The Novgorod representative was a master negotiator and clearly knew what he could get from the Purple Horde.
The Purple Horde was not strong enough to occupy Novgorod for a long time. From their home on the Black Sea coast to the far north, the distance is too far. The bunch of Rus' countries along the way all have their own agendas. Although they usually pay tribute, if the Khanate shows a desire to annex, they will definitely unite to resist.
But on the other hand, being able to take root in Novgorod is very important to the Purple Horde Khanate. As long as they have a little strategic vision, they will know the importance of this cooperation. In order to extend its power into the North Sea and form a pincer attack on the Ross country that is plotting rebellion, the Purple Horde Khanate will also make concessions in other directions in an attempt to seize this opportunity.
What we pursue in doing business is to sell at a good price. Since this is a period of high prices, we should turn from passive to active and sell decisively in order to achieve the best results.
More importantly, this is indeed a very troublesome time for Republic Witcher.
Novgorod was not a Muscovite country of contiguous farms. Here, the territory was divided into two parts: the mainland known as Ithyaches, and the vassal colony known as Frostes. Although in theory, Rus people live in every territory, there is still a big difference in status between the two.
There are intricate conflicts between native towns and colonies, and between Novgorod itself as a special native area and other native towns. Compared with the Russian state, it is more like a Greek city-state in the classical era.
In order to obtain as much cheap raw materials as possible and obtain greater competitive advantages and profits, merchants in Novgorod often try their best to squeeze residents in other areas, regardless of the friendship between their compatriots.
Of course, the other party is not easy to mess with. Local residents are likely to collude with bandits, or secretly go to Luocao themselves to rob merchants in the city. In some city-states, people will collude with foreign forces and bring in support from Moscow, Lithuania and even Swedes to confront the mother state.
In order to suppress these unruly people, Novgorod spends a lot of precious wealth every year, especially now that the situation has changed dramatically, many people's minds have become active. Some congressmen worried that if they did not offer a good price quickly, their opponents would attract the Roman army first, which would be bad.
These people's concerns are not unreasonable.
Southwest of Novgorod, close to Lithuania, there is a city called Pskov. It also has easy access to the Gulf of Finland via rivers, and is connected by road to the important ports of Tallinn and Riga.
As an important transit point between the Hanseatic League and the Rus' region, Pskov quickly developed, with its own handicraft center and chamber of commerce, and became increasingly dissatisfied with the control of its mother state, Novgorod. Finally, with the support of Lithuania, they succeeded in forcing Novgorod to recognize its independence and break away from the republic decades ago.
Novgorod is very resentful about this, but unlike other Russian cities, Pskov built stone walls as early as independence, probably because of its proximity to Europe and the huge military pressure. For the Russians, this thing is a bit too high-end and not easy to fight, so they have to admit it first.
After the defeat of Lithuania, the Pskov women, who realized that they were in danger, immediately took action and contacted the victorious Purple Horde, hoping to ensure their own safety and prevent them from being robbed.
Although Pskov is smaller and theoretically cannot give more than Novgorod, they themselves are not stupid. After realizing this, the people of Pskov are likely to be determined to cede more sovereignty and only seek to retain free trade and chamber of commerce autonomy.
In this way, it became a matter of competition between the two sides to bid the Purple Horde Khanate to see who could pay more. This situation is very unfavorable for the seller of sovereignty.
Therefore, Novgorodovich decided that he must act quickly and provide enough at one time. Before the Purple Horde Khanate fully understood the local situation, he could create an information gap and cook the raw rice into cooked rice. Otherwise, they will definitely want more.
To this end, they specially formulated a contract and proposed a series of transaction contents. The Khan's court had limited knowledge of the North at the time, and did not know that there were so many tricks in it. He was overjoyed and quickly agreed to most of the requests.
The Novgorod region was divided from the Zhongshu Province in Oros and other places, and a separate Beihai Province was established. A Zhongshu Pingzhang was sent to lead two thousand troops to garrison.
After arriving at the local level, the purple tent officials discovered why they were so active.
It turned out that these people had settled the accounts long ago and found that the cost of paying tribute to the Khan was lower than hiring an army themselves, so when they came, they directly disbanded many mercenaries and saved a lot of money. . When the Khan's court made decisions before, its thinking was too simple, its price was too low, and it was calculated by profiteers.
They also carefully calculated the tribute paid by the local people.
In recent years, with the increase in population, the Novgorod people have opened up large new hunting grounds, which has greatly increased the production of squirrel skins, a traditional specialty. But businessmen realize that increasing production does not mean a simultaneous increase in profits. Representatives from the Chamber of Commerce in Lübeck, the central city of the Hanseatic League, informed them that due to the increase in supply on the market, the selling price of squirrel skins has dropped and the original purchase price can no longer be used.
In this case, the best way is to open up markets in other directions and reduce the export of hides to the North Sea region to maintain prices.
Taking advantage of the opportunity to pay tribute to the Purple Horde Khanate, merchants regularly carried large amounts of supplies and swaggered southward, directly entering the markets of Kiev, Crimea and even Dadu. Other Russian countries, at least for now, still dare not openly make things difficult for tribute envoys, which is equivalent to getting a safe and reliable opportunity to enter the Mediterranean market, bypassing middlemen.
The diplomatic thinking of the Purple Horde Khanate was deeply influenced by the people of the Central Plains. In the minds of the great khans and princes, having the other party become a vassal and pay tribute was an important achievement. If you accept officials and garrisons, the achievement will have to be upgraded to another level, because it means that the local area has become a more "local" area, and the political significance is quite great, enough for everyone to brag about for a long time.
Even traditional Romans had similar complexes. In the systems of these traditional empires, this is a very face-saving thing - this kind of face is not just a false reputation, but means authority and credibility, and is an important way to reduce the cost of governance and enhance legitimacy.
But many times, other people may not think this way. A commercial country like this may not care about these names, nor does it want to establish an empire-like organization, but rather values financial gains. It can only be said that the choices are often different in different countries. This time both parties at least got what they needed, so they accepted it afterwards.
However, the garrison of the Purple Horde Khanate soon discovered that relying on their own strength was not enough. Soon, they even demanded that a navy must be established here.
