Crossing the Continent in the Eighteenth Century

() Food shortage in Byzantium, no, food shortage in Dongluo has been an old problem that has not been solved for many years.In the past, when the empire still owned Egypt, the empire never worried about food.But unfortunately, Egypt was occupied in the eighth century.

Since then, Dongluo has been looking for a substitute for the Egyptian Delta, but within the territory of the empire, there is really no fertile land that can rival the Nile River Basin in Egypt.As we all know, Greece has not been a land of grain production since ancient times, otherwise the Phoenicians would not have gone to sea.The Anatolia region in the east is mountainous and rich in minerals and horses, but the fertile land suitable for farming is only along the Mediterranean coast. The Seres Plain and the plains passing by the Danube River Basin farther away are good choices, but the rise of the Bulgarians makes that vast plain really unsuitable as an output base.Therefore, the population of Dongluo has not increased much since the loss of Egypt.In modern times, the rise of the Polish-Lithuanian United Kingdom finally replaced Egypt as the granary of the empire. Cheap grains sailed out of the Black Sea through the South Bug River and the Dnieper River and entered Constantinople.

It's just that the Poles are similar to the Greeks. The race is born with a certain talent for funny. They farm, and if they accidentally plant it, they will kill themselves.Well, although this is also due to our Romans doing bad things, who would have thought that the famous Polish hussars in the fifteenth century would wither so quickly!Fast forward to the end of our fight against the Muslims, and Poland's defeat in the north is a foregone conclusion.In the end we had to buy food from the French.

But the French were even more dishonest. As the only country in the entire European continent capable of exporting food in large quantities, they seized the weakness of the Roman Empire.Our old friend of France, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Chancellor of the Exchequer, has once again increased export duties on various grains on the grounds of the poor crops in France.The increase ranged from 20% to 50%.Among them, buckwheat rose up to 50%.After this tax increase, the export tariff on barley reached 70%, and the export tariff on wheat and processed flour reached 90%.

According to the Constantinople grain price market surveyed by the Empire’s foreign minister Erics not long ago, 3 Aspen can buy 1 pound of wheat flour with good texture, and about 2 pounds of medium-quality wheat flour with some bugs. If France The news of the tariff increase is spread to the streets, and the market price is likely to increase to three times the original price, or even more!

"I think prices could be bid up even higher."

"It's not possible, it's certain. This morning, I sent someone to pass by a few grain stores, and there was a sign that the flour there was sold out. This is the prelude to the soaring price of grain!"

"A commoner consumes an average of one pound of bread every day. Based on their income, this may not be a small burden!"

"Provocation! This is naked provocation!" "For Rome, for the empire, attack France, and enter Versailles!" "We must retaliate!!!" "Yes! Declare war! Drink the blood of the French! !!" The generals sitting there were already extremely excited.The group of generals had a reason to be excited, because the French raised their tariffs so outrageously that they almost told in black and white that they were going to steal money from the empire's fiscal revenue!

Seeing that a group of generals present here were about to develop the situation to the point where they marched into Paris for a full-scale empire war. The official status is on the seat, and he proposed: "Considering that someone will take the opportunity to hoard food and drive up food prices, Caesar, we must act as soon as possible. Otherwise, once the situation expands, it will damage your reputation! "

Cheap Dad asked: "What about Poland, what is the situation of the merchant ships in Poland?"

"Very bad..." Alex, the finance minister who is in charge of, managing, and recording Constantinople's taxation, frowned, "According to the documents I retrieved from the tax court, it shows that in the past four months, people who have entered and exited Constantinople from the Black Coast There are 110 merchant ships in Constantinople, [-]% less than the same period last year, and nine times less than ten years ago. The selling price is also twice as high as before."

"I didn't expect that the Polish kingship war had ended for so long, and the Polish market hadn't recovered yet." Minister of the Navy Vatakis was very depressed.

Foreign Secretary Leo said fiercely: "This move to increase tariffs is obviously a deliberate act by Colbert seeing our predicament! The empire must protest!!"

"What do you mean?" asked Cheap Daddy to the Reich Chancellor.

The Minister of Finance, Alex, gave an official sitting beside him a look. The latter took out the written copy and asked the guards to show it to Daddy Cheap. When they arrive at the port, the financial court that manages the port by the empire will be responsible for paying for the purchase of grain, and then try to stabilize the grain price by coordinating with the chamber of commerce. Although this will bleed the treasury in a short time, we can increase the cost of perfume, silk, The export tariffs on lace products, coffee beans, makeup powder, and wigs, which are necessities of the French nobility, retaliated against Colbert! Also, after the French merchant ships docked at the port, they cannot leave with the currency. Buy goods of equivalent value here. I think the revenue from export duties can basically offset the impact of this turmoil.”

I frowned, those items that the chancellor said need to raise export duties are luxury goods!

Daddy Cheap looked at the copywriting in hand, raised his eyelids and looked at the Minister of Finance: "You want to use the method of raising export tariffs on luxury goods as a knife to cut at the French upper class? Not bad, a very good idea. Anyway The nobles of France are all concentrated in the Palace of Versailles. Colbert let our people bleed, and we let those French nobles suffer. A pound of coffee beans soared from 10 ecu to 20 ecu, 30 ecu, that is, again The rich aristocrats will frown. Colbert, who caused all these consequences, will be hated by the entire French class, thus eradicating our great enemy. But have you thought about the consequences of doing so?"

Consequences.. If you really do that, you are stepping into Colbert's trap!Increasing the export duty on luxury goods is to increase the cost for merchants to sell to France.The things purchased by a French businessman for one franc go through the export tariff, and if they are sold to the mainland of France, the cost imposed by the export tariff must be added.As long as Rome raises taxes, Colbert can reduce the price of goods made in France by shrinking profits.Make French goods cheaper than Roman goods.

In this way, the Roman goods that occupy the mainstream of French luxury goods will be expelled, French luxury goods will seize the French market at the least cost, and the Roman goods that can be replaced by the French mainland will be squeezed out of France!For irreplaceable commodities like coffee, if Colbert is more ruthless, he can completely let the Sun King set an example and regard drinking coffee as an act that is not noble enough to cut off the entire coffee market!Moreover, the proposal proposed by the Minister of Finance has a big flaw, that is, where can Rome find a substitute for France, a major grain-producing country?

This is not a simple provocation, this is a prison designed by Colbert for his Sun King to trap the beast of Rome!

The food that people depend on for a living is not an optional luxury!In order to maintain the stability of food prices, the empire has to spend money to buy food. If it follows the Roman finance minister’s practice of raising luxury goods tariffs and slaughtering the French nobles for a meal to fill the vacancy in food purchases, the food flowing into Rome from France will become sharp knives. Deeply entrenched in the financial system of the Roman Empire.Therefore, no matter what the Roman Empire did, the revenue of the empire would suffer.

The former will reduce Rome's finances by filling the food gap, because the food shortage in Rome is not 1 or [-], but hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Constantinople and more than a few in Anatolia. Millions of permanent residents will spend a huge amount of money in vain every year. Although the latter temporarily allows Rome to tide over the difficulties and obtain benefits, it will not be long before Rome's luxury market in France will be destroyed. Occupation, the personnel and families in the empire who rely on luxury goods to survive will suffer huge losses, and the empire's finances will also suffer a heavy blow.And how important a sound national financial system is to the war, the French Minister of Finance Colbert, who has given France money to conquer countries, obviously has more say!