea country first? "

"Also, we don't really want to deal with the Beihai Kingdom, but to frighten them and make them feel scruples and dare not continue to support His Majesty the Emperor."

After thinking about it, Anthony, Duke of Lorraine, said happily:

"That's right, we don't really want to send troops, but we just use this possibility to scare the other party. Maybe we can get some benefits from Marin..." The words didn't finish because Anthony realized that as a Duke, that is not right. Although this is what he really thinks.

"Yes, yes, maybe, we can knock a fortune from this kid. I don't want anything else, I just want to get a batch of salt from him, but I ask for a 20% discount on the purchase price, hehe..." Bavaria Duke William IV said happily. The Duchy of Bavaria has a population of 400,000 to 500,000, but because of its deep inland location and inconvenient transportation, the price of salt is very high.

Of course, Bavaria has the Rhine River channel to import salt. However, this trade route is in the hands of some powerful and established chambers of commerce, and it is difficult to snatch it. Later, Marin joined forcefully. Relying on the technology of boiling salt with coal briquettes, the salt produced is low in cost and high in quality (mainly filtering out the bittern), and the benefits are huge.

There are hundreds of thousands of people in the Principality of Bavaria, even if they get a 20% discount, they only get 20% of the profit, and the income is quite considerable. William IV could not control other places, but in the Principality of Bavaria, he was still very authoritative. He wants to monopolize domestic salt sales, all he needs is a stable source of salt.

"I like the spirits of the North Sea..." Elector Joachim I of Brandenburg's eyes lit up. He is a wine lover, similar to Maozi, he likes spirits. Of course, being able to act as an agent for the sales of North Sea Spirits in the Electorate of Brandenburg is also very lucrative. The Electorate of Brandenburg is located in the northeast of Germany, and the climate is cold. The local people are a bit like Mao Zi, and there are still many people who love to drink strong alcohol.

"I hope the North Sea country can purchase more iron ore from Lorraine..." Anthony, Duke of Lorraine, also has his own plan...

...

"Okay, let's sum it up, and then ask Archbishop Albert (Mainz Archbishop Albert III, the German Great Speaker of the Holy Roman Empire and the convener of the Imperial Conference, and the nominal regent and prime minister of the empire) to call the princes , Hold an interim imperial meeting in Worms to discuss the Habsburg family's attack on western Switzerland, and put pressure on His Majesty the Emperor and Marin!" Elector Frederick III of Saxony said with a final word.

Nominally, the Elector of Saxony is the Grand Marshal of the Holy Roman Empire. But in the absence of a consistent enemy in the empire, the Grand Marshal of the Empire is actually just a title, just like the Prime Minister of the Archbishop of Mainz. However, among the princes, Frederick III was the most intelligent person, and everyone believed in him. It seems that Frederick III is more like the Prime Minister of the Shinra Empire than the Archbishop of Mainz...