Great time travel

Chapter 46. As expected of the Merchant of Venice
Seeing that these "angels" lacking integrity have completely blown their hair, as if they are about to turn into a world-destroying demon king, the horrified Venetian finally softened, and did not dare to continue playing with the appetite of the angels. Instead of playing games, he moved his belongings here reluctantly.

——Although the Venetians originally planned to imitate those vicious bosses who defaulted on wages in later generations, and severely whetted the appetite of these angels, so as to send them to do things.But in the face of these angels who do not hesitate to abuse their divine power to ask for salary maliciously, the Venetian's small stature really can't bear it!

Even so, it was impossible for the Venetians to get together the 100 million Ducat gold coins requested by the "angels"—since the era of the ancient Roman Empire, the "Silk Road" and "Spice Road" to the East were opened For a long time, in order to obtain these wonderful luxury goods, gold, silver and precious metals in Western European society have actually been continuously flowing out.In the dark age when everyone spoke by sword, the lack of gold and silver didn't matter. Anyway, there were few professional merchants in those days, and the lords all collected taxes in kind, and most of the market transactions were barter.However, in the Renaissance era when commerce began to re-emerge, the lack of gold and silver currencies, especially gold coins, became a long-standing problem that plagued Western merchants.

——Entering the age of great voyages, after being replenished with American gold and silver, Venice’s annual coinage is as high as 200 million ducats, but at this moment, a century and a half away from the discovery of America, Venice’s mint is also a clever woman. ...

At that time, Europeans were so eager for gold that they were on the verge of suffering from pink eye disease, so that before Columbus sailed to the New World, he publicly declared that he went to sea for gold: "...gold is the most important commodity among all commodities. The most precious thing, it not only represents wealth, people who own gold can not only meet the needs of this world, but also find a way to save souls in purgatory, and embark on the road to heaven!"

Closer to home, in the middle of the fourteenth century, the total minting amount of Ducat gold coins in the entire Western world was more than 100 million.At that time, Venetians exchanged bills of exchange in commercial halls and banks, and tried their best to do this kind of exchange trade without actual money transactions, so as to overcome the problem of insufficient circulation of precious metal currencies.Even in places where bills of exchange are not accepted, the actual payment is mainly based on a relatively sufficient supply of silver coins. It is rare to see gold coins, but the number of ducats is still expressed on the books to satisfy one's own needs. kind of vanity.

— Just as Wall Street in modern New York is a place of wealth, but you can't expect to find dollar bills piled up in skyscrapers here.

(In those days, Venetians rarely used whole boxes of gold coins for bribery, but sent money orders, bonds and passbooks like modern people.)
Therefore, although the city of Venice can be said to be rich in land and gold, and there are many rich people with hundreds of thousands of ducats, but if they really want them to take out gold coins immediately, no one can give even [-] ducats—— Maybe some bankers really have so many gold coins, but they have to make a large-scale mobilization from scattered shops, and it takes a long time to prepare.

In this way, even though the Governor of Venice squeezed his nose and searched the treasury, he even took out his own personal savings, and the top figures of the Great Council of Venice generously donated money and repaid them enthusiastically, and even emptied the treasury of several banks with white papers. (The IOU from the Venice government is still very credible), and within a few days, only [-] gold ducats and more than [-] silver Grosso coins were collected, and the rest were bills of exchange, bonds, IOUs, and licenses Certificates, bank passbooks, and land deeds mortgaged by borrowers... Well, strictly speaking, these things are not waste paper, but invaluable. Unfortunately, the [Automatic Pawn Machine] refused to accept the account, and the helpless "angels" had no choice but to Indicates that all these items are rejected.

Fortunately, although the number of gold and silver coins is limited, you can still find a lot of other valuable things-in the past half a year when the Black Death ravaged, almost half of the people in Venice City died, and of course they died. Most of the poor people have nothing to grow, but there are also rich and wealthy households who are fat and oily, so they left a lot of inheritance, which can be used by the Venetian authorities to give favors.

Of course, even the estates of these dead people have heirs, but it is easier for a person to give up these windfalls that fell from the sky than to let him donate his hard-earned savings for half his life.Moreover, in the era of the Black Death, saving lives is the most important thing.Otherwise, everyone will live today without knowing whether there will be a tomorrow, and what is the use of getting more inheritance?Didn't it change hands and make it cheaper for others?

In addition, the Republic of Venice was able to defeat many powerful countries and dominate the vast Mediterranean Sea for hundreds of years with a population of less than 20. Otherwise, it would be impossible to fool the 20 Venetians who are known for their treachery and cunning all the year round to unite as one, for the benefit of this city-state, regardless of their own lives, and to fight endlessly in the turbulent international disputes - Governor Andre took the lead in donating his own family All the recent inheritance, and every luxury that could be collected in the Governor's Palace and his own private residence, even his own necklace, rings and golden cross from his shrine.St. Mark's Basilica also donated gold and silver ritual vessels presented by benefactors of past generations.And the other powerful families also had to express themselves and do their part to collect this huge sum of money.

If it were Beijing or Nanjing at the end of the Ming Dynasty, those wealthy and powerful people who were extremely selfish and cold-blooded without the slightest sense of social responsibility would rather hold on to the gold and silver treasures and watch the people in the city turn to ashes than Willing to take out a copper coin to pay for the medical expenses of the citizens.

Of course, thanks to the fact that these Venetians are quite sensible, otherwise, if they continue to push the ball three times and four times, and want to renege on their debts, then Doraemon, who is about to be oppressed by usury to the point of going crazy, may really lead the traversers to launch a campaign. A Venetian massacre to raise money.

The only regret is that although the wealthy people in Venice have a big picture when it comes to collecting money to eliminate disasters, the definition of the concept of "treasure" is, to be precise, the value of various luxuries. Medieval Europeans apparently had very different ideas...

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"...This is the fine porcelain that the great Mr. Marco Polo brought from the East thousands of miles away. It is said to be a royal gift from the Tatar Khan, and it is also one of the most proud collections of the Dandolo family. But in order to thank you all The grace to save Venice, we are still willing to offer it with both hands..."

Under the watchful eyes of the public, Andrea, the Governor of Venice.Dandolo opened a wooden crate stuffed with soft hay seemingly in great pain, and took out a package wrapped in woolen, sheepskin, and linen, and unwrapped it layer by layer, and finally took out a tray in a ostentatious manner—— This is a large and heavy round blue-and-white porcelain tray, about one and a half feet in diameter, on which beautiful patterns with strong Chinese characteristics are fired.Blue and white porcelain vessels of such a large size are very rare in Europe in this era. Governor Andre highly praised it and tried to price it at [-] ducats.

However, Wang Qiu sighed and resolutely rejected the "generosity" of Governor Andre, and when the Governor was puzzled and asked why, he was generous and borrowed from Doraemon. I bought a [chronological vending machine], stuffed a few ten-thousand-dollar bills into it, and bought a lot of blue and white porcelain plates, blue and white porcelain teacups, blue and white porcelain teapots... and generously gave them to the people present, and immediately blinded a bunch of dogs .

——Although the Venetians present did not seem to understand what it meant, they still roughly understood that the so-called "valuable oriental porcelain" they owned, in the eyes of these angels with very high vision, I'm afraid it's really not worth a few bucks.

All in all, although Governor Andre seems to be deeply shocked, the Venetians who have been allocated so many beautiful blue and white porcelain at once are all cheering. Many of them may not be able to afford a real Oriental porcelain!
Afterwards, these blue and white porcelains were treasured by the recipients as family heirlooms, and passed on from generation to generation. Since they were "gifts from the gods" presented by angels, in the eyes of medieval Europeans, they were probably more precious than those purchased from the East. All the porcelains that come here are precious... um... It's just because of Wang Qiu's carelessness, he also bought several extremely high-end blue and white porcelain mice, blue and white porcelain USB flash drives, and blue and white porcelain cameras, so that the Venetian made a fuss about it afterwards. Knowing the purpose of these strange gadgets, I had to try my best to guess... Finally, I couldn't figure it out, so I had to classify them as some kind of oriental pagan idol totems, which were carefully pressed in the bottom of the box.

"...these are precious oriental tea leaves, luxury items that have the effect of prolonging life, and it is rare to get a few batches every year..."

A businessman held a few tea bricks with black color, rough appearance, which seemed to have been soaked in seawater, with salt frost hanging on them, and proudly showed off to the "angels".And Doraemon smiled wryly and generously, asking them to taste the flavors of English black tea, Chinese green tea and Japanese matcha...

As a result, the plan of the Venetian authorities to use these tea bricks to offset [-] ducats was also shattered.

"...This is the fine black pepper imported from the Levant (the name for Palestine and the coast of Syria in the Middle Ages), and it was originally signed a contract and pre-sold to buyers. Unfortunately, those buyers have all died of the plague. Even the whole family of this spice merchant died, so the goods were confiscated because no one paid taxes, and became government property...but they are definitely well preserved..."

A government official pointed to bags of small dark brown granules that gave off a wonderful smell, and introduced to the "angels", "... how about sixty deniers per pound of black pepper? This is definitely very fair discounted price!"

But Wang Qiu's reaction was to let out a long sigh, raise the amount with his hands, and asked the sky speechlessly, "...what the hell, this is also called a discounted price? Do you want me to open a door for you to go to the Indian origin of spices?" , see how much the pepper in your hand sells there? Hey hey? Are you really going to India to buy it? And are you willing to pay an extra [-] ducats for transportation? Well, okay, [random door] I can lend it to you temporarily, but only for the few days we stay in Venice! Whether we can make a business or not depends on your ability!"

——Thus, Wang Qiu, who found it very interesting, really asked Doraemon to use the "random door" to connect to Cartlett, a large spice trading port in southern India. Immediately afterwards, a group of adventurous Venetian merchants went Swarming in, bathed in the blazing sunshine of the South Asian subcontinent... Wang Qiu, who thought they would shrink back, couldn't help but feel admiration for a moment.

Next, relying on their half-baked Arabic and gesticulating body language, these Venetian merchants actually negotiated a deal with the Indian merchants, and they were ecstatic about the huge profits-in Catlett, a pound of Indian Black pepper was only sold for three deniers!

It's a pity that Indian merchants only pay attention to gold and silver, and don't pay much attention to the glass beads, small bells, linen, ironware, woolen tapestries and woolens brought out by the Venetians. Indians with rich ancestors are not from the Stone Age Native American Indians themselves were rich in the best refined iron in the world at that time, and they also knew how to burn glass. Indian cotton cloth was far softer and more comfortable than European linen at that time.The workmanship of European tapestries in the Middle Ages is also inferior to the Persian carpets that are common to Indians. After thinking about it, apart from the real money that everyone loves, there is really nothing in the hands of Europeans that Indians are interested in... However, almost all the gold and silver that the Venetians could raise were scooped up by the "angels".As for the glass mirror that will become a special product of Venice's profiteering in the future, according to the original historical trajectory, it will take 160 years to be invented.

As a result, these daring Venetian merchants had no choice but to come back brazenly and ask the "angels" for a large number of "luxury and luxurious" oriental porcelain (in fact, they are cheap goods from modern supermarkets) and a few items that surprised them themselves. It was only then that they made this deal with the Indians. They pulled many carts full of pepper and other spices. By the way, the Arabs, who had long monopolized the Eastern business roads, were horrified after getting the news...but the price was half the price. I contracted yellow fever, and had to rely on the healing skills of the "angels" to save my life... The strange thing is that there is no sign of the black death on the Indian side-as expected of the Excellent sons and daughters who grew up bathed in the water of the Ganges!