eastern european eagle

Chapter 20: Early 1392
After the establishment of the money lending institution in Constanta, business was not so good.Because the domestic merchant lending market is a bit small, currency exchange was the main work of the institution in the early days of its establishment.

All kinds of currencies are exchanged in Constanta, where money changers are needed to exchange for the required currency, and they will charge a fee.

Unlike banks in Italy and the Shinra, Wallachia's moneylenders are joined by rulers.And lending will require the other party to take out collateral.The most difficult problem for family-run banks in Italian cities is that there is no money market to rely on, or the lack of credit guarantees.Kings, princes, and governments are all actors independent of market rules. They are not constrained by 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 strength to repay the debts owed to the bank.They don't pay their debts, and the bank has nothing to do with them.The reason why banks lent money to them in the first place was either because of their pressure or greed for their promises, including granting privileges and so on.Promises are unreliable.Once their finances turned bad, and they were defeated in war, their debts to the bank necessarily put the bank in trouble.In other words, these family-run banks did not collapse during the normal development of industrial and commercial credit business, but were involved in the political vortex that was inseparable from the king, princes, and government and capsized.

And Peter also innovated it, although the capital was only 10000 ducats.But the Chamber of Commerce has business stations in various towns in Wallachia, and some merchants will save money here, but they are afraid of robbery when they go to other places to do business with their money.So when you want to withdraw money from other places, 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.

Such an approach is hardly innovative, but it provides a safe passage for those merchants.More and more people come here to save money, and the capital of institutions is also increasing.

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

The coinage that Mircea gave Peter has been useless, not because he was reluctant, but because he had no raw materials.There is too little gold and silver to be melted.

Now that there is a silver mine, Peter can mint silver coins.Just like Athens with the Laurion silver mine and Rome with the great silver mine in Spain, this silver mine was the starting point for Peter's coinage.

However, the development of Constanta was not only seen by Peter, but also made another group of people envious of the interests of the port, that is Genoa.

When Anjou and the Kingdom of Aragon competed for control of Sicily after the Sicilian Vespers in 1283, the merchants of Genoa were lucky enough to choose the winning side, and devoted all their energy to dominating the Sicilian economy, granting loans to the ruling class, and organizing and controlling sugar. and silk production.In addition, Genoa was dependent on Sicilian grains to support its population, since Genoa had no local food production.Therefore, the merchants also monopolized the export of Sicilian grain, but the Maghreb also needed Sicilian grain, so Genoa exchanged grain with the Maghreb to obtain African gold.

Although Genoa is still a big trading country, after 128 years of the Venetian-Genoa War and the crucial Chioggia War with Venice, its national strength has been greatly reduced and declined.

In order to revive Genoa, the nobleman Francisco visits Constanta, as a Genoese nobleman.Francisco very much wants to revive Genoa, but most of the interests in the Eastern Mediterranean are currently occupied by Venice, and Dobroga has become the last place not to get involved.

He tried to persuade Peter to sell a piece of land that would serve as a concentration point for Genoese goods.But he was rejected by Peter, and he said something very clever.

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

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

To put it bluntly, it means recruiting craftsmen, but to put it bluntly, it means human trafficking.After all, Peter didn't say how these craftsmen came from, only that the more the better.

That being the case, let them be impolite.After all, there are many principalities in Shinra, France, and Italy, and they can be recruited if possible.

After the signing of the treaty, the sea route of Constanta can 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 importing goods has been opened.This also increased income for Peter.

----split line----

Bayezid of the Ottomans was not idle.At this point 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, which was the main target of Bayezid.

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

Facing the Balkans, Bayezid sent veteran Suleiman Pasha to continue attacking Bulgaria.

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

The history of mercenaries can be traced back to ancient Greece.At that time, the ancient Greeks employed the Macedonians to defend their capital; the Romans also used the Germanic tribes to fight against enemies from the east in order to defend their empire; during the Middle Ages, the army consisted of militia groups composed of noble lords, knights and lords At present, the free mercenary regiment composed of professional soldiers has become an important auxiliary combat force, but during peacetime, the mercenaries become unemployed and become bandit groups, causing many social problems.

Although in film and television dramas, the protagonist often finds a few random people to form an excellent mercenary team, and it just so happens that these people all have their own specialties.But in history, the real recruitment of mercenaries is a formal and complicated matter, and it is by no means just finding some idlers in society.Europe in the Middle Ages was a feudal society, and the king was the biggest lord, and then there were layers of fiefdoms, ranging from noble dukes to ordinary knights.At that time, there was no standing army system, and the only way to fight wars was to rely on temporarily recruited vassals or mercenaries.According to feudal obligations, vassals' service areas and periods are often limited, so for many warlike kings in the Middle Ages, mercenaries became the best choice.

In this case, the king or aristocrat will issue a recruitment contract to some specific targets at home and abroad, and the contract generally stipulates the number of people, commission and service period in detail.These people are generally low-level nobles or knights with many battle experiences, and they have the ability to gather enough people. The latter are usually their former army robes.These knights will then sign contracts with mercenaries separately.

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.

(End of this chapter)