The Eagle of Eastern Europe

After the establishment of the money lending agency in Constanta, business was not very good. Because the domestic merchant lending market is a bit small, the institution's main job was currency exchange in the early days of its establishment.

A wide variety of currencies are exchanged in Constanta, which requires money changers to exchange for the required currency, and they will charge a certain fee.

Unlike banks in Italy and the HRE region, Wallachian lending institutions were joined by rulers. And lending requires the other party to provide collateral. The most difficult problem encountered by family-run banks in Italian cities is the inability to rely on the money market or the lack of guarantees for credit. Kings, princes, and governments are all actors independent of market rules. They are not subject to the constraints of the market, and the market cannot constrain them. The size of their economic strength and the quality of their financial situation determine whether they have the ability to repay their debts to banks. They don't pay their debts, and there's nothing the bank can do to them. The reason why banks lent money to them in the first place was either because of their pressure or because they were greedy for their promises, including granting them special privileges. Promises are unreliable. Once their financial situation deteriorated and they were defeated in a war, their debts to the banks would inevitably put the banks in trouble. In other words, these family-run banks did not collapse in the normal development of industrial and commercial credit, but became involved in the political whirlpool that was inextricably linked to the king, princes, and government and capsized.

Peter also innovated it, although the capital was only 10,000 ducats. However, the Chamber of Commerce has trading stations in various towns in Wallachia, and some merchants will save money here, but they are afraid of being robbed when they go to other places to do business with money. So when you want to withdraw money from another place, Constanta's department will issue a parchment voucher with the withdrawal amount and location marked on it. With this, you can go to the location to withdraw money.

This approach is not innovative, but it provides a safe channel for those businessmen. More and more people are coming here to save money, and the capital of institutions is also increasing.

In addition to the bank, there is another news for Peter. That is, in the north of Dobroga, near Tulcea, a silver mine was discovered, and now coins could be minted.

The right to mint money given to Peter by Mircea has never been used, not because he was unwilling to part with it, but because he had no raw materials. There is too little gold and silver to melt.

Now that there were silver mines, Peter could mint silver coins. Just like Athens with its Laurian silver mine and Rome with its large silver mines in Spain, this silver mine was the starting point for Peter's coinage.

However, the development of Constanta was not only noticed by Peter, but also made another group of people jealous of the port's interests, that is, Genoa.

When Anjou and the Kingdom of Aragon competed for control of Sicily after the Sicilian Vespers in 1283, the Genoese merchants were lucky enough to choose the winning side and devoted their energy to dominating the Sicilian economy, granting loans to the ruling class, and organizing and controlling sugar. and silk production. In addition, since there is no local grain production in Genoa, Genoa relies on Sicilian grain to support its population. Therefore, the merchants also monopolized Sicily's grain export, but the Maghreb also needed Sicilian grain, so Genoa exchanged grain with the Maghreb and obtained Africa's gold.

Although Genoa is still a big trading country, its national power was greatly reduced and declined after the 128-year Venetian-Genoese War and the crucial Chioggia War with Venice.

In order to revive Genoa, the noble Francesco visited Constanta as a Genoese noble. Francesco really wanted to revive Genoa, but most of the interests in the Eastern Mediterranean were currently occupied by Venice, and Dobroga became the last place left untouched.

He tried to persuade Peter to sell a piece of land as a concentration point for Genoa's goods. But Peter refused and said something very clever.

"Wallachia is not Rome, and Constanta is not Constantinople. There is no Galata for you."

Even so, Dobroga and Genoa signed a trade agreement. He placed an order for a batch of Clark sailboats with Francisco, and at the same time offered them a high price to recruit a group of craftsmen.

At best, this is recruiting craftsmen, at worst, it is human trafficking. After all, Peter did not say where these craftsmen came from, only that the more, the better.

In this case, let them be rude. After all, there are many principalities in the HRE, France, and Italy, and they can be recruited if possible.

After the treaty was signed, Constanta's shipping routes could be extended to Genoese colonies such as Caffa. The grain, honey, salt and other crops it produces can also be exported in large quantities, and another channel for the import of goods has been opened. This also increased Peter's income.

----Dividing line----

The Ottoman Bayezid was not idle. At this time he set his sights on Constantinople and Anatolia.

Several Turkic Bey states united in the face of the huge Ottoman Empire, among which Karaman was the most active, and this was Bayezid's main target.

The Karamans are said to belong to the Afsar tribe of Turkic nomads. They embraced Islam very early and lived in central Anatolia. It was originally a vassal state of the Seljuk Sultanate of Konya, and was once vassal to the Mamluk dynasty of Egypt and Syria. Later an independent state was established, controlling central and southern Anatolia. For a long time, the Karamanians were the strongest opponents of the Ottomans.

Facing the Balkans, Bayezid sent veteran Suleiman Pasha to continue his attack on Bulgaria.

Mircea felt that an opportunity had come, and in order to increase his chances of winning, he also recruited a group of mercenaries.

The history of mercenaries can be traced back to ancient Greek times. At that time, the ancient Greeks hired Macedonians to defend their capital; the Romans also used Germanic tribes to defend their empire against enemies from the east; during the Middle Ages, the army consisted of militia groups composed of noble lords, knights and people. , the free mercenary group composed of professional soldiers became an important auxiliary combat force. However, during peacetime, the mercenaries became unemployed and became bandit groups, causing many social problems.

Although in movies and TV dramas, the protagonist often finds a few random people to form an excellent mercenary team, and it happens that these people all have their own specialties. But historically, the recruitment of real mercenaries was a formal and complicated matter, and it was by no means just a matter of randomly finding people who were idle in society. Europe in the Middle Ages was a feudal society. The king was the largest lord, and then there were various levels of enfeoffment, ranging from noble dukes to ordinary knights. At that time, there was no standing army system like today, and wars could only rely on temporarily recruited vassals or mercenaries. According to feudal obligations, the service area and period of vassal service were often limited, so for many warlike kings in the Middle Ages, mercenaries became the best choice.

In this case, the king or a big noble will issue a recruitment contract to certain specific targets at home and abroad. The contract usually specifies the number of people, commission, and service period. These people are generally low-level nobles or knights with many battle experiences. They have the ability to recruit enough people, who are usually their former military commanders. These knights will then sign contracts with mercenaries respectively.

The members of the mercenaries in the Balkans generally include Germans, Hungarians, Cossacks, Italians, Serbs, Bulgarians and Albanians. And Mircea decided to recruit some, after all, they have rich experience.