Gao pragmatically decided to put aside the question of how to get rich. He would discuss it later. He planned to answer Zhang Yuangong's next two questions first.
Gao's pragmatic answer was simple: "If the previous monarch of Luzon can still be found, or his heir can still be found, I, Emperor Zhaozhao, will naturally do what I can to survive and survive, and restore the country to Luzon."
Zhang Yuangong didn't ask why at all, he just nodded and asked: "What if I can't find it?"
Gao Jingshi said calmly: "There are people with outstanding reputations among the local barbarians who admire our dynasty like ducks... I, Beiyang, will provide long-term stability for the barbarians. I will appoint a person to be my king, and then report to the emperor and grant him the imperial title."
Zhang Yuangong thought for a moment and said hesitantly: "Isn't it a bit overstepping?"
Gao pragmatic did not answer him directly. Instead, he glanced at Zhu Yingzhen and asked, "What's the general will of Chengguo?"
Zhu Yingzhen smiled and said: "How can I understand these things! However, since Da Sinong said it is possible, then I think it must be possible... Mr. British, what do you think?"
After Zhu Yingzhen's suggestion, Zhang Yuangong reacted immediately and said quickly: "Ah, yes, yes, yes, I think so too." As if he felt that saying this was not sincere enough, Zhang Yuangong added: "Your Majesty, then Bian’s advice to Da Sinong has always been accepted!”
Just understand. Gao pragmatic smiled slightly and did not continue the topic.
In fact, he knew in his heart that this method was the most feasible. Although Luzon is not one of Zhu Yuanzhang's "non-conquest countries", the Ming Dynasty has always been accustomed to it. Even when Emperor Chengzu went to the West, he would not directly "incorporate a certain place in Nanyang into the Ming Dynasty". They are some measures based on Jisi thinking, such as the famous "Old Port Xuan Comfort Envoy".
However, the Xuan comfort mission is not a good plan in Gao Pragmatic's eyes, because in Gao Pragmatic's eyes, Luzon is also part of "Southern Xinjiang". Since the Ming Dynasty would not regard it as its homeland, it would be useless to establish a Xuan comfort mission. significance.
Instead of setting up a propaganda department that actually has no control at all, it would be better to use Beijing's method of controlling southern Xinjiang and establish something like a king for Luzon. Jinghua then continued to control the country by acting as its de facto central court in the form of an advisory council.
This approach not only complies with the Ming Dynasty's consistent thinking of "continuity between survival and death", but also firmly controls the real power. It will not cause too much trouble to Gao Pragmatism, and it is the best of both worlds.
After solving this problem, Gao Pragmatic returned to the problem of making money that Zhu Yingzhen mentioned before, and said: "As for how to make a fortune, it is natural to have a two-pronged approach."
Zhu Yingzhen asked with some suspicion: "Now that Luzon has changed hands, will the Spaniards come again? If they don't come, the gold and silver will be cut off."
Gao pragmatic shook his head and said: "I have a lot of news about the Spanish. Generally speaking, Spain has made enemies on all sides and is now at war in three places. You two, with the billions of people in the Ming Dynasty, if we attack three Mongolia at the same time, , what do you think?"
"This... Spain's enemies are as powerful as the Mongolian Tatars?" Zhu Yingzhen was immediately surprised.
Gao pragmatically said: "At least the Mongols don't have cannons, and Spain's enemies may not have fewer cannons. Let me put it this way, if Spain hadn't been able to get a lot of gold and silver from overseas, they wouldn't have been able to survive for a year."
Zhang Yuangong couldn't help but interjected: "I hear what you mean, Rixin, do you mean that the Spaniards are actually hanging on to their gold and silver now?"
Gao pragmatic smiled and said: "Actually, although there is a lot of gold and silver, it can be said to be an endless supply, but it is not enough to meet the consumption of the Spaniards. It's just that the situation of the Europeans is different from that of our Ming Dynasty. There are many small countries, and they have wars and cooperation with each other. They fight some countries and cooperate with some countries.
The Spanish were at war with the Dutch, the French, and the English. But at the same time, it has a lineage with the Austrians (here refers to the fact that the Habsburg dynasty is divided into Spanish and Austrian branches), so it is a natural ally. There is also a country that, although small, is extremely wealthy due to its developed commerce. Its name is Genoa, and it is the money bag of the Spanish..."
"Money bag?" Zhu Yingzhen asked: "The Spaniards often blackmail them?"
"But it's not blackmail. In fact, it's a loan." Gao Pragmatic thought about it and realized that the two princes might not be able to understand it unless the matter was explained more clearly. After all, in their eyes, the emperor is the richest in the world, how could he ask others to borrow money? Ming Dynasty did not have this statement either.
Gao Pragmatic had no choice but to pick out a few examples of European medieval banking families and tell them about them. In fact, around this era, the Petrucci, Bardi, Medici and Genoese families were among the leading banking families. The only ones who could rival Italian bankers were the Fugger family of the Holy Roman Empire.
However, since we are talking about Spain, we will not introduce the highly pragmatic families such as the Petrucci, Bardi, and Medici families. He mainly talked about the Fugger family and the bankers of Genoa who are closely related to Spain.
The sixteenth century began in the 14th year of Hongzhi's reign in the Ming Dynasty. During this period, Europe's economy and population were expanding. Major monarchies, such as Spain, France and the United Kingdom, were constantly fighting for economic and military hegemony. There were only 25 years in this century. Large-scale war. During most of this period, Antwerp was the leading financial center.
Frequent wars have stimulated demand for loans. Due to the development of the credit market, interest rates have also dropped accordingly. The royal family's short-term loan interest rates are roughly between 6-18%. In emergencies, the interest rates will climb to more than 24%. Bankers remained the main lenders, but the Crown also borrowed money through the exchanges.
From the end of the fifteenth century to the first half of the sixteenth century, the Fugger family of South Germany seized the dominant position once held by Italian bankers. Beginning with a loan from the Habsburg royal family, the Fugger family, which started in the textile industry, obtained the mining rights to a large number of silver, copper, and iron mines in Central Europe and America. They could also engage in American trade and even have the right to mint currency.
This family successively took refuge in two Holy Roman Emperors of the Habsburg family. Its wealth reached its peak after the 1610s. As a business family, its political influence was unparalleled at that time.
In the 14th year of the Ming Dynasty (1519), the Fugger family spent 850,000 gulden (the currency popular in South Germany) to bribe the elector to ensure that Charles V of Habsburg could defeat another candidate. King of France and became Emperor of the HRE.
After the success of Charles V, the areas he ruled included Spain, the Spanish Low Countries, the Holy Roman Empire (in name), Austria, most of Italy, Alsace, and the Spanish American colonies. The only country in continental Europe that could rival the Habsburgs was the Valois dynasty in France.
The vast ruling area also brought endless war burdens to Charles V. In the famous Italian War, both the Spanish and French armies had to cease fighting many times due to lack of funds; in order to defend the Christian world, Charles V also went to war with the Ottoman Empire at the peak of its national power, so the emperor had to continue to borrow money. Maintain rule and maintain war.
From 1518 to 1572, the interest rates on short-term loans (called asientos in Spain) provided by the Fugger Bank to the Spanish Crown were generally between 10 and 16%, with interest rates rising to 24 and 52% during periods of financial stress. During the same period, the interest rate for the royal family to finance from the Antwerp Exchange was between 6.25-31.5%, and the exchange cost was obviously lower. Many bankers actually borrowed money from Antwerp and Lyon at low interest rates and then loaned it to the royal family at high interest rates.
In 1556, after owing a huge debt of 20 million ducats, Charles V passed the throne to his son Philip II. (Note: If you don’t worry about the equivalent purchasing power, just converting the gold content of ducats, this is equivalent to more than 140,000 taels of gold. The gold-silver ratio of the Ming Dynasty is 1:10, which means it is equivalent to more than 1.4 million taels of silver in the Ming Dynasty. But please Note that not much American gold and silver had flowed into Europe at this time, the price revolution was far from beginning, and the real value of gold was very high, so this was indeed a huge debt.)
However, in the second year of Philip II's accession to the throne (1557), Spain, which did not want to pay back the money, directly declared bankruptcy, and France, which was also heavily in debt, also declared bankruptcy in the same year. To make matters worse, the Spanish crown declared bankruptcy again a few years later in 1560.
In 1562, the banking consortium headed by the Fugger family was forced to agree to the royal family's debt restructuring plan. Their short-term loan of 7 million ducats was converted into long-term juros (guaranteed by government taxes) with an interest rate of 5%, but the market value of these bonds was much lower than the face value.
In this case, the Fugger family obviously lost money, but fortunately they received other compensation: a monopoly on Spain's military procurement and the mercury mine in Almaden. Therefore, Fugger Bank did not fail due to debt default, but as a commercial bank, the family suffered huge losses in capital and credibility.
After 1560, Fugger's bank continued to participate in the Spanish royal family's loans, but at this time the main lender was already the banking family of Genoa, and Fugger's proportion was very low.
Gao Pragmatic did not talk about the future decline of Fugger Bank, after all, that has not happened yet. Of course, the reason is very clear to Gao Pragmatic. The long-term reason is that the large-scale import of silver from the Americas starting in the 1950s severely reduced the family bank's source of funds-the profits from silver trading. The more direct reason is that during the Thirty Years' War in the 17th century, the Holy Roman Empire was devastated, the economy declined, the population dropped sharply, and the Fugger family disappeared.
After Fugger and other Deutsche banks were hit hard, the Genoese went all-in on the financial industry. The Genoese banking families that controlled the European financial industry during this period included the Spinola family, the Doria family, the Centurion family, the Grimaldi family and the Lomerini family, among which the Spinola family and the Doria family had They have been a dominant player in Genoese politics since the 1370s, and they are also the core of the Genoese system that finances the Spanish crown.
The Spanish Empire was still heavily armed during most of the reigns of Philip II, Philip III and Philip IV (1556-1665). There was almost no peace during Philip II's term, so war expenditures As a result, foreign debt continues to rise.
By 1667, the total debt of the Spanish royal family reached a staggering 180 million ducats. The royal family's income fluctuated greatly, and it was increasingly unable to keep up with the growth of debt.
In addition to the severe inflation caused by the price revolution during this period, an important reason for the sharp increase in war costs was the military revolution that occurred in Europe since the 1620s. The maturity of matchlocks increased the proportion of firearms in the army, and the power of artillery also promoted the emergence of a complex and solid city defense shuttle system. The strengthening of defense not only increased the material investment of the defender, but also increased the investment of the attacker. many.
After this gunpowder military revolution, one of the decisive factors in winning long-term wars was the government's financing ability. Gao Pragmatic knew this very well, so he would increase the proportion of firearms and equipment in the army while finding ways to make money all over the world.
Although Spain had an endless influx of silver from the Americas, in fact the importance of silver income to the royal finances was not as great as imagined. Before the Eighty Years' War (1568-1648), income from the Netherlands was greater than any single source of royal income, including American silver.
After the Netherlands War began, the Spanish army's expenditure in the Netherlands had exceeded the tax revenue contributed by the Netherlands, and the Netherlands became a negative asset in the financial sense of the Spanish Empire.
In fact, due to too many enemies and frequent wars, except for Spain and the Americas, all other territories of this colonial empire have become negative assets.
As the first serial bankrupt in the history of European royal (sovereign) lending, Philip II went bankrupt four times, but his father Charles V should be blamed for the first two. His successors Philip III and IV continued to play the bankruptcy game and went bankrupt five more times in 1607, 1627, 1647, 1653, and 1662.
Zhu Yingzhen and Zhang Yuangong finally understood the concept of bankruptcy. When they heard that Philip II and his son had gone bankrupt several times, they couldn't help but look at each other. Zhang Yuangong shook his head: "This emperor has done a terrible job. If he behaves like this, where can he put his face?"
Gao Pragmatic emphasized: "Philip II is not an emperor."
"It's almost the same as a king, that's what I mean." Zhu Yingzhen said disdainfully: "A three-year-old child understands the principle of repaying debts. It is only natural that a father's debts should be repaid by his children.
Regardless of whether they are emperors or kings, these two father and sons are still the kings of a country, right? It’s okay to ask someone to borrow money, but it’s okay to default on the loan! As expected, they are all barbarians, without any courtesy, justice or shame. "
Zhu Yingzhen was more concerned about the money in front of him, and interrupted: "I understand what Rixin means. You are saying that the king of Spain used the endless overseas gold and silver as collateral to find these hot... hot loans to fight the war. .
But he also knows that this alone will definitely not work, so he must still earn the money he should earn, and he must not let go of any opportunity to make money. Since they really need our goods to make money by selling them to Europe, it means that even if Luzon is lost, they still have to come to Luzon to do business with us, otherwise the losses will be even greater - is this what you mean? "
Gao Jingjing laughed and said: "Cheng Guogong can think clearly if he thinks clearly. I admire him."
"Hey, hey, don't say that. If you hadn't explained it, how would I have known these inside stories? I can't even judge what the Spaniards did after they lost Luzon. In the end, you, Gao Situ, are the most powerful. You are so good from thousands of miles away. You know everything about these small barbarian countries, and I am really convinced."
Zhang Yuangong seemed to be a little confused and asked: "One thing I still don't understand is that since Philip II has such a bad reputation, why are wealthy people like Geno still willing to lend him money again and again? ? Isn’t it true that he threatened to confiscate your home and exterminate your clan?”
"You must have not understood just now. What Rixin means is probably this: This Spain is like the Qin State, fighting here and there all day long, while this hot little country may be small, but its people are rich... ...Of course everyone likes money, and it is impossible for the Qin State to fight at will. After all, Qi, Chu, Yan, Han and other countries will not agree, right?" After Zhu Yingzhen finished speaking, he looked at Gao Pangshi and asked: "Probably this Do you mean it?"
Gao Pingshi smiled and said: "It's probably similar."
Zhu Yingzhen was very proud, but Zhang Yuangong rolled his eyes at him and said, "I understand your analogy, but you didn't explain my question: Why does this small country always lend money to a powerful Qin who doesn't talk about credibility? Do they think they Can this strong Qin unite the six kingdoms?"
This time Zhu Yingzhen didn't dare to say anything nonsense. He coughed lightly and then stopped responding.
Gao pragmatically said: "To use the example of Duke Cheng, under the melee among the countries, this small country has no place to spend its money, and any investment may be reduced to ashes. And as I just said, these kings borrow money The interest rate is very high, so the small country would rather lend it to them...what if they win the war?"
"Oh..." Zhang Yuangong seemed to understand now. But Zhu Yingzhen was too lazy to dwell on this issue. He changed the topic and brought the question back: "Okay, okay, since we know everything about these small barbarian countries, we don't need to care so carefully. I just want to ask now, this When will the war begin, let’s send troops… No, how many ships and servants will each of us send?”
After a pause, he added: "Also, what are some profitable projects that can be divided after the fight?"
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